Behind the Research #3: Richard E. Boyatzis
35m | Oct 19, 2026Humans need some stress to survive, but we know that too much stress hurts our health clouds our thinking, hinders our decision-making, and makes it harder to stay engaged at work. The problem is, until now, research hasn’t been able to extensively measure what renews us to the same degree research has measured what stresses us. Richard E. Boyatzis, Daniel Goleman, Udayan Dhar, and Kalu J. Osiri published a paper to address these limitations and put forward the Personal Sustainability Index (PSI) for use in research and practice. Leaders, individuals, consulting psychologists and other helping professionals can use this to help themselves and their clients/colleagues/subordinates to better balance their stressful and renewal experiences for more effective learning and change.
Richard E. Boyatzis, Ph.D. joins Rachel Boehm, Ph.D. to discuss the paper, stress, renewal, and change.
Read the paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-30061-002
Connect with Richard E. Boyatzis, Ph.D.
Richard E. Boyatzis is Distinguished University Professor of Case Western Reserve University, and a Professor in the Departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science. He has a BS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard. His more than 200 scholarly and 50 practitioner articles examine sustained, desired change, leadership, emotional intelligence, competency development, coaching, neuroscience and graduate education. He is ranked in the top 2% in PLOS Biology and the top .05% of all worldwide scientists by Scholar GPS, for 2023 - 2025. His Coursera MOOCs have over 2 million visitors and enrolled from 215 countries. His 10 books include: the international best-seller, Primal Leadership with Daniel Goleman and Annie McKee; Helping People Change with Melvin Smith and Ellen Van Oosten; and the new The Science of Change: Discovering Sustained, Desired Change from Individuals to Organizations and Communities.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-boyatzis-401822a/
Connect with Rachel Boehm:
Rachel Boehm is the founder of RB Strategies, which provides reputation management and performance coaching to leaders and teams. She is a multimedia practitioner and member of Division 13’s Research Domain.
