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Welcome To The Leadership Pulse
Welcome to practical insights at the crossroads of leadership, strategy, and growth.
Every week, Dr Ikechukwu Okoh presents MBA-level frameworks, real-world stories, and timeless lessons to help you lead clearly, inspire purposefully, and execute effectively.
Let’s develop leaders who shape the future.
Work-Based Trauma Is a Leadership Issue
Most work-based trauma is not caused by one dramatic event.
It is cumulative, built quietly over time by workload, culture, poor processes, and a lack of psychological safety.
In healthcare, I have seen this repeatedly.
Talented, committed professionals don’t burn out because they care too little.
They burn out because systems ask too much for too long, without recovery or support.
What eventually presents as absence, disengagement, or illness often began months, even years earlier.
Trauma at work is rarely about weak people.
It is almost always about strong people in weak systems.
Why it Matters
Trauma reduces performance long before it causes absence
Burnout increases errors, turnover, and disengagement
Poorly designed work harms both people and outcomes
Prevention is cheaper and kinder than recovery
What to Do Next
Look at workload, not just wellbeing perks
Ask: Where does pressure quietly accumulate?
Ask: Which processes exhaust people unnecessarily?
Design work that allows recovery, clarity, and dignity
Work-based trauma affects every sector.
Healthcare faces emotional overload and moral injury.
Finance faces chronic stress and burnout.
Manufacturing faces physical strain and safety pressure.
Technology faces pace, overload, and constant urgency.
Different industries, but the same underlying problem.
Systems that ignore human limits
Healthy work is not a luxury.
It is a leadership responsibility.
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Dr Ikechukwu Okoh
Dr Ikechukwu Okoh is a healthcare leader, executive coach, angel investor, and Group Head at Boulevard Group.
He blends clinical experience, business strategy, and systems thinking to help leaders and organisations grow with clarity and impact.
He publishes the Leadership Pulse newsletter and hosts the Fireplace Conversations podcast.
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