Show Notes
Today, Kat speaks with the Head of People at Bosch Digital, Marina Takács for an honest conversation about perfectionism and the pressure that comes from always being the “the strong one”. Marina shares how she burnt out despite being there to stop others from doing exactly that and how she recovered and came back even stronger.
Whether you’re leading a team, managing a demanding role, or simply juggling life’s endless demands, this episode offers practical strategies to help you develop positive habits. Including setting boundaries, protecting your mornings, being self-disciplined, and protecting your energy. Habits that enable you to thrive in both your personal and work life — without burning out.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Even strong leaders burn out. Marina believed she could juggle everything — until her body “sent her emails” telling her otherwise, which she ignored.
· Being busy can feel meaningful, but often it´s just stress in disguise.
· Recovery starts with small, uncomfortable changes, for example learning to say no without guilt or scheduling and protecting your down time.
· Strength includes pausing: Real leadership models recovery and boundaries, not just absorbing stress.
· Regularly check in with yourself. Pausing briefly to honestly reflect on your energy, mood, and reactions will help you spot early warning signs of problems and head them off.
· Discipline and consistency are what keeps habits alive, especially when life gets busy. If you need to exercise every day, prioritise it and do it even on your busiest day.
BEST MOMENTS
“My body sent me an email — but I never opened it.”
“I think was confusing adrenaline with purpose.”
“I just stopped glorifying being always on.”
“Real strength is knowing when to pause.”
“Consistency beats intensity every time — especially on Mondays.”
“If I burn out, I’m not just hurting myself obviously I'm hurting my family, my loved ones and I’m setting the wrong tone for my team.”
ABOUT THE GUEST
Marina is Head of People, Organiaation and Culture. She is people-first and future-focused and passionate about inclusive leadership, change management, and building thriving organisations. With a career dedicated to people strategy and transformation, she helps businesses and teams grow stronger, together.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-takács
ABOUT THE HOST
Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.
She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger
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