Not sure how to get better results without breaking your team?
Your team is overworked. Overwhelmed. You’re being asked to produce more — to do more with less — while also being held accountable for their wellbeing and engagement.
That puts you in a constant tug-of-war.
Pull harder for results and people begin to break down. Focus on rebuilding your people and the work slows, which you can’t afford. You’re caught between competing expectations, and the tension is exhausting — for you and for them.
You’ve waited for solutions to come down from the top. You’ve researched engagement “best practices.” But when the work itself keeps demanding more, none of that really helps. There’s no time for big programs, and even when they exist, they rarely touch the day-to-day reality draining your team.
You want to do right by your people. You want to deliver results. And you believe there has to be a way to do both — without burning everyone out. The question is how.
Imagine knowing how to drop the rope
What if the tug-of-war could stop?
What if better results and healthier people weren’t competing goals? What if the work itself supported energy, learning, collaboration, and growth — instead of steadily depleting them?
The problem isn’t effort or commitment. It’s design.
The supposed binary between “people” and “results” is false. When work is designed well, the act of doing it becomes regenerative rather than draining. Small, practical changes — within your control — can reduce friction, improve focus, and help people sustain their best energy throughout the day.
You don’t need to choose between performance and wellbeing. You need to design the work so both can thrive.
Let a Pulse Check deliver a personalized 90-day “People AND Results” blueprint
You don’t need the perfect plan. You need the right first steps — the ones that create momentum.
The Pulse Check helps you identify those steps quickly and confidently. It gives you a clear, practical blueprint for improving results, engagement, and wellbeing at the same time.
I help you do this through a focused, facilitated process:
- I use a proven framework for designing work that actually works
- I’ve worked with teams across industries and know that, at their core, people are people
- I’ve coached countless leaders who are carrying far too much responsibility alone
Here’s how the Pulse Check works:
The result is clarity, confidence, and a plan you can actually act on.
Ready to get started?
Are you ready to drop the rope — to stop managing the constant tension between results and people?
If you want to help your team deliver more while sustaining their wellbeing, the next step is a short conversation to confirm fit and timing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my team asks for things I can’t deliver?
The Pulse Check focuses on first steps, not overhauls. We’re looking for small behavioral and workflow shifts that are low-risk, low-cost, and within your control.
How do I get my boss on board?
You do it with results. The Pulse Check is priced so most leaders don’t need permission. You implement the blueprint, see impact, and then bring your leader in once you have evidence.
What if my team has no useful insight to offer?
They do. They haven’t shared it because they haven’t been asked the right questions in the right environment. It only takes a handful of observations to create a meaningful blueprint — and in over a decade of this work, I’ve never encountered a team with nothing to say.
What if my team doesn’t feel comfortable speaking up?
That’s where my experience as a professional facilitator matters. Creating safety and candor is part of the job, not an afterthought.
How much time will implementation take?
Most leaders spend about one hour per week focused on this work. The goal isn’t to fix everything at once, but to create momentum and show your team you’re listening.
Can you help us implement the plan?
Yes, if you want support. It’s optional and can be discussed during our review call.
How long before I see results?
You’ll see early “glimmers” within one to two weeks — qualitative signs that things are shifting in the right direction. Larger business and engagement metrics follow over time.
But have you done this in my industry?
Probably. And regardless, people are people and work is work. Industry-specific knowledge isn’t what drives meaningful change here.
Hi. I’m Rachel Cooke.
I’ve made it my mission to prove that work doesn’t have to break people to produce results.
I spent years in corporate HR watching organizations treat burnout as the cost of high performance. Push hard, watch people hit a wall, roll out engagement programs or wellness perks, then start pushing again. Everyone accepted it. I didn’t.
When work is designed well, results and wellbeing fuel each other. People develop because the work itself stretches them. Collaboration improves because there’s space to think. Performance rises because unnecessary friction is removed.
I’ve worked with leaders at American Express, Cisco, Splunk, Takeda, Scholastic, Wolters Kluwer, and AMC Networks. Inc. Magazine named me a Top 100 Leadership Speaker. My work has been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, Bloomberg Quint, and HuffPost. I host Macmillan’s Modern Mentor podcast and hold a master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia and a bachelor’s in human development from Cornell.
The Pulse Check is where I start. Ninety minutes with your team. The right questions. Clear insights. Changes you can act on immediately.
If this resonates, let’s talk
The Pulse Check is designed for leaders who want a practical, low-risk way to improve how work gets done — without launching another initiative or waiting for permission.
If that sounds like you, the next step is a short discovery call to confirm fit.
Limited capacity
To ensure quality and focus, I only take on a limited number of Pulse Checks each month. Scheduling is first come, first served.
If timing matters, I recommend booking a conversation soon.