Ep 58 The Hidden Cost of Overthinking at Work with Linda Terry
episodePreviously titled “EP 58 The Hidden Cost of Overthinking at Work with Linda Terry” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
English Talk — Speaking up in English at work for introverts with Louise Jefferies
54 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why do high‑achieving professionals replay conversations long after they end?
Hello and welcome to English Talk, the podcast for people who feel insecure speaking English as a non-native at work. Join me and my guests as we chat about the challenges of speaking up in English when you're not only a native speaker but also a bit of an introvert.
This week I'm joined once again by Linda Terry. Linda worked for 30 years as a scientist and senior leader across academia, government and pharma before becoming a coach, which means she is one of the very few people in the coaching world who genuinely understands the culture she is working with from the inside. She holds an ICF PCC credential and a doctorate degree and she works exclusively with women scientists who have been promoted into leadership and are quietly losing ground in the rooms where they should be leading. Linda, thank you for coming back. It's lovely to see you again on my podcast.
Always a pleasure to talk to you, Louise. Thank you for inviting me again.
So this episode, Linda, we are recording again because we have similar, well, clients from a similar industry. So pharma and biotech, and I imagine a lot of them are a similar level, associate director, director and above, and they're struggling with similar things. And this is a lot of mind chatter, a lot of overthinking, a lot of thinking back on the days, events, how I could have done better, not letting go of situations. And it's partially something our clients face, but it's also something very human that a lot of people face. So we're just here together to discuss similarities and how we help our clients.
Indeed. And it's something that I've noticed with many of my clients as they come with that, I overthink the rumination spiral that goes on for days afterwards. And I know this because I suffered that as well when I was working in biotech. And it generally comes from the fact that as you move up the ladder, You have to spend more time in meetings justifying your work, discussing your work, putting forward your opinions. And that's not always a comfortable place for a lot of scientists to be.
Why would you say that's not a comfortable place for scientists to be? What is it? I mean...
Yeah. And I think it's because if you do the sort of personality traits on scientists, there's a lot to be said about most of them being introverts. They don't like to put themselves forward. They don't They like the humility. They like their work to speak for itself. And so particularly women, I notice, suffer from this more than men do, although men do have that same issue. So it's a case of them being less comfortable with putting themselves out there, putting themselves forward. And there's a lot of sense of having to get it right the first time. So there's also the perfectionism that plays into it.
yeah I mean perfectionism there's two things that come up there perfectionism in scientists if you if you had a scientist who wasn't a perfectionist they probably wouldn't be doing very good science yes and that's where some of the skills that we learn and you know we spent we have a lot of you know
perseverance of learning these skills over years and years, you know, first as an undergraduate, then as a master's student, maybe, and then as a postgraduate, you know, and then, you know, we're considered still in training when we go into our first postdoc. We're still learning the skills and the tools to be a good scientist. And quality of your work and integrity of your work is really, really important. So, of course, if you're a little bit of a perfectionist, it really feeds that. That training feeds your perfectionism.
Yeah. Yeah. And you've got to get the science right. It's not saying, oh, it's enough. You know, the results were good enough. That doesn't work in science. You don't get good science. You don't get future innovations and medicines and drugs by good enough, because the bit that's not good enough could be, you know, losing lives. We're driven by this group of people who are academically brilliant and perfectionist, driving medicine forward.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do high‑achieving professionals replay conversations long after they end?
0:04–7:56
2
How does perfectionism fuel both scientific excellence and workplace rumination?
7:56–15:28
3
What challenges arise when scientists communicate in a second language?
15:28–22:41
4
How can we differentiate healthy reflection from unhelpful over‑thinking?
22:41–31:19
5
Why does labeling anxiety (“I am anxious” vs. “I feel anxiety”) matter?
31:19–40:01
6
What early signs indicate a rumination spiral is heading toward burnout?
40:01–49:39
7
How does coaching help uncover blind spots and build self‑compassion?
49:39–53:50
8
What practical steps can listeners take to stop the 3 a.m. replay loop?
53:50–54:18