Hey Reader, I was reading through Gallup’s latest employee engagement data recently, and one number hit me like a ton of bricks: Only 20% of workers are engaged at work. Jaw-dropping. At first, I found that surprising. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized disengagement probably doesn’t look the way most of us imagine it does. When we think about someone being disengaged at work, we usually picture someone who’s visibly checked out. Someone missing deadlines, contributing the...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, I’ve noticed there’s one person who’s come up in the last few newsletters that I haven’t named yet: My mentor, Mike. Over the past 15 years, we’ve worked together on countless projects, navigated some tricky situations, and had a lot of honest conversations with each other. Reflecting on my years of working with Mike, I wanted to spend this week exploring what it means to be a good mentor. A lot of us might have been the mentee over the course of our careers, but might not have a...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday, friends. About ten years ago, a pretty senior partner asked me to lead something for him. I don’t remember exactly what it was but I remember that as he was explaining things to me, there was a growing sense that I wasn’t the right person for this project. On top of that, my mentor had previously pointed out that I was taking on too much work. Leading one more project would only lead to even more of me stretching myself thin. The advice almost everyone gives for...
16 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday, friends. Think of someone you've had to deliver difficult news to. Someone whose reaction you couldn't quite predict. Maybe it's a senior stakeholder, or someone on your team. Either way, you know them well enough to know how they receive things can vary depending on the day. Before that conversation, you probably spent more time than usual thinking about how to frame things. Choosing your words carefully. Picking the right time of day. Maybe even running through a...
23 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday, friends. Early on in my career, I had a meeting with a CFO that was a learning experience for me. It was a regular meeting, walking him through our billing for the month, making sure the invoices were okay and such. (Very exciting agenda.) I was a senior manager at the time, and I'll admit, I got a bit nervous around this client. He was known for being direct, especially if he didn’t like what he was hearing, so I thought that if I just stayed calm and stuck to the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday, friends. I’ve been thinking about how often the moments that count most aren’t the big ones. It’s rarely the all-hands meeting, the formal review, or the moment when everyone is looking to you for direction. More often, it’s something smaller that happens in the middle of the day, when someone isn’t quite sure how to solve a problem and you’re already holding a lot in your head. We’ve all been here: Someone on the team reaches out and says, “Do you have a minute?”...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday, friends. Let’s start with the thought you might be afraid to say out loud: I’m doing everything right, so why does everything still feel off? Every day you show up, deliver results, and lead amazing people. And for a long time, that felt like enough. You took pride in the fact that you could exceed expectations. But without realizing it, you made small changes to achieve those results. Lunches used to be when you’d socialize with colleagues. Now food is fuel meant...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
How many times have we canceled on a friend because a meeting came up? Now flip it. How many times have we canceled a meeting because a friend needed us? The asymmetry is the whole thing. We move friends to make room for work. We don't move work to make room for friends. And we've told ourselves a story about why: they'll understand. It's just this one time. We'll reschedule. They do understand. And that's why we keep doing it. Last summer, my best friend came to visit after two years apart....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Music rewires your brain. So does hugging, laughing, walking in nature, sunlight. All of it rewires your brain. You've heard the language. Maybe you've used it. I'm not here to argue with the science. The science is fine. I want to pose a different question: when did we start needing neuroscience to justify listening to a song? A few decades ago, nobody needed a peer-reviewed study to go for a walk. You just walked. You came home and felt a little better and that was enough. Now we need the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I was on a panel recently, talking about the future of work. The room was full of sharp, accomplished people. And at some point I looked out at the audience and thought: every single person in here feels like they don't belong. Not because they aren't talented. They are. Wildly so. The feeling had nothing to do with capability. It had to do with the performance. We talk about imposter syndrome like it's a confidence problem. Something to fix. A glitch in your self-esteem that therapy or...
2 months ago • 2 min read