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Hiii,

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to talk about the things your leadership team is probably not talking about! 

Also, how are we feeling about Q1 so far???

It lowkey flew by, and I’m convinced time hasn’t worked the same since the pandemic…still a running theory. 🤔

Anyway, this week's newsletter has me equal parts fired up and oddly validated! 

We've got continued AI adoption chaos, a mic drop moment on career growth that might reframe some things for you, and a stat about manager empathy that explains a lot about every terrible 1:1 you've ever had. 

You're welcome, and I'm sorry!

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

Was this email forwarded to you?

☕ CEOs think AI use is mandatory — but employees don’t agree, survey says

The TL;DR: 86% of executives think AI is mandatory at their companies, but only 49% of middle managers got that memo, and even fewer employees actually view AI as anything more than a helpful tool. Turns out, declaring AI a "team member" from the corner office doesn't make it so.

My POV: This is the AI adoption convo that we need to be having more of. 

You can’t roll out a culture shift through a company-wide email and call it a strategy! 

The gap between what the C-suite believes is happening and what's actually happening on the ground is a change management problem that historically lands in HR's lap. 

The good news is we have more data pointing directly at managers as the missing link and HR as the ones who can activate them!

On the mic this week: April Little is a former HR executive turned executive career coach who helps mid-level professional women move into senior leadership. She’s built a big following by sharing sharp, actually useful career advice rooted in real experience across HR, recruiting, leadership, and remote work. She’s also a Time100 Creator and the voice behind The Executive Material newsletter, where she breaks down career strategy, minus the corporate nonsense.

Pin this: 

• Doing great work is not enough if you can’t clearly connect it to business impact.
• If the feedback you’re getting isn’t actionable, measurable, or tied to success criteria, that’s a problem.
• Getting fired or rejected can become an amazing turning point instead of a dead end.
• Remote excellence is still excellence, but you do have to understand the norms and power dynamics of your organization.

My H*ly Sh*t Moment:  The biggest unlock here is realizing that career growth is not about working harder like we’ve always been told. 

It’s more about articulating your value and refusing to let vague feedback or a bad environment define your worth!

▶️ Press Play

Stat: New study finds managers score below average on empathy

My spiral: While the managers scoring below is juicy the kicker that made this research even more interesting is that even the highest scoring industries,  health/medicine and HR, are still below the population average!!!!

So it's not that some managers are empathetic and some aren't. The whole category is just… operating with less emotional sensitivity than the average person?

Here's a potential reframe: this might actually be less about managers being cold and more about what leadership selects for. Think about what traditionally people looked for in leaders, things like composure, decisiveness, and lower stress reactivity. Those are useful traits... but where's the empathy? Potentially, this all comes back to who we're selecting to be leaders and how maybe that criteria needs to change... 

Pro-tip: If your manager training program isn't actively building emotional awareness as a skill, then you might be missing out on a critical trait needed to lead high performing teams. Just sayin! 

If you’ve ever posted a role, then crossed our fingers and hoped for the right talent to find it, I’m here to tell you there are better ways to attract talent!

HR Therapy is back on March 31st with a session built for the People and Talent leaders who are tired of losing great candidates because their hiring process is basically organized chaos in a trench coat. 

Don't Go Home in the First Round is the no-nonsense playbook your recruiting process desperately needs, and you deserve to walk into Q2 with actual answers. 

Join us and let’s have some fun!

🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF

We spend a lot of time coaching everyone else on stuff like burnout and self-advocacy, then ironically forget to give ourselves that same advice. 

HR is full of people who will go to bat for every employee in the building before they even think to go to bat for themselves, so sit with this one:

When did you last choose yourself over being the “good team player”?

🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:

The way you open a feedback conversation changes EVERYTHING about where it lands. 

For example, saying "you should" puts people on defense before you've even gotten to the point, and then you've lost them. Try this one tomorrow:

Give someone feedback that starts with "I noticed…" instead of "You should…"

👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE

The audacity it takes to get scammed by your own fake CEO and then submit it as a reimbursement request is honestly a level of optimism I aspire to.

Read what members had to say here.

See ya on Friday!

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