OG Tuesday Issue #220

🌱 Change Management: Working on organizational culture to increase social impact.

🥬 Leadership: Leadership lessons inspired by…cabbage.

🎉 Work-Life: Prepare your strategy for navigating the workplace holiday party.

🚀 Career: Want career growth? Job hopping might be more viable than waiting on a promotion.

Kanni Wignaraja, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, wrote this thought piece on leadership after the COVID-19 pandemic, which inspired people around the globe to think about leadership less prescriptively and more adaptively.

Some truths to take away about leading through wisdom:

• Be driven by purpose instead of plans. Plans may be cut short or forcefully shifted by external factors. Purposes provide more lasting guidance.
• Have big ideas to make things better, but more importantly, act on them. Anyone can have good ideas. True leaders turn them into new realities.
• Never avoid unpleasant truths. When faced by them, find the hope and solutions others may be too blinded by negativity to see.

Another possible path to leading through wisdom is even more straight forward. Essentially, it’s taking better care of your self.

According to the results of an in-depth survey of managers and their employees, leaders who take care of themselves and cultivate strong work-life balance organically make wiser choices.

Simple work-life habit changes can help anyone work toward making wiser leadership choices:

• Strengthen your delegation muscles. Delegate. Work out any resulting frictions. Repeat. Keep delegating until it feels comfortable and then do it even more. The more trust and support you can find through delegating, the more time and headspace you’ll have for other things.
  • Keep two golden rules in mind each time you delegate:
    • Identify and communicate specific tasks you’d like the employee to complete.
    • Provide crystal-clear expectations and instructions.
• Be as strategic about managing your free time as you are about managing your work time. All that really means is being sure your down time includes activities that aren’t only relaxing but also restorative. A truly restorative activity will check all these boxes:
  • It increases your feelings of contentment
  • It decreases feelings of overwhelm and burnout
  • It leads to more positive thoughts
  • It soothes your stress and tension
• Each week, or even each day, pinpoint or re-pinpoint your current top 10 priorities.
  • Write them down and display them prominently in your workspace. Reference them every time you need to make a decision.

Make their farewell or retirement extra memorable with a group card from the whole team—perfect for sharing well-wishes, gratitude, and fond memories as they move on to their next chapter.

GroupTogether makes it simple to gather heartfelt messages and signatures from your team, whether they’re in the office or remote. You can even add a gift card to the Group Card to make the send-off even more special.

How It Works:

🤔 Pick a Card: Browse our collection of farewell and retirement cards.
🔗 Share a Link: Invite your team to sign and leave personalized messages online.
💝 Add a Gift Card: Attach an AnyCard to your team’s Group Card. Pay with a credit card in a single payment or have the group all pitch in.

It’s a thoughtful way to show your appreciation and send them off in style!

Start a card today.

So many TA readers really want to stop with the people pleasing. It’s kind of a chronic biggest challenge. People-pleasing habits can be easy to fall into and hard to break. Many people pleasers don’t realize they’re doing it.

Pleasers tend to conflate aspects of their behavior with practicing kindness. And it can be kind to please people. It becomes problematic when the urge to please other people supersedes the need to please yourself.

Generally speaking, people pleasing refers to the tendency to put others’ needs before your own. Pleasers very often…

• Avoid conflict and/or criticism
• Yearn to fit in
• Frequently apologize
• Infrequently say “no”
• Automatically agree

Try cultivating these habits to gradually deprogram any problematic people pleasing:

• Practice saying “no” to low-pressure invitations, to a coffee date, for example
• Start saying “let me get back to you” to buy some time to really think about what you’re agreeing to
• Try saying “I don’t” instead of “I can’t” to practice owning your preferences and values
• Avoid making excuses or offering explanations. Instead practice unapologetic confidence in your responses
• Ask yourself what is important to you and work on prioritizing that

Hot take? More like the cold truth: Women face unique — at times absurd — challenges on their way to the top.

Being a woman in business is like playing on hard mode. Navigating the highs and lows of corporate life as a woman leader takes more than grit and hustle. Just ask any member of Chief, the private network of women executives.

Now, Chief is letting everyone else take a turn. Introducing The Corporate Trail — a remix of the classic Oregon Trail computer game. Instead of obstacles like rivers and dysentery, think double standards and constant interruptions. Your goal as a player? Maintain your likeability without burning out.

The Corporate Trail is a reminder of the ironies women leaders encounter every day. Join in the mockery by giving it a try.

Play a round and share how you conquered The Corporate Trail.

“Apply for a new job annually. Even if you like where you are, this practice keeps your resume and interviewing skills fresh and helps you understand your value in the market. This is also valuable if and when you are ready (or forced) to find the next role.”

— Cassie (Sr. Manager)

🚀 Simplify background checks and hire smarter with Checkr—faster, fairer decisions in less time.

🎄 100 Christmas cards as special and unique as the loved ones you’re sending them to.

🔬 Track your fertility with Inito for science-backed insights, right from your phone.

🛠️ Zoho simplifies project management, CRM, and collaboration in one seamless platform.