OG Tuesday Issue #241

👀 No women, no workforce—the stats are scarier than you think.

🛑 Taking PTO shouldn’t be this complicated.

🧾 Save time (and drama) with employee evaluation tools that actually work.

💗 Self-love, but make it actionable.

People don’t remember everything you do. They remember how you show up—over and over.

That’s not fluff—it’s psychology. Research shows colleagues don’t judge you on one standout moment. They track patterns. Consistent behavior over time builds trust and shapes your brand.

If you want to build strong reputation capital, here’s what actually works:

💡 Pick 3 adjectives you want people to associate with you

You don’t get to write your reputation. You earn it through consistency.

Start here:

→ Do I want to be known as strategic? Steady? Creative?

→ What do I actually do on repeat that backs that up?

If you want to be known as “decisive,” are you making calls in meetings—or deferring? Do your emails contain clear decisions, or caveats and just checking in’s?

Executive coach Herminia Ibarra calls this the “authenticity paradox.” You can flex your style—as long as it’s grounded in truth.

🧠 Use the “Visibility Without Vanity” framework

You don’t need to self-promote—but you do need to connect the dots for others.

Try this when sharing wins:

• Problem: “Our support tickets were through the roof.”
• Approach: “I created a knowledge base with Loom videos.”
• Impact: “Ticket volume dropped 30% in 6 weeks.”

Reframe it as storytelling, not bragging. Problem-Action-Result works too.

🗺️ Map your power network

This isn’t about schmoozing. It’s influence alignment.

List out:

• 5 people who shape promotions or projects
• How often you’ve had meaningful convos with them
• Whether they know what you’re working on—and how good you are

If you’re helping a cross-functional team but the VP doesn’t know your name? That’s a visibility gap.

Women are often over-mentored and under-sponsored. This HBR piece breaks it down. Then try mapping your power network to fill the gaps.

⏱️ Audit your time like a boss

Pull up your calendar. Ask:

• What can I cut or delegate?
• Am I in “helper mode”—stuck in Slack triage or emotional labor?
• What work has real career ROI?

Not-so-fun fact: Women spend 200+ hours per year on non-promotable tasks. Reclaim that time. Invest it in leverage-building work.

🧍‍♀️ Consistency is the power play

Anyone can perform once. Trust is built by people who show up again and again—with calm, clarity, and follow-through.

TL;DR:

Your reputation = behavioral consistency + self-narration + strategic visibility. You don’t need a rebrand. You need a rhythm.

• Chronic absenteeism – Consistent no-shows without valid reasons
• Poor performance – Missed deadlines, low-quality work, lack of follow-through
• Toxic behavior – Gossiping, undermining teammates, refusing to collaborate
• Insubordination – A flat-out “I’m not doing that” without cause
• Time misuse – Scrolling Reddit for hours instead of, you know, working
• Harassment – Especially sexual harassment—must be addressed immediately

• Document the details – What happened, when, who witnessed it. Be specific.
• Tie it to policy – Reference the exact rule, code of conduct, or performance expectation.
• Outline clear next steps – What needs to change, by when, and what happens if it doesn’t.
• Get it signed – Even if they don’t agree, their signature shows they received the info.

My biggest productivity challenge is finding the time (deep work time) to start and complete my projects. I manage a Support Team of 7 CSRs—I am shuffling tasks and living in Slack threads all day!” —Ann, TA reader

Sound familiar?

When your job is built around responding—Slack pings, team questions, last-minute tasks—real work gets buried under constant busy-ness. But here’s the thing: deep work isn’t optional if you’re leading a team. It’s where your best ideas, strategy, and growth actually come from.

Here’s how you can start reclaiming your time:

1. ⏳ Protect Time for Strategic Deep Work

High-performing leaders prioritize uninterrupted time for strategic thinking. Research shows that blocking 60–90 minute sessions for focused work can significantly improve clarity, creativity, and execution. Choose your peak-energy hours (mornings, post-lunch) and treat these sessions like mission-critical meetings.

2. 💬 Set a Scalable Slack Culture

Constant notifications = constant context switching. Minimize digital noise by creating clear team norms for response time (e.g., “urgent = ASAP, important = by EOD”) and batch-checking Slack at designated times. Dropbox’s approach to Slack integration helps teams collaborate with less chaos—and more intention.

3. 🎯 Link Daily Work to Strategic Objectives

Don’t just work through a to-do list—audit it. Use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to map your tasks against long-term goals. Prioritizing for impact ensures you’re moving the needle where it counts. At the start of each week, ask: “Does this directly support a key objective?”

4. 🤝 Operationalize Your Team’s Independence

Are your team’s most frequent questions repeatable? Systematize them. Start small by logging FAQs and turning them into shareable SOPs (you can even use Chat to help). You’ll build autonomy, speed up decision-making, and reduce dependency on your calendar.

5. 🔕 Normalize Focus, Not Just Hustle

Create the conditions for deep work—teamwide. Implement regular “Focus Sprints,” where meetings are off-limits and everyone works heads-down. Netflix, known for its high-performance culture, leans into rituals like these to maintain productivity without burning people out.

Great leadership isn’t about reacting faster—it’s about creating systems that let your team do their best work. Pick one strategy to test this week and set the tone from the top.

You plan. You organize. You set up a Trello board, a Google Doc, and maybe a Notion to-do list.

And then…chaos.

Tabs everywhere. Tools that don’t talk to each other. Notifications flying in from every direction.

The problem? Your “streamlined” workflow isn’t a workflow—it’s a work maze.

That’s where ClickUp comes in.

ClickUp isn’t just another project management tool. It’s the only tool you need.

One login. One workspace. Everything—tasks, docs, team chat, goals—all in one place. No more switching between five different apps just to get through your day.

Your team isn’t disorganized. They’re overwhelmed by tools that don’t talk to each other. ClickUp fixes that. It brings everything together—so your team can stop chasing updates and start actually moving things forward.

Less clicking. More doing. Get ClickUp and take your productivity back.

👉 Start for free.

“No one will know you are awesome unless you tell and show them loudly and often.”

Tanya Smallwood, Director Revenue Enablement

🧠 Save your RAM, suspend those tabs.

🚀 The path to VP doesn’t have to take years—ditch these 3 mistakes and move up faster.

🧽 Spring cleaning, but make it non-toxic.

👠 Stop suffering—these inserts make heels feel like flats. Almost.

• MEDITECH is hiring for an Account Executive (Canton, MA).
• LankyBox is hiring for a Production Manager (Las Vegas, NV).
• Beacon Hill is hiring for a Direct Hire HR Manager (Philadelphia, PA).
• Skybound Entertainment is hiring for a Brand Manager (Los Angeles, CA).
• LHH is hiring for a Digital Marketing Lead (Kenosha, WI).

⭐ View more jobs here >

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