OG Tuesday Issue #272

👉 Ambition, pressure, progress: What’s really happening in the workplace? See the research.

💋 10 clean makeup brands made to enhance, not hide your skin.

🎓 Looking to level up learning at work? These 20 LMS platforms are leading the way.

🎁 50 experience gift ideas for everyone on your holiday list.

If you’ve ever sat through a performance review from a manager who can’t find their own meeting agenda, you know the quiet rage of being critiqued by someone who could also use some coaching 🙃.

Leading people doesn’t put you on a higher plane. It just means the gaps in your own style affect more humans. And the people who see your habits most clearly? The ones who report to you.

They know when you’re overloaded. They know when you’re micromanaging without meaning to. They know when you drop the ball, and also when you move mountains for them. They have the receipts on all of it.

So yes, asking for feedback feels vulnerable. But it’s also one of the few ways to get information you can’t see on your own.

Start with 360 reviews

A 360 pulls insight from every angle—your manager, your peers, and your direct reports. Instead of getting evaluated only from the top down, you’re getting a full picture of how you show up as a leader.

The most useful insight comes from the patterns your team sees clearly and you miss because you’re in the middle of them. Direct reports spot things your boss will never see, because they’re the ones living with your day-to-day decisions.

If you want something lighter than a formal 360

There are plenty of ways to get honest input, but a simple one-on-one works well. Try asking:

• What’s one thing I do well as a manager?
• What’s one thing I could improve that would make your job easier?
• Is there anything I’m doing that’s confusing, frustrating, or slowing you down?
• Do you feel supported? If not, what would help?

Keep the tone calm, not investigatory. Take notes. Thank them. No defensive monologues, no explaining why you did what you did.

If you want even more candor, send a Google Form. Anonymity always loosens the lid.

The part most leaders skip

Collecting feedback is the easy part. Putting it to work is where leadership actually happens.

• Look for patterns. If one person mentions something, it’s a data point. If three mention it, it’s a theme.
• Choose one or two improvements. Not a personality makeover, just the changes that would unlock the most ease for your team.
• Share what you’re working on. A simple: “I heard you, I’m focusing on X. If you see me slipping, flag it,” builds more trust than any all-hands pep talk.
• Circle back. Next quarter, ask: “Have you noticed a difference?” Your team will see the effort long before they see perfection.

Leadership gets better the moment you stop relying on instinct and start seeking real input.

Intuition can only take you so far; your team fills in the rest. They see the habits you’ve outgrown, the moments you shine, and the quirks you don’t realize you’re repeating.

Let them tell you. Take it in. Do something with it.

They already know the parts of your leadership that lift them up and the parts that make their work harder. Bringing their perspective into the room is how you turn that information into real influence.

Anyone who’s ever owned a spreadsheet full of hours, rates, deductions, and deadlines knows payroll isn’t “press a button.” It’s one of the few operational tasks where small errors turn into very real consequences — compliance issues, tax penalties, and a team that suddenly doesn’t trust their paychecks.

Most leaders learn payroll the hard way: one misclassified contractor, one missed deadline, one “why is my net pay off” Slack message.

It doesn’t have to be that dramatic.

Where payroll usually goes sideways

• Employee vs. contractor classifications that don’t match legal definitions
• Missing filing deadlines (because tax calendars have no mercy)
• PTO and overtime tracked in six different places
• Wage calculations done manually, which is basically begging the math gods for luck

What makes this smoother for small and growing teams

Use software that removes the fragile parts of the process. Tools like Patriot automate calculations and keep everything in one ecosystem, meaning far fewer opportunities for an “oops” with real consequences.

Stay ahead of compliance instead of reacting to it. Labor laws shift constantly across states. Platforms such as Paychex build updates and guardrails into their system, which is exactly what a growing team needs.

Keep your employee records clean and consistent. Hours, pay rates, benefits, contractors…accuracy matters. OnPay is built for teams juggling multiple roles, pay types, or industries with unique payroll rules.

And for the love of your future self, run payroll on a predictable cadence. Calendars slip. Trust shouldn’t.

Paychex, Patriot, and OnPay all automate scheduling so no one on your team ever wonders when payday is.

Payroll is one of those operational muscles that rewards precision.

Get the process right (and use tools that reduce your cognitive load), and suddenly it moves from “stressful necessity” to “solved problem.”

A response to one of our readers, Jessie Lewis: “My biggest challenge is leading communication for a team that’s all on different schedules.”

If your team spans time zones, work styles, and locations, congratulations: you’re managing the modern workplace. Syncing everyone perfectly is impossible, so it’s necessary to build communication systems that work even when no two people are online at the same time.

Below is a practical framework to keep distributed teams aligned without micromanaging or working 18-hour days.

1) Find One Time That Works for Most People

A weekly stand-up meeting is your best friend. Use Google Calendar’s “find a time” feature to see when most people are available. Aim for 80% attendance and record it for anyone who can’t make it. Keep it short (15-30 min).

2) Treat asynchronous organization as a leadership skill

When people don’t share hours, your documentation is your communication.

Set up a single source of truth using tools like Notion. Create a clear dashboard: priorities, timelines, decisions made, meeting notes, company updates. The goal? Anyone who logs in at 2 AM should know exactly what’s happening without pinging a soul.

Then use Google Drive for storage. Organize it (or clean it up). Give it clear folder structure with sensible file names. Make everything searchable and accessible.

3) Create Communication Rules and Stick to Them

Set clear rules:

• Slack (or your preferred messaging platform) for quick, time-sensitive questions
• Email for things that need a paper trail
• Comments on Google Docs or Notion for feedback on specific content
• Scheduled meetings for complex discussions

Make these rules visible. Put them in your team handbook, your Notion dashboard, wherever people will actually see them.

4) Respect Time Zones and Boundaries

Don’t schedule meetings at 6 AM for one person and 10 PM for another. Rotate meeting times so the inconvenience is shared. Don’t expect immediate responses outside of working hours. Use Slack’s “schedule send” feature for off-hours messages.

5) Over-Communicate, But Make It Easy to Ignore

Post weekly updates in a consistent place. Make them skimmable with bullet points. Highlight what’s urgent versus FYI. People should catch up without reading a novel.

6) Accept That It Won’t Be Perfect

You’re never going to get everyone on the same schedule. Someone’s always going to miss something. That’s okay.

The goal is creating systems that keep your team aligned without burning everyone out. Build the systems. Set the rules. Give your team the tools they need to stay connected, even when they’re never in the same place at the same time.

There’s a moment in your career where doing great work stops being enough.

You’re the one people rely on. The one who gets things done. The one keeping everything upright.

And somehow…you’re still not the one leadership sees as ready for that next title.

That disconnect is real — and it’s not about talent.

In this free, on-demand masterclass, former VP and executive coach Maya Grossman breaks down the subtle shifts that help high performers get noticed, taken seriously, and promoted faster.

In 30 minutes, you’ll learn:

• Shift from “go-to doer” to strategic leader
• Get in the room (and on the radar) with execs
• Position yourself so promotions feel inevitable

Her clients have jumped into Director, VP, and even C-suite roles in months — not because they suddenly got better at their jobs, but because they started showing the version of themselves leadership had been missing.

If you want next year to feel different, this is a smart place to start.

👉 Watch instantly and start being seen as VP-ready today.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right. Whatever you speak into existence is essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy. No one is going to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. Regardless of what you’re actually capable of, having genuine faith and courage to tackle what comes your way will pave the path for a positive feedback loop to amplify your strengths. It’s well within YOU to raise yourself up to where you want to be; it’s all about your perspective. It’s so important to start acting like the person you want to be and if you are consistent, it will become your reality. Call it manifestation or intentionality, you are bound to reap the benefits of the seeds you sow and your thoughts about them.”

— Shaelin Murphy

📆 ProfAI learns about your work and helps you find use cases that add immediate value. Try it free.

🤖 Mindstream cuts the AI noise down to trends, red flags, and real use cases — a fast, hype-free read for sharper decisions.

🧳 Thania panic-bought this 3-piece luggage set and was shocked by the quality.

💊 Hair, skin, everything goals start here with a biotin blend that truly does the most.

• Baker Construction is hiring for a Project Executive (Tampa, FL).
• Southland Industries is hiring for an Administrative Assistant (Haltom City, TX).
• Stellar Senior Living is hiring for an Executive Director (Alamo, NV).
• ExxonMobil is hiring for a Sr. Digital Advertising Advisor (Spring, TX).
• Sonos, Inc. is hiring for an Associate Copywriter (Remote).

⭐️ Answer to the riddle.

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