"The world exists as you perceive it. It is not what you see, it is how you see it. It is not what you hear, but how you hear it. It is not what you feel, but how you feel it."
Rumi
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Could the way you see your workplace matter just as much as what’s actually happening there? How two leaders interpret the same challenges can create completely different environments; one where employees maintain morale during moments of uncertainty, the other where shared, existing stress is amplified.
In almost every conversation I’ve had lately, leaders and teams aren’t asking for trend predictions, but rather for a clear path forward amidst information overload. Conscious leadership depends on your ability to discern what’s important and make intentional decisions. As Rumi, the 13th-century Sufi poet, observed, what you pay attention to becomes your reality. Which problems you address and how you handle them determine your team’s experience.
In a world that’s quick to react, what if your version of leadership took on the news cycle with curiosity and consideration? This month, I’m sharing resources that invite you to think critically about the way you lead and the workplaces you shape.
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💜 The Heart
Tools to support your conscious leadership practice.
🎧 Expanding your perspective, not your expectations [Podcast]
You don’t suffer because of your circumstances, but because they don’t match your expectations. That’s the trap Michael Singer, author of the best-selling book, The Untethered Soul: Journey Beyond Yourself (among others), unpacks in this podcast. You build rigid mental frameworks from past experiences, and when things don’t go as you expect, you struggle. The same applies to leadership: How often do workplace challenges come from clinging to what should be instead of seeing what is? Singer’s solution isn’t to force your expectations to expand, but to practice openness. What might unfold in your organization if you let go of limiting beliefs?
📺 Why a workplace expert thinks Severance is hitting a nerve [Article]
I’ve only seen the first episode of Severance (I tap out on TV pretty quickly), but the conversation around it is hard to ignore. Workers surgically separating their personal and professional lives? No wonder it got people buzzing. Alison Green from Ask a Manager analyzes Severance’s accuracy, pointing out how office culture normalizes bizarre corporate-speak and demands authenticity while punishing it. Hopefully Severance doesn’t hit too close to home, but if it does, this Men's Health article offers practical strategies for better work-life boundaries, no brain surgery required.
🎬 What fiction reveals about real-life work culture [Article]
First Severance, now Mickey 17. Why do workplace dystopias dominate pop culture? Bong Joon-ho’s new film follows Robert Pattinson as an “expendable” worker who dies repeatedly for his corporate overlords. The premise is extreme, but the anxiety seems familiar. This GQ review highlights a hard truth about modern work: the sense of being replaceable, disconnected from systems governing your livelihoods. Bong himself describes Mickey as a person who “gets printed but doesn’t understand the mechanism of the machine,” a perfect metaphor for how many workers interact with systems they depend on but don't comprehend. For leaders, these stories aren’t just entertainment; they’re mirrors. If workers feel like cogs in a machine, what does that say about the systems you’ve built or allowed, and how do you change them?
🧠 The Matter
Leadership trends that caught my attention.
🔍 Good intentions aren’t good enough: Why allyship is needed for women at work [Podcast]
Women’s C-suite representation has risen from 17% to 29% since 2015, according to McKinsey, but that’s not exactly progress. This podcast explores how companies often add executive seats rather than develop internal talent, and for women of color, the barriers are even higher. The hosts call it “death by a thousand cuts” or the daily slights and exclusions that erode women’s confidence and career mobility. One recommendation that stuck with me: leaders should audit their mentorship lists for diversity gaps. Are you sponsoring people who don’t look like you? If not, why? Rather than just calling for allyship, this podcast has real strategies for change that transcend whatever labels you use for this work. Worth a listen if you’re serious about impact.
📚 Beyond the one-job identity: a more meaningful approach to work [Book]
Christina Wallace’s book challenges the outdated idea that a career should define your identity. The old "all in or opt out" model no longer fits modern work. Instead, she introduces a more intentional approach: a portfolio career that distributes your time, energy, and identity across multiple pursuits, both professional and personal. In uncertain times, diversifying your work life (like a portfolio) creates sustainability and deeper fulfillment, allowing you to shape a career that serves you, not the other way around. This is why you evaluate your competencies!
🎯 Final Thoughts
Work is changing, whether you embrace it or resist it. Leadership isn’t compatible with controlling change, but it can meet it with clarity.
If you stop fixating on how things should be, can you make space for what’s actually possible? Whether it’s challenging outdated career models or recognizing the anxieties reflected in pop culture, leadership begins and ends with perception.
What’s one belief about work or leadership that you need to reexamine? What might shift if you saw it with fresh eyes? I’d love to hear what resonates.
Sending love and light,
Ginny