Don’t get status reports from your team. Get soul reports.

That’s the takeaway from this week’s DesuckifyWork podcast with Carin Knoop. Carin is a wonderful writer and the Executive Director of the Case Research & Writing Group at Harvard Business School.

We talked about the importance of mental health at work and how managers and leaders need a whole new set of skills to deal with the issues so many workers are facing.

Carin offers a bunch of great ideas for how to engage with employees who are struggling. Most of which boil down to the simple (but hard) act of listening. Check in with your teams beyond the to do list to see how they’re really doing. And support them accordingly.

You don’t have to be a therapist but you do need to be a human being.

Remember humans?

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

Podcast Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Mental Health at Work01:15 Karen Knoup’s Background and Work02:57 The Importance of Compassion in Management04:20 Current Mental Health Landscape in the Workplace06:09 Hyperbole and Reality in Mental Health Discussions08:24 Managing External Stressors10:56 The Role of Boundaries in Work-Life Balance12:10 Finding Joy in Work and Community14:39 The Shift from Self-Care to Community Care18:17 Realistic Expectations of Work22:05 The Role of Managers in Employee Well-Being25:19 Understanding What We Bring to Work27:20 The Future of Education and Work30:00 The Impact of AI on Work and Mental Health35:54 Finding Calm in Chaos39:08 The Role of Managers in Employee Well-Being43:21 Compassion vs. Empathy in Leadership46:44 Defining Well-Being in the Workplace51:44 Creating a Supportive Work Environment

You can follow Carin on LinkedIn. And check out her Medium newsletter at carinisabelknoop.medium.com.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

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Bonus question from Carin to our audience:Can you share some of those little moments that you have seen at work or do at work, little tricks that help you make things better?

Be careful what you wish for.

You may aspire to an executive job, maybe even the C-suite. And there’s certainly a lot of good that can come with that kind of role.

But it ain’t all sunshine and roses.

That’s certainly been the experience for Erica Rooney, this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® Podcast. Erica is an author, speaker, coach and fractional CPO who spent years climbing the corporate ladder, only to find herself asking, “why exactly did I want this craziness?”

The work was intense and nearly never-ending. The system felt rigged against her (and other women leaders). And her ability to balance all of that with her role as a mom was simply a pipe dream.

It was her then 2-year-old daughter who ultimately inspired Erica to choose a better path. She realized she did not want her child to go through what she was dealing with. So, Erica created something new so she could change the world for the better.

Now, it’s her mission to help more woman get into power and stay there. This is how things will change. And if you spend more than 2 minutes with Erica, you will 1000 percent believe she can make this happen. She’s smart, strong and full of an infectious energy for her work.

She’s written a book, “Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors” that speaks to much of her experience. Some of here key points include:

🐱 Language matters and shapes culture. “People leader” says something very different from manager. “Works with” is not the same as “works for.” So choose your words appropriately.

🐱 Ditch the highlight reel style of communication and be willing to share some of the tough stuff. You’re only setting others up for failure if you tell them the bar is Insta-level perfection.

🐱 Let people work where, when and how they work most effectively. And judge folks based on outcomes. Erica would love to see the 40-hour workweek become obsolete. Me too.

🐱 Lastly, she is a big proponent of full pay transparency. It’s hard to level up a system if the system hides everyone’s level.

Nothing to hide here. Erica has a ton of ideas for how to make work better, whether you’re in the c-suite or just getting started.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

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You can follow Erica on LinkedIn. And check out ericaandersonrooney.com to learn more about her work and her book. You can also explore her community for women leaders at joinhercollective.com.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

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Bonus question from Erica to our audience:Do you disagree with anything I said? Am I wrong? Or what do you think about my perspective?

People say we’re addicted to our phones, but I think it’s deeper than that. We’re addicted to the absence of silence.

The idea of spending one quiet minute alone with our thoughts terrifies us. So we grab our distraction devices and keep the inner voices at bay for a little longer.

It’s hard to know who we really are if we never listen to those voices. And how could we possibly know what we want from life if we don’t know who we are?

So, we end up chasing someone else’s dream. Our family’s, our friend’s, that person on TikTok who just seems like they have it all together, you know?

We’re always hungry, never satisfied.

If we want to get clear on what we actually want, we need to sit in silence and spend some time in the muck, according to Bonnie Wan, former ad agency strategy executive and author of The Life Brief.

The muck is where truth lives. Where our intuition lives. Where clarity emerges.

This is the heart of the Life Brief process. First we get messy. Then we get clear. Then we get active. Just like agency folks have done with clients for years.

The tools we’ve used to serve our clients are the same tools that will allow us to live the life we truly want. And do the work we were meant to do. Work that AI can never do—deep, intuitive work that solves real problems.

Do we really want to spend our time cranking out more mindless “content?” We are meant for so much more.

If you want to explore what that could look like, you should reach out to Bonnie about her January virtual retreat. And you should absolutely read her book—it’s amazing.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Bonnie on LinkedIn. And check out thelifebrief.com to learn more about her book and the awesome work she’s doing.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Bonnie to our audience:What matters most to you? You cannot do it all, but you can do all that matters. Are you clear about what matters most to you?

To watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.