Employee Experience

🏃♀️ Imagine a study on marathon performance that doesn't mention some runners are carrying 50-pound backpacks. That's the 2025 Women in the Workplace report from Mckinsey and LeanIn 60 pages on why women "want promotions less." Zero mentions of childcare, eldercare, or the invisible second shift. Their own data shows women and men are equally committed to their careers, over 90% on every measure. Young women under 30 has even more ambitious than young men. Latinas are the most ambitious group in the entire study. 🤔 So where does this "ambition gap" come from? Buried on page 10, in a small box, they note that women who decline promotion cite "personal obligations" at nearly double the rate of men. Then they move on. No follow-up. No analysis. No asking the obvious question: What are these "personal obligations"? 💔 I'll tell you what they are. 👉 They're the 2am feeding before your 8am presentation. 👉 The school pickup that can't be rescheduled. 👉 The elderly parent who needs a doctor's appointment during your board meeting. 👉 The mental load of remembering everyone's everything while being told you "lack ambition." The report measured ambition without measuring the invisible infrastructure women are running at home. 👉 Here's what the report should have asked: ⁉️ Do women with equal childcare support want promotions at the same rate as men? ⁉️ Do women with flexible work arrangements show the same career drive? ⁉️ Does the "ambition gap" exist in countries with subsidized childcare? (Spoiler: Research says no, no, and no.) Instead, they concluded women are less ambitious and moved on to solutions that don't address the actual problem. This isn't just a missed opportunity. It's a misdirection! ❌ Because when you diagnose "ambition gap" instead of "care gap," you get solutions like "women need more confidence" instead of "workplaces need to stop penalizing caregiving." You get women blamed for systemic failures. 📊 Here's what an honest report would say: ✅ Women aren't less ambitious. They're doing two jobs while being evaluated as if they're doing one. ✅ The workplace wasn't designed for people with caregiving responsibilities. It was designed for people with wives. ✅ Until we redesign the system, we'll keep "discovering" that women don't want what men want, when really, women just can't afford what men take for granted. That's exactly why we built "From Hidden Talent to Visible Leader", because the women I work with aren't lacking ambition. They're lacking a system that sees their full contribution. Next cohort starts end of Jan 2026. 👉 Join the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gx7CpGGR 👊 Because women don't have an ambition problem. The workplace has a measurement problem, and it starts with reports that count everything except what actually matters.

IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) CRISIS WASN’T IN THE SKIES. IT WAS IN THE LEADERSHIP CABIN. Three things stood out. One: Employees were left alone to face furious customers. No leader should ever let that happen. If you don’t stand by your people in a storm, don’t expect them to stand by your customers in the sun. Customer experience collapses the moment employees feel abandoned. Two: In any crisis, honesty is the only strategy that works. This time, the communication wasn’t transparent. When leaders hide the full picture, years of goodwill can disappear overnight. A crisis can earn trust, but only if you tell the truth. Three: The belief that “we are too big to be ignored” has ended more companies than competition ever has. Customers always have a choice. And if they don’t, they will create one. We shouldn’t watch the Indigo crisis like spectators. This is a reminder for every leader to build their own crisis blueprint. Because crises will come, when they do, your response becomes your reputation. There is more to business than profits. There are people, trust, and how you show up when it matters most.

Avoiding tough talks is a direct path to losing team trust. Here's how top leaders handle conflict: 1/ The Real Problem → Leaders stall, hoping conflict resolves itself → Feedback gets softened until it’s meaningless → The issue festers, and performance suffers 2/ Why It Matters → Projects halt because no one says what needs to be said → The wrong people stay in the room, the right ones leave → Culture declines and misalignment becomes the norm 3/ The CLEAR Framework → Cut the Fluff: Skip the warm-up and get to the point → Label the Behavior: Focus on actions, not identity → Explain the Impact: Make it real, why does it matter? → Ask for Alignment: Invite a response, not a lecture → Recommit or Redirect: Don’t end vague, end with clarity 4/ What Happens Next → Tension goes down, not up → People feel respected, not ambushed → Projects move forward, with trust, not silence 5/ Why You Need This → Leading isn’t about avoiding discomfort → It’s about creating clarity when others won’t → This framework gives you the words to do it right What's your biggest takeaway?

I have a DEI secret… And it’s a big one. Ready? The accommodations I make for my neurodivergent team members… Also benefit my neurotypical team members. Ground breaking, right? 😏 I hear a lot about companies pushing back on accommodations, but I thought I’d show you just a few of the simple things we do here. I’ll use myself as the example, and let you see how it helps everyone. 👉 I like to sit on my legs and fidget in my chair. ✨ So we’ve got comfy chairs, wider than your standard office ones, for everyone. 👉 I regularly forget my breakfast or lunch. ✨ So we keep a fully stocked drinks fridge and snack cupboard. Open to everyone. 👉 Sometimes I find the main office overwhelming when I’m trying to focus. ✨ So we created two quiet workspaces in different rooms. Everyone can use them when it all gets a bit much. 👉 I used to get anxious about calling in sick and having to justify it to my old manager. ✨ Now? Just send a text. No explanations needed. If you say you’re ill, that’s enough. Applies to everyone. 👉 I had a habit of staying too late, sometimes working 3 or 4 hours longer than I should. ✨ So we finish at 4pm. And we mean it. Everyone is made to down tools and heads off. No late-night badge of honour here. I could go on, but you get the idea. There’s really no excuse not to make accommodations for your ND teammates. Because when you do… It makes things better for everyone.

Atlassian has been fully distributed for almost five years. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve learned a lot about how to keep teams thriving across time zones—and we’re applying those insights every day.  ➡️ Asynchronous work: Async tools are at the core of how we operate. Confluence is our virtual hub where we share stories, celebrate new hires, and collaborate effortlessly. We also use Loom to share videos and give feedback on our own time—avoiding those dreaded “this could have been an email” moments. In fact, we’ve saved nearly half a million meetings using Loom! ➡️ Designing workdays: We’ve learned to structure workdays for focus, collaboration, and meetings (only when absolutely necessary). Teams work across no more than two time zones, ensuring at least four hours of overlap to get things done together. ➡️ Intentional connection: Data shows that real connection happens when teams meet regularly—not sporadically in an office. We provide Intentional Togetherness Gatherings (ITGs), curated experiences, and focused in-person time to collaborate. ➡️ Adapting for different needs: It’s not one-size-fits-all. For example, new hires and grads often benefit from more frequent in-person meetups, so we make sure to offer opportunities for them to connect early on. https://lnkd.in/g2sSbe3v

GET OUT OF YOUR TEAM’S WAY Managers, it’s time to stop treating employees like they need constant supervision. They shouldn’t have to apologise for having lives outside of work either. Trust your team to deliver, and you’ll create a positive, productive environment where everyone can thrive. Hiring the right people is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you trust and empower them. Trust means allowing your team the freedom to manage their work without hovering, showing that you respect them as capable adults who can balance both their professional and personal lives. This goes beyond just being flexible with time off. It’s about building a culture where people feel trusted to do their jobs in the way that works best for them - whether they’re in the office, working remotely, or handling personal matters during the day. The focus should be on outcomes, not micromanagement. Micromanaging stifles creativity and kills motivation. Trust, however, inspires people to do their best work. When you give your team ownership and the space to succeed, you’ll see them flourish. Here’s how to build that culture:
 * Hire the Right People: Ensure they have the skills and align with your company’s values.
 * Trust Your Team: Let them take ownership of their work, and resist the urge to micromanage.
 * Give Them Freedom: Allow them to make decisions and provide the tools they need.
 * Develop Strong Leaders: Train leaders to support their teams without controlling them.
 * Keep Communication Open: Foster an environment where people feel safe sharing ideas and feedback.
 * Celebrate Wins: Recognise achievements to keep motivation high.
 * Support Work-Life Balance: Encourage a healthy balance to enhance well-being and productivity. ♻️Neha K Puri

Leaders' overreliance on "DEI programming" is one of the biggest barriers in the way of real progress toward achieving #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion. Do you know where these events came from? The lunch and learns, cultural heritage celebrations, book clubs, and the like? Historically, these were all events put on by volunteer advocates and activists from marginalized communities who had little to no access to formal power and yet were still trying to carve out spaces for themselves in hostile environments. For leaders to hire figureheads to "manage" these volunteer efforts, refuse to resource them, and then take credit for the meager impact made nonetheless is nothing short of exploitation. If your workplace's "DEI Function" is a single director-level employee with an executive assistant who spends all day trying to coax more and more events out of your employee resource groups? I'm sorry to say that you are part of the problem. Effective DEI work is change management, plain and simple. It's cross-functional by necessity, requiring the ongoing exercise of power by executive leadership across all functions, the guidance and follow-through of middle management, the insight of data analysts and communicators, and the energy and momentum of frontline workers. There is no reality where "optional fill-in-the-blank history month celebrations" organized by overworked volunteers, no matter how many or how flashy, can serve as a substitute. If your workplace actually wants to achieve DEI, resource it like you would any other organization-level goal. 🎯 Hire a C-Level executive responsible for it or add the job responsibility to an existing cross-functional executive (e.g., Chief People Officer) 🎯 Give that leader cross-functional authority, mandate, headcount, and resources to work with other executives and managers across the organization on culture, process, policy, and behavior change 🎯 Set expectations with all other leaders that DEI-related outcomes will be included in their evaluation and responsibility (e.g., every department leader is responsible for their employees' belonging scores and culture of respect in their department). 🎯 Encourage responsible boundary-setting and scoping of volunteer engagement, ensuring that if Employee Resource Groups and DEI Councils/Committees want to put on events, it is because they are energized and supported to do so—not because they feel forced to run on fumes because it's the only way any impact will be made. It's long past time for our workplaces' DEI strategies to modernize away from the volunteer exploitation of "DEI programming" toward genuine organizational transformation. What steps will your leaders take to be a part of this future?

Do you know what's going on with your team? Unfortunately, most managers don't. I got surprised more times than I care to admit. That stopped once I created my "pulse check." It's a simple survey I ran once a quarter to check on the vitals of my team and take proactive action. Here are the exact 11 questions I used: ✅ Mission 1. I understand and am motivated by the team's mission. 2. At least 80% of my work contributes directly to that mission. Logic: People need to feel connected to something bigger and that their work matters. Separating these two will help you prioritize communicating more vs. rethinking the work. ✅ Expectations 3. I know what is expected of me at work. 4. I have the tools, access, and support to meet my goals excellently. Logic: Everyone wants to win. Clear expectations show them how. If you’re cutting corners here, you’ll create a lot of headaches down the road. ✅ Engagement 5. I am energized by the important work I'm doing. 6. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. 7. In the last seven days, I have received constructive feedback to improve. Logic: I’m looking for both intrinsic and external motivators. And positive and constructive feedback is the signal that will keep them on the path. ✅ Growth & Development 8. I am clear and excited about how I can best develop. 9. I have consistent opportunities at work to learn and develop. Logic: I’m biased towards small teams of high performers. And high-performers are insatiable in their desire to grow into more impact. When this starts to decline, I’m quick to act. ✅ Supported 10. I feel cared for by my supervisor and colleagues. 11. I see a consistent commitment from my colleagues to doing excellent work. Logic: “What you do is who you are.” Unfortunately, I cannot be everywhere to see every action. When people no longer feel cared for or supported, I don’t have an engagement problem. I have a cultural issue. ****** Want a working template of my heatmap? Just sign up for my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eJs_eVWv You'll get this template + dozens more practical playbooks for free. It's time you stop managing and start leading. Systems don't just make this possible. They make your success inevitable. P.S. Repost to share this with your network ♻️. And follow Dave Kline for more great posts.

The ability to create clarity when there’s no shortage of chaos, opinions, and competing priorities is a rare skill. In any reasonably competent company, this skill alone will help take you quite far, fairly quickly. Concretely, this means creating clarity on the main problems, clarity on the right solutions, and clarity on the action plan & priorities. Very few people can do this well even though most people possess the intelligence necessary to do it. This is because most people in the workplace have been conditioned to add more information, sound more clever, satisfy more stakeholders, and feign more precision & certainty than is possible. Few understand that clarity in a chaotic situation can only emerge from subtraction, never from addition. Clarity comes from communicating what stands out as most important, why it is most important, how it will be achieved, and last but not the least, giving people a way of thinking about why it is okay, even great, that we aren’t doing All The Other Things.

If you think sexuality has no place at work, this post is for you. It’s Pride Month, and I’ll be speaking with teams about LGBTQ inclusion. At almost every session, someone will ask some version of: “Why do we have to talk about this at work?” The simple answer is we already do. But let’s start with a few things that might’ve happened at work just yesterday: You’re waiting for a meeting to start. Someone asks, “How was your weekend?” You spent it with your partner’s family but not everyone on this call knows you’re gay, so you stay quiet. Your team is reviewing new benefits. The language only refers to heterosexual families, so you’re left unsure if fertility, bereavement, or parental leave policies even apply to you. Your team is heading to a conference. You’re the only one delayed at security because your legal ID doesn’t match your name or gender. These aren’t rare or extreme situations. They’re everyday experiences for LGBTQ people. And they’re exhausting. The constant calculation of what's safe to say, what's too much, what will be thought of as "unprofessional" takes up valuable energy. It limits our ability to connect and trust our teams. It impacts our well-being and our ability to perform. So, why do we have to talk about sexuality at work? Because we already are. Every time we talk about families, benefits, weekends, travel, we’re talking about it. During Pride Month, we’re not introducing something new. We’re just making visible the experiences of LGBTQ team members and the extra burdens we may carry. We’re highlighting the assumptions we make and who we leave out when we make them. This isn't about special treatment. This isn't about "politics." This is about how we care for our people. This is about building strong, innovative, high-performing teams where everyone, including LGBTQ people, can thrive. Caring about your people is caring about your business. We want to bring our best to work but we can't do that if we're asked to leave the best parts of ourselves behind. Use this pride month to have these conversations. Review your policies. Host the trainings. Reinforce that everyone on your team will be treated with dignity and respect. Make it explicit. This doesn't have to be complicated but it is intentional. Your teams will thank you. And if you need support, DM me. I've got just a few open slots for pride this month.