We had Kristin Fuller on The Porch to talk about taking a sabbatical. No, not a yearlong vacation in Europe (although, that could work for some!) For Kristin, it was a set-aside time full of rest, learning, and quieting the noise of life to recover parts of herself.
Here are some tips she gave us on creating a sabbatical for yourself:

• Financial: Start small by figuring out the actual monthly amount of income you need to live. Consider living below your means to give yourself some wiggle room and come up with a game plan so you can do this without considerable stress and anxiety.
• Focus: It can be easy to just want to take a long vacation and not strategically make purpose out of your extended time off. Instead, identify your needs for your sabbatical first by prioritizing the things you need to restore the parts of your lost self.
• Listen: Even in the self-care world, we can be distracted from what we actually need!

You’re the only one that knows your deepest desires and needs. Create the space to get rid of the noise so you can hear your inner voice again. It’s not that you don’t know what to do, it’s that you can’t hear yourself.

We had Lindsay Mitrosilis on The Porch to talk about LinkedIn as a strategy for recruiting and retaining top talent.

Big picture takeaways:

• HR Leaders, hear Lindsay out. Employees SHOULD be on LinkedIn and active. If you’re afraid they’ll get poached and leave, that’s a whole different issue.
• When it comes to recruiting the next generation of top talent, building your virtual presence as a leader is the most important thing you can do. People want to work for a person they like and know - showcasing your presence on LinkedIn does just that.
• When you feel tension around having an online presence, remember, you have full permission to set boundaries. Delete negative comments, ignore requests of people spamming you, and set limits for yourself.

June is PRIDE month and we are talking with Dr. Kristie Overstreet, a certified sex therapist, psychotherapist, author, speaker, and podcast host. She is also the creator of The Transgender Healthcare Dignity Model. She will be talking about how to create an environment of dignity and respect for all in healthcare and in the workplace.

​We had Megan Reilly on The Porch to talk about the journey to success, personal growth, and what it means to raise kids on their own path. There were several takeaways: 

• No one is going to escort you to your dreams. You have to be tenacious and ready to go.
• Reach out to people that you look up to, it helps you dream bigger and do more.
• When it comes to performing well - prepare all day so you can show up and be yourself. 
• Our journey is our superpower, it is your whole story that makes it uniquely you.

I’ve asked my friend Gary Danoff, Global Head of Google Workspace, to join us to talk about the big bright future of work!

I’m going to be asking him the questions we are all thinking about:

• What do you see as the biggest risks and gains from 'hybrid work' models?
• What is one technique you started using more during the pandemic you think you will continue with?
• And of course, I want to know what changes he is seeing with cross-generational work habits and connections since people are getting used to working from home.

Pull up a seat and join us LIVE. I'll make time for you to ask Gary your questions, too. You're going to love him.​

We had Britni on the porch to talk all about Industrial and Organizational Psychology (IO Psych). She shared with us how the psychological contract between an employer and employees has been broken. YIKES! And how people are figuring out the new contract along the way.

Here are a few takeaways that stick with me:

• Psychological safety is the belief that I can screw up and be honest about anything. This is fluid and exists between each team member. Not just leadership down. It's truly the responsibility of every teammate to own that within a company.
• The future of work is about EQ - that's the mastery skill we need to continue to develop throughout our career.
• Employees want 2 things: to see that you value them and to believe they belong. It's our responsibility to create environments where this happens regularly.

I have had hundreds of conversations around generations in the workforce.

You know what I find almost every time? Ageism. Beliefs about someone of different age (older OR younger) that creates negative expectations. It's heart-wrenching to see how our bias towards age breaks our psychological safety on our teams.

Next week I am bringing Ashton Applewhite on The Porch to talk about this because it's critical to understand how ageism plays into the generational conflicts at work. With almost 2,000,000 views of her Ted Talk: Let’s End Ageism, I know she has a few things she can teach us about how to treat each other as we all move towards another year older.

I’m so excited to finish out the year with this conversation. Bring your age-diverse team, send your interns and your leaders, because ageism is real, and we need to be more aware of it.

Here are some of the questions I have for Ashton:
-How come so many of us assume that aging weakens us? We think of dementia, not being sharp, losing our relevance?
-We tend to believe that we won't have much in common with someone significantly older or younger than we are. What have you learned as you’ve worked in this anti-ageism space?
-Does age play a bigger role in shaping our lives than class, gender, or race?

The truth is that we’ve been trained to be biased towards age. Let’s bring awareness to it and change the conversation so we can take better care of ourselves and our teams.