Supporting your manager is not about sucking up, it’s about stepping up. It’s about making your boss’s job easier, which bonus, also makes your job easier. When you reduce their stress and workload, you create a smoother, less chaotic environment for everyone. Supporting your manager, done right, is simply making your boss’s life easier. Reduce their mental load. Killing the element of surprise. And in the process you will build trust, free them up to solve bigger problems, and make your own work life smoother. While working on a recent deck, I got feedback to add more audience participation talking points, something like the fist to five check in. Fist if you’ve had zero success, five fingers if you’re crushing it. My brain took that down a rabbit hole, I thought of fist as a gut punch, five as a high five. And honestly, that’s the whole story of supporting your manager. You are either the gut punch, dropping surprises, adding stress, or forcing your boss to pick up problems col...

If I am friends with you, understand something upfront I’m not the friend who’s going to let you slide into mediocrity and call it support. I’m not built to just smile, nod, and let you shrink yourself to fit into rooms you have already outgrown. If I’m your friend, I’m leaning in to your potential, your dreams, and the version of you that maybe you don’t even believe in yet. God didn’t align our paths so I could be a background extra in your story. He put me here to remind you, every time you forget, who the hell you are. To make sure you don’t drown in good enough when you were designed for extraordinary. I’m not about to let you collect participation trophies when I know you are capable of championships. And let me say this louder for the people in the back, pushing someone to improve is not an attack it’s an act of love. If I check you, if I challenge you, if I look you dead in the eye and say You are better than this. That’s not me tearing you down. That’s me betting on you so...

If you are my people, I got you. I don’t just cheer for my friends. I advocate for them. If I’m in a room where opportunity is hanging in the air, I make sure my people’s names are spoken. Not whispered. Not hinted at. Spoken. Because that’s what real friends do. They don’t keep success on a me only plan, they spread it around. Friendship is advocacy. We’ve all seen the surface level cheerleaders. The ones who clap when you announce something on social media but stay silent when your name could actually carry weight in a meeting. That’s not loyalty, that’s convenience. Real friends are different. They put your name in conversations you weren’t invited to. They recommend you for opportunities you don’t even know exist. They drop your portfolio, your skills, your brilliance into the laps of decision makers because they believe in you that much. It’s not about credit. It’s about conviction. If I get through a door, my first thought is, Who else needs to be in here with m...

Every manager loves to say they have an open door policy. It sounds good. It looks good in onboarding materials. It makes you feel like the approachable, leader who welcomes all feedback with a warm smile and a half empty Topo Chico. Most open doors don’t actually open anything. Not trust. Not safety. Not real conversations. Let’s talk about why. There is a trust gap. Your door may be open, but are you? An open door doesn’t automatically erase power dynamics. Employees aren’t naive they know you are still the one doing performance reviews, approving promotions, and signing off on raises. So while you may see yourself as available, they see a high stakes gamble. If I walk in with something real, will this come back to haunt me? A door doesn’t close the trust gap. Only your consistent behavior does. Do you actually listen? Do you follow through? Do you protect the people who speak up, or do they quietly disappear from project rosters a few months later? Your actions speak louder than any...

Tuesday Takeover blog by Vanessa Angulo Have you ever worked with someone you liked? You trusted? Who you felt had your back? You would do anything for them, right?  If they ping you, you stop what you’re doing to help them.   Now think about a time where you weren’t that fond of someone, they rarely responded to your emails, they didn’t have your back in a meeting, or they just didn’t partner well.  Would you drop what you are doing in the moment to help them?  Would you prioritize them?    Exactly, you picking up what I am putting down right?   As someone who has had a variety of jobs, at different levels, in different industries, the one thing that stands out is having the ability to build relationships and genuine connections with people has proven to be the most critical skill you can carry with you into any job at any level in any industry . I don’t know about you, but I don’t how to pretend to care or fake it.  I truly care abou...

I thought I needed to be fixed. What I really needed was to stop believing I was broken. I have chased every self help book, productivity hack, and mindfulness app like they were the holy grail. I kept trying to fix myself, my habits, my mindset, my flaws as if I was some kind of busted appliance waiting for a repair technician. But what I eventually stumbled into is I wasn’t broken. I was just convinced I was. That belief that something was wrong with me kept me in a cycle of endless tweaking, optimizing, and becoming my best self. Every rough edge felt like a defect. Every off day felt like proof. Every stumble screamed see, you are not enough yet. And then one day it hit me what if the problem wasn’t me, but the story I was telling myself? I didn’t need fixing. I needed permission to be whole as I was. Not perfect, not flawless, not endlessly polished. Just whole. When I stopped believing I was broken, everything shifted. Challenges didn’t mean failure. Imperfections didn’...

Feedback is tricky. Too soft, and it’s useless. Too harsh, and it burns bridges. But done right, it can transform teams, careers, and even your own self awareness. The secret? Clarity, empathy, and a little courage. When giving feedback, specificity is key. Vague statements like “You need to communicate better” leave people guessing and guessing rarely improves performance. Instead, focus on concrete examples “In yesterday’s meeting, I noticed you interrupted twice. If you let others finish, your points land stronger.” Critique behaviors, not personalities. Pair clarity with constructive suggestions explain the impact of the behavior and offer actionable next steps. Timing matters too. Ambushing someone or sending a late-night email is a recipe for defensiveness. And remember, being direct doesn’t mean being cruel; candor plus care makes feedback stick. Neurodiversity awareness can transform the way feedback is given and received. Not everyone processes information or social cues the...

Every leader has a blind spot… and a cheer section. Leadership is a strange, lonely, exhilarating place. On one side, you have your cheer section the people who remind you are doing something right. They clap for your wins, nod at your ideas, and sometimes, unintentionally, make you believe you can do no wrong. They are your energy, your morale boosters, the ones who help you survive long meetings and impossible deadlines. But on the other side lies your blind spot. That invisible space where your mistakes, assumptions, or missteps grow unnoticed. Your blind spot is where feedback hesitates, where the hard truth never makes it past the hallway, and where small cracks quietly turn into full blown issues. Leaders need both extremes. Loyal support keeps you moving, confident, and motivated. Honest feedback keeps you grounded, self aware, and growing. The problem is that as you climb higher, the line between the two gets blurry. The louder the cheer section, the easier it becomes to ...

Fear’s loud. Doubt’s louder. And then there is the peanut gallery of well meaning opinions that sound suspiciously like are you sure you want to do that? Every big move you will ever make comes with a choir of what ifs. What if I fail? What if I look stupid? What if I’m not ready? What if they don’t like it? Here is magic four little words…I’ll do it anyway. “I’m scared.” I’ll do it anyway. “They might talk about me.” I’ll do it anyway. “I’ve never done this before.” I’ll do it anyway. Those four words are permission and rebellion wrapped in one. They don’t deny your fear they dare it to watch. They don’t erase uncertainty, they tell it to move over because you have got stuff to do. This isn’t toxic positivity. It’s not pretending the nerves don’t exist. It’s a muscle. Every time you do it anyway, you train your brain to move even when the path is foggy, the stakes are high, and your inner critic is waving red flags. You won’t always get it right. Sometimes you’ll bomb. Sometimes it’ll...

Everybody’s talking about their era these days. That’s cute. Eras are just seasons. They pass. But me? I’ve been thinking about eras … and periods of time. And periods? Those get remembered. Studied. Named in the history books. The Jurassic Period. The Renaissance Period. The You Tried Me for the Last Time Period. I went through my Let Them era. I let them. Thank you, Mel Robbins, for this. I didn’t know how much I needed to let them. I let them talk about me. I let them doubt me. I let them take my energy. I let them and now I need to let me. So is this a new era? No. Because this isn’t just a period of time this is my time. This is my Periodt. Period. Not just a phase. Not just an era. A full stop. A line drawn. An unshakable boundary that says, This is where I stand, and I’m not moving. No more fuzzy boundaries Periodt. No more unchecked micro aggressions Periodt. I have already let them, so now I’m here to remind them who I am Periodt. My peace is non-negotiable Periodt. I am no lo...