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Picture the scene. Half your team is in the boardroom, coffees on the table, side conversations happening, body language easy and readable. The other half are on a screen, represented by thumbnails, microphones muted for some, and voices that sometimes cut out for others trying to be a part of the conversations, but their contributions land a beat too late. The meeting ends. Decisions were made, but if you are honest about who shaped them, it was mostly the people in the room

The moment before the meeting starts Despite it having been weeks ago, I’m sure many of you can recount the feeling. It was the last week of April. Freedom Day was on everyone’s mind, at least in the background. You were preparing for a team check-in and somewhere in the lead-up, a thought crossed your mind: should I say something about it? Acknowledge what the day means? Then the doubt set in. You weren’t not sure how to hold it. Your team is a mix of people, different backg

It's Tuesday morning and you are running one of your regular team meetings and the agenda is clear, or so you think. But the room is split in ways that have nothing to do with the topic, and you can't seem to figure out why. Tshepo, who has been in the industry for over twenty years, wants the decision made quickly. He built his career in environments where meetings were where decisions happened, and he came prepared to leave with one. Ashleigh is a millennial in mid-career.

The recognition that goes unnoticed There is a conversation that happens a lot in exit interviews. A manager asks why someone is leaving, expecting to hear about salary or career progression. What they hear instead is something quieter. “I just didn’t feel seen here.” Or: “It felt like no one noticed.” Or simply: “I stopped feeling like my work mattered.” These kinds of remarks are rarely a complete surprise. These are slow accumulations. Small moments where recognition was a