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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

When the year starts, and so does the strain At the start of the year, most managers want the same things. A team that feels steady. Work that is moving and a quarter that is ambitious, but not chaotic. Then reality arrives. The targets are back. The backlog is back and the meetings come in fast. A few people are still easing into rhythm, while others are already sprinting. And if you lead a team across differences such as generations, cultures, working styles, and personalit