living the dream™
Hi ya,
I’m having one of those another day, another drama to handle kind of week.
We’ve alllll been there! I hope things are going smoothly for you.
But if you’re having the same week as me this week, may this Wednesday ✨ mood boost ✨ bring a lil fun to your day, because you deserve it!
Speaking of fun, HR Therapy is back next week! Are you coming?!
It's Sabrina Carpenter–themed, because someone’s walking away with tickets to see her at Madison Square Garden, and it could be you, just saying!!
Plus, we’re talking candidate experience—the good, the bad, and the utterly insane.
🗞️ Here’s the Tea:Copy anchor linkCopied
😬 HR giant Workday says hackers stole personal data in recent breach.
The TL;DR: Workday confirmed a data breach involving a third-party database, exposing names, emails, and phone numbers. While core HR tenant data wasn’t accessed, the stolen info could fuel social engineering scams. This is part of a larger wave of attacks on Salesforce-hosted databases targeting major companies.
My POV: This is one of those “don’t panic, but also don’t shrug it off” kinda situations.
Sure, it’s just contact info, but in HR-land, we know that’s the first breadcrumb hackers need to build trust in phishing attempts, and we know these attempts can be deceptively clever!
What’s eyebrow-raising here is Workday quietly burying its own disclosure with a “noindex” tag, which is like HR trying to hide a bad Glassdoor review instead of fixing the culture.
For People Leaders, the takeaway is clear: breaches happen, transparency matters, and social engineering scams will land in your employees’ inboxes!
Your job? Prep people, not just systems.
🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:Copy anchor linkCopied
“If you’re a CEO, your last 20 years of experience looks nothing like what the next 20 years will look like for the people who work for you.”Copy anchor linkCopied
On the mic this week: Matt Poepsel is a leadership expert, author of Expand the Circle, and VP at The Predictive Index. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Ironman triathlete, he blends grit with a PhD in psychology to champion people-first leadership. He also hosts the Lead the People podcast and is passionate about what he calls “enlightened leadership.”
Pin this:
- Self-awareness isn’t a trait. It’s a daily practice of previewing, being present, and reviewing.
- Ego is the #1 blocker of good leadership because it narrows vision, sparks fear, and breaks trust.
- Authenticity shows up in ease, language (“we” vs. “I”), and aligned actions, not just optics.
- Every employee is a leader when they encourage others toward a collective goal.
My H*ly Sh*t Moment: The moment Matt said ego only knows fear, and fear can’t create, it only destroys, that hit me hard, because it’s such a straightforward reason why so many workplaces feel stuck.
▶️ Press Play
📊 Data Is My Love Language:Copy anchor linkCopied
Stat: Nearly 80% of people worldwide are not engaged at work, and high engagement levels can reduce turnover by 51%.
My spiral: It lowkey blows my mind every time I see numbers like this, because the folks in HR feel this before it ever makes its way into a stat.
Disengagement doesn’t just show up in surveys…it shows up in managers who are burned out, employees coasting because they don’t feel heard, and cultures where “checking the box” replaces building connections.
And yet, when people are engaged, the ripple effect is massive! There’s less turnover, stronger teams, and better results without the endless cycle of re-hiring and re-training.
To me, it’s the clearest reminder that engagement is the core business strategy that makes everything else possible.
🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF
We tell employees to bring their full selves to work, but as leaders, a lot of us are guilty of editing ourselves down.
The most powerful lessons we’ve lived through often go unspoken!
Sharing them can build trust in a way no policy or handbook ever could.
“What’s one story you’ve never shared about your leadership journey, but maybe should?”
🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for someone is give them space to just be.
Not every conversation needs a fix or a framework.
Sometimes, they just need to unload without you holding a whiteboard marker!
“Try a ‘no-solutions’ vent session tomorrow. Just listen without fixing for 10 minutes.”
👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE
This is totally something a Pisces would do!!!
Okay, but for real, HR obvi can’t write policy around birth charts, so let’s keep accommodations grounded in actual workplace needs, not Mercury retrograde. 😅
See ya on Friday!
