Be careful what you wish for.

You may aspire to an executive job, maybe even the C-suite. And there’s certainly a lot of good that can come with that kind of role.

But it ain’t all sunshine and roses.

That’s certainly been the experience for Erica Rooney, this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® Podcast. Erica is an author, speaker, coach and fractional CPO who spent years climbing the corporate ladder, only to find herself asking, “why exactly did I want this craziness?”

The work was intense and nearly never-ending. The system felt rigged against her (and other women leaders). And her ability to balance all of that with her role as a mom was simply a pipe dream.

It was her then 2-year-old daughter who ultimately inspired Erica to choose a better path. She realized she did not want her child to go through what she was dealing with. So, Erica created something new so she could change the world for the better.

Now, it’s her mission to help more woman get into power and stay there. This is how things will change. And if you spend more than 2 minutes with Erica, you will 1000 percent believe she can make this happen. She’s smart, strong and full of an infectious energy for her work.

She’s written a book, “Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors” that speaks to much of her experience. Some of here key points include:

🐱 Language matters and shapes culture. “People leader” says something very different from manager. “Works with” is not the same as “works for.” So choose your words appropriately.

🐱 Ditch the highlight reel style of communication and be willing to share some of the tough stuff. You’re only setting others up for failure if you tell them the bar is Insta-level perfection.

🐱 Let people work where, when and how they work most effectively. And judge folks based on outcomes. Erica would love to see the 40-hour workweek become obsolete. Me too.

🐱 Lastly, she is a big proponent of full pay transparency. It’s hard to level up a system if the system hides everyone’s level.

Nothing to hide here. Erica has a ton of ideas for how to make work better, whether you’re in the c-suite or just getting started.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

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You can follow Erica on LinkedIn. And check out ericaandersonrooney.com to learn more about her work and her book. You can also explore her community for women leaders at joinhercollective.com.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

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Bonus question from Erica to our audience:Do you disagree with anything I said? Am I wrong? Or what do you think about my perspective?

People say we’re addicted to our phones, but I think it’s deeper than that. We’re addicted to the absence of silence.

The idea of spending one quiet minute alone with our thoughts terrifies us. So we grab our distraction devices and keep the inner voices at bay for a little longer.

It’s hard to know who we really are if we never listen to those voices. And how could we possibly know what we want from life if we don’t know who we are?

So, we end up chasing someone else’s dream. Our family’s, our friend’s, that person on TikTok who just seems like they have it all together, you know?

We’re always hungry, never satisfied.

If we want to get clear on what we actually want, we need to sit in silence and spend some time in the muck, according to Bonnie Wan, former ad agency strategy executive and author of The Life Brief.

The muck is where truth lives. Where our intuition lives. Where clarity emerges.

This is the heart of the Life Brief process. First we get messy. Then we get clear. Then we get active. Just like agency folks have done with clients for years.

The tools we’ve used to serve our clients are the same tools that will allow us to live the life we truly want. And do the work we were meant to do. Work that AI can never do—deep, intuitive work that solves real problems.

Do we really want to spend our time cranking out more mindless “content?” We are meant for so much more.

If you want to explore what that could look like, you should reach out to Bonnie about her January virtual retreat. And you should absolutely read her book—it’s amazing.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Bonnie on LinkedIn. And check out thelifebrief.com to learn more about her book and the awesome work she’s doing.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Bonnie to our audience:What matters most to you? You cannot do it all, but you can do all that matters. Are you clear about what matters most to you?

To watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

There was a 4 inch gap between the bottom of the couch and the floor in the storage closet turned office 3 of us shared at Wunderman many years ago.

So naturally, that space became the “goal” when we played hockey with a crumpled up piece of paper and a couple of old sticks.

I don’t remember how many games I won back then but I do remember creating a ton of work I’m really proud of to this day. We all did.

Because we (and our bosses) knew that those impromptu games were part of our jobs. Play time equals “let the junk in your head jostle around for a bit so it can turn into an interesting nugget or two” time.

And we knew we wouldn’t be judged for taking that time. In today’s language, this would be called psychological safety. Back then, it was just a basic understanding of how creative brains work.

This is the kind of behavior Jaime Raul Zepeda recognizes in his role as EVP at Best Companies Group. The best places to work are the ones who provide psychological safety, where leaders are vulnerable and understand what their teams need. Because they ask.

We need work to be more like this again. We’ve turned it into a hyper-optimized s**t-show of efficiency but we don’t even know why we do half of what we do.

We need to be less busy and more thoughtful.

Maybe I should stop coaching folks and just show up at companies with a few hockey sticks and some crumpled up paper.

Hmm…

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Jaime on LinkedIn. And check out his company’s site at bestcompaniesgroup.com to learn more about their best places to work programs.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to find some calm in the chaos of work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Jaime to our audience:When’s the last time you asked your team what it was like to work at your organization, and took some actionable steps on that data to make it better?