Stress has become a badge of honor in many workplaces and is often praised as a sign of drive and resilience, even when it leads to burnout. In this conversation, Kathy speaks with executive advisor and author Amy Leneker about why redefining our relationship with stress may be the key we need to healthier leadership and more sustainable and rewarding success.

Amy Leneker is a former C-suite executive and leadership consultant who has helped more than 100,000 leaders and teams thrive at work. After experiencing burnout twice in her own career, she became determined to help others succeed without sacrificing their health, relationships, or happiness. She shares insights from her new book, Cheers to Monday: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Lead and Live with Less Stress and More Joy, and explains why joy is not a reward that comes after success but a powerful force that helps create it.

In our conversation, Amy reflects on her personal journey through burnout and the deeper patterns that kept leading her back to overwhelming stress. She explains how the stories we carry about work, ambition, and gratitude can shape our behavior and keep us stuck in unhealthy cycles. By uncovering these "stress stories," individuals and teams can begin to understand where their pressure truly comes from and how it influences their choices.

Amy also shares how leaders can begin shifting their relationship with stress, both individually and within organizations. Through honest conversations and a willingness to question long-held assumptions, teams can begin moving away from cultures where stress is worn as a badge of honor.

Tune in to discover how redefining stress and embracing joy can transform the way we lead, work, and live.

Key Highlights From This Episode:

• Introduction to Amy Leneker and how experiencing burnout twice pushed her to examine the patterns repeatedly led her back to overwhelming stress. [02:01]
• Research findings on why stress is often misunderstood in the workplace and how joy helps buffer and build resilience against stress. [07:34]
• How childhood experiences can shape the "stress stories" we carry into our careers. [12:04]
• Amy's framework for working with organizations and teams, including one-on-one interviews. [15:53]
• Collective stress stories within teams and organizations, and how some workplaces view chronic stress as a badge of honor. [18:09]
• Practical stress strategies: The importance of strong support systems, Amy's Un-Stressing Method, and the five types of work stress. [20:47]
• How to distinguish between motivating stress (eustress) and harmful stress (distress) based on whether it enhances or harms performance. [27:05]
• A simple decision matrix for solving stressors based on importance and control, helping leaders decide when to act, ask for help, accept, or move on. [30:32]
• Where to learn more about Amy's work, including her website, her new book, and opportunities for deeper training. [38:08]

For More Information:

Amy Leneker

Amy Leneker on LinkedIn

Amy Leneker on Instagram

Amy Leneker on X

Amy Leneker on YouTube

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Amy's latest book, Cheers to Monday: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Lead and Live with Less Stress and More Joy

Amy's podcast Less Stress, More Joy

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Quotes:

"I burnt out in a terrible, horrible, devastating way. And I thought, 'Well, surely if you do that once, it doesn't happen again? You can't possibly do that again.' But [I] did." — Amy Leneker [0:04:54]

"After the second time [I burnt out] the light bulb finally went off for me, where I had to say, 'What is this pattern that's allowing this to happen again, and how do I make sure [I] shut it down so that this isn't just my cycle for the rest of my life?'" — Amy Leneker [0:05:08]

"Anytime I was in a time of stress, I thought, 'Well, joy needs to come later. If we can get through this stressful period, then the joy will come.' And the research shows the exact opposite: that joy is a buffer for stress. Joy is a resilience against stress." — Amy Leneker [0:08:15]

"Joy is not the award we get at the end. Joy is what's going to help us get through." — Amy Leneker [0:08:32]

"It's not just individuals that have stress stories. Teams have them, and entire organizations have them." — Amy Leneker [0:18:29]

"Stress isn't the price of success, it's the thief that steals it." — Amy Leneker [0:29:19]

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