Allyship in Action

Today we have Dr. Zeke Emanuel, whose new book Eat Your Ice Cream takes a refreshingly sensible look at longevity and what it actually takes to build a happy, healthy life.

As an oncologist and world-renowned expert in bioethics and health policy, Dr. Emanuel has spent decades navigating complex medical landscapes—so when he talks about living better, I listen!

What I love most about his approach is that he bypasses the extreme health trends and cuts straight to sustainable, real-world habits. We had such a fun conversation, diving into everything from the real math behind everyday risks to why building genuine human connection might just be your most powerful health routine.

• Prioritize Life-Long Habits Over Extreme Trends. True longevity is built on sustainable, everyday choices rather than short-term self-deprivation or trendy fads.

  "You're going to have to do this for decades. And if you do it for decades it's got to be a habit that isn't about self-deprivation, because you will not stick to a habit that's self-depriving."

• Ground Risk in Perspective and Practical Action. People often fixate on sensationalized health risks or obsess over performance metrics, whereas practical risk assessment leads to far better peace of mind and realistic decisions.

  "Let's put things in perspective—and not enough people put things in perspective of how 'schmucky' are you. If you're doing [a metric or wearable] for compliance and it's not a motivator, it's anxiety-provoking—stop doing it."

• Nurture Social Connections as a Core Biological Health Routine. Building and maintaining strong relationships isn't just psychologically pleasant. Relationships (like allyship) directly impact stress hormones, inflammation, and overall physiological well-being.

  "It's not just in your head, as it were, but it is in your biology. The importance of relationships for health, wellness, and longevity is the most important thing you can do."

• Keep Learning and Stay Open to Nuanced Science. Cognitive health thrives on challenging the brain with new experiences, alongside maintaining an openness to evolving medical insights rather than rigid dogmatism.

  "It's good to use your brain in different ways. I'm always open. We've got to be open to new ideas and new research."

Turn your wellness routines into social events. Whether it's inviting a friend along for your daily walk, joining a local club, or sharing a whole-food meal with family, combining social connection with healthy habits amplifies the physical and emotional benefits of both.

Follow Dr. Emanuel at https://www.ezekielemanuel.com/

As an author and allyship advocate, I constantly find myself researching the power of human connection, yet I still fall into the same social traps as everyone else!

We all intellectually know that relationships are vital to our health and happiness, yet we consistently talk ourselves out of simple, daily opportunities to connect.

In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Nicholas Epley, behavioral science professor and author of A Little More Social. Nick's research translates complex social cognition into real, actionable insights that completely reframed how I think about my own social habits—from asking for help to bridging differences.

• Our Beliefs and Miscalibrated Expectations Create Social Barriers. We often avoid social interaction not because we dislike connecting, but because we wrongly assume others won't respond positively to us. We hold mistaken, pessimistic beliefs that reaching out, asking for help, or expressing gratitude will be awkward or unwelcome.

  "We think other people will respond less positively when we reach out to connect with them in a warm and friendly way than other people actually do. And that pessimism creates a bar, a barrier, that keeps us from reaching out more often." — Nicholas Epley

• Frequency Trumps Intensity for Well-Being. Social connection is a choice made up of moments we regularly miss. Small, consistent, daily interactions have a much larger impact on long-term happiness than rare, intense social events.

  "Psychologists have learned that happiness is really a function not of the intensity of experiences that you have, but rather the frequency of them." — Nick Epley

• In-Person Conversations Surface Common Ground Across Divides. When we interact with people who hold opposing political views or come from different backgrounds, actual spoken conversations are remarkably effective at reducing dehumanization and building mutual understanding.

  "Conversation itself is extremely powerful for surfacing common ground, for allowing people to show mutual interest, to reciprocate interest with each other. They report afterwards that having a conversation with someone they disagree with was actually just as pleasant an experience as having a conversation with someone they agree with." — Nick Epley

• Allyship and Outreach are Appreciated More Than We Guess. Whether it is expressing long-overdue gratitude to a former mentor or reaching out to support someone different from us, the recipient values the interaction far more than the initiator anticipates.

  "It turns out there's no bad time to get a note from somebody saying they appreciate you so much, or you love them so much, right? There's no bad time to get that." — Nick Epley

Adopt the "Recognize Easy Opportunities Routinely" (REOR) mindset: Start noticing the moments where you default to avoiding connection—like walking into the office or sitting in a car—and turn them into small, routine social habits.

I was so thrilled to sit down again with my dear friends and true allies, Dave Smith and Brad Johnson . Every time we connect, it feels like a warm reminder of what sustained, meaningful allyship really looks like—not just showing up when it's trending, but doing the steady, daily work that actually moves the needle.

Listening to them walk through their allyship trilogy, from Athena Rising to The Good Guys and now their latest book, Fair Share, brought back so many memories of my own journey navigating corporate America as a new mom. (Trust me, I've shed my fair share of tears over spilled milk in a workplace closet!)

What I love most about Brad and Dave is how they balance deep research with practical, real-world solutions that lift everyone up. They remind us that creating gender fairness isn't just about asking individual allies to do more. It's about fixing the broken systems so doing the right thing becomes the default.

• Caregiving Skills Build Better Workplace Leaders

  Active caregiving and fatherhood develop crucial human skills like empathy and emotional intelligence, which directly transfer into effective leadership at work.

  "Dad's brains begin to shift and change, too. We're developing these skills around empathy that translates right back into the workplace when we go back to work." — David Smith

• Moving from Individual Allyship to Systemic Change

  Relying solely on individual (s)heroics isn't enough to achieve true equity. Organizations must embed allyship and gender fairness directly into company policies, metrics, and manager training.

  "All of these ally efforts are gonna be sort of one by one by one forever. Until the workplace changes, you see all the estimates that we have about a century to go to get to real gender parity." — Brad Johnson

• Supporting Paid Leave and Caregiving Transitions

  Creating a culture that normalizes and actively plans for parental and caregiving leave for both mothers and fathers improves employee retention and strengthens managerial capabilities.

  "Think about the work that's gotta be done when he or she leaves the workforce for this paid leave period, the transition back into the workforce with a plan. The minute you can do that, you're making better managers." — David Smith

• Unlocking Hidden Talent Through Returnships

  Organizations facing talent shortages can tap into a massive, highly qualified pool of candidates by creating clear pathways for individuals returning to the workforce after extended caregiving breaks.

  "Organizations aren't looking at those women, and they're forgetting that. Half the people at the top of the curve on IQ, EQ, creativity, they're out there if you would only create a glide path to return to your organization." — Brad Johnson

Audit and support your managerial capabilities: To move from individual efforts to systemic fairness, organizations must carefully select managers based on competencies and actively train them to execute flexible work policies, support parental leave transitions, and lead inclusively.

Follow Brad and Dave's work at https://workplaceallies.com/

If you've ever found yourself scrolling through social media, wondering if we are somehow slipping backward into the dark ages of workplace dynamics, you are definitely not alone. It is easy to look at the massive rise of toxic online ecosystems and feel a bit of existential dread. That is why I talked with Robert Baker, who always grounds me. He has this incredible gift for taking a heavy, whack-a-mole topic and infusing it with actionable clarity. We dive deep into why male allyship isn't about being an individual superhero, how global shifts are impacting our teams, and why—despite the algorithmic headwinds—there is still so much room for hope and real human connection.

Key Themes From Our Conversation

The Evolution of the Manosphere and Its Workplace Impact: We unpacked the troubling rise of the "manosphere"—an online ecosystem of influencers exploiting young men's loneliness to promote dominance and misogyny. Robert noted how this spills directly into the attitudes of the next generation entering our workforce. "I can't believe that people think these men are heroes, because basically what they're doing is they're exploiting the loneliness, the misery that younger boys and men can have. And these guys have kind of filled the vacuum with this misogyny." — Robert Baker

The Power of Community Over Individual Heroism: True allyship isn't about being a lone savior; it's about creating a culture of positive peer pressure and shared community standards where calling out exclusionary behavior doesn't feel like a dangerous, solo mission. "I think creating an environment where you say, look, here are the standards of behavior in our community, and police it in a way. Using those standards to make sure that we all stick to something very positive." — Robert Baker

The Business Imperative of DEI in Europe: While the U.S. landscape faces its own unique hurdles, European organizations continue to lean heavily into diversity and inclusion goals. This isn't just about compliance; it's driven by a firm understanding that diverse teams deliver better performance and innovation. "Europe still believes in this. I think many companies in Europe still believe in it, but they believe in it for business reasons, because they believe that they're going to get better team performance, they think diverse teams are better." — Robert Baker

Mitigating Algorithmic Bias and Ensuring Equitable AI Access: Artificial intelligence is a major inflection point for gender equity. Leaders must actively step up to manage inherent data biases and ensure that access to exciting tech developments isn't monopolized by the traditional majority. "Certainly I'm seeing an even greater recognition that leaders need to enable equitable access to AI tools, and also make sure that the systems and the processes that are used within the company that uses AI create fair outcomes." — Robert Baker

Actionable Takeaway for Listeners

Create Positive Peer Pressure: Don't try to be a lone hero. Focus on building a community within your organization that establishes clear, respectful standards of behavior. By normalizing everyday micro-interventions collectively—like speaking up when someone is talked over in a meeting—you make inclusion the default system rather than an individual burden.

How do we actually live out psychological safety, rather than just talking about it as some grand, academic theory?

A couple of years ago, Minette Norman and Karolin Helbig came out with the Psychological Safety Playbook. I've been using her practical phrases in my own training sessions ever since (with full credit, of course!). But as any facilitator, parent, or human being knows, putting this stuff into practice is darn hard. You want to be the supportive expert, but then real-world pressures—like meeting targets, sudden organizational shifts, or just plain old fear of looking foolish—kick in.

That's why I sat down with them to talk about their new follow-up book. They wrote it because change-makers kept coming to them on tour, saying, "Okay, we read the basics, but now we're hitting roadblocks. What next?" What I love about their approach is that it's completely "no fluff." They give us real, actionable strategies to bake inclusion right into the DNA of our everyday work life, even when things get a little messy.

Key Themes from the Discussion

Courage as Vulnerability, Not Heroics. True leadership in a psychologically safe environment isn't about having a flawless track record or acting like a superhero. It requires the humility to acknowledge that you don't have all the answers and to actively invite your team to fill in your blind spots.

"It's not about the big heroic acts. It's really about the courage to be vulnerable, for example. Particularly as a leader, that's not easy to do..." — Karolin Helbig

The Intentional Practice of Listening. Listening is often treated as an obvious, baseline skill, but true listening requires a conscious commitment to sit with silence and process what is being said, rather than rushing to respond or dominate the room.

"It sounds so obvious that we all know how to do it... and it is so darn hard, right? It really is. And we often think we're listening when we're not." — Minette Norman

Recognizing Personal Emotional Triggers. Building psychological safety is a slow process that can be shattered instantly by an unmanaged, defensive reaction. Developing self-awareness around your own physical stress signals helps create a vital pause between a trigger and your response.

"Psychological safety is really slow to build and quick to break. And if you can avoid these breaks. By becoming more aware of your reactions and handling them more skillfully, then a lot is gained." — Karolin Helbig

Shifting the Narrative Around Failure. For teams to innovate, leaders must actively destigmatize mistakes. This means moving away from finger-pointing and instead treating unexpected outcomes as valuable learning experiments, a process that must be modeled from the top down.

"If you're trying something new, and certainly if we're trying to innovate, there will be failure along the way. So the question is, how quickly can we learn from them and improve and move forward?" — Minette Norman

Designing for Inclusion via Rotating Roles. Inclusion doesn't happen by accident; it has to be deliberately engineered into team dynamics. Using a rotating role like an "Inclusion Booster" ensures that monitoring the health of a meeting becomes a shared team habit rather than solely the leader's responsibility.

"Meetings by default are not inclusive. So we need to design them for inclusion. The idea of the inclusion booster is just to have a rotating role of somebody in facilitating the meeting and paying attention that we actually behave in the way we earlier defined." — Karolin Helbig

Actionable Takeaway for Listeners

To move your team from theory to practice, introduce the "Inclusion Booster" role into your next recurring meeting. Rotate this responsibility among different team members each week, tasking them with observing meeting dynamics, ensuring equal airtime, and calling out interruptions using a lighthearted tool like the "ELMO" (Enough, Let's Move On) principle.

Follow Karolin and Minette at https://thepsychologicalsafetyplaybook.com/

You might remember Katryn from episode 292, where we dove deep into the behavioral blueprint for inclusion. Well, a lot can happen in a year—or in our current case, since the wild ride of the 2026 election—and the DEI landscape is shifting beneath our feet. I'll admit, when I first started this work ten years ago, I thought we could just shout from the rooftops that inclusion matters and everyone would just magically get it. But as we look at the headlines today, it's clear that "shiny object syndrome" has left us with a lot of noise and not enough real, systemic change.

Katryn and I sit down to unpack what global leaders are actually doing right now to push past the performative and get to the heart of what makes workplaces genuinely fair.

• Moving from Noise to Systemic Change. Organizations frequently focus on highly public, performative declarations of inclusivity rather than restructuring the underlying processes that perpetuate bias.

  "Organizations were doing a lot of the shiny stuff... doing what we would call noisy things, right? Proclaiming, saying, being public... but obviously that not necessarily translating to real-world change." — Katryn Wright

• The Problem with Unconscious Bias Training. Treating broad, one-size-fits-all training modules as a standalone solution is ineffective and can create artificial metrics that trigger cultural backlash.

  "An awful amount of money was spent on something that the science shows is... ineffective at best, counterproductive at worst." — Katryn Wright

• Inclusion as an Aspiration, Not a Default Value. Framing inclusion as a predefined company value mistakenly implies that the work is already complete, whereas framing it as an ongoing aspiration invites employees to actively participate in closing the gap.

  "When we talk about inclusion as a value, it is not as effective as when we talk about inclusion as an aspirational goal... it suggests that we've been missing a trick to be bringing people on as much as we can." — Katryn Wright

• Precision and Data Science in Workplace Fairness. True progress requires identifying the exact inflection points in employee experiences—like hiring, promotion, and retention stages—where disparities emerge, and applying targeted behavioral interventions.

  "Let's go and be as precise as possible about changing behavior in that exact situation... when we are able to be as precise as possible about which specific behaviors need to change, we can get to those outcomes." — Katryn Wright

Stop trying to de-bias your entire team all at once with sweeping declarations. Instead, pick one specific process in your daily workflow—whether it's how you audit resumes, run performance reviews, or distribute project assignments—and analyze the data to find where the equity gaps lie. Designing small, targeted interventions at precise moments is how real cultural evolution happens.

Follow Katryn at https://www.morethannow.co.uk/

Sad to admit, after 350+ episodes, I have never dedicated a full show to sleep . I'll be the first to admit that I've been doing a ton of deep-diving into sleep lately. Between life changes, career shifts, and navigating perimenopause, my nights haven't exactly been peaceful . In fact, coming off a rough night myself, I'm sitting here with a massive afternoon coffee, fully aware that I reached for a sugary lunch to get through the slump!

We've all been trapped in that vicious cycle, right ?

But today, we are busting the toxic, old-school corporate narrative that sleeping is lazy or just for babies. To help us break it down, I'm joined by the brilliant Dr. Carlos Nunez, Chief Medical Officer at ResMed . Carlos brings decades of medical expertise—and some truly humbling personal stories—to show us why sleep isn't just a healthy habit. Sleep is the absolute foundation of inclusive, effective leadership and a kinder workplace .

• The Foundational Pillar of Human Health

  For decades, society has obsessed over diet and exercise trends, while treating sleep deprivation like a corporate badge of honor . In reality, sleep is the baseline that determines whether those other health goals even happen .

  "People are starting to realize it's not just one of the three pillars, it's probably the foundation on which the other two pillars sit." — Dr. Carlos Nunez

• The Direct Link Between Poor Sleep and Workplace Behavior

  A severe lack of sleep impairs cognitive function and emotional regulation to a level equivalent to intoxication, which directly drives erratic, negative, or toxic leadership behaviors in the workplace .

  "I was extremely sleep-deprived, and I remember being in a meeting, and I went off, like, in a way that I've never done before. I probably looked scary to my team because I was so sleep-deprived." — Dr. Carlos Nunez

• The Hidden Danger of Digital Engagement

  While blue light filters are helpful, the real disruptor keeping our minds awake at night is the mental stimulation and chemical rushes from pre-bedtime screen use.

  "What's worse than the light is the activation of your nervous system. The dopamine hits that you get from doomscrolling TikTok or social media for 30 minutes." — Dr. Carlos Nunez

• The Biological Toll of Untreated Sleep Disorders

  Ignoring long-term sleep issues due to ego or stigma does more than cause daytime fatigue—it starves the body of oxygen and significantly escalates severe cardiovascular and long-term cognitive health risks .

  "The research shows untreated sleep apnea, within 3 years, you have a 35% chance of dying... Your risk for cardiovascular mortality is 55%." — Dr. Carlos Nunez

• The Mind-Quieting Power of Arbitrary Focus

  When workplace stress and a lack of situational closure spark late-night rumination, shifting the brain toward simple, structured mental exercises can effectively short-circuit intrusive thoughts .

  "Getting your brain to focus on something that's really not thinking, that's kind of easy to do, all of a sudden, you drift off." — Dr. Carlos Nunez

To protect your health and show up better for your team, establish a strict 30-minute digital wind-down routine before bed. Swap out the late-night doomscrolling or email checking for a period of quiet mindfulness. If your brain starts ruminating on tomorrow's to-do list, physically write down those 3 or 4 lingering tasks on a notepad to trick your mind into a sense of closure, or practice a simple, low-stakes mental word game to help your nervous system gently drift off .

Learn more about Carlos' research at https://sleepsurvey.resmed.com/

When I started my business, I wanted to create spaces where every single person felt seen, heard, and like they truly belonged . It sounds so beautifully simple on the surface, doesn't it? But as we all know, making sure people feel heard at work can get incredibly messy .

This week, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with a peer of mine from grad school, Daniel Newton, an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, whose research on workplace engagement is quite literally out of this world . He's spent years studying how people speak up and stay engaged, working with everyone from corporate teams to actual astronauts aboard the International Space Station .

Now, I always say that if an astronaut floating in zero gravity can feel ignored by Mission Control, it's okay if your team is struggling to communicate during shift changes ! Daniel and I shared some great laughs about the black box of office suggestion boxes (which usually just collect dust and some very chaotic notes) and how we can all become better allies by lifting each other's ideas .

• Even Astronauts Struggle to Feel Heard. Feeling heard requires more than just listening. Speaking up requires responsive action or transparent feedback . When leaders or institutions fail to act, it creates a sense of being ignored, even in high-stakes environments like space exploration .

  "I worked with an astronaut that literally shared an idea with Mission Control and they didn't do anything, so he had to say it again, and then again. Even people that train for years and years, and have the complete trust of NASA, even they don't feel heard in their work sometimes." – Daniel Newton

• The Power of the Newcomer Perspective. People often hesitate to speak up because they are new, young, or feel like an imposter . However, fresh eyes bring the highest level of creative disruption and innovation to long-standing, status-quo systems .

  "The newcomer perspective is really valuable because you're gonna see things differently. And so we may hesitate to speak up because we feel like we're too new." – Daniel Newton

• Problems Drive Action, While Ideas Risk the Back Burner. Voicing workplace problems creates an immediate sense of urgency that forces management to respond and implement solutions quickly . The paradox is that while problems get fixed, proactive and creative new ideas are often pushed aside .

  "Creating urgency means that managers respond faster, and the company is more likely to implement and resolve those problems. But the downside of that potentially could be that new, yet important ideas get put on the back burner." – Daniel Newton

• AI as a Useful Sounding Board, Not a Human Replacement. Artificial intelligence serves as a fantastic, low-stakes rehearsal partner to build confidence before pitching ideas . While AI excels at optimizing usefulness and efficiency, human input remains essential for true originality and novel thinking .

  "AI-generated ideas were really good with the usefulness component. But the humans were really good at the originality component. If we're generating new ideas, we need the human in the loop." – Daniel Newton

• The Power of Indirect Framing (The "Midwest Nice" Strategy). For those who struggle to be blunt, framing an idea or problem as a collaborative question lowers defensiveness in dominant leaders and invites them into the solution rather than putting them on the defensive .

  "Have we thought about X? Or might we consider doing this? Being indirect, asking or speaking up in the form of a question is helpful because it didn't put leaders on the spot. They don't feel as threatened." – Daniel Newton

To help an idea land successfully with a dominant supervisor or to ease your own anxiety about speaking up, frame your insight as a question (e.g., "I wonder if we might consider..." or "Have we looked at...") rather than a direct mandate . This invites collaboration, lowers leadership defensiveness, and creates an immediate open door for your perspective to be heard .

Jenny Bates Heaton is the founder of Bates Leadership and has a brilliant new TEDx talk.

What really blew me away during our chat was how Jenny used her personal journey facing a massive medical decision after a cancer-risk mutation diagnosis to completely rewrite the script on how we make choices.

It got me thinking about my own life and how often we make decisions based on what we think we should do, rather than what aligns with our deepest values. For me, everything comes back to fairness, justice, and a whole lot of strength. When things feel off-balance in the world, my mental health definitely takes a hit with serious anxiety, but anchoring into those core values is what keeps me grounded.

Jenny's framework isn't just a clinical exercise. It's a warm, slightly humorous, and deeply practical guide to finding your own word—whether that's power, strong, or serenity—and letting it do the guiding when life is A LOT.

• The Power of Personal Reflection Prompts: True decision-making frameworks cannot be imported from someone else. Decisions must be organically mined from an individual's unique motivations and joys.

  "I started circulating my questions to everyone, and I didn't really get any reaction from people. because they weren't their questions. They didn't focus on their values. Now, I guide people through exercises to pull out their word to guide their decisions." — Jenny Bates Heaton

• The Intersection of Imposed Limitations and Good Intentions: Well-meaning colleagues often inadvertently sideline individuals, particularly from historically marginalized groups, by assuming their needs or limitations rather than asking them directly.

  "People with the best of intentions trying to protect me said, 'Oh gosh, I know you're going through a lot so let's catch up in a couple of months.' I had to advocate for myself quite a bit to convince them like, 'No, no, I'm good.'" — Jenny Bates Heaton

• Shifting toward Employee-Led Talent Management: Organizations must move away from paternalistic, closed-door succession and promotion processes and actively integrate the employee's voice to reduce systemic bias.

  "Think about how many times you don't have the employee's voice in the room for talent review and for promotions. Most companies do not allow an employee to put their name in the box for the roles that they would like to apply for. That's weird." — Jenny Bates Heaton

• Embracing the "Good Day, Bad Day" Culture: Cultivating psychological safety in a corporate system requires acknowledging that organizations, like people, will have off days without those mistakes defining their permanent identity.

  "The good day, bad day is one of my favorite exercises because it gives you permission to talk about the bad because it's just a day. It doesn't mean that you're always going to be bad, everyone has a bad day. Corporate culture personas are very much that way with good days and bad days just like humans." — Jenny Bates Heaton

Audit your favorite activities to find your decision-making anchor. Take a notebook and write down one or two hobbies you love to do consistently (like gardening, skiing, or reading). Ask yourself: What is the underlying feeling or motivation that compels me to keep doing this? Distill that feeling into a single core word—such as strength, control, or connectedness—and actively use that word as a litmus test for the next major professional or personal decision you have to make.

Connect with Jenny at https://www.batesleadership.com/

If you are feeling a bit battered by the cultural waves and political turbulence swirling around us right now, trust me—you are not alone. I'll admit, when I woke up the morning after the 2024 election, I felt physically sick worrying about what the fallout would mean for our businesses and the hard choices ahead.

That is why I love this conversation with Tara Jaye Frank. She met me right in that messy space with the ultimate reframe, sharing a beautiful story about how a simple grocery delivery from a man named Socrates gave her the title for her new book, You Are Before the World. It is a powerful reminder that before we can tackle the chaos of the world, we have to settle and stabilize ourselves first.

We can't write people off, and we certainly can't pour from an empty cup, so let's dive into Tara's profound wisdom on how we can sustain ourselves while doing the heavy work of inclusion.

• Emotional Detachment as a Tool for Curiosity: Facing deep misalignment in values doesn't mean you have to compromise who you are. Instead of absorbing disdain or getting defensive, true allyship requires shifting into the posture of a learner to understand the root of another person's perspective.

  "I have become good at that momentary emotional detachment. This conversation is not about me. My values are not at risk because I am engaging. And then I just get curious."

• The Power of Strict Media Boundaries: To protect your nervous system from chronic stress and cortisol spikes, you must take active control over how and when you consume information rather than letting alerts dictate your emotional state.

  "I get no news alerts sent to me. I retrieve the news when I feel I can take it in. I go get it, and I catch up, and then I move along."

• Relying on Routine During Dark Times: When navigating immense personal or professional disruption, implementing strict, loving routines provides a stabilizing anchor that protects mental health without requiring heavy cognitive lifting.

  "During the most difficult times in my life, I relied heavily on routine that didn't require any thinking, and that really helped me because routines calmed me down, they anchored me, they helped me reconnect to myself."

• Believing in the Generative Power of Others: Allyship means offering deep empathy and care without automatically swooping in to fix every problem, which ultimately respects and preserves the autonomy of others to navigate their own growth.

  "I have stopped automatically jumping into the deep end of other people's pools and instead, believing in their generative power. I'm watching people build confidence in their own generative power."

• Refusing to Pre-Work Unready Situations: To avoid professional exhaustion and burnout, stop over-preparing scenarios for partnerships, clients, or projects before you have the foundational data and aligned partners necessary to move forward.

  "I stopped getting ready for things that are not ready for me. I won't pre-work anymore, because to me, I now know that that is a waste unless there is alignment."

To protect your energy and remain an effective ally, audit your digital boundaries today by turning off all automated breaking news and social media alerts. Instead of allowing negative external forces to aggressively push information into your space throughout the day, choose one specific window when your nervous system is regulated to intentionally pull and process the updates you need. Think about a healthy news consumption routine you could adopt.

Get Tara's book and follow her work at: https://tarajayefrank.com/