Meet Lakshmi Ramaseshan - a multi-faceted enterprise transformation leader with over 25 years of experience in software and product development, where she helps organizations build high-performing cultures, sustainable ways of working, and the leadership capabilities to make transformation actually stick. At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful belief that every one of us has the potential of greatness, and that leaders play a pivotal role in creating the environments that make that possible.

In this remarkably insightful conversation, Lakshmi shares how a few years ago, a pivotal point in her career pushed her to choose courage, build intentional systems, and lead with deep humanity. Through cultural fluency, thoughtful team design, and community building, she shows what it truly takes to create high‑performing cultures in the messy middle.

Key takeaways:

1. Choosing Courage over Comfort

2. Designing for sustainable cultures

3. Cultural fluency as leadership currency

4. Culture-building through community-building

5. Leading change with influence

Happy 7th Anniversary to NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC!

Happy 7th Solopreneurship Anniversary to me!

I couldn't see the full staircase yet, so I just focused on the first step. 

After 7 years of Unpacking Leadership™ at the Messy Middle, here’s what I’ve learned:

And when leaders at the Messy Middle own their power and reclaim their agency, organizations truly transform: increased leader clarity and confidence means better team-level clarity, collaboration and engagement, sustainable work practices and improved well-being for all!

Stepping into Year 8, I renew my commitment to Unpacking Leadership™ at the Messy Middle, and to help these leaders become CEOs of their own careers. Let's go🚀🚀

p.s. Send me a DM to secure one of the 7 personalized 1x1 Strengths coaching spots I'm opening up this month!

Top 3 takeaways from my reflections:

1. Our entire leadership journey can begin with one courageous step.

2. Strengths-based leadership unlocks confidence, clarity, and agency.

3. Leaders in the Messy Middle already have power and agency — they just need to claim it.

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Meet Kirstin Le Grice, a healthcare tech product leader who spends her time turning complex healthcare tech challenges into clear, actionable plans. She specializes in guiding cross-functional teams through system upgrades and regulatory changes, translating technical details into business results. Kirstin holds an MPH from the Colorado School of Public Health and is a certified PMP and Agile Product Owner. In this remarkably candid conversation, Kirstin shares her story of how she went from being an underdog to being an accomplished technology product leader by leading with her natural strengths of empathy, curiosity, and human-centered influence in the messy middle of tech and healthcare.

Top 5 takeaways:

Lean into your natural strengths. Kirstin’s turning point came when she stopped trying to be “technical enough” and instead embraced her innate abilities: “I am good at building relationships… taking complex notions and translating them down into very practical ways of thinking.”

Leadership is about influence, not hierarchy. Even without direct reports, she realized she was leading when her director stepped back: “Her stepping back was her way of showing me that I had stepped into a leadership role.”

Empathy is a strategic advantage—especially for underdogs. Her lived experience entering a male‑dominated tech space shaped how she supports others: “I will never think of something as a stupid question… someone met me where I was.”

Cross‑cultural, cross‑time zone work requires patience and humanity. She intentionally adjusts her schedule and advocates for respectful vendor relationships: “I see the human, and I will respect the human… it’s my job to put a stop to outrageous asks.”

Boundaries are essential for sustainable leadership. She coaches her high‑achieving team to avoid burnout: “There’s no amount of what‑ifing that will solve the greater problems… you have to preserve yourself.”

Connect with Kirstin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstinlegricemph/ 

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Bringing AI Strategy to Life with Anjali Leon, Leanna Holmquist, and Thomas Peng

In this special episode, I’m joined by a panel of these three accomplished guests, including Leanna, a returning guest. This conversation was originally recorded at the May 15th World of Work Virtual Conference I co‑hosted with Tiffany Castagno of CEPHR LLC. This year's theme was "AI and Us: Now and Next".

As AI transforms every corner of work, middle managers sit at a pivotal crossroads, balancing today’s demands with the need to reinvent for tomorrow. Together, Anjali, Leanna, and Thomas help us unpack how those in the “middle” can navigate disruption, harness emerging tools, and redefine their value in an AI‑driven world.

A few key takeaways from super insightful conversation:

Connect with our guests on LinkedIn:

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Exploring the invisible, emotional labor at the Messy Middle 

In this special episode, I am revisiting my conversations with our 10 guests so far, specifically to zoom in on their responses to my question:   What is a piece of emotional or invisible labor that you carry as a middle manager that probably nobody else knows about? 

Guests describe absorbing organizational ambiguity while projecting calm, holding confidential knowledge about downsizing or leadership changes, shielding teams from the demands of senior leadership, and managing difficult conversations about work-life balance and equitable pay.

Others note coaching newly promoted managers who lack people-leadership scaffolding, providing psychological safety and morale in an AI-reshaped workplace, and sustaining empathy beyond work hours.

Several emphasize constant translation between strategy and execution—aligning stakeholders, filtering noise, handling crises, and maintaining momentum—work that often goes unmeasured and unnoticed.

All our guests help us realize that middle managers are the operating system of modern workplaces, turning chaos into direction and care into performance, and we need cultures that acknowledge this invisible labor, and strengthen the 'messy middle'.

If you’re a middle manager, tell us what invisible labor you carry. Send a voice note, DM me on LinkedIn - your story deserves to be heard.

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Meet Sahana Shenoy, a highly competent Product Management and Technical Program Management Leader with nearly two decades of cross-functional leadership experience. Sahana has led large scale initiatives across e-commerce, supply chain, healthcare, among some of the industries, and she's overseen multi-billion-dollar portfolios and helped build platforms that are used by hundreds of millions of people globally.

Top five takeaways from this remarkably insightful conversation:

Sahana shares how a team that hadn’t shipped code for a year wasn’t suffering from a technical gap but a trust breakdown:

“The team had slowly… stopped trusting each other… conversations had become more about defending positions than solving larger organizational problems.” She rebuilt trust first—then delivery automatically followed!

Her leadership shift came from showing up repeatedly and reliably:

"Being present when there is a problem, being there for your team, showing up consistently and, making sure you're inclusive consistently. All of these small consistent actions actually made the difference..."

Her identity and caregiving experiences expanded her leadership lens:

“Best leaders today… are a combination of high standards with humanity.” Ask before assuming. Context matters.

Global teams often receive decisions without the “why”:

“Decisions travel pretty quickly… but the rationale… doesn’t travel along with it.” Middle managers carry the invisible labor of translating in both directions...."

AI accelerates prototyping and thinking, but critical thinking and judgment still sits with humans:

“AI is only as effective as the human expertise and data behind it.” She encourages teams to use AI to amplify thinking, not replace it."

Connect with Sahana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahana-s-05bb9517/ 

Subscribe to Sahana's Substack - https://substack.com/@sahana722010 

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Meet Seema Sreenivas, a dynamic program management leader with more than a decade of cross-functional leadership experience in the Healthcare policy and systems space in the public sector in the US. Her career has been centered on improving operations, driving meaningful outcomes, and leading teams through change with clarity and purpose. She brings a thoughtful perspective on leadership, growth, and how to create lasting impact within organizations. 

Five key takeaways from this refreshing conversation centered on people, purpose, and human-centered tech:

1. Leading through lived experience

2. Leading with empathy 

3. Humanizing technology to inspire dev teams

4. Navigating red tape with purpose

5. Staying open-minded as a leadership practice

Connect with Seema on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/seema-sreenivas-25407a47/ 

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Meet Abhinav Roy, an accomplished portfolio delivery lead with international experience in the banking industry and financial services industry, helping teams and organizations build the capability, clarity, and confidence to deliver at scale. With his support, they learn how to shift perspectives, embrace change, and create meaningful transformation. His global experience spans India, Europe, the US, and Australia, and he wears many hats - Enterprise Agile Coach, Leadership Coach, and a Certified Yoga Instructor!

4 key highlights in this deeply honest and reflective conversation: 

1. Vulnerability is a leadership accelerator, not a liability.

Abhinav’s turning point came when a team member told him he appeared “very robotic” and overly certain. That moment pushed him to show more of his human side — honesty, imperfection, presence. This experience reshaped his coaching style into what he calls hands‑on leadership — mentoring, modeling, and being human alongside his teams.

2. Culture and identity shape how we lead — and how we’re received.

Growing up in a disciplined academic family in Bihar, India, and later working across India, Europe, the US, and Australia taught Abhinav to deeply respect context. He learned to interpret directness, silence, disagreement, and feedback through a cultural lens — a skill that makes cross‑border collaboration far more effective.

3. Middle managers carry invisible emotional labor — and credibility is the antidote.

Abhinav names the unique tension of the messy middle: “Absorb the ambiguity from the top and the frustration from the bottom.” This constant orbiting around others can erode one’s sense of center. His antidote: build credibility through clarity, commitment, and doing the right work even when no one is watching.

4. AI becomes empowering when you engage with it.

Abhinav moved from skepticism to hands‑on experimentation, building and breaking his own AI app to truly learn how it works. As he put it, “I built it, deployed it, broke it, built it, deployed it… the best way for me to learn AI was to do it myself.” His biggest insight: AI isn’t the threat; “staying incurious… that’s the threat.”

Connect with Abhinav on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavroy19/ or at https://www.perspectivecatalyst.co/ 

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

Meet Tezeswari Nettimi, who goes by Tez, an award-winning technology and transformation leader with experience in driving IT modernization and strategic program delivery. A parent of two active teenagers, she is passionate about creating community impact through leadership, innovation, and mentorship. This straight-from-the heart conversation highlighted Tez's values-based, servant leadership and her commitment to leading with intention and integrity.

Here are three key takeaways from this amazing conversation:

1. Lead with intention, not intensity.

2. Empower teams instead of having all the answers.

3. Consistency builds trust, and trust builds influence.

Connect with Tez on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnettimi/ 

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ 

What our six guests have taught us about Humanity, AI, and Leading at the Messy Middle

In this special retrospective episode, I, your host, Meenakshi Iyer, am inviting you to pause and reflect, to take in, and synthesize the biggest insights from our first six conversations on this podcast. In the American philosopher John Dewey's words, "We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience."

This episode weaves together the most powerful themes shared by our six previous guests: Padmini Nidumolu, Meshia Adams, Shreya Kaushik, Dr. Elena Bozylinski, Leanna Holmquist, and Kristján G. Mathiesen.

The bottom line? The messy middle is where leadership is being redefined — and its leaders are rising to meet the moment. In an AI‑enabled world, it’s these leaders in middle management who are the most equipped to connect strategy, context, people, and performance.

Six recurring themes:

the invisible emotional labor middle leaders carry every day

why empathy, trust, and authenticity are becoming strategic leadership skills

how clarity, context, and communication shape team culture

what AI is changing — and what it never will

the role of identity, culture, and lived experience in how we lead

the courage it takes to grow, evolve, and lead through ambiguity

🎧 Listen in for a thoughtful and inspiring look back — and a powerful reminder the messy middle is where true leadership is!

Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ 

Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/