Professionals take breaks. Amateurs don’t. It may feel counterintuitive but the most effective leaders learn to regard breaks “as part of our performance, not a deviation” from it. Evidence shows that being smart about taking restorative pauses is an indicator of high performance: “Professionals take breaks, and it’s the amateurs that don’t.”

Protect Your Team Against ‘Anti-Mattering’

“When employees feel insignificant, motivation suffers, engagement stagnates and well-being declines,” writes Zach Mercurio in this excerpt from his new book, The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance. Psychologists have a name for this hollowing feeling of insignificance, “anti-mattering,” and Mercurio says, “it can be one of the most insidious forces in an organization.” He says leaders can protect their team against the negative effects of anti-mattering by recognizing the “five major experiences” that cause it. Here are three.

Feeling unseen. “To be seen is to be noticed, to have our presence, our experiences, and the ebbs, flows, and details of our lives acknowledged by others.” Feeling unseen however, “is to be lost,” often due to unintentional “acts of social ignorance” e.g., “forgetting someone’s name or how to pronounce it, not making eye contact, not asking for a colleague’s unique perspective.”

Feeling unheard. “When someone’s voice is dismissed, discounted or devalued, they feel dismissed, discounted and devalued.” Ways we make each other feel unheard include, “dismissing someone’s ideas, not responding, not asking for their opinion, not following up on feedback,” and more.

Feeling dispensable. “Feeling needed is essential for feeling that we matter. Yet, too often, our organizations make people feel replaceable or like disposable resources . . .  Don’t be surprised when people who feel replaceable start behaving that way. If people see themselves as just a resource, they will act like it.”

Get the full story, including all five experiences that lead to “anti-mattering,” and practical advice for addressing each one, here.

**For more on this, explore our recent resource which explains how leaders can make work feel more meaningful for people every day.

The ‘Quiet Quitting’ Era Is Over. Now, It’s about ‘Loud Living.’

In the early days of the pandemic, as workers had to reimagine their lives to adapt to lockdowns and global volatility, many realized they had developed an unhealthy relationship to their jobs—often prioritizing productivity at all costs, even if it meant sacrificing their own wellbeing. People started to dial back their overwork, a phenomenon which earned the popular misnomer “quiet quitting,” although it didn’t refer to actual resignation, but rather to employees and leaders setting more boundaries around overcommitting themselves, as a protection against burnout.

In this Fast Company piece, BeeKyn Founder, Alli Kushner, reflects on her own journey to “redefine workplace boundaries.” In her twenties, like many young professionals, she “wore burnout like a badge of honor,” and believed that “time, health, and relationships” were all secondary to career success. Now, after becoming a parent, she’s realized “powering through was not just hard, but unsustainable,” and started making “small changes like declining late meetings, muting notifications after 6PM, and blocking Friday afternoons for deep work.”

While “quiet quitting” often refers to making these kinds of adjustments subtly and without fanfare, Kushner found great value in doing the opposite: “I got louder about what I needed. I told colleagues I was logging off,” pushed back on unrealistic timelines, and “stopped padding” boundaries with a cascade of apologies. A counterbalance to quiet quitting, she calls this “loud living,” an approach which, “isn’t about doing less,” rather, “it’s about showing up better, with focus and clarity. It isn’t about less ambition, but ambition that doesn’t cost you everything else.” More than anything, loud living is about “treating boundaries as a performance tool, not a privilege.” Get the full story, including Kushner’s six step approach to pursuing loud living here.

**For more on this, explore our Founder, Doug Conant’s, reflection on his own pandemic journey, where he rediscovered how to “fill his cup” to make work feel joyful and fulfilling again.

Keeping the ‘Human’ in Human Resources in the Age of AI

As AI becomes a ubiquitous tool in workplaces across the globe, many leaders find themselves managing the tension between the positive impact of the technology and the potential human cost, or what the authors of this AIHR piece call the “dark side” of AI, “specifically related to the potential impact on jobs and the work itself becoming less meaningful, less personal, and less human.” The authors say that the HR function is “uniquely positioned to play a critical role in how AI is adopted in organizations,” because they “hold the mandate to align technology with people.” To preserve the ‘human’ aspect of human resources, HR leaders must “drive the implementation of AI solutions,” while also “safeguarding employee experience, trust, and inclusion.” This is a delicate needle to thread and leaders should be diligent “in ensuring that innovation serves people, not the other way around.” The authors say the key is making “human-centered work a strategic priority,” which involves embedding “five key principles within all HR activities.” Here are two.

Redefine the value of work. “AI can help eliminate low-value tasks. HR should use this opportunity to elevate roles focused on creativity, empathy, and collaboration, the parts of work that technology cannot replicate.”

Create guiding principles for ethical AI use. “Establish internal policies that prioritize consent, transparency, and data dignity. Data dignity means treating people’s data with the same respect as the individuals themselves, ensuring they have visibility, control, and fair benefit from how their data is used.”

Overall, HR leaders should remember: “The future of HR and work is more human, not less.” Get the full story here.

**For more on this, explore our limited series from last year, EQ Answers to AI Questions.

How to Be Heard in a Noisy World

“Let’s be honest—grabbing attention these days feels like shouting in a crowded room. With AI, TikTok and a million other things competing for eyeballs, it’s no wonder communicators are looking for new ways to stand out,” say the authors of this PRsay recap of a recent webinar on the topic of “cutting through the noise” to get your message heard. The topline takeaway, which has been increasingly true since the advent of the social media era, is: “Attention is the new currency,” and, “there’s just not enough to go around” in a crowded landscape being dominated by new platforms that, “are changing how people find and consume information.”

If you want your voice to rise above the digital din, consider this A-C-T framework for communicators: “Attention, Curiosity, Trust.” It works like this: “First, you catch their eye, then you spark curiosity, and only then do you earn trust.” And, since our brains are hardwired to avoid boredom and confusion, make sure you’re fulfilling the Attention part of the equation through “clarity and storytelling.” The authors note that “emotionally charged content connects faster and deeper,” so don’t hesitate to get personal. Also remember, “thought leadership is more than a buzzword,” it’s a powerful process for “turning experts into visible authorities.” The best way to get your brand’s message across is to push subject matter experts (SMEs) in your organization to “step out of their comfort zones and share real, first-person stories,” because that’s how to “spark real conversations, and make an impact.” Get the full story here.

Employee Engagement By the Numbers

**For more on engaging employees, explore our suite of free resources on how to practice “leadership that works” for today and tomorrow.

Remove the ‘Trappings of Formality’ to Build Trust

“As a former cabinet secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and CEO of Procter & Gamble, Bob McDonald is one of a handful of leaders who has excelled in both the public and private sectors,” reads the introduction to this interview where McDonald reflects on his life in leadership. He shares that one of his biggest challenges was earning trust at the VA where “veteran trust in the organization” was down to 47 percent when he took over. The prevailing attitude, he observed, was one “of learned helplessness and a very hierarchical military culture. Everybody called each other by their last name, not their first,” and “good news traveled up to leaders very quickly, but bad news didn’t.”

McDonald knew he needed to meet people where they were to earn buy-in for his leadership at the VA. He shares: “One of the first things I did was to start a campaign, ‘Call Me Bob—rather than call me ‘Secretary’ . . . because first names lead to a relationship,” which, “leads to intimacy, intimacy leads to trust, and trust is what makes the company very, very efficient.”

Taking his campaign to earn trust a step further, McDonald took additional measures to bring his public persona down to earth: “I got rid of the ‘body man,’ who is somebody who follows you around and carries your phone. I removed the trappings of formality that prohibited me from knowing what was going on,” and he committed to talking to people face-to-face, traveling all over the country to hold town hall meetings “with veteran constituents, employees, and local government.” Gradually, as McDonald implemented what he calls “human-centered design across the organization,” he earned stakeholder trust and the VA started to function at a much higher level. Get the full story here.

**For more from Bob McDonald, explore the Purpose chapter in The Blueprint where we profile McDonald’s path to purpose-driven leadership at Procter & Gamble.

‘High’ versus ‘Low’ Intentions

“Stories shape our histories and our sense of ourselves,” and “it’s important in telling our stories, that we are clear-eyed about our intention and who the audience is,” writes Kate Bennis in this edition of her SWAY newsletter. As leaders telling the story of who you are, what you believe, how you want to show up, or what your company does and why, it’s essential to think about the intentions behind your storytelling, or as Bennis defines it, “the verbs that animate our words.” For example, she prompts, are you telling a particular story, “to build trust,” or, “to show off,” or perhaps to “illustrate,” or “include,” or “entertain?”

To connect more deeply with the intention behind your words, Bennis says to consider the difference between “high and low intentions.” High intentions are focused on others, the recipient(s) of our words, whereas low intentions are self-centered—”they are about us, the speaker.” Before we jump into sharing a story, it is wise to stop and think carefully about the intention. If the goal is solely “to impress,” or only to “make the sale,” it might be too “low” to pursue; in this case, it’s helpful to think about how to give the communication a higher intention, such as being helpful or sharing a relatable experience to deepen connection. Get the full story here.

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‘Great Leaders Make Meaning’—2 Purpose-Driven CEOs on ‘People First’ Leadership

In Doug Conant’s conversation with Deanna Mulligan, CEO of Purposeful and former chair and CEO of Guardian Life Insurance, both leaders impart their practical advice for making meaning, anchoring yourself in purpose, and placing people at the center of your leadership approach.

‘Be the Keeper of the Flame’—How to Create Inspiring Workplace Cultures

In Doug Conant’s conversation with Amanda Poole, Chief People Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), both leaders share tips for creating workplace cultures that inspire people and drive innovation.

Doug Conant In LEADERS Magazine: ‘Trust Is Mission Critical’

In this recent interview in LEADERS Magazine, Doug Conant shares insights from a career as a turnaround CEO: “In my experience, building trust is the only way to create an enduring enterprise and lasting value.” He says a good place to start “is by getting just one step closer to people than you have in the past. Be present with others and listen. Try to do just a little bit better tomorrow than you did today.” Read the full interview here.

April‘s Leadership That Works Newsletter

In last month’s newsletter: Common misconceptions about psychological safety, a survival guide for American business, how to remain steady in a wobbly world, learning the ‘Godzilla Methodology,’ and more.

About the Author: Amy Federman is ConantLeadership’s Director of Content and Editor in Chief, and co-author with Doug Conant of the WSJ bestseller, The Blueprint.

(Header photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash)