Planners’ Picks — April 21, 2026
The seasonal return of the chairs to Memorial Union Terrace reminds us how pervasive — and beloved — the sunburst seats are in Madison. We are also hailing in the stormy season in Wisconsin; hopefully, you fared well this past week with the numerous damaging events in the area. Let’s flood you with trust, blow in some appreciation, and drench our team in emotional intelligence this week.
:: Image of the Week
:: LinkedIn Learning
Be the Manager People Won’t Leave
In Be the Manager People Won’t Leave, author and workplace expert Laurie Ruettimann shows you how to build trust, communicate clearly, and lead with empathy, integrity, and adaptability in today’s fast-changing, AI-driven workplace. Laurie shares practical ways to create stability; foster learning and growth; and strengthen team connection across hybrid and digital workplaces. After completing this course, you’ll be better equipped to lead with confidence, compassion, and credibility—the qualities that make people stay.
Learning objectives
- Build organizational trust and stability.
- Evaluate management practices through the lens of empathy, equity, and digital fluency.
- Apply strategies that promote learning, adaptability, and psychological safety.
- Apply leadership techniques that reinforce fairness, accountability, and resilience.
:: Trust, Psychological Safety & Belonging
4 Steps to Build Trust and Improve Your Performance Management
What would it mean for your business’s worth if every tough conversation you handled helped you build trust instead of quietly eroding it?
You’ve been there—someone puts you on the spot, asking about promotions, performance, or sensitive decisions, and suddenly you’re walking a tightrope between transparency and confidentiality. Handle it wrong, and trust slips. Handle it right, and you create a culture where people actually speak up early, solve problems faster, and respect your leadership. This episode shows you how to navigate those exact moments with confidence—without oversharing or shutting people down.
- Learn a simple 4-step framework to handle awkward, high-stakes questions without damaging credibility
- Discover how to protect confidentiality while still being seen as fair, transparent, and trustworthy
- Build a team culture where people feel safe sharing concerns early—before problems spiral
Listen to this Leadership Without Losing Your Soul episode here:
“I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time.” -Charlie Munger
:: Gratitude and Recognition
Most People Don’t Hear Enough Appreciation
Recognition at work often feels scarce. And it’s not (usually) because leaders are uncaring jerks—it’s because they’re busy. Priorities pile up. Feedback gets delayed. Appreciation gets lost in the churn.
And the data backs this up. Gallup and Workhuman found that:
- Only 1 in 4 employees strongly agree they receive meaningful feedback or recognition from their manager.
- Nearly half say they don’t get feedback as often as they need.
That leaves many employees working hard—and wondering if anyone notices.
Here’s the opportunity: you don’t need to be someone’s manager to make them feel seen. Peer appreciation is powerful. In fact, when it comes from someone who sees your day-to-day effort, it can feel even more authentic.
https://letsgrowleaders.com/2026/04/06/powerful-phrases-to-appreciate-a-coworker/
:: Burnout & Stress
Burnout is Costing Us More Than We Think
76% of employees report experiencing burnout at least sometimes. (Gallup)
Yet most well-being efforts still look like this:
→ Awareness months
→ Lunch-and-learns
→ A poster in the break room
That’s not a strategy. That’s checking a box. This isn’t just a people problem. It’s a performance problem. A retention problem. A bottom-line problem.
So what actually works? Amy Stout has some suggestions.
“Talent and potential mean nothing if you can’t consistently do the boring things when you don’t feel like doing them.” – Shane Parrish
:: Mental Health and Self-Care
Where does your happiness come from?
For most people, it depends on external conditions, things going their way, people treating them well, and circumstances lining up.
But there’s another possibility: happiness that comes from within. The key is internalizing positive experiences. When you do this, especially experiences that address old wounds, you build an internal store of resources that makes you less dependent on the outside world.
See this LinkedIn post by Psychologist Rick Hanson on the difference between conditional and unconditional wellbeing.
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.” — Alexandre Dumas
:: Work Culture & Team Development
Can Bad Decision-Making Be Avoided?
It’s safe to say that corporate success has always hinged on the decision-making of executives. Leadership is a constant fire hose of choices: which strategy to pursue, how to navigate risky markets, how to handle a delicate HR situation, what to say in a speech, what not to say in a speech. It’s also safe to say that most people in corporate America struggle to make good decisions—but won’t admit it.
Despite billions spent training leaders, 85 percent of mid- to senior- level professionals have never received training in decision-making, and 45 percent still do not have a structured way to make decisions (yes, you’re supposed to have a framework), according to a new report from the Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists. “Decision-making is one of the least systematically taught skills in corporate life,” says Usha Haley, a distinguished professor at Wichita State University, and she says this is a critical failing as AI complicates decisions with constant information overload.
Despite this, 91 percent of professionals consider themselves to be above-average decision-makers, which further compounds the problem: People who think they’re good at something don’t seek training. Typical mid- to senior- level employees make hundreds of decisions every week, and believe that they’re generally making good choices—which is classic outcome bias, i.e. judging by the results rather than decision quality. In reality, experts say, employees’ complete lack of decision-making training prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills. Addressing this is “one of the challenges of performance management,” says organizational strategist Maria Amato, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. When rated against other employees, “most people are going to feel unfairly rated, almost definitionally.”
Read more on this from Korn-Ferry here: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/briefings-magazine/issue-73/can-bad-decision-making-be-avoided
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
The Octopus Organization
The authors Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner contrast the traditional management approach — which they call Tin Man companies — with the approach required in today’s dynamic environment — which they call Octopus Organizations. They do this by identifying 36 different “antipatterns” in three categories (Creating Clarity, Increasing Ownership, and Inciting Curiosity).
One of nature’s most intelligent and curious creatures, the octopus is everything your organization needs to be: smart, endlessly adaptable, and highly resilient. Its eight tentacles work in concert, but each can also think for itself. This book shows how to achieve the same balance of cohesion and autonomy and to guide your organization toward a living, breathing system—one that learns, adapts, and thrives by tapping into the distributed intelligence of its people.
Drawing on their experience at companies such as Amazon and McDonald’s and work with hundreds of global companies, AWS executives Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner show you how to break away from the broken model of transformation and embrace continuous change.
The Octopus Organization is your guide to moving beyond rigid structures and nurturing the living, adaptable organization you aspire to create, and be a part of.
CSN will be featuring the book later in the season for our Summer Book Club Series! Check out this short review of the material to prepare you for your experience with us over the break.
https://clearpurpose.media/book-brief-the-octopus-organization-de544e7b4756
:: Self-Leadership Development
Why charisma should be the last thing you want in a leader
Studies of emotional intelligence suggest that leaders who demonstrate empathy and interpersonal awareness are often better able to build trust and keep their team performing at a high level. The true measure of leadership has been shown to be reflected in team performance and outcomes, rather than a leader’s personal charisma or visibility.
People who ooze confidence and charisma are often promoted to leadership, but University of Glasgow’s Imran Mir writes that the most effective leaders may not be the most flashy but focus on supporting and developing teams, building trust through empathy and creating a positive work environment. Organizations can better identify such leaders by recognizing those who create cohesive teams, respond constructively to challenge and excel at mentoring others, Mir writes.
https://theconversation.com/why-organisations-pick-the-wrong-leaders-278446
“It’s much easier to walk a tight rope than it is to simply stand in place. Forward momentum creates stability.” – Seth Godin
Emotional Intelligence Gives Hope
A Case for Having a Positive Outlook
“I’ve become more aware of how I react in uncertain moments, and I’ve been able to catch myself before slipping into panic or overthinking…”
“I noticed myself reframing more than I usually do. I also saw small positive shifts in how I reacted. When I started ruminating, I asked myself… how is this helping me?”
These are reports from learners in the Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence course who have been working with adaptability and positive outlook, two of the 12 EI competencies covered in that program. Bottom line: you can’t change every situation, but you can learn to better manage your emotional reaction. How well you respond depends on your inner state.
The adaptability competence makes you able to handle new situations – like the coming of AI to your workplace – with fresh approaches. You can innovate instead of panicking, staying focused on your goals but adjusting how you get there. As a leader, you can take on new challenges.
Read the rest of Daniel’s recent article on EI giving hope here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/emotional-intelligence-gives-hope-daniel-goleman-wgbke/