Planners’ Picks — April 28, 2026
We’re going heavy on self-leadership this issue of PP; you deserve the attention, after all. We’ll also speak the language of appreciation and bring some awe into your and your family’s lives. Enjoy!
:: Image of the Week
I am not a robot. The art of subtraction by Austin Kleon delivers a message this week to navigate our world in a human (and caring) manner.
:: Work Culture & Team Development
How To Deal With Difficult People At Work: 4 Secrets From Experts
Each workday we march into battle against the most fearsome foe imaginable: other people’s personalities.
Every office contains exactly two types of people:
- People trying to do their jobs
- People bent on making #1 impossible.
Most are low-level annoyances. There’s the Devout Scheduler who sets meetings the way Victorian doctors prescribed opium: generously, for every ailment, and with utter disregard for long-term consequences. We also have Beelzebub’s Barrister, that guy who always says, “I’m just playing devil’s advocate.” And then proceeds to be the devil. They’re enough to make you want to opt out of people. (I have the temperament of a housecat who glares at guests from under the couch.) But those aren’t even the worst types we face…
The Tier One Toxics are the real problem: the Narcissist Superstars, the Drama Monarchs, the Bullies, and the Perfectionists. These are the ones that make you want to change your name to “Out of Office.” And they’re what we’ll be covering today.
We’ll get insight on how to handle each from clinical psychologist Albert Bernstein. His excellent book is “Emotional Vampires at Work.”
See this entertaining and factual article from author Eric Barker.
https://bakadesuyo.com/2025/11/difficult-people/
“Running up a hill is a bitch until you adapt to the hill. Then it’s not. The hill is the same but you are different and as a result, so is your experience. Easy or hard is about you, not the hill. Don’t wait for the hill to change. — Craig Harper
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People, by Gary Chapman and Paul White, brings the love language concept to the workplace. This book will teach you how to improve job satisfaction, create more positive relationships between managers and employees, and decrease burnout rates. How? By teaching you to effectively communicate appreciation to employees, co-workers, and team members.
Appreciation at Work has done peer-reviewed research and polling through and post-COVID. The result of this research is a completely new chapter on how to effectively show appreciation to remote and hybrid employees including topics such as:
- the variety of remote work relationships
- trust in remote work relationships
- creating and maintaining a workplace culture
- the employer/supervisor perspective
- the employee perspective
- the key to keeping remote employees
- what neuroscience is showing
This edition also includes updated research (50+ citations) of data shared about the importance of appreciation and its positive impact on the functioning of businesses & organizations (including increased productivity and higher profitability when your employees feel appreciated.
PLUS! Each book contains an access code for the online MBA (Motivating by Appreciation) Inventory (a $15 value), which identifies a person’s language of appreciation.
Appreciation is the key to success because we all work better when we feel appreciated.
https://shop.appreciationatwork.com/products/the-5-languages-of-appreciation-in-the-workplace-1
:: Self-Leadership Development
What are you waiting for? | Not Sorry with Dr. Ashley Butler
What happens when life forces you to confront the stories you’ve been telling yourself about timing, readiness, and control? Amy and Ashley explore the powerful question many leaders quietly wrestle with… what are you waiting for?
Through raw personal reflection and compassionate conversation, Ashley shares her experience navigating unexpected health challenges, loss of choice, and the realization that fear often disguises itself as logic. Together, Amy and Ashley unpack how waiting for the “perfect moment” can keep us stuck, and why courage is less about eliminating fear and more about moving forward with it.
This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and take one intentional step toward the life you want to live. If you’ve been postponing your health, your dreams, or your next bold move, this conversation will challenge you to stop living in theory and start living in proof.
Watch this recording with Amy Woodall and Ashley on leadership.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZlDBD5ggg
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Ben Franklin
The Leader Who Serves: Why the Old Playbook Is Failing You
“By embracing Truly Human Leadership, we can move from a me‑centric to a we‑centric world and begin to alleviate the poverty of dignity— to create a world where Everybody Matters!” — Bob Chapman
Bob Chapman passed away on March 19th, 2026, at the age of 80. Most people outside of manufacturing or leadership circles won’t recognize the name, and that’s partly what made him worth paying attention to.
Chapman took over Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 when he was 30 years old. His father had just died unexpectedly, and within weeks, the company’s bank pulled their loans. The business was worth $18 million and was struggling. What he built over the next five decades is remarkable, not just because Barry-Wehmiller grew into a $4 billion global company, but because of how it grew.
His vision statement at Barry-Wehmiller became: “We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.” That’s a bold thing to put on the wall of a manufacturing company. See this article on his legacy and check out his book “Everybody Matters” to learn more about his style of caring leadership.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leader-who-serves-why-old-playbook-failing-you-ipek-williamson-rmgze
The VOICE Method: A Roadmap from Doubt to Confidence
Why do so many capable people hold themselves back?
For Rachel Druckenmiller, the answer became a roadmap for moving from doubt and fear to confidence and courage, from stagnation to momentum, from stuckness to aliveness.
In the past year she has asked nearly 5,000 people this question: How are you currently silencing, doubting or holding yourself back that you’d like to overcome?
Three reasons come up more than anything else:
Fear: fear of failure, judgment, rejection, not being good enough, looking stupid, being wrong. “I don’t want to be a burden, so even though I think I deserve it, I’m not going to ask for it.”
Self-doubt: “Am I really good enough? Do I have enough proof to demonstrate I can do this? What if they find out this is all a sham and I’m a total fraud?”
Perfectionism: “If I can’t do it perfectly, I’m not going to do it at all.”
Check out Rachel’s V.O.I.C.E. Method of becoming more unmuted and confident, something she first told folks at UW-Madison back in August at our 10-year anniversary event when she gave an inspirational talk to a room full of lifelong learners!
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/voice-method-roadmap-from-doubt-confidence-rachel-druckenmiller-ndcee
“A good life is one in which things do not go perfectly, but you find a way to have a good day regardless.” – James Clear
Are You Monitoring Your Own Stress Like You Are Your Team?
“I can’t let them see me stressed.”
“I don’t want to burden anyone.”
“They can’t think of me as weak.”
I used to be this leader, and I still see so many leaders who think this way.
This type of person is someone who at first seem to have it “all together” meanwhile, behind the scenes, they are carrying decisions that don’t have easy answers… navigating pressure from every direction… and absorbing the weight their team didn’t even realize they were holding.
People don’t talk about this part enough. See Heather Younger’s post on this topic!
:: Strategic Planning
How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist
Chief strategy officers and those responsible for shaping the direction of their organizations are often asked to facilitate “visioning” meetings. This helps teams brainstorm ideas, but it isn’t a substitute for critical thinking about the future. Neither are the one-, three-, or five-year strategic plans that have become a staple within most organizations, though they are useful for addressing short-term operational goals. Futurists think about time differently, and company strategists could learn from their approach. For any given uncertainty about the future — whether that’s risk, opportunity, or growth — we tend to think in the short- and long-term simultaneously. To do this, consider using a framework that doesn’t rely on linear timelines or simply mark the passage of time as quarters or years. Instead, use a time cone that measures certainty and charts actions.
https://hbr.org/2019/07/how-to-do-strategic-planning-like-a-futurist?tpcc=orgsocial_edit
:: Communication
Sticky Conversations
Can you just feel the sickness in your stomach right now? That feeling when you know that you have to have a conversation that you are NOT looking forward to, but know you need to have. It plagues you for days before you have to face the inevitable and then the moment arrives when you make contact with the person, and there they are…waiting for you to initiate conversation. See Mary Gardner’s take on approaching a situation like this in your office.
Sticky conversations are not fun to have, but they can further the action faster than anything else. Rather than people sitting around stewing all day long, gossiping in the halls about each other, then having those conversations can challenge people to come to the table with ideas, conversations and new solutions.
Each time you have a sticky conversation, you’ll gain strength. You’ll see that it’s MUCH better to have the conversation than let it simmer underneath the surface. Facing the uncomfortable does more than just solve an issue, it can help you get comfortable with the person, and make them into your advocate.
https://leadingwithquestions.com/latest-news/sticky-conversations/
“To get through the hardest journey, we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.” – Chinese Proverb
:: Upcoming Events
Jim Henson’s Wowsabout: Bringing Awe to Life
A screening and live virtual Q&A on storytelling and the science of awe
“Wow! Amazing! Incredible!” Who doesn’t love hearing those words from a child?
Join UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) for a special virtual screening and live conversation about awe—why it matters, what the research shows, and how it can be brought to life through storytelling.
Watch Wowsabout, a brand-new preschool special created by Halle Stanford, Emmy® Award-winning executive producer and Dorien Davies, executive producer, writer, and principal puppeteer. The story follows an unlikely pair: Ronald, a careful, rule-following young pig determined to become a junior ranger, and Roxy, a musical, free-spirited hedgehog searching for the park’s “magical giants.”
Filmed on location in breathtaking Sequoia National Park, their adventure unfolds through music, art, humor, and the beauty of the natural world. Developed in consultation with Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., Faculty Director of the GGSC, and Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D., the GGSC’s Education Director, the special invites children and the adults in their lives not just to watch awe—but to feel it, recognize it, and name it for themselves.
What You’ll Experience
- A screening of Wowsabout alongside parents and educators from around the world
- A conversation with co-creators Halle Stanford and Dorien Davies about bringing the characters and their world to life
- Insights into the science of awe from Dr. Keltner, author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life
- Practical ideas for bringing awe into the classroom and beyond from Dr. Zakrzewski, and tips for fostering awe at home from Maryam Abdullah, Ph.D., the GGSC’s Parenting Program Director
At a time when many children are navigating stress, distraction, and disconnection, cultivating awe may be one of the simplest and most powerful tools we have to help them reconnect—to themselves, to one another, and to the world around them.
Even if you don’t have a child, you can reinvigorate your sense of awe by participating in this session!
Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Time: 11:00 am-12:30 pm CDT
Location: Online
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jim-hensons-wowsabout-bringing-awe-to-life-tickets-1985442343496