I work with senior leaders when change stops being theoretical and starts carrying real weight. 

I help organizations hold clarity through complexity—when strategy is sound, but execution is straining trust, energy, or alignment, when decisions carry real consequences. When leadership feels heavier than usual. 

My work sits at the intersection of people, structure, and leadership judgment. I partner with CEOs, CHROs, and senior teams to stabilize organizations during moments of transition—designing operating models, leadership alignment, and decision clarity that actually hold under pressure. 

Over the course of my career, I’ve led and advised executive teams across growth-stage and global organizations, supporting transformation efforts that required more than frameworks or playbooks. The work demanded discernment, steadiness, and the ability to see what was happening beneath the surface—before it showed up in performance or culture. 

Through Leadership Rewired, I work as an advisor, consultant, or interim partner, depending on what the situation calls for. The form flexes. The work doesn’t. 

My focus is consistent: 

→ Clarity over complexity. 
→ Systems over silos. 
→ Leadership that can carry responsibility without hardening or disappearing. 

Specialties: 

Organizational Design | Leadership Alignment | Change Navigation | Executive Advisory | People Strategy Under Pressure | Culture & Accountability

Allison Allen

Starting a three-month client engagement this week. 
→ New industry. 
→ Organization transformation. 
→ Opportunity to implement practices I’ve been refining for years.

That’s all exciting.

👉🏾 But here’s what I didn’t expect to feel this energized about: I get to wake up, get dressed, and drive to an office 20 minutes from my home.

For the last two years, all of my client work has been remote, day trips, or strategic offsites. And that’s worked. 

It’s been effective. 
I’ve built Leadership Rewired entirely that way.

But I’ve missed something.

Not the commute. 
Not the office itself.

👉🏾 I’ve missed working in person with a team focused on a common goal.

There’s something about being in the room…
→ seeing the moment someone gets it, 
→ catching the hesitation before it becomes resistance, 
→ reading the energy shift when the real conversation finally starts,
that you can’t fully replicate on a screen.

I’m not making a case for “everyone should be back in the office.” 
That’s not the point.

People should work in the way that’s most effective for them and their organizations. 
→ Remote works. 
→ Hybrid works. 
→ In-person works. 

It depends on the work, the people, and what you’re trying to build.

But for me? 

For this kind of work organizational transformation, shifting how teams make decisions, building new practices into the operating rhythm, I’ve genuinely missed the in-person collaboration.

So this week, I’m driving in. 
Getting in the room. 
Doing the work the way I’ve been wanting to for a while.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
But right now? 

I’m looking forward to Monday in a way I haven’t felt in a while.

Allison Allen, ACC

Executive Advisor & Change Partner to CXOs Navigating Change | Org Design, People Strategy & Leadership Judgment | Founder, Leadership Rewired

No alternative text description for this image

Yesterday, I was put on the spot to introduce myself during my client's townhall.

Normally, I'm good in those moments. 
But my camera wasn't working, 
I'm still getting used to working fully on Teams and being on a PC, 
and I fumbled it.

I said: "My name is Allison Allen and I am working with TA and I am so glad to be here."

Anyone who knows me knows I can do a lot better than that.
Towards the end of the discussion, I dropped a note in the chat:

Hi Everyone, sorry for the wobbly intro... I would like to try again. I am a:

→ Mother of 2 amazing humans who like to hang out with me
→ Partner to an Australian who does not say "good day" or eat fish
→ Content creator who talks about leadership
→ Believer that people are the center of business strategy (and impact)
→ Executive Advisor to CXOs

I got lots of heart emojis and likes. 
It felt good to be a part of it.

Later, a leader came up to me and said: 
"I really liked your intro in the chat. 

A lot of times we don't acknowledge how important family is to us at work."

I said: "It's everything to me. 
I've only come to this later in my career. 
I've always thought it was, but I wasn't living it. 
Now, I encourage anyone who will listen."

For a long time, I said family mattered,
but I was operating like work mattered more.

I took the calls that interrupted dinner. 
Scheduled the early meetings. 
Said yes to the travel. 
Always telling myself it was temporary.
But things never stabilize. Not really.

My values didn't shift. 
My choices did.

I started saying no to things that didn't honor what I said mattered. 
I started building work around life, not life around work. 
And I started leading with it, not hiding it, not apologizing for it.

That chat intro? That's who I am. 
Mother first. Partner. Creator. Advisor.

In that order.
Nothing is more continuous than time.

I've changed companies, most times at my choice, sometimes at theirs. 

Through all the change, I still had people at home who loved me 
and wanted to be around me.

That's what matters. 
And that's what I tell anyone who will listen.

You answered the question in the all-hands. 
You covered it in the leadership team meeting. 
You put it in the deck.

And this week, they're asking again.

"What's the priority?" 
"Are we still doing this?" 
"Did that decision change?"

Your first instinct: they're not listening. 
Or you're not communicating clearly enough.

👉🏾 But here's what's actually happening:
If your team keeps asking for clarity you've already given, the issue isn't communication, it's trust in steadiness. 
Repetition is often a symptom of leaked uncertainty.

They're not asking because they forgot. 
They're asking because they've learned that what you said last week might not hold this week.

Research shows that frequent shifts in leaders' priorities are strongly associated with burnout and disengagement. 

When leaders change direction without clear rationale, 
💥 teams protect themselves, 
💥 they do the minimum, 
💥 wait out the next shift, 
💥 discount current directives as temporary.

Studies analyzing over 80,000 360-degree reviews found that leaders who act inconsistently erode trust roughly three times faster than those who behave predictably.

So when your team keeps asking the same question, 
→ They're not being dense. 
→ They're being rational. 
→ They're checking whether this version of the answer is the one that will actually hold.

 🚩Here's where uncertainty leaks:
→ Tone and body language. You say "we're committed," but your tone is tight, your body language closed. They feel the hedge.
→ Decision reversals without narrative. You change course without explaining what changed or what you learned. It registers as unreliability.
→ Hedging language. "Maybe," "sort of," "we'll see." Softening feels collaborative but overuse reduces perceived authority.
→ Say/reward gap. You say innovation matters but penalize failed experiments. They watch what you reinforce, not what you announce.

People track coherence across your words, tone, and actions at a fine-grained level. When those don't align, they adjust. 

Not because they're bad listeners. Because you've trained them that clarity isn't stable.

✅ Here's the shift: 
1️⃣ When you give clarity, ask yourself, "Do I actually believe this will hold?" If not, don't give false certainty. Say: "Here's where we are. Here's what's still forming."
2️⃣ When you change course, name it explicitly: "Last week I said X. Here's what changed. Now we're doing Y."
3️⃣ Check your tone. If your words say "we're locked in" but your body says "I'm not sure," they'll trust the body.

👉🏾 Steadiness isn't rigidity. It's coherence, your words, tone, and decisions pointing in the same direction.

If your team keeps asking for clarity you've already given, look for where your uncertainty is leaking.

Because repetition isn't about them not hearing you. It's about them not trusting what they heard will still be true next week.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

Credibility Isn’t Built by Explaining. 
It’s Built by Holding the Line.

She set a clear priority: product development first.
 The board pushed. 
The CFO pushed. 
Two executives lobbied privately.

She didn’t argue. She didn’t elaborate. She didn’t adjust to relieve the pressure.
She just held the line, calmly, every time.

👉🏾 Leadership credibility isn’t built by saying more. It’s built by holding the same position when the pressure to move it keeps coming.

Research on leadership under stress shows followers track behavioral consistency more than explanations. 

When leaders become inconsistent under pressure, teams experience higher insecurity and strain. 

Calm, values-aligned behavior builds a trust reservoir teams draw on when conditions worsen.

Most leaders do the opposite. 
When pressure mounts, they explain more. 
→ Hedge more. 
→ Revisit the justification. 
→ Adjust slightly, not because new information arrived, but because the pressure is uncomfortable.
❌ And every time they do, credibility erodes.

High-trust leaders practice intelligent clarity: → What we’re doing. → Why. → What changes. → What doesn’t.
✅ Then they stop talking.

That CEO didn’t gain credibility because she was right. She gained it because she was steady.

👉🏾 Leadership credibility isn’t built the first time you state a position.
 👉🏾 It’s built the tenth time you hold it, calmly, when the pressure hasn’t let up.

What line are you holding right now?
 And are you holding it or explaining it away?

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

Sunday night. 
You're already thinking about Monday,
what you'll need to manage, 
who you'll need to stabilize, 
what you'll need to carry so the team can function.

Here's a different move:

Before Monday, decide what you will stop compensating for this week.
Not what you'll take on. 
What you'll refuse to absorb.

Stability isn't doing more. 
It's refusing to absorb what isn't yours.

Most senior leaders spend their weeks compensating. 
You fill gaps your team should be filling. 
You absorb anxiety from the board. 
You take on responsibility that belongs to others because it's faster, easier, or because no one else will.
And you tell yourself it's leadership.

👉🏾 Leaders who set boundaries protect their own capacity and force the system to mature. 
👉🏾 Leaders who absorb everything burn out themselves, enable under-functioning in others, and quietly cap team development.

Over-functioning is taking on more responsibility than your role requires, 
often to "rescue" others. 

👉🏾 When one person consistently fixes, reminds, and rescues, others do less, depend more, and invest less in their own growth.

Your compensation sustains performance short-term. 
But it blocks capability building.

💥 Studies show that when leaders stop carrying all the load and instead set clear standards, avoidance of accountability decreases and peer-to-peer accountability increases.

So this week, choose one thing you will stop compensating for.
🛑 Stop absorbing the board's anxiety about timelines you can't control. 
🛑 Stop filling every gap in your team's execution. 
🛑 Stop taking on responsibility for outcomes your peers should be managing. 
🛑 Stop saying yes to everything just to keep the system calm.

🛑 When leaders pull back from automatic fixing, teams experience discomfort, but they gradually increase ownership, skill, and reliability.

The discomfort is the point. 
It's the signal that accountability is shifting back to where it belongs.

Organizations that normalize healthy boundaries see higher job satisfaction, stronger commitment, and better business results than cultures that rely on heroic, always-on leaders.

Stability isn't how much you can hold. 
It's what you refuse to take on in the first place.

When you stop compensating, the system doesn't collapse. 
✅ It adjusts. 
✅ People step up. 
✅ Accountability redistributes.

Before Monday, ask yourself: 
What am I compensating for that isn't mine to carry?

Then decide: this week, I'm not taking that on.

Not because you don't care. 
Because your compensation is capping the system's ability to grow.

If this hits, DM me "compensation." 

I'm working with a small group of leaders on exactly this, learning to stop absorbing what isn't theirs without the system collapsing.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

Nine months into the transformation.
The strategy is clear.
The direction hasn’t changed.

But you’ve started adjusting the signals.
Not big pivots.
Small moves.

“We’re still committed, but let me clarify.”
“The timeline is more flexible than we originally said.”
“We’re prioritizing X over Y for the next quarter.”

Each adjustment makes sense in the moment.
You’re responding to feedback. 
You’re being adaptive.

But here’s what’s actually happening:
👉🏾 In prolonged change, inconsistency rarely comes from strategy shifts.
It comes from leaders adjusting signals to relieve pressure, not because the direction changed.
→ The board is asking where the results are.
→ The team is tired.
→ The market isn’t responding fast enough.

And holding the same position, month after month, under sustained pressure, starts to feel intolerable.
So you adjust.

Not because new information arrived.
Because staying steady feels too heavy.

👉🏾 Under pressure, leaders default to emotion-driven adjustments unless they deliberately slow down and anchor decisions in evidence. 

The distinction matters:

🚩 Pressure-driven adjustment
→ Triggered by anxiety, stakeholder noise, or optics
→ Little reference to new data
→ Justification sounds like: “It feels like we have to move”

✅ Information-driven adjustment
→ Triggered by material data or real environmental change
→ Explicit about what changed and why
→ Framed as: “Given X, we’re updating Y while the goal remains Z”

Most leaders believe they’re doing the second.
They’re usually doing the first.
And the organization feels it.

👉🏾 Change-communication research shows that inconsistent signals erode trust, increase resistance, and amplify anxiety. When commitments shift without naming the learning, people experience it as misalignment or worse, hidden agendas.

🚩 Over time, these small, unnamed adjustments create narrative debt. Each gap between what was said and what’s done compounds.
→ You say “focus,” but keep adding initiatives.
→ You say “committed,” but keep moving timelines.

Eventually, people stop believing the direction will hold.

💥 When you adjust your message, priorities, or timing, ask yourself:
“Am I responding to new information or relieving the pressure of staying steady?”

If it’s the latter, you’re not adapting. You’re drifting.

👉🏾 And each time you adjust to relieve pressure, you teach the system something dangerous:
→ The direction isn’t stable.
→ The commitment isn’t real.
→ The safest move is to wait it out.

In prolonged change, leadership isn’t about making people comfortable. 
It’s about holding the line and naming clearly when and why you change it.

Because inconsistency doesn’t come from complexity.
It comes from not being able to tolerate the pressure of staying steady.

What are you adjusting right now to relieve pressure instead of responding to new information?

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

First quiet morning all week. 
And the first thing you notice: how much you've been holding alone.

Most leaders don't burn out from the work. 
They burn out from being the only place uncertainty is allowed to land.

You absorb your team's doubt so they can stay focused. 
You hold steady while they process resistance and fear. 
You project calm, you don't feel. 
You answer questions you're still asking yourself.

And your own uncertainty? 
No sanctioned place to land.

The research confirms what you already know: 
It’s not the hours that drain leaders: 
It's not task volume that drains leaders, it's emotional labor. 

The invisible work of regulating your emotions, absorbing others' anxiety, and suppressing your own stress to keep the system stable.

56% of executives report burnout. 
73% say they're overworked without rest. 

But the real drain isn't the hours, it's being the emotional buffer with no outlet.
You can't share uncertainty with your team; they need you to be steady. 

Not with the board—they need you to be confident. 
Not with peers—they're carrying their own weight.
So you hold it. And over time, that holding becomes the work.

This is the hidden cost: 
You're not just managing outcomes. 
You're managing everyone's emotional experience of the outcomes. 
And there's no container for yours.

Where does your uncertainty land?

Because if the answer is ‘nowhere,’ the load doesn’t disappear; it accumulates.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The leadership team met every Monday to address "urgent issues." 
Team conflicts. 
Slipping timelines. 
Escalating client concerns.

Six months in, they were exhausted. 
And the same issues kept recycling in different forms.

The problem wasn't the issues. 
It was that no one knew who actually owned decisions. 

So every decision became a negotiation. 
→ Every problem escalated. 
→ Every Monday, they firefought the same dysfunction in new packaging.

They were reacting to noise. 
And missing the pattern.

👉🏾 Not everything that feels urgent is actually unstable. 
Senior leaders exhaust themselves reacting because discernment requires staying with discomfort longer than reaction does.

👉🏾 The data backs this up.
68% of middle managers and 57% of C-suite leaders say most of their decision-making time is inefficient, spent rehashing issues instead of making high-stakes choices.

👉🏾 Urgency bias explains why. 
We reliably choose what feels urgent over what actually matters, even when it leads to worse outcomes.

It's automatic. 

→ The inbox fire pulls you in. 
→ The minor outage demands response. 
→ The loud problem gets attention.

While the quieter pattern, the one actually destabilizing the system, goes unaddressed.

Once the leadership team clarified decision rights, the "urgent issues" list shrank 70%. 
The work wasn't responding faster. 
The work was seeing what they'd been reacting around.

Pattern recognition is the capacity to stay with ambiguity long enough to see whether something is a real pattern or an isolated flare-up. 

❓It's asking: 
Is this unstable, or does it just feel uncomfortable? 
Is this a fire, or is this smoke from a fire I'm not looking at?

The leaders who exhaust themselves are often the most responsive ones.
→ They answer every message.
→ They jump on every issue.
→ They stay perpetually available.

But responsiveness without discernment is just exhaustion in motion.

Not every signal deserves response. 
Not every pressure requires containment. 
And treating all urgency as equal is how you miss the thing that actually matters.

❌ The question isn't "How do I respond to all of this?"
✅ The question is "What pattern am I missing while I'm reacting to this?"

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The board meeting was brutal.  Revenue miss.  Investor pressure mounting.

❌ The CEO walked into the leadership team meeting an hour later and transmitted all of it.

"We're in trouble. The board is furious. We need answers by Friday. Everything is on the table."

The room went silent.

Then it went into overdrive.
→ Teams scrambled. 
→ Projects paused mid-stream. 
→ People made decisions out of fear instead of strategy. 
→ Three key people updated their résumés that week.

💥 He thought he was being transparent. 
→ What he actually did was export panic. 
→ And it broke the team's ability to think.

👉🏾 Internal governance is knowing which pressure you must hold, and which you must not transmit. That distinction is what protects judgment during change.

Research shows this clearly.
→ When leaders fail to buffer harmful pressure, team stress spikes, error rates increase, and decisions turn defensive.
→ When leaders filter chaos while transmitting clarity and standards, teams maintain focus and decision quality, even under uncertainty.

✅ In the next board crisis, he held the panic. But he transmitted the standard:
"Revenue is down. We're addressing it. 

Here's what doesn't change: 
→ our product quality, 
→ our customer commitments, 
→ our decision process. 
Keep doing excellent work. I'll manage the board."

✓ Same pressure. 
✓ Different filter. 
✓ The team stayed steady.

👉🏾 Some pressure you must hold: board volatility, investor noise, shifting priorities that create whiplash, emotional load that would govern choices if transmitted unfiltered.

👉🏾 Some pressure you must transmit: the reality of change, performance standards, constraints that protect judgment, the expectation that people speak up.

Here's the diagnostic: 
→ "If I transmit this as-is, will it increase clarity and agency or only fear and confusion?"
→ If it's the latter, hold it. Translate it into something that helps people think, not panic.

Studies on psychological safety show that...
→ When leaders buffer unnecessary threat while transmitting clarity, teams take learning-oriented risks instead of defensive ones. 
→ When leaders transmit raw pressure without filtering, speaking up drops, errors spike, and teams become self-protective instead of strategic.

👉🏾 Internal governance isn't just what you carry. 
It's what you let through.

What pressure are you holding that you should be transmitting? 
And what are you transmitting that's breaking your team's ability to think?

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

You stopped jumping on every escalation. 
You stopped responding to every email immediately. 
You stopped filling every silence in meetings.

You're practicing restraint. 
You're reacting less.
And your team thinks you've checked out.

The hardest leadership skill during change isn't reacting better, it's reacting less. But restraint without governance looks like disengagement.

Research shows that in high-ambiguity environments, low visible activity reads as low care, unless you actively signal otherwise. 

👉🏾 When you practice restraint without context, 
people fill the silence with worst-case narratives.

You're choosing not to react. 
They're experiencing you as absent.

The distinction is intent:
✅ Strategic non-reaction: "I'm actively taking in data. I'm choosing not to move yet so we don't move badly."
❌ Withdrawal: "I don't want to deal with this. I'm checked out."

From the outside, they look identical. 
Both involve silence. 
Both create space.
But one stabilizes the system. The other destabilizes it.

Research shows leaders are experienced as disengaged...
→ when connection drops, 
→ when they’re hard to reach, 
→ don’t explain pauses, 
→ or go quiet without context. 

In that climate, even healthy restraint gets read as neglect, not containment.

Internal governance is what keeps restraint from being mistaken for disengagement.

Governed restraint requires visible structure, not more activity.
1️⃣ Name the pause: "We're not changing direction this week. We're mapping second-order impacts first."
2️⃣ Put time boundaries on it: "I'll come back Thursday with options." Research shows trust increases when leaders break silence as planned.
3️⃣ Maintain relational contact: Increase 1:1s and check-ins while you withhold the decision. People need to feel seen even without closure.
4️⃣ Show work-in-progress: "Here's what we're looking at this week and how we're thinking about tradeoffs." 
5️⃣ Makes the pause legible as strategy, not drift.

Without these signals, your restraint reads as absence. 
With them, it reads as discipline.

👉🏾 The shift isn't from restraint to reaction. It's from ungoverned restraint to governed restraint.

Where are you practicing restraint right now without governing how it’s perceived?

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

You're defending the AI roadmap to the CEO tomorrow. 
Your best engineer just went quiet. 
The reorg your team didn't ask for starts next month. 

And tonight, you're carrying all of it alone. 
This is the part no one talks about. 

You're not overwhelmed because the work is complex,
You've built systems under worse conditions. 

🚩 You're overwhelmed because you're holding the full weight of it privately. 

💥The budget pressure. 
💥 The skepticism from peers. 
💥 The team that's watching you for cues while you're still figuring out what comes next. 

Most VPs I work with absorb this silently. 
→ They manage up to execs who want speed. 
→ They manage down to teams who want certainty. 
→ They manage sideways to stakeholders who want promises. 

And they do it without acknowledging the toll because naming it feels like weakness. It's not. 

👉🏾 This is where internal governance comes in. 

Internal governance isn't a leadership buzzword. 
→ It's the structure that keeps pressure from leaking into your decisions, your tone, and your timing. 
→ It's what prevents you from reacting when you need to respond. 
→ It's the discipline that holds complexity, so you don't have to white-knuckle every call. 

👉🏾 Firms with stronger governance structures—independent boards, performance-linked accountability, systematic oversight—outperform on ROA and market value. 

Not because they're smarter, but because they've distributed the cognitive load. 

👉🏾 Governance works because it removes the burden of holding everything internally. The same principle applies to you. 

✅  When you build internal governance, you create: 
→ Decision frameworks so every choice doesn't feel existential 
→ Boundaries around what needs resolution now vs. what can wait 
→ Structured space to process pressure before it distorts judgment 
→ Permission to externalize complexity without losing authority 

✨ You already know how to lead under pressure. 

The question is: what systems are you using to hold it? 

Because isolation isn't strength. 
It's risk.

#LeadWithClarity #ChangeWithConfidence

Sunday night. You’re already carrying Monday, 

the decisions waiting, 
the pressure building, 
the questions you haven’t fully answered yet.

Here’s a different move:

Before Monday, identify one decision that is now closed.

Not just decided.
Closed.

No longer open for renegotiation.
No longer provisional.
No longer responsive to pressure.

Stability comes from knowing where the ground no longer moves.

Most senior leaders operate in environments where everything feels provisional. 

Every decision could be reopened. 
Every commitment renegotiated. 
Over time, that creates chronic instability.

When decisions are constantly revisited, execution stalls. 
→ People hedge effort. 
→ They delay commitment. 
→ They stop believing anything will hold long enough to matter.

Here’s what closed means:

Not “we’ve decided and might change our minds.”
But “we’ve decided and unless something material changes, this is no longer open.”

For example:

➡️ This org structure is closed until Q3.
➡️ These three priorities are funded. New requests wait.
➡️ This product line is sunset. We’re not reopening it.

👉🏾 When leaders clearly close decisions and behave consistently afterward, trust increases. 
→ People stop lobbying. 
→ Second-guessing drops. 
→ Energy moves back into execution.

Before Monday, choose one decision that is now closed.
Tell your team. 
Tell your board. 
Tell yourself.

Not because it’s perfect.
But because stability comes from knowing where the ground no longer moves.

And right now, your organization needs at least one thing to be final.

👉🏾 If this resonates, DM me “closed.” I’m working with leaders on creating stability without rigidity and learning to say this is no longer open without apology.

Sunday night. 

You're already carrying next week, the decision, the tension, the conversation no one else knows is weighing on you.

Before Monday: decide what you will hold and what you will stop absorbing.

Most leaders don’t burn out from leading. 
They burn out from absorbing everything that lands near them...
→ emotion that isn't theirs, 
→ doubt someone else should be managing, 
→ weight with no purpose except that it found you.

There's a difference between containment and absorption.

🌱 Containment is strategic. 
→ You hold tension so the system can function. 
→ You metabolize uncertainty so your team can move forward.

🚩 Absorption is uncontained leakage. 
→ You take on emotion because no one else will. 
→ You carry weight that serves nothing except the habit of carrying.

Most leaders don't distinguish between the two until they're already burned out.

Regulation isn't a wellness practice. 
It's an executive decision.

You decide what uncertainty enters your system. 
You decide which conversations drain you. 
You decide when you're containing for the organization and when you're just absorbing because it's easier than saying no.

What are you holding that actually serves the work? 
And what are you absorbing just because you can?

One strengthens the system. 
The other slowly drains it.

If you're rethinking what you're carrying, DM me "holding."

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

Your team is watching you for cues. 
The board wants certainty. 
Your peer just asked if you're "handling it."

You are. Publicly.

💥 At senior levels, no one absorbs uncertainty for you, but everyone absorbs it from you.

🚩 Your team doesn't just hear what you say in the all-hands. 
→ They watch the micro-pause before you answer the hard question. 
→ They notice when your tone shifts between the morning standup and the afternoon strategy call. 
→ They feel what you're carrying even when you don't name it.
→ And they make it mean something about themselves, their projects, the future.

This is the part no one talks about. 

👉🏾 You're not just leading the change—
→ You're metabolizing the uncertainty so the system doesn't fracture. 
→ You're making decisions without complete information while being evaluated weekly. 
→ You're holding steady while others find their footing.

The data confirms it: 
31% of CEOs are fired for poor change management. 
73% of executives report being overworked without rest. 

You already knew this. 
You're living it.

Here's the question most leaders carry alone:
What's holding you while you hold everyone else?

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

Month six of the transformation. 
Early wins are visible. 
The board exhales. 

Your team wants to know if they can slow down. 
And you're tempted to say yes. 

Most leaders don't fail change because of bad strategy. 
They fail it by deciding too early, trying to relieve pressure instead of holding it. 

Here's the moment: 
The reorg is done. 
The new systems are live. 
People are tired. 
You're tired. 
And declaring progress feels like leadership. 

So you do. 

You shift focus back to operations. 
You stop reinforcing the new behaviors. 
You treat "Day One" like the finish line. 
And the organization, still rewiring habits, still testing whether this is real—reads your retreat as permission to go back. 

60–70% of change initiatives fail. 
Not because the strategy was wrong. 

Because leaders couldn't hold the discomfort long enough for it to take root. 

Real transformation takes years. 

Culture doesn't shift because you announced it. 
It shifts when you stay present through the messy middle, 
when resistance peaks, 
when fatigue sets in, 
when everyone (including you) wants relief. 

The hardest move isn't launching the change. 
It's refusing to call it done when the pressure asks you to.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The acquisition was falling apart. Integration slipping. Key talent leaving. 

The executive team wanted the CEO to calm everyone down.
Instead, she told the truth.

"This is harder than we expected. We're behind. We've lost people we didn't want to lose. 

Here's what we know: 
our product is strong, 
our customers are staying, 
we're learning fast. 

Here's what we don't know yet: 
how long this takes to stabilize. 
But we're not pretending it's fine when it's not."

The room didn't relax. But people stopped looking for reassurance and started problem-solving.

👉🏾 Your role in change isn't to reassure people. 
It's to stay coherent when reassurance isn't possible. 

Presence is what remains when certainty is gone.

Research shows this pattern clearly.
Reassurance provides short-term relief, but increases anxiety and dependency over time.

❌ When leaders promise “things will be fine” and outcomes stay unclear, trust erodes.
✅ When leaders stay coherent, when what they see, say, and do align, they become a psychological anchor.

Studies show calm, contained leaders help regulate team anxiety and support better decision-making under stress. 

Coherence is alignment between message, demeanor, and action. 
Your tone, your decisions, your visible choices, 
they all tell the same story about what matters.

That CEO didn't sugarcoat the chaos. 

But every decision reinforced what she said mattered: product quality, customer retention, learning velocity. 

When budget got tight, she protected the product team. 
When timelines slipped, she doubled down on customer communication.

The team stabilized. 
Not because they felt reassured. 
Because they knew where they stood.

The signals of strategic presence aren’t emotional. 
They’re structural:
→ Communicate what is known, what is unknown, and what is being tested, not outcomes you can't promise.
→ Demonstrate values-based decision-making. Your choices reflect your stated priorities, even under pressure.
→ Say "Here's what we don't yet know, and here's how we'll learn" instead of filling gaps with false comfort.

👉🏾 Reassurance teaches people that safety comes from external answers. 
When those answers don't come, dependency turns into distrust.

👉🏾 Coherence teaches people that safety comes from alignment, from knowing that what you see, say, and do are the same thing.

Here's the diagnostic: 
1️⃣ In your last major change, could people repeat your core narrative in one sentence? 
2️⃣ Did your visible choices match your stated priorities? 
3️⃣ How often did you say "we don't know yet" instead of reassuring?

Presence isn't reassurance. It's coherence under pressure.
And coherence is what people trust when certainty is gone.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The executive team was aligned on paper.
Unified strategy. Clear priorities.

But in practice, each executive was optimizing for their own domain.

→ Sales pushed for speed—close deals faster, hit the quarter.
→ Operations demanded control—tighten processes, reduce risk.
→ Product wanted innovation—experiment, test, push boundaries.

Three different truths. All defensible. All in direct conflict.

The middle managers? Paralyzed.

They couldn’t move fast without breaking process.
They couldn’t innovate without risking the quarter.
So they stopped deciding and started escalating everything.

👉🏾 Most organizations don’t break under change.
They fracture under mixed signals.
And those signals almost always trace back to uncontained leadership stress.

Under pressure, executive teams reliably create the same system-level failures:
→ Conflicting signals about priorities and risk
→ Inconsistent decision rules that cascade downward
→ Constant re-prioritization that turns urgency into noise

👉🏾 The organization doesn’t fail because the strategy is wrong.
It fails because the signals governing action stop making sense under stress.

In this case, the fracture wasn’t about strategy.
It was about authority patterns, the recurring ways decisions were made and rewarded.
→ Sales optimized for revenue.
→ Operations optimized for stability.
→ Product optimized for differentiation.

Together, they created a system where the only safe move was no move.
Once they saw the pattern, they aligned on a single constraint:
“We will hit the quarter AND ship the new product AND maintain stability, but we will not add new projects until Q2.”

Not perfect.
But coherent.
The middle managers started moving again.

Here’s the diagnostic:
→ Map your last 3–5 high-stakes decisions.
→ Who set direction?
→ Where did messages change as they moved down?
→ Ask two levels below you: “What behavior looks safest and most rewarded here?”

That answer reveals your real authority pattern.
Alignment at the top doesn’t guarantee coherence in the system.

👉🏾 The work isn’t getting everyone to agree.
It’s ensuring the signals you send through decisions, incentives, and consequences—tell the same story when things get hard.

Because if your signals fracture under stress, so does your organization.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The meeting is going too long. 
Tension is rising. 
Two people are circling the same disagreement, and you can feel the discomfort in the room.

So you cut it off.

"Let's take this offline. We need to move on."

The room exhales. 
The meeting ends.
And the issue? 
Still there. Just quieter now.

👉🏾 What are you trying to resolve too quickly because it makes you uncomfortable? That impulse quietly reshapes organizations, often more than strategy ever will.

→ You didn't resolve the tension. 
→ You displaced it. 
→ You taught people that when things get uncomfortable, the move is to stop talking, not to push through.

And if you do that enough times, it becomes the culture.

Research shows that internal governance isn't just structures and policies, it's the unwritten norms about how disagreement, risk, and uncertainty are handled. 

👉🏾 When leaders consistently speed past discomfort, that becomes the real governance system, regardless of what the org chart says.

→ The pattern compounds. 
→ Conflict gets displaced. 
→ People stay quiet. 
→ Decisions move to hallways. 

💥 Teams optimize for keeping you comfortable, not for surfacing reality early enough to act.

👉🏾 Here's the reflective practice:
Recall one recent situation where you felt pressure to "just decide" or "move on."

❓Ask yourself:
→ What feeling was I trying to get away from? (Awkwardness, fear of conflict, fear of being wrong)
→ What did I do to reduce that feeling quickly? (Overruling, deflecting, postponing, sugarcoating)
→ If others copy that move, what kind of culture does it create in 6-12 months?

Your strategy says you value candor and truth-telling. 
But your discomfort management teaches people to be careful, to avoid tension, to wait for you to decide.

Culture follows the pattern you model, not the values you articulate.

👉🏾 If everyone handled discomfort the way you do in that moment, what would your culture look like a year from now?

The invitation isn't to confession.  It's to honest noticing.

What are you trying to resolve too quickly because it makes you uncomfortable?

That’s the question worth sitting with.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

You’re working late again. 
Not because the work requires it.

You’re answering emails that could wait. 
Refining a deck that’s already good enough. 
Reviewing work that your team can handle. 
Reorganizing priorities that won’t actually change anything.

And when you finally stop, you feel slightly better.
Not because something critical moved forward, but because 
you discharged some of the weight.

Most overwork at senior levels isn’t about workload. 
It’s about emotional regulation.

Research shows that overwork is often driven by anxiety reduction, not external demand. 

👉🏾 Workaholism functions as motion-as-relief, activity that creates a temporary sense of control while accelerating burnout. 
👉🏾 “Optimal busyness” feels energizing, even when it doesn’t meaningfully change outcomes.

You’re not working to create value. 
You’re working to discharge responsibility.

There’s a difference:

👉🏾 Productive work: Clear linkage between effort and outcome. Decisions made. Something shifts when you finish.
👉🏾 Motion-as-relief: High multitasking. Constant interruptions. Refining what’s already done. Activity that feels useful but erodes strategic capacity.

🚩 Multitasking alone can consume up to 40% of productive capacity. 
🚩 Visible responsiveness feels responsible, but it quietly degrades judgment and focus.

Productive work has a finish line. 
Motion-as-relief doesn’t.

When you stop, the weight is still there. 
You just feel slightly less anxious for having moved.
So you do it again the next night.

You’re not overworked because there’s too much to do. 
You’re overworked because holding responsibility without constant motion feels intolerable.

The weight of outcomes you can’t fully control. 
Decisions that won’t resolve cleanly. 
Accountability that sits heavy.
So you work, not to finish, but to discharge.

And every time you do, you reinforce the pattern: 
The only way to handle this weight is to stay busy.

👉🏾 Next time you catch yourself working late, ask: “Is this moving something forward or am I trying to feel better about what I’m carrying?”

👉🏾 If it’s the latter, stop. Sit with the weight.

That discomfort, holding responsibility without immediate action, that is the work.

Check out the REWIRED. newsletter (link in comments).

The pressure isn't resolving. 
The board wants results you can't deliver yet. 
The market is shifting faster than your strategy can adapt.

And you start compensating.

Not because it's needed. 
Because holding steady feels intolerable.

When pressure doesn't resolve, leaders start compensating. 
→ Over-communicating. 
→ Over-deciding. 
→ Over-functioning.

From the outside, it looks like leadership. 
From the inside, you know you're just creating motion.

👉🏾 Research shows compensation behaviors are stress responses, ways leaders create motion when steadiness feels intolerable. 

Short-term, they feel relieving, you're doing something. 
Long-term, they drain your reserves faster than the work itself ever could.

👉🏾 Studies on high-functioning burnout call this the "crash-out effect": sustained hyperactivation eventually leads to profound fatigue and cognitive fog. 

You look productive. 
You're running on fumes.
And the compensation? 

It's not fixing the pressure. 
It's creating the illusion of control.

Over-functioning is often rooted in survival strategies, where taking on extra responsibility became the way to stay safe in chaotic environments. 

That doesn't go away when you become a senior leader. It just gets more sophisticated.

→ You over-communicate because ambiguity feels dangerous. 
→ You over-decide because open loops feel like failure. 
→ You over-function because doing less feels like weakness.

If you’re working harder but not making progress,
If you’re exhausted but the pressure isn’t decreasing, 
you’re not leading. 

You’re compensating.
And the organization sees it. 

They don't see a leader holding complexity. 
They see someone who can't tolerate unresolved pressure.
So they start compensating too.

When you catch yourself sending the third follow-up in an hour, ask: 
"Is this needed, or am I just relieving discomfort?"

When you're about to decide just to close the loop, ask: 
"Is this decision ripe, or am I managing my own anxiety?"

The work isn't doing more. 
The work is learning to tolerate unresolved pressure without burning yourself out trying to fix it prematurely.

What pressure are you compensating around right now instead of actually holding?

40+ Linkedin Money-Making-Influence Resources I Toxic Boss Immunity I Frequency of INFLUENCE: ETHICAL PERSUASION I $20k Brain-Based Sales System | HarvardX Neuroscience Research I Keynote 🎤 I X-Microsoft I Captain ⛵

$20k Monthly Brain Based Sales System Without Chasing the "Yes"

You know the feeling:
😳 Your brain lights up with “What if they think I’m pushy?” the second you open a DM.
😬 You’d rather post and pray the right people find you than risk being ghosted.
😅 You tell yourself that if you were really good, clients would just show up.

You don’t want to fake connection just to pitch.
You want sales that feels human. Real conversations, not pressure tactics.

You’re not bad at sales.
Your brain is just protecting you.

The amygdala flags rejection as danger.
Your prefrontal cortex freezes.
And boom hesitation, overthinking, silence.

That’s where my work comes in.
I teach the Neuroscience of No-Pressure Sales so you can sell with calm confidence instead of fear.

No scripts. No manipulation.
Just science, psychology, and simple tools to retrain your nervous system so selling feels natural again.

When your brain is relaxed, your authenticity returns.
You stop pitching and start connecting.
Outreach stops feeling like an intrusion and starts feeling like service.

This is sales made easy for coaches who hate selling.

✨ Ways to get started with me:

✅ If you're a coach DM me "Butter"
✅ If you're a business owner DM me "Butter"
✅ If you're a sales leader DM me "Butter"
✅ Attend my next workshop for FREE BRAIN BASED SALES SECRETS. https://forms.gle/HvTRDEZEuu7bgQEF8
✅ Subscribe to the Be Like Butter Bugle: Weekly brain hacks for resilience and influence. https://synaptic-solutions.kit.com/newsletter

Personal interests: 
- Captain ⛵️ 
- Recovering Sugar Addict 🍭 
- Trash TV consumer 🗑️

Sales Coach | Toxic Boss Coach | Neuroscience Coach | Executive Coach | Master Behavioral Strategist | Speaker | Advisor | Expert | 7 figures | Virtual Speaking | Sales Performance Brain Hacker | Mindset Coach I Corporate Trainer I Influence I Key Note Speaker

🧠 Shannon Smith, J.D., M.S. 🚀

Stop chasing success alone.

Every innovator who built something great had 1 thing in common

Connection
It’s not that creativity happens alone…
It’s that the brain creates better in connection.

The brain evolved to think with other brains.
When connection is present, threat detection quiets.

The amygdala relaxes.
The prefrontal cortex stays online.
That’s where creativity lives.

Connection increases neural synchrony.
Brains begin to align.
Ideas move faster.
Patterns emerge you can’t see solo.

Isolation does the opposite.
Thinking loops.
Risk tolerance drops.
Novelty dries up.

Creativity isn’t just about safety.
It’s about belonging.
Here’s how :

1️⃣ Think out loud with others
 Speaking activates more neural networks than silent thought.
 Shared dialogue creates neural synchrony,
 helping the brain integrate patterns it can’t access alone.
 Half-formed ideas are fuel, not flaws.

2️⃣ Build before you judge
 Evaluation triggers the amygdala.
 Threat shuts down the prefrontal cortex.
 Sequence matters: expand first, critique later.
 Flow requires a brain that isn’t defending itself.

3️⃣ Create spaces to explore, not perform
 Performance activates social threat circuitry.
 Play lowers cortisol and increases cognitive flexibility.
 A relaxed nervous system makes wider, more novel connections.

Innovation doesn’t come from brilliance.
It comes from brains that feel safe thinking together.

PS: Who do you think best with?

Want to get an article published in a big time magazine?
I'll give you the contact info for 150+ reporters for major publications +
A Custom Message so you can break the ice & establish a relationship. 
How to get it? Join --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow 🧠 Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

This feels illegal.

I built a mobile app while sailing.

Out there, things get quiet.
No notifications fighting for attention.
No noise telling you who to be.

Just wind, water, and time to notice what’s inside.

That’s where the idea came from.

Not everyone can disappear onto a boat.
But everyone needs a way to reconnect with themselves
In a loud world that never shuts up.

So I opened Replit
and described an app idea I’d already been researching. 

How to connect with yourself in a tech heavy world using…
Guess what…yes, neuroscience. 
You guessed it. 

Replit turned that idea into a real mobile app.

A live phone preview appeared.
I played with it and iterated between tacks. 
A few messages later, the app matched the intention.

Calm.
Minimal.
Human.

No mobile frameworks.
No complicated setup.
No build headaches.

Replit handled the mobile stack…
the preview
and the path to publishing.

I focused on the part that mattered:
creating space for real connection.

That’s the point.

You don’t need to escape your life to feel grounded.
You can build tools that bring you back to yourself.
Right where you are.
Even in a noisy world.

If you’ve ever wanted to create an app without needing a team
(or a computer) 
NOW you can. 

Get the Replit app and build from anywhere.
YOUR $10 REPLIT CREDIT
https://lnkd.in/gSCu_9Tj

P.S. If I vanish for a few hours I’m probably publishing a new app between tacks. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain based peace and app building
♻️ Share to inspire someone who needs dev help without headache

It's not that you aren't creative...

It's that your brain doesn't get enough breathing room

When outcomes matter too much,
the nervous system shifts into protection.

Certainty over curiosity.
Efficiency over exploration.

The amygdala scans for mistakes.
The prefrontal cortex goes quiet.
Thinking narrows to what’s already proven.

That feels like a creativity problem.
It’s actually a safety problem.

Innovation doesn’t come from pushing harder.
It comes from widening the mental field.

Creative insight requires a brain
that isn’t bracing for consequences.

One that feels free to test, miss, and iterate
without immediate judgment.

That’s why pressure-heavy environments
produce more output…
and fewer breakthroughs.

Creativity is a state, not a talent.
Change the state and ideas follow.

Here’s how to heighten creativity on demand:

1/ Slow the body before you think
Creativity follows regulation.
Lengthen your exhale for 60 seconds before ideating.
A calmer nervous system reopens cognitive range.

2/ Create “low-stakes” thinking space
Tell your brain nothing here has to be right.
Set a 10-minute window for bad ideas only.
Permission removes the fear that blocks novelty.

3/ Shift environments, not effort
New inputs disrupt rigid patterns.
Walk. Change rooms. Look farther into the distance.
Movement and visual expansion spark new connections.

When the brain feels safe enough to explore,
it starts to play.
And play is where innovation lives.

PS: Which of these would change how you think the fastest?

Introducing Butterhood Connect:
Find your people - other entrepreneurs like yourself. 
PLUS...FREE content on:
- Craft content that converts
- Understand your ICP deeply
- Increase your cognitive flexibility
- DM to get in front of your prospect
 You don't have to do this alone. Join us FREE
https://lnkd.in/gqMj4Vfz

Video Credit: Unknown
---------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

Clarity doesn’t come from thinking harder

It comes from feeling safer.

When the brain senses pressure, it prepares to defend.
 
Attention narrows.
Options collapse.
The mind looks for certainty.

That state is efficient.
It’s not creative.

Innovation requires uncertainty tolerance.
That tolerance lives in the nervous system,
not the intellect.

When the parasympathetic nervous system activates,

✅ The body slows.
✅ The threat response stands down.
✅ The brain regains flexibility.

This is when perception widens.
Old assumptions loosen.

Problems reorganize themselves.
New pathways become visible.
Psychological safety is what allows this shift.

It tells the brain nothing bad will happen
if you explore a different angle.

Without safety, the brain repeats.
With safety, the brain imagines.

No regulation, no reframing.
No reframing, no innovation.

Here’s how to design for it:
1️⃣ Regulate before you reason
 Slowing the breath reduces neural noise.
 Clear thinking follows bodily calm.

2️⃣ Delay decisions during ideation
 Premature judgment triggers threat circuits.
 Time preserves creative flexibility.

3️⃣ Create private space to think freely
 Privacy lowers social evaluation.
 Safety expands possibility.

Breakthroughs come from a nervous system 
that feels safe enough
to see the problem differently.

PS: What helps your body settle fastest?

Join us for innovation --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

Video Credit: Unknown

-------------------------------------------------------
👉 Follow Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

You’re not broken.

You're just not connected...

...in a way no one taught you to recognize.

We have more connection technology than ever.
Group chats. Slack threads. Social feeds.
Standing meetings. Faces everywhere.

You can be busy, productive, and surrounded by people
And still feel unseen, unfelt, and unsupported.

Modern life keeps the nervous system overstimulated.
Your brain is flooded with input, decisions,
and performance cues.

When that happens, the social brain goes offline.
You don’t lose the desire for connection.
You lose access to it.

So you adapt.

You stay functional instead of present.
You keep conversations light instead of real.
You handle things alone because it feels safer.
You tell yourself you’re “fine”
while feeling disconnected from yourself.

Over time, that state becomes your baseline.
And the most painful part?

You start to believe this is just how life is.
It’s not.

Disconnection isn’t a personality trait.
It’s a nervous system state.
And nervous system states can change.

Here’s what neuroscience shows actually helps.

1/ regulation comes before connection.
 When your system is overloaded,
 bonding chemistry can’t do its job.
 You don’t need better words.
 You need your body to feel safe enough
 to be real.

2/ small moments matter more
 than deep conversations.
 Eye contact that lasts a beat longer.
 A pause instead of rushing away.
 Naming what you notice
 instead of what sounds impressive.

3/ connection accelerates in the right environment.
Trying to heal disconnection alone
 keeps the brain in protection mode.
 Being around others doing hard inner work
 creates co-regulation.

Your nervous system learns:
“I don’t have to carry this by myself.”
That’s why community matters.

Not noisy.
Not performative.
Not networking.

But a grounded space of people 
reconnecting with themselves
and with others.

This is what I’m building.
A community for capable, thoughtful people
doing hard things
who don’t want to do them alone.

A place to regulate, reflect, and be real
without fixing yourself
or pretending you’re fine.

If you’ve felt alone in a world full of people,
it’s not because something is wrong with you.
It’s because your nervous system
hasn’t had the right conditions yet.

And you don’t have to create those alone.
If this resonated, the community is open
for people ready to reconnect with themselves and with others.

P.S. Where do you feel most disconnected right now?

Introducing Butterhood Connect:
Find your people - other entrepreneurs like yourself. 
PLUS...FREE content on:
- Craft content that converts
- Understand your ICP deeply
- Increase your cognitive flexibility
- DM to get in front of your prospect
 You don't have to do this alone. Join us FREE
https://lnkd.in/gqMj4Vfz

------------------------------------------------------------
➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain-based connection
♻️ Share this with someone who might feel alone but never say it

It’s not that your team doesn't have new ideas…

It’s that they don’t feel safe enough to share them with you.

When people sense evaluation,
their nervous systems switch to self-protection.

😶‍🌫️ They edit.
😶‍🌫️ They hedge.
😶‍🌫️ They stick to what’s already approved.

That looks like alignment.
It’s actually inhibition.

Innovation requires exposure.
New ideas are, by definition, unproven.
And the brain treats being wrong like a social threat.

So the amygdala gets loud.
Risk tolerance drops.
Thinking narrows to what won’t get you in trouble.

That’s why teams with “high standards”
but low psychological safety
produce execution…
not breakthroughs.

Psychological safety isn’t about being nice.
It’s about creating conditions
where the prefrontal cortex stays online.

When people believe they won’t be punished
for experimenting,
their brains stay open.

They challenge assumptions.
They connect unlikely dots.
They surface problems early.

No safety, no innovation.
No innovation, no future edge.

If you want better ideas, don’t ask for more creativity.
Design environments where
people don’t have to protect themselves first.

PS: Where do you notice people holding back on your team?

Join the Butterhood Connect
- Get free resources and training on DMs
- Figure out your sales style
- Jumpstart your sales!
Build relationships with other entrepreneurs
You don't have to do this ALONE
https://lnkd.in/gbpNMdU6

Video Credit: Unknown

--------------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

Your CRM shows ACTIVITY.

It doesn't show REALITY.

Most managers think they understand their pipeline.
But they’re only seeing the version their reps feel comfortable sharing.

The CRM shows progress.
The reps show confidence.
The pipeline shows movement.

But underneath all of that
there’s hesitation, uncertainty, and doubt
that never makes it into the forecast.

And that’s the part that costs you.

Reps aren’t trying to mislead you.
They’re trying to look competent.
So they hold back the early warning signs.
They soften how shaky a deal feels.
They overstate buyer momentum.

They wait until a problem becomes undeniable
and by then
your quarter is already in danger.

That’s why so many leaders get blindsided.
Not because the deals are bad
but because the real signals were never visible.

A CRM tracks activity.
It doesn’t track conviction.
It doesn’t track buyer emotions.
It doesn’t track rep confidence.
It doesn’t track the energy of the deal
which is the part that collapses first.

SalesSage exposes that hidden layer.
It reveals where reps feel unsure.
It highlights deals that look fine on paper
but feel unstable underneath.
It identifies slipping belief before it becomes slipping revenue.
It gives you truth early
so you can fix the problem while there’s still time.

Leaders don’t need more data.
They need the truth behind the data.
That’s the gap SalesSage closes.

If you want to see what’s really happening
beneath the surface of your pipeline sign up
14 day free trial
https://salessage.co/

P.S. How was your Q4?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain based sales leadership
♻️ Share if you’ve ever been blindsided by a “healthy” deal that fell apart

You can’t fix a quarter your team’s afraid to talk about.

Your biggest revenue leak isn’t pipeline. It’s silence.

The worst part of running a sales team
is thinking you’re safe right before the quarter blows up.

Your CRM says you’re good.
Your reps say deals are “strong”.
Forecast looks clean.
You breathe for two seconds.

Then the quarter flips
and you’re standing there like
what the hell just happened?

Here’s the truth nobody wants to say:
Reps aren’t lying.
Their brains are.

People say things are fine when they’re overwhelmed.
They overestimate deals when they’re stressed.
They downplay risk when they don’t want to look behind.

So you get the truth only after it hits your number.
Sales Sage catches it earlier.

It spots confidence dips.
Avoidance patterns.
Dead deals dressed up as healthy ones.
Execution cracks that never show in a CRM.

Stuff reps don’t say out loud but absolutely tank a quarter.
If you’re tired of getting blindsided
by “everything looks good” data

P.S. What's your best closing line?

See the truth your reps won’t say out loud 
(before it blows up your number)
Taking 100 beta testers - 14 day free trial
https://salessage.co/

---------------------------------------------------------------

♻️ Share if you’ve lived a surprise miss
➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain based sales insights

Stop telling yourself that you're too busy to DM.

Stop telling yourself DMs are too pushy. 

DMs close sales. Period. 

Most people think outreach stalls
because they don’t know what to say.
That’s rarely true.

What’s actually happening is identity protection.
Your brain isn’t avoiding DMs to save time.
It’s protecting how you see yourself.

So you stay visible.
You post.
You wait.

And the conversations that move revenue never start.

When the nervous system flags selling as risk,
avoidance looks like strategy.

Weeks pass.
Opportunities decay.
Revenue becomes unpredictable.
That delay has a real cost.

Avoiding just 3–5 high-value messages a week
can quietly leave $15K–$100K per quarter on the table.

Not because you lack ability.
Because “selling” feels unsafe.

This is why scripts don’t stick.
Knowledge ≠ movement.

Insight shows up first.
Behavior only follows when the underlying pattern shifts.

That’s what Butterhood is for.
Not more information.
Not performance.
Not pressure.

It’s a place to notice friction in real time
and make small, deliberate moves
that change momentum.

Inside, we work on:
Why certain conversations stall even when you say the right thing
What makes outreach feel heavy and how to remove that friction
How to move conversations forward without forcing or performing
Installing a sales rhythm that feels stable instead of stressful

They’re ordered intentionally.
Each layer stabilizes the nervous system for the next.

If you’ve ever thought, “This makes sense…
so why am I not doing it yet?”

That’s the signal.
GET IN THE DMS.
Still resisting?
GET INTO THE BUTTERHOOD.

If you want influence that moves like butter 🧈
Join Butterhood → https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

BONUS: Want to get an article published in a big time magazine?
I'll give you the contact info for 150+ reporters for major publications +
A Custom Message so you can break the ice & establish a relationship. 
How to get it? Join --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

PS: Where do your conversations stall right now?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain-based sales insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help someone move again

Why do you have that stupid look on your face?

A C-level executive asked me on my first day

I was sitting across his desk of my first big girl job
(Talk about an executive onboarding)
I was just 20 years old.

I remember freezing.
Not answering.
Just blinking.

I laughed it off and swallowed my pride. 

Meeting over.
But my body stayed locked.

Jaw tight.
Chest and body buzzing.
Mind replaying every word.

Later that day a coworker asked if I was okay.

I said yes.
I wasn’t lying on purpose.
I just didn’t know what “okay” even meant anymore.

That’s the problem with stress.
It normalizes.
Your nervous system adapts.
Your baseline quietly shifts.

You think its no big deal. 
I’m fine. 

Your body knows that you’re not.
For years, I relied on vibes.
Am I handling it or barely holding it together?

No data.
No baseline.
Just guessing.

That’s why I built a these resources
✅ An entire toxic boss armor system
✅ 25-question nervous system audit
✅ An app that helps you each step of the way

Not a personality quiz.
Not mindset fluff.

Actual signals of load, recovery,
and how close you are to the edge.

The site and app give you a real baseline.
Clear data.
Practical next steps.

You don’t need thicker skin.
You need awareness and a hand up. 

PS What's your worst toxic boss story?

https://lnkd.in/guRmdNEu

--------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow Shannon for brain-based tools 
♻️ Repost if someone you know is guessing too.

Why do you have that stupid look on your face

Everyone wants AI magic.

Few want to invest in the foundation.

People light up when they talk about AI lead gen.

AI outreach.
AI follow up.
AI prospecting.
The promise of more output with less effort...
It's intoxicating.

But effectiveness still comes from the human brain.
The seller’s state.
The buyer’s state.
The interaction between the two.

If your nervous system is overloaded, 
your messages won’t land.

If your prospect’s nervous system is tense,
your tools won’t move them.

If your clarity wobbles,
your AI will wobble with it.

Tools can accelerate your behavior.
They can’t upgrade your regulation.
They can’t deepen your presence.
They can’t create safety for a buyer who isn’t sure yet.

So you can very quickly send a bad message to 
a lot of people (and I see this a lot).
Super efficient. 
Effective?
Not so much. 

You would have been better off 
not to send anything at all. 

You create
👀 noise.
👀 hesitation.
👀 stall points.

Before you automate anything,
your nervous system has to support the interaction.
Your messaging has to speak to the real pressure points.
Your awareness has to read what the buyer is actually signaling.

Here are the pieces that shift everything:
1️⃣ A regulated internal state
A steady system writes messages people lean into.

2️⃣ Understanding buyer pressure
Not their demographics.
Their actual cognitive load.

3️⃣ Signal-based communication
Warmth, recency, micro-openings, lowered stakes.

Without this foundation in place, AI becomes clutter.
😶‍🌫️ Damages your brand.
😶‍🌫️ Irritates your people. 
😶‍🌫️ Loses your clients.

Inside Butterhood, this is the core work.
The human layer that makes every tool
more powerful, more accurate, and more profitable.
EFFECTIVE.

Join us → https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

PS: What AI promise are people chasing the hardest right now?

---------------------------------------------------------------
👉 Follow Shannon for brain-backed sales and clarity
♻️ Share this to help someone build the foundation that sells

7 signs you're tough enough for your toxic boss...

without quitting your job.

Your nervous system has a baseline.
That baseline shapes how pressure lands.

Here are 7 signs you're tough enough:

1/ Your baseline state
 A system that rarely rests stays closer to threat.
 From that state, stress hits faster and harder.
 Do this: notice how you feel when you first wake up.
 Do this: schedule one daily pause with no objective.

2/ Continuous motion
 Moving task to task keeps activation high.
 The body never completes a stress cycle.
 Do this: insert a 2-minute pause between blocks.
 Do this: stand still and breathe before switching tasks.

3/ Mental load during “rest”
 A busy mind keeps the system activated.
 Physical stillness alone doesn’t equal recovery.
 Do this: notice if your mind stays busy at rest.
 Do this: gently bring attention to body sensations.

4/ Guilt around slowing down
 Guilt keeps the nervous system alert.
 Safety requires permission to stop.
 Do this: notice the urge to justify rest.
 Do this: remind yourself recovery supports performance.

5/ Morning and evening carryover
 Tension on waking signals unresolved load.
 Evening stress blocks downshifting.
 Do this: check your body before checking your phone.
 Do this: create a short shutdown ritual at night.

6/ Recovery timing
 Waiting for exhaustion delays regulation.
 Late recovery takes longer to work.
 Do this: rest before you feel depleted.
 Do this: add small resets throughout the day.

7/ Social threat sensitivity
 Overloaded systems struggle with power dynamics.
 Emotional range narrows under pressure.
 Do this: regulate before interactions, not after.
 Do this: widen awareness when tension rises.

This comes before any boss strategy.
Awareness of starting state is the first layer of immunity.

PS Which point showed you something you hadn’t noticed before?

Toxic Boss Immunity - 
Building a self-serve platform
To create a path to freedom where you call the shots, you're unshakable, you're influential, and free from anyone else’s control.
Get on the waitlist for FREE
https://lnkd.in/gGJYwXPa
OR
DM Me "Toxic Audit" for your own quick check

----------------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow Shannon for brain-based tools to stay regulated in toxic places
♻️ Repost if someone you know is always “on.”

 7 signs you're tough enough for a toxic boss

Don't just pray for a job.

Pray for a leader, not a toxic boss. 

They say you leave your manager, not your job.
So. True. 

Culture lives in nervous systems.
Leaders set the baseline every day.
Teams regulate around that signal automatically.

Here are 5 signs of a great leader:

1/ Self-regulation
 A great leader notices their own stress.
 They slow down before they speak.
 The room settles when they enter.

A toxic leader brings unprocessed stress.
The room tightens immediately.

2/ Clarity under pressure
 A great leader keeps priorities stable.
 Expectations stay clear during chaos.
 Brains relax when rules do not shift.

A toxic leader changes direction emotionally.
The team scans moods instead of work.

3/ Pressure flows upward
 A great leader absorbs pressure from above.
 They filter noise before it hits the team.
 Focus stays intact.

A toxic leader pushes pressure downward.
Urgency spreads through the group.

4/ Recovery is allowed
 A great leader respects human limits.
 Pauses are normal and safe.
 Energy and thinking stay strong.

A toxic leader rewards constant output.
Rest feels risky or earned.

5/ Response over reaction
 A great leader pauses in conflict.
 Their nervous system stays online.
 Hard talks feel contained.

A toxic leader reacts emotionally.
Others mirror the instability.
Trust erodes quietly.

Leadership is not control.
It is regulation.

PS Which one of these have you felt?

Toxic Boss Immunity 
Building a self-serve platform
To create a path to freedom where you call the shots, you're unshakable, you're influential, and free from anyone else’s control.
Get on the waitlist for FREE
https://lnkd.in/gGJYwXPa

-----------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow Shannon for brain-based leadership tools.
♻️ Repost if a leader you know needs this lens.

Behind every “I’m not qualified”

Is a future you haven’t met yet. 

I’m not technical.
I’ve never wanted to be “the code person.”
And honestly, that used to stop me.

Because most AI coding hype assumes
you already know what you’re doing.
Repos.
Installs.
Setup before you even start.

That’s where Replit felt different.
I stayed in the browser.
I described what I wanted in plain words.
And I watched a real app come to life.
Live.

I wasn’t struggling to learn syntax.
I was refining an idea using my own language. 

You grow by doing things you aren’t qualified to do yet.
Most people don’t fail because they can’t.

They stop because they tell themselves
“I’m not technical enough.”

I didn’t suddenly become technical.
The barrier just disappeared.

Replit handled the setup, hosting, and deployment.
I focused on what the app should feel like.
That’s the unlock.

If you already code,
pairing Replit with Claude Code accelerates shipping.
If you don’t,
Replit still lets you build something real.

No identity change required.

You don’t need permission.
You don’t need a team.
You don’t need to be “qualified” yet.
You just need to start.

P.S. What have you been waiting to build?

💡 $10 credit for Replit Core users —>
https://lnkd.in/gSCu_9Tj

P.P.S. If you’ve been telling yourself “I’m not ready for that yet,”
THIS IS YOUR SIGN

------------------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain based performance
♻️ Share to inspire someone who’s doubting their fire

The way to get clients on Linkedin is this...

Understand the inner thoughts of your ICP

Most people study their ICP on the surface.
Top sellers study how their ICP thinks.

If you want to sell on LinkedIn,
you have to know what your ICP is actually worried about,
not what they pretend to care about.

Here are 8 steps to uncover the real subtext 
of your ICP on LinkedIn:

1. Audit Their LinkedIn Profiles
Look at what they emphasize.
Tension shows up in their headcount, KPIs, and team priorities.
Their top headaches are usually hiding in plain sight.

2. Study Their Event Activity
Search for events they attend.
Then check the attendee list.
The themes they show up for
tell you what’s keeping them up at night.

3. Watch Them in Comment Sections
Look at your ICP commenting on competitors’ posts.
Their questions reveal fears.
Their reactions reveal pressure points.

4. Analyze Comments Under Hand-Raising Posts
Creators often say “comment for more info.”
Those comments are gold.
They show exactly what your ICP thinks they need
and what they wish someone would help them solve.

5. Read Your Own Comments Differently
Your commenters are micro-versions of your ICP.
Study their language, frustrations, and patterns.
Your future offer refinement is already hiding there.

6. Track What They Subscribe To
Newsletters, creators, and series they follow
tell you what they’re actively trying to improve.
Subscription signals = priority signals.

7. Act Like Your ICP For a Day
Ask yourself:
If I were them, what problems would I think about at 10 a.m.?
Budget. Productivity. Risk. Politics. Efficiency.
Not “culture” or “soft skills.”
Speak to the internal pressure they feel,
not the topic you want to teach.

8. Go One Layer Deeper Than Logic
Once you find the logical problem,
double punch it.
What’s the emotional layer?
Fear of missing targets?
Fear of looking incompetent?
Fear of wasting budget?
Fear of taking a risk and being wrong?
This is the real subtext.

If you understand your ICP’s subtext,
you won’t sound like their 10th vendor.
You’ll sound like the only person
who actually gets how they think.

BIG NEWS! SALES SAGE IS LIVE!
See the truth your reps won’t say out loud 
(before it blows up your number)
Taking 100 beta testers - 14 day free trial
https://salessage.co/

P.S. What is the number 1 problem your ICP cares about?

----------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow Shannon for brain based sales and insight
♻️ Share to help someone see what their buyers really mean

If you can’t regulate...

You can’t close.

Sales exposes you.
You meet yourself in every conversation.

Your patterns.
Your pressure points.
Your nervous system.
And there are truths you can’t bypass.

You can only face them and train your brain to handle them.
Here are the fifteen brutal truths that shape every 
👀 coach
👀 solopreneur
👀 salesperson

Skinny to long.
Short to heavy.

Exactly how they hit in real life.

1. Pain shows.
2. Hope lies.
3. Buyers drift.
4. Silence grows teeth.
5. Confidence is unstable.
6. Urgency fades overnight.
7. Your tone leaks your pressure.
8. Your pipeline mirrors your mind.
9. Hard calls get pushed tomorrow.
10. Deals die from emotional overload.
11. You cling to maybes to avoid rejection.
12. You chase when your nervous system spikes.
13. You fill your calendar instead of your forecast.
14. You talk more when your brain feels threatened.
15. You lose more deals from dysregulation than bad skills.

The people who win aren’t the hardest closers.
They’re the ones who can think when the noise hits.

They regulate faster.
They recover quicker.
They protect their cognitive bandwidth.

If you want a system that reduces noise, 
increases yeses..
and keeps you out of chasing mode
Let's Talk here --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

PS. Which truth hit the hardest today?

---------------------------------------------------------------

♻️ Share if you’ve lived a brutal truth
➕ Follow Shannon for brain based sales insights

Don’t be afraid to start all over again.

You might like your new story better.

Most people don’t stay with toxic bosses
because they love the job.

They stay because starting over feels risky.

You already invested time.
You already proved yourself.
You already survived this much.

So you tell yourself to push through.
But toxic environments don’t just drain energy.
They slowly rewrite who you think you are.

Confidence narrows.
Vision shrinks.
Your nervous system learns to expect threat.

Starting over isn’t failure.
It’s interruption.
And sometimes, leaving isn’t possible yet.
That’s where people get stuck.

Here’s how to regain agency
even if you can’t leave right now.

Three pillars.
Practical. Grounded. Usable.

1/ Establish your baseline
You need to know your starting state.
Stress feels normal when it’s chronic.
Without data, you guess how you’re doing.
Do this: assess how activated you feel most days.
Do this: track sleep, tension, and recovery honestly.
Baseline awareness tells you whether you’re already 
overloaded before the boss even enters the picture.

2/ Predict instead of brace
Toxic bosses are patterned.
The same situations trigger the same behavior.
Surprise is what spikes threat.
Do this: list the moments they escalate.
Do this: plan your response before it happens.
Prediction gives your nervous system what it desperately wants.
Certainty.

3/Plan recovery like it’s required
Stress doesn’t end when the meeting ends.
Unreleased activation carries forward.
That’s how burnout accumulates.
Do this: schedule recovery after interactions.
Do this: close the stress cycle deliberately.
Recovery restores clarity, confidence, and choice.

This is how you protect yourself
while you decide what comes next.

And if there truly is no exit right now,
you still don’t have to white-knuckle it.

That’s why I built
Toxic Boss Armor.

It gives you a baseline.
Helps you predict patterns.
Builds plans that keep your nervous system intact.

Starting over doesn’t always mean leaving tomorrow.
Sometimes it means reclaiming yourself first.

PS If you could rewrite your work story, 
what would you want to feel differently?

Free resources
https://lnkd.in/guRmdNEu

-----------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow 🧠 Shannon for brain-based tools to stay clear at work.
♻️ Repost if someone you know is afraid to start again.

Micromanagement breeds compliance.

Not commitment.

When every move is monitored,
every decision is corrected,
and every mistake is highlighted,
the brain stops optimizing for growth.

It starts optimizing for safety.
Micromanagement increases uncertainty.
Uncertainty activates the amygdala.
Threat signaling rises.
The prefrontal cortex goes partially offline.

That’s the biology of it.
The prefrontal cortex is where initiative lives,
creativity lives, and ownership lives.

When threat is present, those functions are deprioritized.
So the nervous system adapts.
People do what’s asked.

They stop offering ideas.
They wait for instructions.
They avoid visibility.

From the outside, it looks like control is working.
From the inside, commitment is already gone.

Chronic micromanagement also keeps the stress axis activated.
Cortisol stays elevated.
Recovery shortens.
Motivation drops.
Burnout becomes inevitable.

This is nervous system load.
Leaders often assume disengagement = people don’t care.

More often, it means their nervous system 
doesn’t feel safe enough to invest.

And if you’re on the receiving end of this,
you don’t need thicker skin.

You need regulation, data, and strategy.

That’s why I built
Toxic Boss Armor.

It helps you understand your nervous system baseline,
predict toxic patterns,
and protect your clarity and confidence
even when leadership doesn’t change.

Compliance is a warning sign.
Commitment only emerges when the brain feels safe.

PS Are you barely hanging on by a thread? 
Get some relief --> https://lnkd.in/guRmdNEu

-------------------------------------------------------

➕ Follow Shannon for brain-based tools for surviving a toxic boss.
♻️ Repost if someone you know is stuck under a micromanager.

The answer doesn’t show up when you chase it

It shows up when you stop gripping.

Most people try to solve problems by applying more force.

❌ More analysis.
❌ More urgency.
❌ More mental effort.

The brain hears that as threat.
So it tightens.

When pressure rises,
the nervous system shifts into control mode.

Attention narrows.
Thinking becomes repetitive.

The brain looks for the least risky answer,
not the most interesting one.

That’s why clarity feels elusive when you need it most.
Insight lives in a quieter state.

When the parasympathetic nervous system activates,
the body settles.

Heart rate slows.
Breath deepens.
Internal noise drops.

In that state, the brain starts integrating 
instead of defending.

Patterns rearrange.
Meaning surfaces.
You don’t force the answer.
You notice it.

Psychological safety is what gives the nervous system
permission to loosen its grip.

It tells the brain:
🧠 You’re allowed to pause.
🧠 You’re allowed to wonder.
🧠 You’re allowed to see this differently.

Without safety, the brain loops.
With safety, the brain listens.

No calm, no coherence.
No coherence, no insight.

Here’s how to invite clarity back in:
1️⃣ Soften the body first
Longer exhales reduce neural noise.
The mind follows the body into calm.

2️⃣ Remove time pressure from thinking
Urgency activates threat circuits.
Space restores perspective.

3️⃣ Be alone long enough to hear yourself
Solitude lowers social evaluation.
The quiet reveals what you already know.

The answer isn’t missing.
It’s waiting for peace to rise high enough
for you to hear it.

PS: Where do your clearest insights tend to appear?

Join us for psych safety --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

Video Credit: Unknown

-------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

New ideas don’t land when the mind is closed

They land when the brain feels receptive.

Most people try to improve thinking
by defending what they already know.

❌ Proving they’re right.
❌ Protecting past decisions.
❌ Filtering out disconfirming information.

The brain reads that as threat.
So it resists.
When certainty feels required,
the nervous system shifts into protection mode.

Attention filters aggressively.
Contradictory data gets rejected.
Novel information never makes it in.

The brain prioritizes consistency, not accuracy.
That’s why growth stalls
when identity gets attached to being right.

Receptivity requires a different state.
When the parasympathetic nervous system activates,
the body settles.
Heart rate slows.
Breath deepens.
Defensiveness drops.

In that state, the brain becomes plastic again
instead of rigid.

Prediction errors are tolerated.
New inputs are explored.
Old models get updated.

You don’t fight new information.
You metabolize it.
Psychological safety is what allows this shift.

It tells the brain:
🧠 You won’t lose status for reconsidering.
🧠 You’re allowed to change your mind.
🧠 You can hold uncertainty without danger.

Without safety, the brain defends.
With safety, the brain learns.
No openness, no updating.
No updating, no evolution.

Here’s how to become more receptive:
1️⃣ Regulate before you evaluate
A calm nervous system tolerates contradiction.
Learning follows regulation.

2️⃣ Separate identity from ideas
Threat drops when beliefs aren’t tied to self-worth.
Flexibility increases.

3️⃣ Slow down first reactions
Pausing interrupts reflexive rejection.
Curiosity has time to emerge.

The next level isn’t hidden.
It’s already available once the brain feels safe enough.

PS: What kind of info do you resist first?

Join us for psych safety --> https://lnkd.in/gbfNasyU

Video Credit: Unknown

-----------------------------------------------------------------

👉 Follow Shannon for neuroscience-backed insights
♻️ Share this if you want to help others grow

taplio

The Battle

Allison Allen

🧠 Shannon Smith, J.D., M.S. 🚀

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAllison Allen's LinkedIn Performance

Performance Score🧠 Shannon Smith, J.D., M.S. 🚀's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Allison Allen

🧠 Shannon Smith, J.D., M.S. 🚀

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Allison Allen's LinkedIn Performance

Performance Score🧠 Shannon Smith, J.D., M.S. 🚀's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAllison Allen's LinkedIn Performance