Archita Fritz

Fractional Product Marketing Leader | I help operationalize product roadmaps for commercial success | Strategic Board Advisor | Workplace Culture

I help private equity–backed CEOs and value creation teams turn fragmented go-to-market efforts into a system that drives top-line growth, margin expansion, and commercial readiness for exit.

Most of the companies I support are post-acquisition, sitting around $15M–$50M in ARR, and moving fast toward their growth targets. But behind the scenes? The GTM motion is often still being driven by legacy sales instincts, founder-era marketing, and a whole lot of duct tape.

The symptoms are familiar:
⟶ Sales blaming marketing.
⟶ Marketing running plays that don’t align to revenue.
⟶ No clear ICP, no pricing discipline, and no real GTM narrative investors can buy into.

That’s where I come in.

With 20+ years across global MedTech, SaaS, and industrial technology—leading product launches in 80+ markets—I now partner with portcos as a short-term operator to unblock growth and build real commercial infrastructure.

Here’s how I support the PE lifecycle:

In the first 100 days
→ Run a GTM audit, identify gaps, and prioritize high-ROI quick wins.
→ Bring visibility to what’s actually driving pipeline, not just vanity metrics.

During the build phase
→ Align sales, marketing, and product around one repeatable commercial motion.
→ Fix positioning, pricing, segmentation, and campaign logic.
→ Install weekly operating cadence, dashboards, and conversion discipline.

As you scale
→ Shift from hero selling to system selling.
→ Equip reps with enablement that sticks, and codify what works.
→ Build segment-level GTM plays that actually reduce CAC over time.

Ahead of exit
→ Translate the growth story into buyer-ready clarity.
→ Highlight pipeline velocity, retention drivers, and future upside.
→ Package GTM IP as repeatable, not founder-dependent.

I’ve done this across portcos of AKKR, EQT, Cinven, and Nordic Capital, and across sectors from life sciences to enterprise SaaS.

Outside of portcos, I sit on four boards, keynote international stages, and host the Embracing Only podcast on leadership, identity, and transformation.

If you want marketing to “look busy,” hire an agency. If you want a GTM system that builds enterprise value, call me.

👉🏽 Learn more here: https://calendly.com/archita-e-fm/1-1-work-with-archita-intro-call

What my clients say:

“Archita turned GTM chaos into clarity! And she did it fast!”
— David Hall Rode, CEO, Blue Mountain (AKKR Portco)

“She built our product marketing function and aligned commercial with product.”
— Patrick Hughes, CRO, CluePoints (EQT Portco)

Chief Marketing Officer

We rise by lifting others! Driven by a commitment to build psychologically safe workplaces where people can unapologetically be themselves Archita is resolutely focused to work with partners who want to look beyond metrics to help shape cultures of belonging and cancel out the silent acceptance of bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Archita is the strategy and marketing lead on campaigns, partnerships, products and promotion. If you want to partner with Speak Out on organisational campaigns or partnerships please connect with her.

New client, new year.
First week at Veristat and I got to be onsite for their Commercial Kick Off Meeting! 

Within the first five minutes, I somehow became the Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion! 
(Truly not sure if I peaked there, but it set the tone.)

I love being remote, but a week onsite upfront compresses relationship + context in a way that’s hard to replicate.

A few things I’m taking with me:

👉🏽 Commercial + Operations came together in a real way. You could feel how both sides contribute to the outcome, not in theory, in practice.

👉🏽 They brought in a customer, a family member, and two partners to speak. Hearing from a Veristat team member sharing what it’s like to be a family member navigating finding clinical trials for your loved one, and how that experience changes the way you think about timelines, communication, rigor, and care really struck a nerve. There wasn’t one dry eye in the room with folks recognizing the impact of the work they do.  

👉🏽 The trust Veristat has earned with sponsors is undeniable. There aren’t many teams sponsors rely on to take them from data → direction → regulatory submission with that level of confidence.

Personal bonus: I worked with Andrew (AJ) Mills for a minute many moons ago, so it’s been a joy to reconnect and jump in with his team again.

And I’m genuinely excited to partner with Kim Boericke as CEO, first time I’ve gotten to work this closely with a woman CEO, and you can already feel the clarity she’s bringing.

Grateful for the welcome, Veristat. Let’s go.

Archita Fritz 

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | 2 x Top 100 Product Marketing Leader

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A friend said something to me this week that I can’t stop thinking about.

She met our friend group when we were in our late 20s, because she was marrying one of our friends.

And she told me:

“I remember being genuinely surprised by how many of you were chasing a title like it had a deadline. Like you’d decided, that by this age, I have to be that… or I’ve failed.”

I laughed when she said it, because she was right.

Back then, we used to call it “ambition”, but what it also meant to most of us was “don’t be left behind!”

We were all trying to stay ahead of our insecurity.
 
And what’s wild is… I see the grown-up version of that same chase all the time now.

It is usually not “VP by 30.”

But it’s more like, 

“We need to look further along by the next board meeting.”
“We’ll fix the foundation after we hit the number.”
“Just get through this quarter.”

I get why people say it. I’ve said it too.
Usually it means we’re in scramble mode.

A few years ago, I started asking myself a different question…

𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒕…
𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒎 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 “𝑰’𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅” 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈?

And then, separately, this week I flew in to celebrate a different and very dear friend—mid-week—for her wedding.

I cleared the time properly and showed up without negotiating with myself. We laughed and danced so hard our face and feet hurt.

And for once I wasn’t doing that mental math of what I “should” be doing instead.

And I had this quiet thought on the way home: I’m really glad I don’t live in that frantic chase mode the way I used to.

👉🏽 What was your “by ___” deadline that you have finally loosened the grip on? 

PS: And LinkedIN can you please take a moment to celebrate my gorgeous and dearest friend Sneha on her wedding day!

Archita Fritz at Sneha and Chris Rossi wedding in New York City 

Best thing I’ve done this year so far: breakfast with two women I respect.

Just coffee, tea, some scones were involved and a bit of laughter, with the kind of conversation that puts you back in the right headspace. 

Shea Conboy’s growth over the years has been a joy to watch. 
This past week I got to say it in person.

She was on my team many moons ago, and seeing what she’s built since then is genuinely brilliant. From building social media and event capability from the ground up at various life science companies to starting to build her impact in product marketing, so proud of everything! 

 I left that part of the breakfast feeling properly proud.

And then I finally met Kisha Wynter in person. Author of Your Power Unleashed and a guest on our  Embracing "Only" Podcast  in person for the firs time.  

We talked women in leadership, boardrooms, sponsorship, timing…and every so often we’d stop and laugh: “That’s literally in your book.”

On the way out, I caught myself thinking how often the right conversations get pushed “until things calm down”. 

If you care about women in leadership, your calendar has to show it.

I love catch-ups like this, because In Private Equity land, it’s easy to live in spreadsheets and operating reviews. Breakfast like this pulls you back to what actually moves companies...the people.

Who are you making time for this month?

PS: Check out the link to Kisha's book and her episode in the comments below.

Archita Fritz advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Shea Conboy

Archita Fritz Advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Kisha Wynter author of the book Your Power Unleashed.

These are all the things I would rather do than sit down and do homework with the three littles who live in my home rent free:

✪ Get grilled by a PE sponsor on CAC payback.

✪ Walk into a board meeting with one slide and pure courage.

✪ Explain (again) that “pipeline” isn’t a strategy.

✪ Untangle a CRM that’s 47 versions of “called - no answer.”

✪ Run win/loss calls where the feedback is: “Pricing.”

✪ Rewrite positioning while Legal replaces every verb with “may.”

✪ Align five execs on one ICP without anyone saying “everyone.”

✪ Explain our investor story using chaos, caffeine, and a prayer.

✪ Do a “quick” launch that somehow needs 14 approvals.

——

Because the mental health damage of doing homework and test prep with little humans is something else.

To every parent doing the nightly and weekend sit-down, I see you! 

PS: Anyone else have to take a mid-homework walk outside the house to save themselves from absolutely losing it?

PPS: Picture below courtesy my mid lunch walk last week in the middle of a Sales Kick off meeting! Trying to channel in those calm vibes right now.

Kicking off 2026 with a proud board moment: Inflectiv Group has made a minority investment in psLondon.

Huge congratulations to James Rose, Jan-Philipp Matthewes and the Inflectiv team, and a genuine welcome to Robert Pepper, Tony Speight, and everyone at psLondon. Excited to have you in the Inflectiv collective and for what we’ll build together.

Press release in the comments. 

Proud to share this marks Inflectiv Group’s third strategic addition, building a collaborative network of founder-led independents — now alongside Fresh Air and Hue & Cry | Certified B Corp.  

We’re continuing to grow selectively, making minority equity investments where there’s real alignment on quality, leadership, and culture.  
If you’re a founder exploring that kind of partnership, my DMs are open.

You want to be “easy to work with.”
But a lot of you learn the wrong version of it.

Last week, someone I’d never met got combative over email. This person was several levels senior to me.

All I’d asked for was time on the calendar.

The reply wasn’t neutral, it was defensive and a tone that felt like: “know your place.”

In the past, I would have gone along with it. I  would have been extra polite, over-explained and tried to smooth it over.

I don’t do that anymore.

I stopped the email thread and moved it to a call.
On the call, this is what I said.

“We all want growth and a good way to work together. If that’s true, we’ll be fine. If what you actually want is friction or positioning, then this won’t be a good use of either of our time. Either outcome is okay, I just want it to be clear.”

Once that was said out loud, the defensiveness dropped and the real constraints came out. It turned into a productive discussion instead of a drawn-out thread.

By the end, they suggested spending more time together, not less.

Most people tolerate bad behavior because they want to be easy to work with. 

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆.

Going into this week: don’t confuse “easy to work with” with “easy to push around.”
If the tone is off at the start, address it early.

You’ll save yourself weeks of stress, and you’ll get better work out of the relationship.

This week I got to do one of my favorite things: sit across the table from two C-suite leaders I genuinely love thinking with.

David Hall Rode and Amira Modi, thank you for the time, the candor, and the quality of the thinking.

I’m on my way back to Dusseldorf and smiling thinking about how grateful I am for leaders like them in my orbit. 

With David, we can brainstorm in 80 directions in 20 minutes… and somehow it doesn’t turn into chaos, it turns into clarity.

And then there’s Amira, who is the kind of leader who can zoom out to strategy and zoom in to the detail that will make or break execution.

She’s also one of the few women C-suite leaders in healthcare who brings both deep industry credibility and real commercial clarity. I’m lucky to have them both in my orbit.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞?

Because this is what separates teams that move from teams that stall.

Most teams don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they can’t turn messy thinking into a clear direction people can execute.

What that looks like:
➟ People keep the real concerns to themselves because it’s not worth the friction
➟ The group talks through ten options and chooses none
➟ Everyone “agrees” in the room, then nothing changes after

What strong leaders do instead:
➟ Make it easy to say the unfinished thing out loud
➟ Keep the pace without steamrolling people
➟ Pull a real decision out of the noise
➟ End with a clear “here’s what we’re doing next”

It sounds very basic, but it really isn’t. And it’s a big reason some companies move faster with the same resources.

I’m grateful for leaders who make clarity feel normal and execution feel possible.

Archita Fractional Marketing Leader for Blue Mountain and other Private Equity Backed Middle Market Portfolio Companies 

This week I caught myself working like something was on fire, even though nothing was.

I’m onboarding a new client, and the engagement is off to a strong start. The work is clear, the team is aligned, and the trust is already there. 

I’ve been doing this independently for nearly three years, so none of this is new.

And yet, more than once this week, I caught myself pushing as if I still needed to earn the right to be here.

It was a strange moment of self-awareness, the kind where you can see your own behavior while it’s happening. I found myself asking a question I didn’t expect to be asking at this stage: 

👉🏾 Why am I going this hard when nothing is actually wrong?

This isn't new work or a new room, and it certainly isn’t about proving competence. By any rational measure, I already belong here.

And yet, something in me still behaves like 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭.

That question matters because it doesn’t point to a workload issue. 
It points to an identity issue. 

If you’re doing well in your role or building something that’s finally working, notice what shows up anyway. 

Pay attention to 
the extra effort that isn’t required, 
the urgency that isn’t real, 
the impulse to prove yourself in rooms that have already said yes. 

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 
𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈.

I don’t have a neat answer yet.
Right now, I’m sitting with the question instead of rushing past it. 

Because something tells me this isn’t about working more or less. It’s about updating who I think I need to be in rooms that have already said yes.

PS: I came across a photo of one of my old teams I had the privilege of leading many moons ago. They were one of the first groups that ever held up a mirror to me around this pattern. Seeing that picture again felt like a quiet reminder I needed more than advice.

We’re in a pilot phase rolling out a suite of AI solutions at a PE-backed company.
And the impatience is… Olympic level.

Week 2:
“Why isn’t the AI delivering value yet?”

Because AI isn’t a vending machine.
You don’t insert “tool” and get “pipeline” back.

In the pilot stage, you’re not “deploying AI.”

You’re validating the conditions that make AI worth using

➟ Data integrity (what we think is true vs what’s actually in the system)
➟ Use case fit (what works in generic SaaS ≠ what works in this industry)
➟ Signal quality (which inputs predict response, and which are noise)
➟ Customer reality (how buyers actually reply, in the wild)
➟ Workflow adoption (if humans don’t use it, it doesn’t exist)

So yes, we should push for outcomes. But if you treat a pilot like a finished product, you don’t speed things up, you just create noise, churn, and “AI doesn’t work” opinions before you’ve even set it up properly.

If you’re a revenue leader in a PE-backed company, here’s the better question than “Why isn’t it working yet?”

“What do we need to make this work reliably, and at scale?”

If you’re in the messy middle of an AI pilot right now, what’s the biggest friction point you are navigating?

👉🏾  data, use cases, adoption, or expectations?

AI is not like a vending machine, you cannot put stuff in and hope to get pipeline out.

In a lot of mid-market PE portfolio companies, the issue isn’t lead generation. 

It’s that the company hasn’t agreed on the rules of the funnel, so leads get handled differently depending on who touches them. 

Marketing passes names,
Sales disputes quality, 
follow-up is inconsistent, 

and the CEO ends up asking for “more pipeline” when the real problem is a messy handoff.

There are other things that matter, and deal velocity is increasingly the bigger constraint I’m seeing, but without a clean handoff you can’t tell what’s working, what’s broken, or what to fix next.

When I’m brought in to steady this quickly, I put a basic GTM system in place in the first two weeks:

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 “𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅” 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
One page that Sales and Marketing both agree to. If you can’t say the same sentence, you don’t have a funnel.

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.
Fit, intent, recency, and engagement, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but consistent enough to run the week on.

➟ 𝑺𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘-𝒖𝒑 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆. 
Who responds, how fast, and what happens when it doesn’t happen.

➟  𝑹𝒖𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅.
Routing, speed, fit, or follow-through, then fix one failure point each week.

This is not complicated. It’s just missing in more companies than anyone wants to admit.

In a recent engagement, this system helped moved leads from roughly 5–10 SQLs a month to 170+ sales-qualified leads in 60 days. 

Not because we “did more marketing,” but because we stopped debating opinions and installed a system the team could run.

If you’re a CEO and this feels familiar, ask one question in your next commercial meeting: what happens in the first 24 hours after a lead is marked sales-qualified? If the answer isn’t clear, start there.

Why Private Equity PE Portcos don’t have a Lead Gen Problem. They have a systems problem. “We don’t have enough leads” is the biggest misplaced diagnosis in private equity portcos

At Christmas, I was lightly chiding my brother-in-law about how much he cares about football. 

Because I genuinely don’t relate. 

I’m not wired to tie my mood to something I can’t control for three hours on a Saturday/Sunday. My brain files it under: “entertaining… but not emotionally binding.” 

Also, I know basically nothing about American football. 

My strongest credential is still that I once stood on the inside of a football field because I was crowned University Homecoming Queen in 2004. That’s the whole resume!

Fast forward to Saturday, Jan 17. 
The Buffalo Bills lost 33–30 to the Denver Broncos.

My BIL and his entire family are huge Buffalo Bills fans. 
Like it affects the entire "household mood" fans.

So you can imagine, the family chat lit up immediately.

 And it wasn’t just analysis. It turned into people fast:
“He’s such a good guy.”
“He does so much with kids.”
“He deserves a ring.”

Bills fans… I’m sorry. 
That one looked painful.

---
And it made me think about something I see in Private Equity-backed leadership teams after a miss:

𝘐𝘯 𝘗𝘌, 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵.

The room starts hunting for the person attached to the number. Usually it is because we want the chaos to make sense, so we pin the story to a person.

In sports, it can swing either way just as fast:
one moment, one person… 
and suddenly it’s either pile-on or protective loyalty.

A few things I’ve seen the best PE teams do instead:

➜ Separate “bad outcome” from “bad decision.” 
Sometimes the call was right and the timing just didn’t cooperate. 
Sometimes you got lucky and you shouldn’t repeat it.

➜ Force specificity. 
Not “we need to execute.”
More like: “3 deals slipped 30 days” or 
“churn ticked up in X segment.”

➜ Make the next step small and real. 
One fix, one owner, one date, before the next LT/board call.

➜ Do a quick ‘what changed’ review. 
What we thought, what happened, what we’re changing. 
No courtroom or character trial.

Pinning it on one person is the quickest way to feel like you’ve explained it. It’s rarely the quickest way to improve it.

PS: Serious question...are you a “watch with people” fan or a “do not speak to me during the game” fan?

Picture credit: AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Good products don't sell themselves.
At least, they don't do it twice.

Most companies find their first "big win" through sheer grit and a great product. But when they try to launch the second or third product, the wheels usually start to wobble.

If your revenue is plateauing despite a great roadmap, the gap is likely in your Product Marketing foundation. Transitioning from a single-product company to a multi-product powerhouse requires a specific shift in "muscle memory." 

👉🏾 You have to move from selling a tool to selling a solution universe.

I helped a team navigate this exact pivot. 

They had the talent and the tech, but their growth was capped by their position. By building a repeatable "pre-commercialisation" engine, they unlocked a 40% revenue lift across their entire portfolio.

1️⃣ Defining the Operating Model: 
↳ Moving away from ad-hoc launches toward repeatable playbooks.

2️⃣ Pre-commercialisation is more than just feedback: 
↳It’s about doing the heavy lifting, market sizing, competitor mapping, and message testing, long before the sales team ever sees the product. If you haven't validated that a "gap in the market" is actually a "market in the gap," you’re just setting your reps up to fail.

3️⃣ Internal Readiness: 
↳ Ensuring Sales knows not only what the product is, but also where it fits in the broader universe.

I’ve attached the one-pager we used to guide this process. If your team is struggling to move beyond your first "big win," I hope this roadmap helps you find some clarity this week.

Roadmap to take your company from a single product to a multi product universe. How to scale your company from a single product to a multi product solution. How Product Marketing can help you grow your product roadmap. How to commercialize your product roadmap.

VP of People at Gorilla | In the pursuit of employee significance | Leadership & Career Coach | Illustrator | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

I’m a tech executive who believes the future belongs to companies that combine AI capability with human intelligence.

Not AI as a silver bullet.
Not people strategy as soft culture work.
Not simplistic “do more, faster” productivity narratives.
But practical systems that help organisations make better decisions as they scale.

I’ve spent my career building and operating those systems across people, performance, operating models, and now AI. 

The work only matters if it shows up in reality; how leaders lead, how teams decide, and how companies change without losing trust.

Most recently, I led the global People function at a Series B energy tech company and co-led our early AI rollout across governance, ethics, enablement, tooling, and experimentation. 

Alongside this, I work with founders, executives, and investors as a fractional leader and advisor. I help organisations roll out AI responsibly, navigate change, and build people systems that compound growth rather than create drag.

If you’re a founder, COO, CPO or leader trying to:
- adopt AI without breaking trust or momentum
- lead change without drowning managers in process
- scale people and operating systems that actually work in the real world.

I write and speak for you.

Things I write about:

- Practical AI adoption without hype or harm
- Where human judgment still matters in everyday AI decisions
- Leading change that creates clarity and engagement, not chaos
- People systems that support growth instead of getting in the way
- Why culture breaks during scale-ups, and how to fix it

Vanessa Monsequeira

May this be your 2026 reminder for everytime you get feedback. 

That a Frankenstein pizza is what happens when you try to implement ALL the feedback.

8 years ago, I got a performance review back.

It was good.

But different leaders wanted different things from my 360 and some of those things contradicted each other.

I was ready to become that Frankenstein pizza.

Then I talked to my mentor, a senior badass leader at the firm.

She said something that changed how I operate:

"Ness, you don't have to take all the feedback just because it's given to you."

It seems obvious now.

But back then, as a middle manager finding my footing, in a system that rewarded listening and implementation ....

Those words felt foreign ....but liberating.

Because trying to create a pizza with ALL the toppings is exhausting.

And it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and often for others too. 

The hard part was figuring  which feedback to listen to.

Here's what I started asking myself:

→ Was this given with good intention?
→ Deep down, is this what's actually holding me back?
→ Do I have capacity to implement this right now?
→ How will I close the comms loop on the feedback I don't take on now / ever?

It's taken me years of practice. I don't always get it right. 

But when I do, the outcomes are:

— Better use of my time.
— Better discernment of who I trust.
— Not running around like a headless self improvement chicken
— And growth in the direction that actually serves my goals as a leader.

So here's your 2026 reminder:
Not all feedback counts equally.
Not all feedback deserves action.

Choose your toppings wisely.

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

VP of People at Gorilla | Building Employee Experience as a Product | In pursuit of making work suck less | Leadership & Career Coach | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

Meme showing a pizza topped with an entire roasted chicken, pepperoni slices, chocolate sprinkles, and colorful candy pieces. Caption reads: 'When you incorporate all the feedback from every critique.

Name the person who helped you step into your light and your power as a leader.

For me that person over the last two years has been Ruth Penfold

As a female leader in tech, the waters we swim in are different.

Through working with Ruth I:
🌱 Grew taller in moments where I felt like shrinking
🌱 Had mirror moments where I had to look at the person staring back at me and make decisions in line with my courage and integrity
🌱 Connected mind back to body - essential for every leader who wants to lead a team and workforce with engagement and integrity
🌱 Learned how to balance strength and softness as a woman of color in leadership
🌱 Navigated tough decisions and self-doubt with someone who's been there - Ruth is a former VP and CPO in tech

Importantly, growing happens together and I was part of one of the first the Women Who Lead cohort.

💜 Women Who Lead is a 12-week, high-touch leadership accelerator for women who are done playing small at work and ready to feel like themselves again - grounded, confident, powerful, whole. 

Superb for moments of transition and reinvention. It blends somatic work, identity work, and real leadership strategy so change actually sticks - in the body, not just the head.

The in-person and online catch-ups helped me breathe and realize phew it's not just me.

There were moments of shared joy, laughter, commiserations, consoling.
Women help other women rise.

And I can wholeheartedly recommend working with Ruth and the program. 

She has an incredible way of combining rational, emotional, and somatic practices in an integrated way.

🗓 If this is speaking to you run don't walk to the next cohort.
FREE taster workshop next week - Jan 12-22
https://lnkd.in/ecY4Ew62

And if you already know in your mind and your body this is for you - check out more info in the comments.

Thank you Ruth Penfold 🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾

Two women taking a selfie on a city street, both smiling warmly at the camera. The woman on the left has long gray-blonde hair and wears gold hoop earrings with a beige top and crossbody bag. The woman on the right has dark curly hair and wears a black jacket. Behind them is a European-style street with outdoor café seating and storefronts. The photo captures a moment of genuine connection and joy between the two friends.

I have high idea productivity. But not all of my ideas are good.

And it’s probably driven my teams, friends, and family a little crazy over the years.

Yesterday, I shared that 2026 is my Year of Creating Space.

That’s hard to do when ideas fire at 100mph
 …and my personality says: yes, chase it, build it, implement it. NOW!!!!

My ideas don’t wait for quiet moments. They show up in meetings on walks, mid-conversations, reading, listening to podcasts, and during dinner.

If I don’t capture them, my brain keeps holding onto them loudly.

I’ve learned this from from teams I’ve led (and gentle nudges from my husband): 

👉🏾 Not every idea deserves action.
👉🏾 But most ideas do deserve to be captured.

I borrowed the Ideas Bin concept from listening to Nathan Barry, founder of Kit.

He often talks about how his “high idea productivity” can drive his team a little crazy.

Every time I hear it, I smile and think: "yep, that’s me".

So this year, I’m implementing it too.

Here’s how I’m using an Ideas Bin:
→ Capture ideas the moment they appear
→ Plan a date to revisit them
→ Then step away

Come back with fresh eyes and decide:
 → Keep in bin
 → Move to discovery
 → Time for action

The goal isn’t speed.
It’s creating space for better thinking.

If you’re smiling because you do this also generate ideas at the speed of light…
....you’re my people.

📌 I created a Notion Ideas Bin template. Feel free to use and make it your own!

Thanks again to Nathan Barry for the inspiration.

A screenshot of a Notion page titled “Ideas Bin.” At the top is a green call-out box with a lightbulb icon titled “Use this as a mental parking lot.” The text explains that people with high idea productivity should capture ideas without acting on them immediately, revisit them later, and decide whether to keep, explore, or act. Below the call-out is a table-style database listing ideas with columns for idea name, category (people, process, technology), date ideated, date to revisit, and status such as “Keep in bin,” “Move to discovery,” or “Time for action.”

I pre-order books the same way some folks invest in startups.

Because early support compounds.

Pre-orders help publishers gauge demand, secure better distribution, and give authors the momentum they need in those critical first weeks.

Since 2023, I've actively sought out and championed business books by women authors. I noticed that prior to this, women authors barely featured in my top 5 reads for the year.

So I started examining the supply and visibility of business books by women authors, the shelf space in bookshops, the top 10 lists recommended by apps, and thought leaders. 

The pattern was clear; women authors were barely featured.

Some of the sharpest thinking in leadership and organizational design is coming from women who deserve a bigger platform.

I've just pre-ordered three books I'm genuinely excited about:

📘 Purpose and Work by Jessica Zwaan - Jessica's framework around organizational archetypes of purpose (which I first saw at PX Immersive last year) is refreshingly non-performative. It's reframed how I think about purpose at work in a way that feels both fresh and obvious once you hear it.

📙 Exceptionals by Ingrid Tappin 🏳️‍🌈 -  I saw Ingrid present at the Valencia Digital Summit and again in a recent webinar. She's created an entirely new category of thinking about leadership and inclusion, one that's actually pragmatic rather than theoretical. Exceptional work in every sense.

📗 The Manager Method by Ashley Herd - Ashley's bite-sized videos and manager posts are gold. Having led people teams across several organizations, I've seen firsthand how little we talk about the day-to-day, practical side of management. Ashley fills that gap beautifully.

I track all the business books by women authors I'm reading in a Notion database. 

If you're building your 2025 reading list, these three deserve a spot.

And if you can, pre-order. It makes a real difference.


#womenauthors #leadership #culture

Three business book covers with arrows pointing to circular headshots of their authors: Purpose and Work by Jessica Zwaan, Exceptionals by Ingrid Tappin, and The Manager Method by Ashley Herd

One of the best career tools I’ve learned is choosing a “Year Of.”

This practice has guided my decisions for 7 years.

A single macro theme that acts a a north star for decisions, systems, and energy.

Looking back, it’s shaped a lot for me:

2019: The Year of Stabilization
2020: The Year of New Beginnings
2021: The Year of Growth & Learning
2022: The Year of Experimentation
2023: The Year of Deep Work
2024: The Year of Big Leaps
2025: The Year of Slow Productivity

🥁 For 2026, I’m choosing:
The Year of Creating Space.

Because my brain runs at 100 miles an hour, and space is the key to becoming more intentional.

When I don’t create space, I:
↳ do 100 things at once (and say yes too quickly)
↳ work right up to the next meeting… then rush
↳ don’t slow down enough to hear myself
↳ scroll instead of letting myself be bored
↳ overthink
↳ half-listen

How I do create space:
↳ a real morning routine (meditation + journaling)
↳ exercise with no distractions
↳ breathwork

How I’m creating space this year:
↳ speaking more slowly
↳ an “ideas bin” to park thoughts
↳ writing more for clearer thinking

Every time I name a year, the theme becomes a powerful driver of focus, reflection, and alignment.

What could your “Year Of” be in 2026

A vertical timeline graphic titled “The Year Of…?” on a black background. The timeline lists yearly themes from 2019 to 2026.
2019 is labeled “Stabilization.”
2020 is “New Beginnings.”
2021 is “Growth and Learning.”
2022 is “Experimentation.”
2023 is “Deep Work.”
2024 is “Big Leaps.”
2025 is “Slow Productivity.”
2026 appears at the bottom with question marks, indicating an open or upcoming theme.

When was the last time you trusted a leader or colleague who wasn't truthful with you?

I'm guessing never.

Every time I've seen trust erode, it's due to the usual suspects:

→ Someone held back feedback but told someone else behind the person's back. 
→ Or shared a half-truth because they didn't have the courage for a crunchy conversation. 
→ Or outright lied.

Cowardice - it's an ugly word we don't talk about enough at work and in leadership.

I don't say this to throw shade. 
We all have moments where we shy away from courage.

But as a leader? It's costing you the most valuable thing you have =  Trust.

What actually happens when trust breaks down:
→ Your team members stop trusting feedback that is useful.
→ Innovation dies because people play it safe or quite frankly because they can't be bothered.
→ Your engagement scores tank.
→ People show up but check out.
→ And eventually they leave.

Not because the work is hard.
But because they don't trust you.

There's a simple model that explains this: The Truth-Trust Cycle.

When you give a bit of truth → it creates trust
That trust makes you ready to give more truth → which creates more trust
And the cycle continues

The opposite is also true.
The moment trust is breached, people recoil and stop having real conversations.
And everyone's just performing their job, not actually doing it.

So here's your January challenge:
→ Have ONE hard conversation on a topic you've been avoiding.
→ Don't soften it.
→ Don't delay or delegate it.
→ Have it.

Because without the courage to tell the truth, you'll never build the trust your team actually needs.

And these are the actions that make work suck less.

#leadership #crunchyconversations

The Truth-Trust Cycle diagram showing a purple spiral on a light purple background. The spiral moves clockwise from the center outward, labeled: truth → trust → more truth → even more trust → even more truth → more trust, illustrating how truth and trust build upon each other in an expanding cycle. By Vanessa Monsequeira, Leadership that makes work suck less

There is a man riding a horse. 

The horse is galloping quickly, and it appears that the man on the horse is going somewhere important.

Another man, standing alongside the road, shouts, "Where are you going?" and the first man replies, "I don't know! Ask the horse!"

The late Thích Nhất Hạnh used to teach this zen story and says:

"This is also our story. We are riding a horse, we don't know where we are going, and we can't stop. The horse is our habit energy pulling us along, and we are powerless. We are always running, and it has become a habit."

--

Three weeks into January, I vowed to create space and to actually ride the horse instead of being dragged.

In past years, I've noticed a pattern:
→ The top 3 priorities become 5. Then 7.
→ "Heartbeat work" is often underestimated i.e. the essential keeping-the-lights-on stuff
→ Add generative AI to the mix, and suddenly the expectation is "more, faster."

The horse starts sprinting in multiple directions at once, and my December-to-January fresh ideas glow fades fast.

--

I've found two things that actually help me hold the reins:

1. Bi-weekly reflection (15-30 minutes)
A pause where I ask myself: "Did I choose this direction, or did the horse?"
It's the only way I've found to go slow so I can go fast again—in a direction I actually choose.

2. A Top 5 Priorities doc
A simple Notion doc with:
• 1 table for the top 5 priorities (not 7, not 10)
• 1 table for all the heartbeat work
For each priority:
• Who's the primary/secondary driver
• What is initially in and out of scope
• What "good" looks like

Then I socialize it with leadership and key stakeholders outside my area, so there are no surprises and a better way to discuss scope creep and new "quick wins." 🤮

--

Yesterday, I spent half a day offline planning H1.

Within an hour, I caught myself in classic Ness mode; front-loading way too much. The horse was already starting to bolt.

So I paused. Used my own frameworks: the Priorities doc and the Ideas Bin (the one I shared last week).

I can't promise the horse won't gallop away at different times this year. But I know I have the tools to tame it.

🐴 What helps you tame your horse? I'd love to hear what's working for you.

Black-and-white cartoon of a man clinging to a galloping horse while shouting, ‘I don’t know! Ask the horse!’ as another man on the roadside asks, ‘Where are you going?’”

Change doesn't fail because people are tired.

It fails because leaders stop leading when it matters most.

I just wrapped a discussion with a CEO who told me their organisation was "suffering from change fatigue."

I asked them: "How many times have you explained why this change matters?"

Them: "Maybe twice in the all-hands?"

Me: "There's likely your problem."

__

Over the years, I've consulted with dozens of organizations. And "change fatigue" comes up constantly. 

It's become the convenient excuse for why transformations stall. John Kotter found: 70% of change initiatives fail.I'd bet that with the acceleration of AI, it's higher now.

Multiple changes have been constant for decades.
Freeze, Change, Unfreeze change model rarely exits anymore. 

So why are we still so terrible at it?

Because most leaders don't understand (or don't want to understand) the basic building blocks of leading change.

Here's where it actually falls apart:

→ Leaders mention it once or twice in all-hands meetings, then wonder why nothing sticks
→ Leaders get defensive when feedback surfaces instead of listening and adapting
→ There's no consistent communication—just sporadic updates that create more confusion
→ The "why" disappears after the initial announcement, leaving people to fill in the blanks
→ Middle managers aren't equipped or empowered to champion the change on the ground

Meanwhile, their teams are left confused, disengaged, and exhausted.
Not from the change itself, but from the chaos around it.

Not everyone needs to love the change. 
But everyone needs to understand it.

People can handle change. 
They can't handle uncertainty, mixed messages, and confused timelines.

The fix is simpler than you think:
→ Make the process crystal clear from day one
→ Repeat the mission until you're sick of hearing yourself say it (then repeat it 10 more times)
→ Create feedback loops and actually listen without defensiveness
→ Equip your middle managers—they're your change champions, not your messengers

The gap between wanting change and leading it is where most transformations die.

Don't be the leader who announces change and disappears.
Be the one who stays in the arena until it sticks.

What's one change initiative you've seen fail—and what could leadership have done differently?

#changeleadership #leadership

Diagram titled "The surface area of change" showing three nested rectangles representing decreasing willingness to engage with change: largest section "Who wants change", medium section "Who wants to change", smallest section "Who wants to lead the change"

If we want to succeed as leaders, we have to realise that effective communication feels like overkill.

How you navigate...

→ Sharing Q1 priorities and watching blank faces nod
→ Saying "like I mentioned last week" for the third time
→ Realizing your teams are working on the wrong thing
→ Biting your tongue because you feel like a broken record
→ Getting asked a question you know you already answered

...determines whether your team actually executes, or an idea just exists.

And nobody warns you that the part of leadership that feels the most annoying, is repeating yourself endlessly. 

Yet it is actually the part that matters most.

We act like clarity is a one-time event. 

Like if you said it well enough the first time, it should stick.

The message isn't the problem. The lack of repetition is.

Communication is something you do until you're sick of hearing yourself - because that's roughly when your team is starting to actually internalize it.

When you stop too early:
→ Your team drifts off priority
→ The organisation looks disengaged
→ Your engagement scores for 'meaningful work' drop off

Not because they don't care, but because you thought 3 times was enough.

It wasn't.

I'll say it again: if we want to succeed as leaders, we have to realise that effective communication feels like overkill.

You need to say something at least 7+ times, in 7+ different ways before it actually sticks.

Here's one method and free resource to help: https://lnkd.in/e2aVW69u

Keen to hear from other leaders: how do you make your comms repetitive enough to actually land?


#leadership  #development #communicationtraining

My team doesn't listen" contrasted with "Your comms: 404 Page Not Found" - highlighting communication gaps in leadership

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