Ep. 14 | Leading Through the Holidays With Intention: Humanity, Trust & Sustainable Momentum

📖 Episode 14 Summary

In this episode, Amanda reflects on completing her first HYROX endurance race and uses the experience as a powerful metaphor for leadership, pacing, and presence — especially at year-end.

What begins as a personal story about discipline, endurance, and managing pressure expands into a timely leadership conversation about the human reality of the holiday season. As the year closes, expectations rise, momentum accelerates, and yet many people are quietly carrying emotional weight, fatigue, grief, or anxiety that doesn’t appear on calendars or performance dashboards.

Amanda explores why leading through the holidays requires more than pushing harder — it requires awareness.

Drawing from her work in leadership development, engagement data across large organizations, and her Stanford-based training in creativity and emotional intelligence, she explains how creativity, trust, and performance are deeply tied to psychological safety and presence — not pressure alone. When people feel unsafe, unseen, or overwhelmed, the nervous system shifts into survival mode, narrowing creativity, collaboration, and clear decision-making.

The episode also addresses how real-world events and ambient uncertainty shape how people show up at work, often in ways leaders don’t immediately recognize. Amanda makes the case that acknowledging the human experience is not a soft leadership skill — it’s a strategic one. Trust is an economic driver, and leaders who lead with intention create stronger, more resilient, and more engaged teams.

To bring this into action, Amanda introduces a practical leadership framework designed to help CEOs, founders, and leaders close the year with clarity and alignment. The framework invites leaders to slow down, re-anchor to the mission from the inside out, reinforce what leadership truly means, and commit to showing up differently for their people during a season that often demands more than it shows.

This episode is a reminder that leadership isn’t about pretending the world doesn’t exist — it’s about leading within it. How leaders show up now will be remembered long after the year ends.

🔗 Referenced Resource

Leadership Checklist: Leading Through the Holidays With Intention
Available at: https://www.empowerhousecoaching.co/free-tools

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:02.646)
Welcome to Game Changer by Empower House Coaching, your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escobedo. I'm your inner game coach here to help you change the game. Welcome back to episode 14. It's been 14 weeks where I have been talking your head off. For those of you that don't know,

Your girl just finished her first high rocks. It's been quite a few years coming when I found out about this whole kind of endurance like competition thing. I was very intimidated. I was intrigued. A, I was very intrigued. I was like, I want to do that someday. And then two, I was very intimidated. I remember I was going to a gym where I learned about it they were training for it.

everyone was like you should sign up but when I was doing these classes I was like I can barely survive these classes I was literally dying winded every muscle hurt my lungs hurt there's a lot of running and for those of you that don't know what high rocks is I like to cut it's like a endurance challenge it's the best way for me to describe it and think of CrossFit except they've removed all the hard stuff from CrossFit so literally anybody can do it and what I mean by that is you

crossfit, you have to know how to do a handstand, you have to be able to lift really heavy weights. You know, I'd say heavy is a perspective in the high rocks world. It's a lot lighter, but you're running a ton and then you're doing an exercise. So let's say a thousand meters of skis, a thousand rows, meters of rows, you're doing a bunch of farmer carries, a bunch of burpees. So it's a lot of your own body weight, like the weight that may be kind of hard is maybe the

sled pulls or sled pushes. But if you're doing singles, it's generally doable. But the problem is you're just doing a lot of it. So you're doing I mean, I can probably push pretty heavy on the sled push in the pool, but you're doing kind of four laps. So the lighter weight, was like, wait, I to do four laps of this. I probably should have done a little more research and like watch the videos that told me how many times I could do everything. I don't think I actually recognized how many of these I had to do.

Amanda Escobedo (02:20.27)
but I survived. For my first time I did an hour and 42 and my goal I did have a couple of mental goals so my goal was obviously to finish that was one my goal was also to not stop and what not stop means is just keep running so don't walk during the runs there's these areas that they call the rocks and that's kind of the space in between you going from your run to the next activity.

It's a long space and so I wanted to run in between those. And then with each activity, I wanted to not stop. And so I kind of had moments of a pause, but generally did pretty good. So goal two, don't stop. And then goal three was pace yourself. So I had a friend, she's listening, she threw up three times. She's an Iron Man, by the way.

and felt fine the entire time doing Ironman. I was like, how after she finished, I was like, how did your body feel? She's saying I'm fine. I was like, fine. You did like 140 miles. Fine. And an Ironman who was doing doubles. So she was paired with someone else splitting the work and she threw up three times on the run. And, you know, with talking to her, her heart rate spiked to over 200.

And so from my perspective, you know, people do doubles because they're afraid to do singles. I think I haven't done a double, but from my perspective, doubles might be harder because you're every time it's your turn, you're giving like 110 % because you know, you're going to have a break. The problem is the break is when your partner is going hard, it's not a long enough break to bring your heart level down. So you just really hit that wall from my perspective a lot sooner and

the burpees the burpees is where the nausea comes in because she was like yeah after the burpees i kept burping and then she's like i don't feel so good and then for me i felt fine the entire time i think at my average heart rate i was watching it the entire time i was trying to keep it around 165 so it spiked to maybe a 180 at some points but i was always in the run trying to bring it back down trying to pace myself so on average i think

Amanda Escobedo (04:34.894)
My heart rate was 162, 165 for an hour and 42 minutes. It's pretty, it's like pretty good. But the burpees, cause you're going down and you're going up, you're going down, you're going up, you're doing like four laps of these freaking burpees. That's where I was like burping and the burpees. Cause there are in between each station, you're drinking water and the water was starting to come up. Maybe TMI, but I survived. What was the hardest part of it for me?

what the hardest part was for me. I felt like the sled pushes and maybe and even though was my fastest time because I paused there was a point where I wanted to push the sled all the way down but I kind of paused in the middle. I paused but then I kept going that one I just wish I didn't pause but it's totally fine so but now that I have just a level of certainty I've seen the scene been in the environment I now know kind of what to work on a little better and I'm looking forward to the next time I want to do this.

Similar to when I did my first half marathon this year, one of the things that was going on in my mind was remember this moment, Amanda, because it will only feel easier after today. This is the hardest it will ever feel. And so the entire time I was really trying to just take in the moment, be here now, this is the hardest it'll ever be for you. And even with doing this, was like, this isn't even that

As long as you're pacing yourself, because I'm telling you, like a lot of the dudes too, they just go hard and then they like bail. I have another friend, his heart rate spikes so high, he left in the middle of race because he was so concerned and he didn't feel good. So pace, pace, pace. So next year, if anyone wants to do mixed doubles or doubles, I want to do a double and I want to do single.

So that's, see how that goes. But that was my full weekend. I was a spectator watching friends, cheering them on. And that's kind of like the funnest part too, if you're a spectator, you need to be a cheerleader for your friends. And there's just something just so energizing about the gym community. You meet these people where you're doing really hard things and it's really cool to meet a community of people that are like-minded.

Amanda Escobedo (06:43.586)
that want to challenge themselves. I want to do hard things that want to do hard things together. You're going through the pain together and you're being cheerleaders and supporter of each other's journeys. So I really, really, really loved it. The other note too, I think I mentioned this last week, then dealing with this knee thing. And, one of the things when I'm talking to other people, they're like, well, of course you have a knee thing. You run all the time. You do all these things. You really need to like taper back. That's not my mantra.

I do not believe in tapering back. I believe every time you have a pain, that's really like a spot in your body that's pointing out a weakness. So you have to get curious to understand what needs to be strengthened. So for me, anytime I'm quote unquote injured, it's my opportunity to get curious and creative and bringing this back to creativity. I specialize in cultivating creativity and business. Creativity applies to

every form of your life, your finances, your health, your marriage. And it's really the mindset that everything is figure outable. We don't use this obstacle as evidence of why we should stop or why, you know, this isn't for me. It's really an opportunity to get curious and figure out how to overcome the obstacle. And so with injuries, it's no different. It's not like, I guess I just have this knee thing for life. No, I believe it's all figure outable and I can overcome it. And

I spent $250 to go to a PT specialist. He gave me some stretches, which did help. And then I went back to my chiropractor and he did this gnarly crack on my knee and I was like, my goodness, it feels so much better. And so it kept kind of going quote unquote out of place. And, now that I had that point of reference that he cracked it, I was able to kind of figure out how to do my own crack.

and I had a very workable knee. So my worry, that was another goal in this, was like don't tweak the knee, like listen to your body on this high rocks journey. So I was really trying to like pace myself also with the knee, but you know she did a really good job. She did so many things. I was just very proud. I didn't make it worse. After your exercise and that much was a little, it felt swollen.

Amanda Escobedo (08:54.958)
a little iprofen and icing and it was totally fine. Next journey is going to be New Year's. I'm curious to know what all of you all are doing for New Year's. I of course am going for a run because that's just what gym people, crazy people do. My friends are doing a midnight run for New Year's and what a great way to bring in the new year starting with a run just starting with that intention.

We're not gonna be drinking. Maybe we'll be drinking afterwards. I don't know. I'm a little nervous. This is way past my bedtime. For all of you that know me, I'm trying to go to sleep by 8.30. So to somehow figure out how to stay awake at midnight and then go run like a 5K, this will be a journey. So wish me luck folks, but should be a great way to bring in the new year. Let's get into our topic for today. So, you know, I was trying to think of

what I wanted to focus on for this episode as we're bringing in, we're closing out 2025, we're bringing in the new year, and then also just kind of monitoring headlines, what's going on in the world. And what a rough like week or two it's been, if you've been following headlines, there's been a lot going on in the world. And so my brain kind of did a mashup of, you know, one holidays, holidays,

As we move quickly towards the end of year, holidays almost arrive, it feels like everything's coming at once, and this pressure starts to happen. But part of the pressure is also the fun part. So with the year-end holidays, the lights go up, the decorations fill the homes in the storefronts, Christmas carols may be playing everywhere in every store, there are gifts and traditions and family gatherings, shared meals, moments of reflection and nostalgia. And for many people, the season represents or can represent

warmth, connection, celebration. While at the same time my brain was going, know, the year end holidays are also some of the hardest weeks of the years for others. And so for many other people, you know, that don't have family nearby who have lost loved ones who are navigating complications or painful family dynamics or quietly carrying some type of grief, loneliness or financial stress. From my perspective,

Amanda Escobedo (11:21.418)
This is where leadership really matters. Because while the calendar may say celebration, the human experience is rarely that simple. And so I want to bring this in from a leadership mindset, what we all as leaders should be thinking and what our intentions should be closing out this year and going into the new year.

Great leaders and organizations don't treat year end as just a sprint to the finish line. They understand something very critical and very essential. What's happening outside of work always shows up and impacts. What's happening outside of work always impacts how people show up inside of work. So leading with intention doesn't always mean just slowing down momentum. That's not what I'm saying. But it does mean leading with awareness.

It means leading with acknowledgments. means leading with humanity. So momentum can be sustainable. This is what I would consider leadership maturity, not pretending nothing is happening, not pushing harder by default, but creating space for the human experience. So we can re-engage with energy, be creative and lead with clarity. And so

With this, I just want to do a gentle shift here as well with just acknowledging, you know, the fun of the holidays, but also the reality that many find this time of the year really hard. And then as I mentioned, just a gentle shift, I want to layer this on top with just the in addition to the natural kind of emotional weight of the holidays. Again, there's been several deeply disturbing events that have happened out in the real world, events many people might be quietly caring.

into work with them. And so I want to acknowledge them not in this sense and increase our leadership awareness. And so what are some of these recent events that have been happening in the last couple of weeks or the last week? Well, one, there was a targeted attack against Jewish people at a beach in Australia motivated by hate toward a specific community carried out in a public space meant for safety and leisure.

Amanda Escobedo (13:37.986)
And then number two, there was a shooting at Brown University in the U.S. It was really reigning fear around public spaces and institutions meant for learning and growth. And then there was also an arrest related to a planned terrorist attack targeting Americans, a reminder that this ideological extremism and intentional violence, they're not abstract concepts. And so I'm naming these headlines

I'm naming these not as headlines, but more as context. So that's the focus of me sharing, you know, what's going on in the external world, at least for this episode, I want to provide context. And what do I mean by that? These stories are not isolated stories. They really shape how safe people feel. They shape how present people are. They shape the emotional climate people are living in. And so when violence is targeted towards a specific group,

When attacks happen in public spaces, when fear becomes ambient, people don't just process this intellectually, they process this in their nervous systems, in their body. And this can really show up as heightened anxiety, difficulty concentrating, emotional withdrawal, fear of walking into public spaces, or quiet heaviness people don't have really a language for.

And this matters because these types of states that someone's mind can be in really blocks our creativity. It blocks our momentum. It blocks our clarity. It blocks our state of flow. Now, I want to clarify something very important that, you know, creativity can come from pressure. Diamonds are formed under pressure. Deadlines sharpen focus. Constraints can really spark innovation.

But there's a difference here that leaders need to understand. Pressure related to work can actually be healthy in certain points. Pressure related to safety, trust, belonging, a little less as a contributor to our creativity. When people don't feel safe, when trust erodes, when fear lives outside of the work, creativity starts to shut down for us. And because

Amanda Escobedo (16:00.92)
You know, the brain is moving in a survival mode. And in survival mode, this is where innovation starts to narrow, risk taking disappears, collaboration declines, decision making becomes more reactive. And this isn't a mindset issue. It's really a biology issue at its finest. Creativity thrives in safety, trust and presence, the present mind, not living in fear.

And so this is where leadership comes in. This is where your leadership comes in. A big part of leadership and business is supporting the human experience. We build products and services for humans. We talk about customers. We talk about users. We talk about impact. But the mission, the mission of the organization really starts inside the business. We cannot fulfill the mission externally.

if we ignore the inner worlds of the humans internally. Business is not a solo sport. It requires people. And it doesn't just require any people. It requires engaged, creative, and energized people community. Now let's be clear about the business impact. When people feel unseen, when trust breaks down, when leaders act like nothing is happening,

This is where we start to see people withdraw. And when people withdraw again, creativity declines. Initiatives start to drop. Engagement erodes. Retention weakens. Performance suffers. So this isn't about being soft. This is about being strategic. Trust is an economic driver. And so when people believe that you as the leader

care about the human. They bring their best thinking power. They solve harder problems. They stay engaged longer. They build better products. And they begin thinking in a we mindset rather than a me mindset. And I want to ground this a bit in reality. currently, you know, and what do I mean by that? I'm currently supporting an organization and enterprise level reviewing engagement survey data across large populations. And in my 13 year

Amanda Escobedo (18:24.686)
I've never seen what I'm seeing now in these engagement results. The number one consistent theme that is surfacing across all departments, all leadership or managers, all business units, the number one theme is a request for mental health support. It's consistently surfacing as a top priority across roles, across levels, across geographies. I've never ever seen this so elevated.

Now my brain goes to is it because more is happening in the world? Is it a loss of resilience and tools like we have lost the ability to cultivate our own resilience? Is it the fact that we have 24 7 access to information to news to social media that keeps our nervous system activated? Maybe it's all of it, right? But what's clear is this, at least to me.

Leaders can no longer separate emotional health from performance. They are directly connected. If you don't like feelings, maybe you shouldn't be in leadership. Now let's get a little practical within this. You know, this framework works especially well, a framework I'm going to share with you to help you as a leader.

Now, let me give you some context. I'm just sharing right now a couple of things that I believe as leaders we should be addressing intentionally right now at the year end. Right now, be addressing and acknowledging the hardship that holidays can be on people. And two, my request or encouragement to you as a leader is to be acknowledging and addressing what's happening in the real world today. As I mentioned some of these summary stories, right? The shooting in Australia, the shooting at Brown University,

the terror attack that was planned against America, right? These are real things that shake up people's nervous system that I believe us as leaders should intentionally acknowledge and address. And so what I wanna do next is provide you all leaders with a framework on how to do this, because it can be a little bit of a dance. How do you address this? What do you say? What does acknowledgement look like? And so the framework I'm gonna give to you

Amanda Escobedo (20:40.534)
I want you to consider it's best utilized within a mid-size organization. I would say mid-size, really small, roughly under 200 people. But something to consider, if you're a leader in a large enterprise organization, you can still apply what I'm going to be sharing with you, but think of it more at a department or a team level than rather at the large enterprise level.

So I'm going to give you literally like a checklist, step-by-step-by-step checklist to consider. And you'll actually be able to access this on empowerhousecoaching.co. Once again, empowerhousecoaching.co. You can access this tool. All right, so let's give you this framework. And this is my recommended guidance on how to acknowledge what's going on and provide support to your team. So number one, gather your leaders.

Step one, gather your leaders. So think of, know, let's say you're a founder or a CEO in this small organization, bring your leadership or executive team together. If you're a leader in a large enterprise and you have managers reporting into you, into your department, bring your department heads together. And the goal of this meeting is not to review metrics, is not for status updates, but to answer one question.

How do we want to lead our people through the end of the year intentionally? What does that look like? What would that mean for us? So number one is gather your leaders. Step two in this framework, in this meeting, I want you to acknowledge reality. Acknowledge means acknowledge the emotional complexity of the holidays that some people are caring more than they show. That real world events have happened.

and are happening. This isn't about going into details of all of this. You don't need to go into the story details. It's really more about awareness. And so step two in this framework, when you're bringing in your leaders together, is really about acknowledging the reality, the heaviness that holidays can be on some and then what's happening out in the recent events in our real world. Now, step three, this is where we could re-anchor to the mission.

Amanda Escobedo (22:58.794)
Inside out is what I like to say. And this is an opportunity to remind your leaders the mission of our organization. This mission doesn't start with our customers. It starts with the people, the people of the organization. You cannot elevate the human experience if you neglect it internally.

And so when we talk about you cannot elevate the human experience externally, if you neglect it internally, this is what we're talking about from the inside out. This is where I'm talking about the emotional burden and the heaviness that people feel. We have to acknowledge and we have to help resolve, provide resources as best as we can. But in this step three, it's really about anchoring the mission that the mission applies to the people internally as well. Now, step four.

is really the opportunity to redefine or really remind our leaders of what their role means to be a leader. Leadership is not task management. A project manager can really do that, Leadership is understanding people's needs, removing obstacles, enabling success, growing humans. It's leaving people better than you found them.

Leadership is service. It's selfless. It's intentional. One thing I constantly see, especially with working in a tech environment, is when leaders, I'll say tech leaders transition into their first time manager role, they turn into, I'd say, like project managers. And project management, especially as a frontline manager, is 100 % part of your role. But I want you to think of that as a separate category. Let's say if you're an engineering manager,

You still have to have the tech chops to know how to solve tech problems. You have to now become a project manager because you're holding a team accountable. But this third part here that I mentioned mentioning is what makes you an actual leader. This is where people follow because they have a sense of trust within you. This is where people leave your team better than how they showed up the first time they met you.

Amanda Escobedo (25:12.418)
The true role of leadership, it's not a thing you do, it's who you're being. Leadership again, is that state of curiosity, understanding people's needs. You're getting into curious states, removing obstacles. And so if you're curious of understanding people's needs, that starts to shift from reinforcing expectations over and over and getting frustrated because they're not meeting expectations.

This is your opportunity to get curious and understand what is the obstacle, what's the blocker, what do they need to really understand the expectation? What is the obstacle that's blocking them from meeting the expectation? And a lot of the time, the obstacle is internal. And this is where you have to get to know the human. And this is a curious state. Again, leadership enabling success, growing the humans, leading them better than you found.

It's an intentional journey. And so when I talk about leadership is intentional, I want you to think about the meetings that you have with your team. Are they really just task oriented status updates? Or are you being intentional with trying to elevate the human? Are you being intentional with being curious on what it means to elevate the human? And so this is really step four. If you are the CEO and the founder and you're bringing your teams together,

You know, a big part here is really reinforcing what leadership actually means. Now, step five in this process, I'd say is really about leading with presence and intuition. And this is where you're really guiding your leaders to navigate with their teams. You know, what's being said? What's not being said? Who seems engaged? Who seems withdrawn? Who might need curiosity or proximity?

Leadership requires noticing. So when I talk about leading with presence and intuition, it's really an ask of your leadership team to start going into their meanings, going into their one-on-ones with a more intuitive note to check in and see how is the person showing up in front of you? Are they engaged? Are they excited? Are they happy about the holidays? Do they have their camera off? Do they have their camera on?

Amanda Escobedo (27:31.818)
Are there engagement in the Slack channel or the Teams channel? Is it just really problem solving? Do they feel connected with the team? Has their behavior shifted? And when I say has their behavior shifted, have they been more responsive, more engaged, camera on before the holidays? And so this is the opportunity to just start to be more in tune. There are signs all around us. We have a Nate

intuition on how people feel. But sometimes it requires you, if you are not cultivating that intuition, you have to be a lot more intentional with noticing. And so that's what really step five is about. Step five is about being intentional, about being intuitive as you're navigating with your teams to see who's engaged, who's not, who's withdrawn, who's not, who is, you know,

not saying anything and smiling, but something in there is not being said. This is where your curiosity and your intuition comes into play. And then step six within this framework is, you know, as that CEO or founder working with your leadership team, defining what success looks like for this year end, what would we see if what we established was working? And so what do I mean by that? You know, what would we hear? What would we feel?

Would we see more trust? Will we see more ownership? Would we see more we energy? So when we say defining what success looks like, this is really about, know, what we're asking our team to lead intentionally. We're asking our team to lead with awareness, acknowledgement of what's happening. We're asking our team to lead with creating space for the human experience and providing support. So that's an intentional process. And when I say define what success looks like,

If that's what you're doing, how do you know you're doing it? How do you know your intentionality is actually having an impact that you want is actually creating that space? What would you see? What would you hear? What would you feel? If we had more trust, what would that look like? If we saw a shift in energy within the team, what would that look like? Would that look like more ownership? Would that look like more language of we?

Amanda Escobedo (29:56.716)
rather than me. And so what we want to do with this intentionality is just get more clear on the target. We want to get clear on what success looks like. And so within this step, if I were the CEO or the founder and I were having a dialogue with my exec team, my leadership team, or my department heads, I would ask these questions and I would have them answer it. So this whole framework should be collaborative.

This is really guidance for a CEO or founder on how to lead and navigate with their executive team. But this, as you're navigating these different steps, you're creating space for your direct reports, your executive team to contribute to the conversation. And so similarly, if I go back to step five, leading with presence and intuition, you know, we're talking about the goal is for you to lead and see what's being said, what's not, who's withdrawn with what's not.

Here, this is where we're asking similarly, like, what are your thoughts? What are you already seeing? Some people might even start to raise their hand and acknowledge, I have been seeing a shift. And so step six, this is where we're defining success. This is where you're inviting the team to answer these questions. If your intentionality actually had the fruits of our labor, what does that look like? And let them answer that question. And then the last step within this framework is really about

Commitments and when I talk about commitment, know leading with intention and going through these different steps are nothing without an action and so You know what we want to do is put accountability on the leaders and asking each leader What's one commitment that you will make to support the people mission through the holidays? How will you show up differently? What behavior will change? What will your team feel because of it?

I want you to name it. I want you to own it. And I want you to commit to it. And so this is where, again, it's a collaboration. This is where there's an opportunity to ideate. And this is where, you know, maybe for me, if I'm an exec, maybe I'm going to schedule some skip levels with people I think I've seen some withdrawn, or maybe I'm going to take the action to have the same meeting with my department team, with my department heads to lead with that. Maybe within this, I want to ask everybody for, you know, this last couple

Amanda Escobedo (32:19.05)
the year end, we want to ensure we want to have a standard really that all cameras are on so that I can start to see who looks engaged withdrawn, who doesn't. Maybe I'm scheduling just a one-on-one and I'm telling my direct report, hey, this one-on-one is really focused on you. I want to end this year end with the self-reflection.

And the other part too that could be very intentional is year end is also an opportunity to have year end conversations about annual reviews. It's a reflection of your performance of the last year, right? So we can really tie this all into a focus on the human, a focus on reflection and a check-in on their well-being. Even small little like, any plans for the holidays and seeing their reaction to questions like that. I love to just pause and be like,

what's going on? Well, there are, or if someone is pausing and I'm asking that question, I'm like, well, that was a long pause. And generally it kind of breaks the ice and they laugh and they might start to share. And so just again, creating that space. The other part too is, you know, you have to think of yourself as a leader. Do I have a trusting relationship with my team where they actually feel comfortable to share what's going on in their mind? And if I don't, maybe when I talk about.

You know, how will you show up differently? What behaviors will change? What will your team feel because of it? Name it, own it, commit to it. Maybe my insight here is like, wow, I really need a relationship building strategy. I do not have a trusting relationship with my team. My team relationship is transactional only. And so me leading with intention.

may not get the fruits of my labor because there's a lot more work that needs to be done. And if that's the case, that's okay. But the action here is you can start now. What is that relationship building strategy and how can you kickstart? What's the first action that can start now at the year end?

Amanda Escobedo (34:18.254)
So this is a bit of framework that I want to provide you. Again, the intent of this framework is two reasons for this year end. One is to just really acknowledge some of the hard times that could be going on within the year end for some people. Some people may not be enjoying the holiday season while other might be energized by it. So that's number one is to acknowledge it and then create space for people to share what's going on in their mind, in their inner world and provide support.

And then number two is also, again, acknowledging what's going on outside of the workplace, these real world things. know, we're at the year end, Hanukkah is being celebrated and a Jewish community was just hit up at a beach. If you know someone in your team is Jewish, you might have an extra set of curiosity. And it's not just going straight to them with like, hey, this thing happened. How are you feeling?

Again, it's a bit of a dance. It's a bit of knowing your relationship. It's a bit of leading with curiosity and open-ended questions. And so let's go through, again, this framework. There's a seven-point framework that I would highly recommend for CEOs and founders. And if you are in a large organization and enterprise company, this totally applies to you. Just think of it more at the department level. Step one, bring your team together. Bring your team, which I mean your executive team, your leaders together. Again, not for metrics.

not for updates, but just to answer the question, how do we want to lead our people through the year end intentionally? Number two is just acknowledging the reality, acknowledging the emotional burden or complexity within the holidays that some people may be carrying more than they're showing. And then also acknowledging the real world events that have recently happened in this past week. Again, it's not about going into the details of it all. It's really about just raising awareness. Number three is about re anchoring the mission.

re-inkering the mission of the organization from the inside out. So it's about reminding your leaders the mission doesn't start with the customers, it starts with the people of the organization. You cannot elevate the human experience externally if you neglect it internally. Number four, it's about reinforcing the role of leadership and what it actually means to be a leader.

Amanda Escobedo (36:33.218)
Leadership again is not task management, it's not project management. It's understanding people's needs, it's removing obstacles, it's enabling success, it's growing the human, it's leaving them better than you found them. Leadership is service, it's selfless, and it's intentional. Step five is really about inviting your leaders to lead with presence and intuition. Start to take note of what's being said, what's not being said, who seems engaged, who seems withdrawn.

who might need a little more curiosity or proximity. Leadership requires noticing. Step six is really about defining what success looks like. And so again, if we're talking about leading with intentionality, what does that look like? What would that mean? How would that benefit us? How would we even know the fruits of our labor that we have it? What would we see? What would we hear? What would we feel? And this is where you're inviting your leadership team to answer this question and align on an answer.

And then last but not least to step seven, making a commitment. This checklist means nothing without action. Ask each leader what is one commitment you will make to support the people, the mission through the holidays. And how will you show up differently? How will your behavior change? What will your team feel because of it? Ask your leaders to name it, to own it, and to commit to it. And this is how intention becomes leaders.

Leadership isn't about pretending the world doesn't exist. It's about leading within it, especially at a year end, especially when people are again are caring more, especially when presence matters more than pressure. When leaders lead with intention, humanity and awareness, momentum does not disappear. It multiplies because people don't follow titles. They respond to leadership and how you lead now will be remembered.

long after the year ends. Alright folks, that's all I've got for you. My name is Amanda Esco Bito and you've been listening to Game Changer. If today sparked any type of insights, ahas, or new perspectives, I'd be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, and shared this episode with at least three people in your network who are ready to master the mental game and unlock their potential.

Amanda Escobedo (39:00.918)
Your support helps others discover this resource and invites them to be the next game changer. Join me next time for another conversation on leadership, culture, and creating impact that lasts. And again, if you want this checklist, please visit www.empowerhousecoaching.co. Once again, www.empowerhousecoaching.co. Please share this framework with any leader in your network that would benefit. Thanks for listening.