In this episode of Executive Connect, host Melissa Aarskaug sits down with leadership strategist and cultural transformation expert, Founder & CEO of A3 Culture Lab, Andrea Wanerstrand to explore why emotional awareness is now one of the most critical leadership skills. Andrea explains how leaders unintentionally create stress, confusion, and fear through tone, energy, and emotional inconsistency, even when their intentions are good. She breaks down the science behind emotional intelligence, how the nervous system shows up at work, and why people remember how leaders make them feel more than what they say. This conversation is a practical guide for leaders who want stronger trust, higher engagement, and better performance without burning out their teams or themselves.

Chapters:

(02:45) How leaders unintentionally create fear and confusion

(06:30) The ripple effect of unmanaged energy

(10:20) Emotional intelligence explained simply

(15:40) Navigating tough conversations with clarity

(20:30) Why micromanaging destroys confidence

(26:10) Consistency, trust, and psychological safety

(32:00) The myth of separating work and personal emotions

(38:10) Feedback, presence, and emotional accountability

(44:30) Leading with empathy in an AI-driven world

(50:20) Final reflections and how to connect

Andrea

(0:00) I would just remind the listeners that becoming self-aware and building relationships takes time. (0:07) It’s a journey. (0:09) It’s not a destination.

(0:11) And the more intentional you are of how am I making another person feel, whether that’s the grocery clerk, as you’re telling them, like, to put your frozen stuff with your, like, vegetable stuff, right, which is a pet peeve for me. (0:26) I don’t like the lettuce with the frozen stuff, or you’re telling someone about the next big project or having to delete, you know, lay someone off.

Melissa

(0:36) Leadership just isn’t about vision, strategy, or charisma. (0:41) It’s about how you make people feel. (0:44) Today I’m joined by leadership strategist and cultural transformation expert Andrea Wunderstrand to unpack the emotional footprint of great leaders.

(0:55) If your team leaves meetings feeling confused or crushed, we’re talking about you. (1:03) But if you’ve ever wondered how to create trust, loyalty, and momentum without burning out or bulldozing, you’re in the right place. (1:13) Welcome, Andrea.

Andrea

(1:15) Thanks, Melissa. (1:16) It’s great to be here.

Melissa

(1:18) Sorry to chat with you today. (1:19) Now you’ve said that how leaders make people feel is often the most important thing they will actually do. (1:28) Let’s unpack a little bit about that.

(1:30) Why are emotions so central in leadership today?

Andrea

(1:34) Well, first and foremost, we are all humans and our nervous system doesn’t differentiate between work you and personal you. (1:42) So the emotions are always and have always been in the workplace. (1:46) And people don’t remember what you say.

(1:48) They remember how you feel. (1:51) And if you want people to follow you and be loyal and produce, you have to understand your impact on them. (2:01) And so it all comes down to how you make others feel.

Melissa

(2:05) I love that. (2:06) And I’m curious, what happens when leaders underestimate the emotional impact in the presence in their meetings? (2:16) What happens?

Andrea

(2:18) So when we don’t have emotional awareness on our impact on others, we can often live in assumptions through the lens of our own. (2:27) So if it’s not something that motivates us or upsets us, we often run into the assumption zone. (2:36) We presume that they will feel the same.

(2:39) And more often than not, it is not a one-to-one correlation that they feel exactly the same as us. (2:46) And that can get us into a lot of trouble because we’ll have miscommunication, a misunderstanding of expectations. (2:53) Even some people might take some things too personally and feel like you’re critiquing them when that isn’t even your intention in the first place.

(3:01) So part of it is miscommunication starts to blossom and feed in that environment when you’re not emotionally aware of both your own emotions and those around you.

Melissa

(3:12) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (3:15) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (3:22) Hit the subscribe button now.

(3:25) Don’t just watch act. (3:27) I love that. (3:28) I think there’s so much to that.

(3:30) It’s kind of, I don’t think most leaders wake up thinking, how am I going to affect somebody’s nervous system today? (3:37) But maybe they actually should and it causes a ripple effect in their day-to-day. (3:42) So what are those ripple effects?

(3:45) Where do you see leaders making a mistake where they aren’t aware of their emotional impact that they’re having with their staff or their employees?

Andrea

(3:55) Well, a typical one is that we carry the energy from whatever we just came out of into the next thing. (4:02) So if you go meeting-to- that perhaps got you a little heated or a little perplexed or frustrated and you come into the next meeting with an individual or group, that energy that you have, you can read it on your face. (4:21) Maybe that you’re frustrated.

(4:22) Your tone might not have been reset. (4:25) So unless you’ve purposefully and intentionally said, okay, I’m going to take a brief pause, take a breath and then go into the next thing, there’s this domino effect that can be carried from situation to situation and you might not be able to share what just happened in that meeting beforehand. (4:43) So you’re coming in a little energy high, frustrated and people start trying to fill in the blanks.

(4:49) We’re storytellers as humans and so they’re like, okay, she’s in a bad mood today or what’s going on? (4:56) Maybe the quarterly numbers came in bad or are there layoffs coming? (5:00) We start making up all these stories and really it’s just you came out of a meeting that just really either drained your energy, really frustrated you, has nothing to do with them and you’ve just infused a situation that has nothing to do with the actual people that you’re interacting with but now that you’ve impacted them.

(5:21) That’s a common one that I see left and right and so it can be solved pretty easily in aspect of taking a two-minute pause or even a 30-second pause and saying, all right, how am I going to show up in this next meeting or this next interaction and how do I want to make them feel in order to get what output or what impact happening? (5:44) But when we don’t take that pause, we’re just carrying things forward and there is a ripple effect.

Melissa

(5:52) So true and I love that you said that because, you know, I was often guilty of it myself. (5:58) I think when I started, you know, working remotely even more during the pandemic, I was going just like you said, from meeting to meeting and coming off and it was almost like these aggressive calls were contagious that I was on and I was kind of pulled into the, you know, the aggressiveness and then you start the next one kind of like a little on tilt and wired. (6:21) So I feel like it’s contagious whether it’s a positive or a negative we can bring that, you know, that positive team dynamic or we can bring that negative team dynamic.

(6:36) So I’m curious how can leaders recognize the subtle science that their energy whether positive or negative is affecting the overall company morale?

Andrea

(6:49) Well some of those signs are how are people interacting with you? (6:53) Are they hesitant? (6:54) Is there any change?

(6:56) Are there any patterns that are happening? (6:59) And the thing is emotions are energy. (7:03) You’re getting upset.

(7:04) Maybe you feel it in your gut, your tension in your shoulders, you’re grinding your teeth. (7:10) That’s part of why we can feel our blood pressure getting up. (7:13) On a positive emotion you ever have a really good belly laugh?

(7:17) You can’t stop it, right? (7:18) So the energy of an emotion wants to get out. (7:21) So unless we set an intention and release that energy or reset that energy it’s continuing on.

(7:30) It’s gonna happen whether you want it to or not. (7:34) So you might as well get in the driver’s seat of that energy for yourself. (7:39) And so that is the number one thing I tell leaders and just colleagues in the environment.

(7:45) How do you want to show up today and how are you gonna maintain and manage your own energy? (7:50) Because so many times yes there’s an impact to those around us but you get to the end of your day and you just feel drained. (7:59) And what if you could end your day and not have that drained feeling because you’ve been managing that energy in a way that serves you and those around you in a better way.

Melissa

(8:10) This episode is brought to you by Summit Ventures. (8:15) If you’re an accredited investor, Summit gives you access to one of the greatest tax advantage opportunities direct ownership in oil and gas. (8:27) Their projects deliver what they call the triple play cash flow, equity growth, and powerful tax benefits.

(8:35) And here’s the best part these investments qualify for 1031 exchanges. (8:41) That means you can roll gains from real estate into energy while deferring capital gains. (8:47) To learn more and get a free white paper, oil and gas demystified, just visit www.summitven.com forward slash executive connect. (9:01) Yeah I love that. (9:05) So let’s talk a little bit about emotional intelligence in action. (9:10) So I often find that emotional intelligence is a little bit confused as being soft but it’s really about being more strategic with your emotions.

(9:22) So can you break it down for us on how emotional intelligent leaders behave differently?

Andrea

(9:30) So there’s three main parameters of emotional intelligence. (9:37) First and foremost is I understand and comprehend and can regulate my own emotions. (9:43) The second tier is I can interpret and understand other people’s emotions and perspectives.

(9:52) And the third dimension is I can adjust my own behavior in accordance to what I see in the emotions and and perceptions of others in order to influence the outcome that I want to have in the interactions. (10:06) And so you start with how self-aware are you? (10:10) And self-awareness is a journey.

(10:12) You don’t just become a self-aware. (10:14) It’s not a destination. (10:15) It’s not knowing your strengths and your weaknesses.

(10:18) That is part of it but that’s part of the story. (10:21) It’s understanding what activates you. (10:22) What gets a trigger for you?

(10:24) Because emotions are based primarily in our memories. (10:28) It’s not and our fears, our fears of something that’s going to happen versus the actual situation that we’re in. (10:36) For the most part obviously you know a terrifying situation the proverbial tiger hunting us you know that is in the moment.

(10:44) But in our human interactions we’re often carrying sometimes people call it baggage or just the memory load of what we anticipate might be happening next. (10:56) And so for emotional intelligence is the more that you are aware of how your emotions show up for you. (11:05) What can activate a emotion that gets you out of a comfort zone, perhaps puts you into fight-or-flight.

(11:13) Identify emotions that also really invigorate you and what are some things that you can can do to move that forward. (11:21) The more you understand yourself you start seeing it in the world of your everyday life in others. (11:27) And it’s often with assumptions so you have to go and validate and ask them on their perspectives.

(11:34) But when you’re able to do that, that emotional intelligence, in particular the activation of emotional awareness both in yourself and others, you can communicate so much more efficiently, clearly, and with connection.

Melissa

(11:51) I love it. (11:52) Now this is an interesting question. (11:55) I want to get your thoughts on how does emotional intelligence show up in these tough conversations or high-stake meetings with executive teams leaderships or just people working and maybe even an entrepreneur startup or really any business.

Andrea

(12:20) So are you stepping in to the courageous conversation, saying the hard thing in a way that’s constructive to move things forward? (12:30) I call that being kind. (12:33) Or are you staying nice?

(12:34) I’m gonna try to be liked here in this situation. (12:38) And Nice is all about in service to us versus the outcome for the company, the effort, the project, the other person. (12:46) Versus being candid through kindness in a way that moves things forward, not a blame game, not breaking somebody else down, but moving people forward to the objective in observations, in being there in partnership, and how can I help?

(13:07) Here’s the patterns that I’m seeing. (13:09) I’m curious about how you’re feeling about this. (13:11) That curiosity in that emotional intelligence to really understand the perspectives and the emotional state of those around you is the differentiator between you moving things forward and you actually closing other people down because they go into fight-or-flight.

Melissa

(13:31) Right, it’s active listening to what they’re saying versus kind of listening to respond. (13:36) I want to get your take on something else. (13:38) So I started my career as a civil engineer.

(13:42) So I was told a lot that you’re analytical, so therefore you don’t have emotional intelligence. (13:48) So I’m curious to get your take if emotional intelligence can actually be developed in analytical people.

Andrea

(13:59) It can be developed in anyone. (14:02) Right, we might have our preferences. (14:04) Some of us like some data, some of us like a framework, some of us want to be totally social and go out and, you know, I mean a nightmare for me is a cocktail party.

(14:18) Put me on a stage in front of 3,000, 10,000 people. (14:20) I’m very much comfortable, but that doesn’t mean I have less intelligence or more emotional intelligence than somebody else. (14:28) Somebody is an introvert and they prefer to do that.

(14:31) It’s how much do you understand yourself and are you curious about those around you? (14:37) And I would argue that anyone in engineering is some of the most curious people I know. (14:44) So it’s not a type that can be more emotionally aware than others.

(14:51) It’s how courageous we are to be brave and look at the hard things and figure out where were the common denominator in our own frustrations.

Melissa

(15:00) I love it. (15:01) So true. (15:02) I thought it was pretty funny when I heard it.

(15:06) You’ve coached a lot of executives, so let’s talk about the mistakes. (15:11) I find we often learn the best from the mistakes. (15:15) So what are the subtle way leaders unintentionally create fear or confusion with our staff?

Andrea

(15:24) We jump into problem-solving. (15:28) So we set up our own demise for our time by wanting to have it done exactly our way or in answering everyone’s questions rather than helping them figure it out for themselves. (15:44) And that has an impact not only on you as far as taking up your time or creating an over-dependent team because they’re not going to pass a goal unless you know Melissa says so.

(15:56) And you’re also demising. (16:02) There’s an aspect of really diminishing and it’s a demise of their own self-confidence, their own self-worth in their role. (16:12) So the more you’re actually giving the answers and saving the day or helping people out, and you say helping with little bunny ears here, you’re actually making people less confident in their own choices.

(16:28) You sure as anything don’t have autonomy. (16:31) And you’re also making it harder for them to own the accountability of their outcomes because you’re actually prescribing it to them rather than involving and engaging them in how the outcome is achieved.

Melissa

(16:47) Yeah well said. (16:48) I find that early in my career I felt that leaders that were really inconsistent with their tone, their priorities. (16:59) One day they were happy, one day they were sad.

(17:06) I too. (17:07) Do you believe that that impacts trust over time when leaders are very inconsistent with their own emotion, how they’re delivering their tone, their priorities, their attention to their team?

Andrea

(17:23) Absolutely. (17:24) When you’re reacting rather than truly responding, it’s often born out of a fake it till you make it environment. (17:34) And that’s a mask that you’re wearing.

(17:37) And so when that mask falls down because something’s failing and something will always fail, right? (17:43) Nothing’s perfect. (17:44) There is always going to be, you know, a missed deadline or some assumptions or some, you know, forecast that’s off.

(17:53) There’s in business it’s never exactly to plan. (17:58) And if you cannot navigate the incongruences of the environment and you’re trying to be perfect with some mask of what professionalism and being a leader looks like, you’re gonna cause that whiplash for your team in the aspect they don’t know what to expect. (18:19) The movies in the 80s and 90s used to have like the boss coming up the elevator and everybody would be texting each other or indicating that, oh, the boss is coming and all of a sudden everybody behaves, right?

(18:30) And you see the, you know, the whole scenario and it was used over and over. (18:35) The unfortunate part is that is still sometimes a reality. (18:40) Folks are going to show you what they think you want rather than providing you what you actually need.

(18:47) And thus you are not creating an environment where people trust you because you’re inconsistent. (18:52) And it also makes it hard for you to trust them because they’re just waiting to react to what you’re doing rather than truly responding because they know what to predict.

Melissa

(19:02) I love that example because I, that movie Devil Wears Prada. (19:06) I don’t know if you ever saw that movie. (19:07) It popped right in my head where everybody, you know, put their heels on, took their tennis shoes off and got ready for, forget whatever her name was to arrive.

(19:16) But let’s talk a little bit about the ROI on leveraging emotional intelligence. (19:23) What’s the payoff when leaders focus on how their people feel versus, you know, not that we don’t watch what they’re doing, but really what we lean in to how many people feeling.

Andrea

(19:36) Today, we need innovation. (19:38) We need agility. (19:40) We need to be able to respond to the marketplace.

(19:42) You need creativity and on the spot thinking to do that. (19:47) And our brains can physically not process in a creative zone if we are living in fear. (19:55) Folks go, oh, they’re not fearful.

(19:57) I’m just tough on them. (19:58) That’s a form of fear. (20:00) The fear scale can be extreme or it can be just an undercurrent that’s constantly in the stress there that there’s high expectations.

(20:10) But if you really want your people to be agile, be innovative, be able to respond to your competition, create new things, you got to keep them in the creative zone. (20:22) So if you really want the ROI and you want to be able to beat your competitor in the marketplace and you want to be able to, you know, meet or exceed your objectives, the only way you can do that is to have a team that is in the right mental space to be creative and not closing down in anxiety and fear.

Melissa

(20:49) Now, what do you think the biggest myth about emotions in the workplace is and maybe one that you wish we would retire for good?

Andrea

(20:58) Well, the myth of there’s a professional you and a personal you. (21:04) Your central nervous system never gets that memo. (21:09) Your emotions are with you 24 seven because they’re part of you.

(21:15) There’s just you as far as your nervous system is concerned. (21:20) And I would dare say that when we talk about work life balance, one of the challenges I see so many of my clients have is the ruminating that they do over the weekend or after hours. (21:34) They’re not at work still, but they’re still engaged in work.

(21:40) And they’re replaying the argument that they had or how they tried to influence somebody else in the organization. (21:47) They’re nervous about the big presentation with a client tomorrow. (21:51) It’s Sunday afternoon and they’re prepping for the week, even though they’re not officially prepping for the week.

(21:58) And so when we can step back and really separate out the fact that we are not separate, but what I mean by separate out is acknowledge that we have emotions about work. (22:11) We have emotions about our personal life. (22:13) We have emotions about everything else around us.

(22:16) How do we want to manage the energy of those emotions in order to serve us, our families, those around us, our work environment, the best. (22:27) We have to acknowledge that there’s only one you. (22:30) There’s not a work you and a personal you.

(22:32) There are attributes of you, but there’s no real difference at the core of your emotions.

Melissa

(22:37) Are you someone with a demanding job but tired of the nine to five grind? (22:42) What if you could build a profitable side hustle without sacrificing your full time career? (22:48) Our new partner Book Profits can show you how to turn your limited free time into a thriving online business.

(22:55) Learn how to find, sell and profit from used books all on your schedule from the comfort of your own home. (23:02) Not crazy tech skills needed and no major upfront investment, just simple strategies that fit into your busy lifestyle. (23:10) Visit the URL on the screen for a free training today and learn more.

(23:16) I love that because I think more workplaces need that. (23:20) I don’t, I would say a large majority of the ones that I know or the people that I’m very close with, they don’t have work organizations where people really know who’s working with them. (23:29) We understand the casual, the football games that they watched over the weekend, but we really don’t get to know the deeper side of our peers.

(23:40) I feel like it’s not something that’s prioritized a lot of times in culture these days, and maybe it’s just my experience, but I rarely get to hear, in my industries, people say that they’re seen and heard both personally, professionally, because it is that armor that we put on on our way to work. (24:00) And, you know, everything’s great. (24:02) Everything’s great.

(24:03) And so I love that you mentioned that because I do think it’s a muscle that we need to build. (24:09) It’s not something that’s normal and comfortable. (24:12) So we, you know, for leaders who are listening who want to do better, but aren’t really sure how to start to unpack that emotional side of the employees that work for them.

(24:22) What does practicing the emotional intelligence muscle actually look like in practice?

Andrea

(24:32) It comes back to how do you want to make people feel also. (24:38) And if you really want outcomes that allow for you to have the success in your team, you have to engage them in a way that they stay creative. (24:55) Now, I want to clarify, I think sharing and being aware of emotions in the workplace is important.

(25:02) But I also think that it’s a forced environment. (25:05) You can’t choose your coworkers all the time. (25:08) Like you can choose your friends.

(25:11) My mom also says you can’t choose your family, you can only choose your friends. (25:15) And that aspect is you don’t have to overshare either. (25:18) They don’t have to know everything.

(25:21) In fact, they probably shouldn’t know everything. (25:24) And especially in a manager and employee relationship, you do have a power dynamic at play. (25:31) So we’d be remiss if we didn’t like acknowledge the fact.

(25:35) That said, how do we show up with empathy and caring? (25:40) How do we show up without this mask of we’ve got to be perfect and own our own mistakes, own when we are a bit more human than maybe we want to be. (25:54) In doing that and setting that example, you actually make it allowable, right?

(26:00) It’s a freedom within the unit that you’re working whether that’s your small team or the company wide in creating an environment where people own their mistakes, they own when they show up inappropriately and apologize for it. (26:18) Because we will slip up even when you’re aware of something. (26:22) Once it’s seen, it can’t be unseen, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never do the wrong thing again.

(26:28) And so that human centricity of all right, this happened, how do we move forward and the focus on the relationship, both with yourself, with your team and with your customers, customers are more relationship focused than they were previously, because they can find out all the bits and bobs that you’re selling on your internet website. (26:50) They want to know whether it’s the right solution for them. (26:53) And does it really fit their objectives and they want some validation.

(26:58) So even when I work with sales organizations, it’s about how do you have that relationship and understand the emotions of the buyer on the other side. (27:08) So relationship is important. (27:10) The emotions of a true relationship differentiate whether you have true trust or not.

(27:17) And if you really want to succeed, and I would dare say, outperform, you got to be willing to step into out of that comfort zone and share the emotion.

Melissa

(27:31) I love it. (27:32) Now, what role do you think feedback plays in in building emotional intelligence, I would say both giving and receiving feedbacks critical in the aspect that how you’re giving it.

Andrea

(27:47) Are you giving it in a way that’s constructive? (27:50) That is well intended and well executed? (27:54) Is it timely?

(27:56) Is it tied to observation? (27:59) Or is it tied to judgment? (28:01) Oh, that was a crappy presentation.

(28:03) I mean, that’s not helpful to anyone versus, you know, there’s some opportunity in what I just saw here in the last meeting. (28:11) I’d love to share that with you, Melissa, would you be open to me sharing that because I really believe in what you’re able to do. (28:18) I just saw some opportunity.

(28:20) How’s that sound? (28:21) That’s way different than somebody just dumping on somebody else. (28:26) And then what you do with that feedback, it’s somebody else’s perspective.

(28:30) It’s not necessarily your truth. (28:33) It’s their experience. (28:35) And you have to put that in perspective for yourself as you’re taking it in.

Melissa

(28:40) Yeah, and not always shooting over everybody, you know, you should have done this, you should have done that. (28:46) And really, just giving it’s an opportunity to do better versus, you know, telling people what to do. (28:53) So let’s zoom out a little bit.

(28:54) If more leaders cared about how people felt in their presidents and at their workplace, what kind of ripple effect could that have in the workplace today?

Andrea

(29:09) The workplace stress would go down. (29:13) Right? (29:14) The microstresses, the miscommunications, the, ah, am I next on the chopping block for being laid off?

(29:22) How confident am I in my performance? (29:26) And do they see me? (29:29) Stress in itself causes more anxiety in the workplace and it’s microstresses.

(29:36) So when we can be aware of our emotions and that ripple effect of coming from one meeting to the next and all of a sudden you’ve given a ton of energy that it was unintended and you’ve created chaos and folks feeling less confident because of that. (29:52) If you stop doing that, the stress goes way down. (29:55) And who doesn’t want an environment where it’s less stressful?

(30:00) So to me, lowering the stress in the environment by investing in understanding how your own emotions are at play, the impact it’s having on others, and then being aware of others’ emotions. (30:15) It’s the most impactful thing you can do in a short time period to accelerate results.

Melissa

(30:23) Yeah. (30:23) And I think about like the long-term effect too. (30:26) I mean, I would, I would think that, and I’ve not read a case study or know if this is a true statement, but when you’re not stressed, you’re probably not seeing the doctor as much.

(30:34) You’re probably not as sick. (30:36) You’re probably not using your insurance as much things are, you know, when people are wondering and they don’t trust, they’re probably spending a lot of time thinking about things that may or may not even be there. (30:50) So it’s just working in a place where you’re understood and clear on what the total vision is.

(30:58) It’s easier for people to do their job and show up and, you know, work those eight hours versus somebody that, you know, doesn’t feel heard. (31:06) Somebody is always shitting on them. (31:08) It, it’s kind of a downward spiral.

Andrea

(31:12) Yeah. (31:13) And it, for every miscommunication, you’re doubling the amount of time to get the output that you’re trying to get, right? (31:21) So you’re compounding that stress versus trying to get it right out of the gate the first time and it won’t be perfect.

(31:31) But if you’re progressing over perfection and you’re course correcting along the way, it is a domino effect. (31:39) You’ll see higher engagement, less turnover, a lot of HRE type terms that we can go through here. (31:45) But for a business person, it means you have more continuity in your team, more focus on your customers and what you’re trying to achieve.

(31:56) And a lot of the back and forth shoulds and coulds get course corrected through open communication. (32:08) It’s a win across the board.

Melissa

(32:12) Yeah. (32:12) And I think Bernay Brown that says being clear is kind. (32:18) I love that.

(32:19) I don’t know if it’s Bernay Brown or somebody else, but I love, I think when we’re all clear and we understand it, there’s less room for wondering, thinking, anxiety, or what all the kind of low vibration emotions are versus just staying engaged, involved, inventing, finding problems to solution. (32:43) So what’s your long, I’m curious to get in a world that’s moving more towards technology, AI, working remote, a lot of people are traveling more. (32:56) What’s your vision and maybe what’s possible when workplaces lead with empathy and awareness?

Andrea

(33:07) The technology is there to support us. (33:11) And I see more and more the importance of relationship, the human connection, especially in you look at the alpha generation coming in and they’re entering the workplace. (33:26) And for them, a priority on living life to its fullest and versus the Gen Xers and the boomers that went to school for 20 years, then they worked for 50 years and then they’re quote, retired and living for 10 years.

(33:41) I was at a recent conference back in June for fortune for the workplace innovation and alpha on the stage says, that was what you were taught for me. (33:50) I don’t want to wait and live those 10 years. (33:52) I want to live all of them.

(33:55) So this is not just doing the right thing for those that are in the workplace. (34:01) It’s what’s coming, this expectation of more of the connected humanness in the rise of AI, in the rise of all of the technology that is serving us. (34:14) It’s actually opening up space for us to be more connected.

(34:18) And that’s my vision.

Melissa

(34:20) 100%. (34:21) I would agree. (34:22) I think people want community and connection more than ever.

(34:26) I don’t know. (34:28) I feel like you were saying at the beginning, it’s meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting and then just breaking from that, you know, sitting in front of a screen all day is such a beautiful thing. (34:38) And so I agree.

(34:39) I think there’s so much room for improvement here. (34:42) I want to get any final thoughts or anything that we didn’t touch on today that you want to leave with our listeners.

Andrea

(34:51) I would just remind the listeners that becoming self-aware and building relationships takes time. (35:00) It’s a journey. (35:02) It’s not a destination.

(35:05) And the more intentional you are of how am I making another person feel, whether that’s the grocery clerk, as you’re telling them, like, don’t put your frozen stuff with your, like, vegetable stuff, right? (35:19) Which is a pet peeve for me. (35:20) I don’t like the lettuce with the frozen stuff.

(35:23) Or you’re telling someone about the next big project or having to, you know, lay someone off. (35:31) The more you can focus on what’s my impact simply by just showing up, what’s energy am I putting out there? (35:39) And how do I actually want to be remembered?

(35:42) That’s all in your control. (35:44) And it starts with you.

Melissa

(35:47) So true. (35:48) Well said. (35:49) Thank you so much for being here today and sharing your knowledge with our listeners.

(35:54) What is the best way to connect with you and learn more about the good work you’re doing?

Andrea

(36:00) The best way is I’m pretty active on the LinkedIn platform. (36:04) I post five days a week. (36:06) And so you can follow me there.

(36:08) You can also reach out at a3culturelab.com where some of my services are listed. (36:16) And in 2026, my mindset may have been cohorts of resetting your own mindset and increasing your own performance will be available for enrollment.

Melissa

(36:27) Thank you so much for being here today, Andrea. (36:31) That’s the Executive Connect podcast.

Andrea

(36:36) Thank you, Melissa.