Celebration, Relationships, and Rest

Cathie Leimbach • December 18, 2023

The holiday season is upon us! During the next two weeks, most of us will be taking a break from our normal routine to celebrate Christmas, New Years, Kwanzaa, or simply time off. This is a great season for celebration, relationships, rest.


Take advantage of this season to celebrate! Enjoy traditions that celebrate your faith. Treasure group events and the small things that affirm your beliefs. Acknowledge your achievements throughout the year. Maybe you have become healthier, taken up a hobby that energizes you, or furthered your education. Perhaps you started a new business or got a promotion at work. You may have achieved a financial goal or taken your dream vacation. Celebrate your successes!


Invest in your personal relationships. Take time for long dinners and conversations. Have fun with the people in your life. Encourage others around you by giving them a meaningful gift or lending them a hand with a project.


Enjoy some rest. Sleep in or take naps. Make time for both physical and mental rest. In today’s society, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and overburdened. Give yourself permission to play, to do things that give you joy and recharge your spirit.   



I encourage you to live the next two weeks intentionally, so you get the most out of this holiday season. How can you have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? What celebrations are most important to you? What relationships do you wish to enjoy or strengthen? What will allow you to feel rested? Scheduling these life-giving activities is the first step in making them happen.

Wishing you a holiday season filled with joy, hope, love, and peace!

Speaking Up Is Not Defiance. It's Duty.

By Cathie Leimbach • June 23, 2026
Most leaders say they want employees to speak up. They want people who spot risks, question assumptions, and help the organization make better decisions. Yet many employees hesitate to do exactly that. Why? Because leaders often respond to speaking up as if the speaker is complaining, criticizing or resisting. When people fear being viewed as difficult, they stop sharing what they see. The organization loses valuable information, ideas, and perspectives. A recent McKinsey article found that teams with high psychological safety are two to three times more likely to generate breakthrough ideas. When people feel safe speaking up, better thinking follows. The best leaders understand a simple truth: Speaking up is not defiance. It's duty. When employees question assumptions, raise concerns, or offer a different perspective, they are helping the team avoid blind spots and make stronger decisions. That's why effective leaders don't merely tolerate speaking up—they invite it. They ask: What are we not seeing? What assumptions are we making? Who might see this differently? What information are we missing? Just as importantly, they respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness. They thank people for expressing their perspective. They explain how input influenced decisions. They make speaking up safe. Because organizations don't improve when everyone agrees. They improve when people feel responsible for helping the team see what others may have missed. In healthy organizations, speaking up isn't rebellion. It's responsibility. It's duty. Leadership Reflection Think about your last leadership team meeting. Did people simply agree? Or did someone help the team see something it otherwise would have missed? Download 5 Questions That Surface Better Thinking and make speaking up a productive part of how your team thinks, decides, and performs.

Put Your Brain in Gear When Using AI

By Cathie Leimbach • June 16, 2026
Artificial Intelligence is becoming a powerful workplace tool. It can summarize information, analyze data, draft content, and generate ideas in seconds. But there is a growing risk leaders need to recognize: AI can sound convincing even when it is wrong. In an article by Erica Dhawan, she describes a legal case where attorneys used ChatGPT to help prepare a court filing. The brief looked professional, the reasoning seemed logical, and the citations appeared legitimate. There was only one problem: several of the cited cases did not exist. The AI had fabricated them. The danger wasn't carelessness. It was trust. Because the information was presented clearly, confidently, and professionally, nobody stopped to question it. Psychologists call this the "fluency heuristic"—our tendency to assume information is accurate when it is easy to process and sounds credible. As leaders, we cannot allow polished answers to replace critical thinking. When you find yourself thinking, "This is too good to be true," put your brain in gear. Dig deeper. Investigate. Verify the facts. Ask what assumptions were made, what information might be missing, and what evidence supports the conclusion. AI can be an incredible assistant. It should never become a substitute for judgment. The smooth answer is not always the wrong one—but it is often the one that deserves the most scrutiny. Before You Act, Verify. The biggest risk with AI isn't bad information. It's believable information that's wrong. That's why we created the AI Verification Checklist for Leaders —a simple 5-minute tool designed to help leaders challenge assumptions, identify missing information, verify conclusions, and make better decisions before acting on AI-generated recommendations. Download the free AI Verification Checklist for Leaders and start asking better questions before making important decisions.