Michelle Nicholson

The 2026 numbers are in, and they are sobering. Only 39% of employees report high well-being, an 11-point drop from 2024. For the third year in a row, financial well-being ranks dead last among the five dimensions of well-being. And middle managers are burning out at more than three times the rate of the people they lead. For the HR practitioner, the business owner, the corporate leader, this looks like disengagement, turnover, and a culture that quietly erodes while your health plan sits...

It is impossible to talk about changing organizations and their cultures without talking about changing ourselves and healing our wounds. - Gabriela Alcalde If you're tired, research confirms it's not personal failure. It's systemic. In a landmark study on women's fatigue, researchers found that 80% of women ranked persistent exhaustion among their top 10 health concerns. What did women attribute this to? Not depression or anxiety, though both emerged later. Women cited what social scientist...

I am starting to see a lot of this. Self-care. Self-love. Yet, I am also seeing a lot of self imposed isolation. We are getting used to doing too much on our own. Without a village, and without tapping on our usual suspects as resources, we are still left craving. Last month, we wrote about what professional women told us mattered most: personal connection, shared stories, transparent fellowship. Here's what I'm noticing in my work with organizational leaders: We've been sold a lie about...