What It Really Means to Lead With Integrity in Uncertain Times

Work WellbeingWork RecoverySelf DiscoveryChange ManagementLeadershipNervous System Regulation
Written By Bree J

Weekly Dose of Work Recovery Vol. 2.4.26

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

I’m just a girl standing in front of you asking you to see her for who she really is. A flawed human learning how to be authentic without becoming unmeasured. A business owner and writer who believes values and principles are not statements — they are behaviors, practiced daily.

 

I talk often about workplace values. Not because they’re trendy, but because I’ve lived what happens when leaders say one thing and do another. I’ve seen how work harm is created quietly, over time, through small compromises that no one wants to name.

 

Everyday actions shape what a business — and a leader — actually stands for. Not the mission statement. Not the brand deck. Not the polished press release.

 

Values live in the choices made when no one is watching.
And especially when everyone is watching.

 

The beauty of being my own boss is that I no longer have to negotiate my conscience. I don’t have to sit in group chats debating whether something is borderline unethical or whether it's the right time to take a stand for human rights and dignity for all. I don’t have to contort myself into palatability because every person is a potential client.

 

But independence has its own exposure.

 

When I left the law firm I co-founded and it became just me — no institution, no fancy firm, no group shield— I chose comfort. I allowed myself to shrink. To soften opinions. To sand off edges. To become more agreeable. More “safe.”

 

For years, I followed the advice of gurus who said: Stay quiet. Don’t risk losing half your audience. Especially during elections. Especially during upheaval.

 

And for a while, I listened. Then, weeks ago, something snapped.

I don’t want to shrink anymore.
Not my voice.
Not my values.
Not the perspective I’ve earned through real experience.

Being a 40-year-old Minnesota mom and business founder already requires constant creative contortion to keep life moving. I don’t need to bend or quiet my convictions too.

 

Because I’ve learned this:
The people who are for me will stay.
The rest won’t.

 

Several unsubscribed after I shared what’s been happening here in Minnesota. And that’s okay. I don’t want to be for everyone.

 

I want to write about work wounds.
About how to heal with work recovery.
To share what it feels like to tell the truth even when it's hard.

And I want to show others what it looks like to live and serve others as courageous leader.

 

This year has been brutally challenging — for me, and for so many others. We are tender. We are stretched. We are carrying more than anyone can see.

 

And that discomfort is not a failure. It’s the cost of integrity. It’s the price of leading with values in public. It’s what happens when you stop performing safety and start practicing honesty.

 

Leading with values requires that I live them.
Even when it’s inconvenient.
Even when it’s costly.

 

And it requires that you live yours too — whatever they are.

 

So if you’re still here, thank you. Not for agreeing with me. But for choosing a space where full humanity is welcome. Where honesty is allowed. Where we don’t have to disappear or shrink to belong.

 

This space is for you.
And it is for me.

 

— Bree

 

P.S. If you’re carrying more than feels manageable right now, you’re not alone. This season has been tender for many of us. If you'd like a way to meet this moment with steadiness, courage, and self-trust in community with other women, our four-part Leadership Lab series is designed for exactly this important work.  

 

This week's did you know…Ageism in workplaces harms all ages

Women over 45 are becoming increasingly invisible in workplaces and media — often only “seen” if they appear youthful — which deprives both younger and older women of role models at the very stages of life when careers are supposed to deepen and evolve. 

 

This erasure not only reinforces age-based stereotypes and self-censorship but also narrows what success and leadership can look like across a full working life, ultimately harming individuals and organizations' outcomes. Representation matters…

 

Source: Challenging ageism: The need for older female role models at work, Fast Company

 This Week on the Podcast

Ep. 120 Winter ’26, Lesson One: Finding My Voice in a Season of Reckoning


Stuff We Couldn’t Gatekeep

Bree J
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