Workplace Superpowers
Speak up, be generous, and go for a walk in the woods.
Early in my career, I wish I had spoken up more. There was nothing more disappointing than after a meeting, thinking “I had that data point!” or “I could’ve answered that!” or challenged an opinion and gotten us to a richer discussion. I couldn’t count the number of times I held back because of formality, or thinking I was too junior, and who was I to be speaking up in a room of senior people…
What I learned was: Even if I got it wrong, I just needed to lean in.
The more I spoke up, the more comfortable I got. The more I stumbled over my words, or didn’t express myself exactly how I wanted, the more I grew comfortable having simply engaged in the conversation. People respected me for speaking up.
When talked over, or stumbling, others jumped in and said: “Hey, I think Daria’s trying to say this” — and boy, was I grateful for the managers, colleagues, and clients who rescued me in those moments. They lifted me up, we worked as a team, and it made everyone look good. I learned, in turn, to be generous with giving credit. In time, I would come to do the same for others.
As an individual contributor, one of the greatest early-career accelerants for me was learning to distinguish between yes/no completion tasks and tasks where quality matters. In the former, the only thing that matters is "Did this get done?” Accuracy and (some) attention to detail is still necessary, but I didn’t have to think that hard. I just had to get it done: update the comps, clean up the deck, check the numbers, schedule the dry run, etc. As soon as I learned to recognize this type of work, I started applying the 80/20 rule and freed up my time to focus on the tasks where quality matters: articulate a vision, drive executive alignment, build customer champions, launch a big bet, etc.
Then as a people manager responsible for team resourcing, work doesn’t always look like work. I’ve observed a tradeoff between responsiveness and throughput, especially in domains where quality of thinking matters. I’m allergic to the word “strategy”, so let’s call it “long-range planning”. Both in running a business and managing a team, it’s less about giving the right answers and more about asking the right questions—of my team, our direction, the problems we choose to prioritize.
For example:
Yes, we agree customer churn in XYZ region is bad.
But is it a worthwhile problem to solve, right now, by us, given competing priorities, existing commitments, and other trends we could be capturing?
Ensuring I have time to think about a problem, its possible solutions, levers in the system, and downstream impacts is one of the highest-value things I can do. It helps my team see around corners, stress-test assumptions, plan for contingencies, and generally feel confident about what we’re doing. This last piece—understanding the problem, bringing a point of view, and articulating why behind a large investment area with authority—can’t be faked. There is, in my experience, no better shortcut to workplace confidence than simply having done the work.
Sometimes that doesn’t look like sitting at my desk and typing up a memo.
Sometimes that looks like going for a walk in the woods.
Lately, the tool I’m reaching for most at work is de-escalation: practicing how to have high-stakes conversations in low-stakes ways. This can be as simple as ensuring mutual opt-in (building trust-based relationships) before giving constructive feedback. This can also take the form of saying no (prioritizing) while making it feel like a yes (i.e., genuinely understanding the concern).
Something as basic as replacing every instinctive “Yes, but…” with the audible “Yes, and…” has shaped how I show up to a conversation, lower others’ reservations, and bring everyone to the same side of the table. Whether that’s speaking up, stepping back, leaning in, or logging out, it’s simply about creating space for everyone to do their best work.
