Dear Leaders: Love, Your People

The Tale of the Square Mug: Why Your Team's Capacity for Change Matters

Dear Leaders, Whether you’d like to believe it or not, what’s happening in the world right now is impacting how your people show up to work. Expensive groceries, gas shortages, plus everything else your people have going on means they might not be operating on a full tank. They just don’t have the capacity. We’ll talk about: * Why all of us have a change threshold (and how to assess your team’s capacity before rolling out changes) * The three questions you need to ask before implementing any change * How to spot “square mug” changes—changes for change’s sake that don’t actually make anyone’s life better * Death by a thousand paper cuts: why your team sees change cumulatively, not in isolation * What it means to be a steady presence through change (and why “let me know if you have questions” isn’t enough) This episode is your reminder: your team’s capacity for change is not unlimited. Treat it like the finite resource it is. Love, Your People Book Brandi to speak! spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements [http://spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements] Download the leader guide for this episode here: https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/ [https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/]

The 28-Minute Problem: Creating Space for Deep Work as a Leader

Dear Leaders, Here's a statistic that might make you feel seen: the average CEO only gets 28 minutes of uninterrupted work time per day. Twenty-eight minutes. The rest is emails, questions, meetings, and constant interruptions. And if you're like me, you might have accidentally created this problem for yourself. We'll talk about: * Why loving your people doesn't mean sacrificing what you need as a leader * The adventure value paradox: how giving my team flexibility left me with none * The four steps to creating boundaries that protect your capacity (audit, identify systems you need, communicate clearly, own the boundary) This episode is your reminder: you can't pour from an empty cup. When you take care of yourself, you show up better for your team. Love, Your People Book Brandi to speak! spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements Download the leader guide for this episode here: https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/ [https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/] This episode is brought to you by Leader Spree 2026. Join us for a one-day leadership conference in Columbia, Missouri designed to give you way more than 28 minutes to focus on you. Grab your ticket at spreecultureco.com/leader-spree-2026

The (Re)treat that Keeps on Giving

Dear Leaders, Team retreats aren't just nice to have: they impact trust, bring people closer together, and give you space to solve problems in ways you can't when you're stuck in your normal routine. I'm saying this as someone who facilitates team experiences for a living, and I'll be honest: I was discounting the value of our own team retreat. I was overthinking the time commitment, worrying about whether it was really necessary. But after bringing our fully remote team to Columbia, Missouri for two days, I asked them for their honest reflections. What they shared completely shifted how I think about bringing people together. In this episode, I share their actual feedback I got from my team, and give you your own team retreat agenda you can steal to host your own! We'll talk about: * Why team retreats get a bad rap (looking at you, Michael Scott's beach day) * The three things retreats give you: connection, shared language and purpose, and space to solve problems * How retreats validate your team's importance without requiring direct ROI If you're thinking "I don't have the budget for two days away," here's the truth: the location and duration doesn't matter. What matters is dedicating time to step away from normal work and focus on connection and dreaming together. Love, Your People Book Brandi to speak! spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements Download the leader guide for this episode here: https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/ [https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/] The leader guide includes retreat agendas you can steal: 2-hour, half-day, and full-day options.

The Full Grinch Moment: What Your Team Actually Needs During the Holidays

Dear Leaders, Culture can't be dependent on resources. The parties, the gifts, the decorations—those aren't your culture. Those are events. They're nice, they matter, but they're not culture. Culture is how your people feel. Your team needs both celebration AND support during the holidays. Most leaders focus so much on the celebration part—the parties, the decorations, the spectacle—that they forget about the support part entirely. We'll talk about: * Why celebration without support isn't enough * What support actually looks like during the holidays (flexibility, guilt-free time off, modeling rest) * How to make it safe for your team to actually disconnect * Why not everyone celebrates the same way (and how to acknowledge that) * The message you send when you work through the holidays yourself This episode is your reminder: if you're a leader thinking "I don't have the budget for a big party," that's okay. You don't need it. The culture you create during the holidays isn't about what you spend—it's about how your people feel. Am I giving a full Cindy Lou Who moment? Yes, I am, and I'm so into it. Love, Your People Book Brandi to speak! spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements [http://spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements] Download the leader guide for this episode here: https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/ [https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/] This episode is sponsored by Spree Culture Co. Visit spreecultureco.com [http://spreecultureco.com/] to learn more about bringing our team to yours in 2026.

You can't change a tire without touching it: Understand the culture, then influence it

Dear Leaders, You can't change a tire without touching it. You have to get down on eye level with it, understand how it's connected, where the lug nuts are, what's actually broken. The same is true for culture—you can't influence what you don't understand. Whether you're a new leader stepping into a role or a seasoned leader trying to make changes, there's a three-step process you can't skip when it comes to creating culture change: Understand, Acclimate, Influence. We'll talk about: * Why jumping straight to "fixing things" costs you credibility * How to truly understand a culture (not just observe it from the outside) * Why acclimating to existing systems earns you the right to influence them * What Southwest Airlines can teach us about culture being more than values on a wall This episode is your reminder that real influence doesn't happen by walking into a culture and immediately telling everyone what's wrong with it. It happens when you earn the right to suggest changes by first honoring what already exists. Love, Your People Book Brandi to speak! spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements [http://spreecultureco.com/speaking-engagements] Download the leader guide for this episode here: https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/ [https://spreecultureco.com/dear-leader-downloadable-leader-guides/] Get the Leading Through Culture Bundle at peopleleaderlearning.com [http://peopleleaderlearning.com/]