July 22, 2025

 

Dear First name / friend,

 

This past Friday evening, I found myself on a crowded dance floor in Brooklyn, sweating through "I Melt With You" alongside 300 other women who'd left work early, arranged childcare, and traveled across boroughs for one thing: the chance to dance without judgment until 10 p.m. 💃

 

This was my third Earlybirds dance party—a roving event that, as The New York Times described it, "caters to women who have things to do in the morning — and need dancing more than ever." 

 

Watching Earlybirds co-founder Laura Baginski address the crowd, I realized I was witnessing hope in action—and it made me think about what my clients really need from me as their leader and coach.

Gallup's new State of the Global Workplace research across 52 countries reveals something striking: hope is what people need most from their leaders, accounting for 56% of all attributes tied to positive leaders. In the data visualization below, you can see the impact: the large green bar representing ‘hope’ takes up more than half the chart.  

 

What makes this urgent in 2025? Global employee engagement has only fallen twice in the past 12 years: during the pandemic and right now. Last year's drop to 21% equals the decline we saw during lockdowns. And this time, it's happening because managers themselves are becoming disengaged.

The Earlybirds founders didn't set out to be leadership experts. They noticed what was missing and created something better. That's hope in action: seeing what's possible and taking steps to make it happen.

 

Stanford researchers featured in McKinsey's "Laugh more, lead better" discovered that when we laugh together, our brains release oxytocin—the same hormone that builds trust and emotional bonds. This isn't just feel-good science:

 

 

But here's what I saw in action at Earlybirds: playfulness isn't just about humor. It's about creating welcoming spaces where people can access who they really are and have fun doing it.

When we EarlyBirds dancers were losing ourselves in "Like a Prayer," it reminded me of what I see in my work as a certified Gallup Strengths Coach. There's a moment when leaders discover their CliftonStrengths themes and recognize: "Oh, this is who I am when I'm not trying to be someone else." 

 

Recently, I was working with a leadership team where one executive discovered their Positivity theme—their natural ability to find what's working and help others see possibility even in difficult situations. Another leader realized their Individualization theme meant they weren't being "too detailed" when they insisted on understanding each team member's unique motivations: they were actually accessing their superpower for bringing out the best in people.

 

Both experiences—dancing without judgment and discovering your natural strengths—create something similar: hope that emerges when people see their authentic capabilities clearly and understand how those strengths can create the future they want.

What the Gallup research confirms is that people don't need leaders like us to have all the answers. They need us to believe—and help them believe—that good things are still possible, that they have unique strengths that matter. ✨

 

Hope isn't something you manufacture. It emerges when people access what was always there: their natural talents and authentic way of contributing.

 

What if creating hope for your team started with the same thing that happened in that Brooklyn dance hall? What if it began with people finally seeing themselves clearly and thinking, "This is who I am when I'm not trying to be someone else"?

 

The Earlybirds founders didn't create hope through vision statements or motivational speeches. They created space for people to access what was already there. Similarly, your team doesn't need you to have all the answers. They need you to help them discover their own. And that starts with you leading from your authentic strengths, the same way those women found their joy by simply being themselves on the dance floor. 💫