Ex-VP at Symantec, Lenovo, Intel, IBM | Through my flagship program, I help women turn their expertise into a compelling offer, visible authority, and repeatable revenue—without spinning their wheels

I’ve led $100M+ businesses inside Intel, Lenovo, and Symantec — with 90-day mandates I couldn’t afford to miss.

I know what it’s like to carry a P&L, walk into a new role, and be handed a goal that looks clean on the slide but messy in reality.

Now I help senior leaders in the same position.

Not with decks. Not with workshops.
With results that land inside the quarter.

What I Solve:

Mandate, no movement
You’ve been told to cut costs, grow, or integrate — but the team’s stuck. No ownership. No traction.

Revenue, no profit
You’re selling. But cash feels unstable. Custom deals, margin leaks, unstable motion.

In role, out of time
You’re stuck reviewing contracts, fixing underperformers, or coaching managers — instead of leading at your level.

In the age of AI:

Expected to lead without being technical
I help execs show real AI leadership — by tying it to tools, decisions, and outcomes that actually move the business.

If you're carrying a mandate that defines your next chapter — but nothing's moving — I'm the one you call when you can't afford to wait 6 months.

❌ Over the hill at 50?
Trinny Woodall started at 53. Now worth $225M.

It is a fake myth that you cannot start something big later.
Age doesn’t shrink your chances.
It multiplies your odds.

I was laid off at 56.
Started a business.
Not despite my age, but because of it.

My career has been a zig zag:
🕛 At 30, earned my MBA.
🕒 At 37, became a Fortune 500 Tech Executive.
🕠 At 55, had to slow down to care for my dad with dementia.

Today at nearly 59, I can say age is just data.
Let others believe there is an expiration date on dreams.

We build better with a foundation of lived experience.
Five reasons why:

🧠 Neuroplasticity 
↳ Your brain adapts as long as you use it 
↳ Not too late to build new skills

💡 Growth mindset 
↳ Belief fuels change 
↳ Experience turns belief into action

🔥 Motivation 
↳ Purpose doesn’t expire 
↳ And you know how to turn it into a plan

💪 Resilience
↳ You’ve already survived a lot
↳ That makes you harder to stop
 
🕒 Longevity 
↳ Longer, healthier lives = more time 
↳ Relevance keeps us sharp

Proof, not just inspiration: 

👉 Vera Wang launched her label at 40 → still designing at 76
👉 Julia Child published her first cookbook at 50 → millions sold
👉 Joanna Strober founded Midi Health at 52 → now worth $100M
👉 Reese Witherspoon built Hello Sunshine at 40 → sold for $900M
👉 Arianna Huffington launched Huffpost at 55 → acquired for $315M

Age was never your limit.
Question: What will you start now?

♻️ Share to inspire others to reinvent at any age.
👋 Follow Betsy Tong for insights on building your next stage.

Betsy Tong

Them: Everything happens for a reason.
Reality: 1.1 Million people laid off in the US so far this year.
The most since the pandemic.

And now it's holiday season.
What do you say to someone you care about facing this?

Them: Corporate profits hit record highs.
Reality: Your coworker with three kids just lost their health insurance.

See a friend by the punch bowl.
It's a reflex to ask, "How was your year?"
Then the awkward pause before, “I got laid off.”

People suddenly remember they need the toilet.
The conversation ends fast.

It's the same thing that happens after a divorce.
People don't know what to say, so they say nothing.
They feel guilty about being glad it isn't them laid off.
Invitations dry up. Texts go unanswered.

The isolation makes the job loss ten times worse.
And imperfect words can cause more damage.

Here's what NOT to say:
↳ "Everything happens for a reason"
↳ "Have you tried networking more?" 
↳ "At least you have time off now"
↳ "When I was unemployed..." (making it about you)
↳ Promising to keep an eye out for opportunities.

Every one of those lines soothes you.
It doesn't help them.

Here's what TO say instead:
↳ "I've got a connection at [company]. I will make an intro. No pressure."
↳ Check in a few weeks later: "Coffee is on me."
↳ "Let me write you a LinkedIn recommendation."
↳ "This sucks. I'm here if you want to talk or just vent."

Someone in your network is dreading these conversations.
Don't be the person who looks away.

♻️ Repost this so it reaches someone who needs support this holiday season.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for frameworks on leading through difficult conversations.

Ex-F500 Big Tech VP | I help business leaders make sense of AI | Built $100M+ divisions

❌ Too old for the work?
Bob Iger came back to fix Disney at 71.

For the leaders told they’re “overqualified.”
The ones ghosted the second the recruiter saw the dates.

You didn’t lose relevance.
The world just lost perspective.

It’s a lie that older workers can’t adapt or build again.
Experience doesn’t weigh you down.
It gives you leverage.

Imagine the boardroom saying:

“Bob’s overqualified.”
“Bob might not stay long.”
“Bob can’t adapt to new tech.”

Bob a risk? He grew profit 145% in the last year.

99% of skills can be taught.
Judgment can’t be bought.

Expertise doesn’t fade—it multiplies.
That’s why years served aren’t dead weight.

🧠 Pattern Recognition
↳ Judgment comes from years of seeing what works.
↳ You cannot Google experience.

💡 Context Advantage
↳ You understand the ripples each decision creates.
↳ Perspective is your edge.

🔥 Adaptability
↳ You’ve already reinvented through tech shifts, recessions, and restructures.
↳ Change isn’t scary; it’s muscle memory.

💪 Trust Capital
↳ Colleagues follow people who’ve got the scars.
↳ Credibility can’t be hired—it’s built.

🕒 Endurance
↳ You don’t worry about the paper cuts.
↳ You focus on getting from thought to execution.

Most reinventions start after 40…
Today I turned 59, and  am still excited about reinventing.
↳AI has opened doors closed before. I wrote 7 books last year.
↳From sitting by myself on my couch, I have spoken before crowds of 9,000
↳Rebuilding myself publicly has taken me from 5,000 to 17K plus new friends.

Proof I’m the pattern — not the exception:

👉 Ray Kroc — Franchised McDonald’s at 52. Led for nearly 30 years.
👉 Kris Jenner — Launched Kardashians at 52. Built a billion-dollar empire.
👉 Stan Lee — Created the Marvel universe in his 50s.
👉 Samuel L. Jackson — Breakthrough at 46. Now one of the highest-grossing actor ever.
👉 Flo Meiler — Took up track at 60. Still breaking records at 90.

Experience was never the risk.

When most idolize  “young and hungry,”
You show up seasoned and strategic.

Past your prime?
You’re finally in position.

♻️ Repost to remind others that longevity builds leaders.
👋 Follow Betsy Tong because it is my BIRTHDAY!

AI isn't replacing leaders who are smart.
It's replacing leaders who are only smart.

I built a $100M business in 12 months.
I expected a promotion. Instead, they wanted to fire me.

The numbers were great. The team was breaking.
I was so focused on winning that I forgot the people doing the work.

That failure taught me what three decades of success couldn't.

Your brain will eventually be matched by software.
Your ability to make someone feel valued when they're scared won't be.

Three years after nearly getting fired, they made me VP.
Not because I got smarter. Because I got better at the work AI can't copy.

The skills that saved my career:
✅ Making the quiet ones feel safe to speak up in meetings.
✅ Repairing trust after hard decisions damaged relationships.
✅ Helping high performers stay when they're being recruited away.

Over the next 5 years, AI will close the gap on your "smart" work.
Strategy decks written in minutes. Analysis done while you sleep.

What it won't replace: your ability to hold people through change.

When machines can do every task, care will still move people.

💡 What leadership skill do you think won't be replaced?
♻️ Repost if you believe soft skills are worth every investment
🔔 Click to follow Betsy Tong for more on building career momentum.

I hired a woman in her 50s out of work for 39 months.
The backlash was crazy! 

The interview panel said:
↳“She’s been out of work too long.”
↳“She won’t understand the tech.”
↳“She might not stay long.”

Translation: 
↳She’s too experienced for our comfort.
↳Onboarding her will take too much effort.
↳We want a unicorn that will walk into the job knowing everything.

I pushed back. Hard.

They focused on the job description.
I focused on what the panel missed:

↳She led teams through major tech shifts. The job was about creating resiliency not about any tech implementation.

↳She stepped out to care for her elderly father. That gave her extreme compassion and emotional regulation we need in leaders now.

↳99% of jobs can be taught. We should give people a chance.

One year later, she didn’t just fit in.
↳She didn’t pull out her title in every meeting, 
     she stepped in to coach those who needed it.
↳She showed our entire group what a servant leader means.
↳Her lived wisdom with clients made our product decisions better.

You can’t AI judgment.
You can’t Google experience.

Stop ghosting talent because they’ve been in the game longer than your LinkedIn profile.

The next “overqualified” candidate you reject might become your best hire ever. Give people a chance.

📢 Agree?
♻️ Repost this to remind hiring managers not to overlook experience.
🔔 Click to follow me, Betsy Tong for frameworks on leading in the AI era.

❌ Feeling washed up after being laid off?
 Steve Jobs was fired from his own company. 
 He came back 12 years later. 

Under his leadership, Apple became the world’s most valuable company.

But when it happens to you, you feel irrelevant overnight.

I get it. I was laid off at 56.
↳ Embarrassed to tell people I had to start again.
↳ Didn’t know how to ask for help.
↳ Thought it was my fault.

That feeling is real. It’s also not a verdict.
Sometimes you need distance to get:

🧠 Clarity
 ↳ You finally see the dysfunction you were swimming in.
 ↳ What felt “normal” was just daily survival.

💡 Identity Reset
 ↳ You rebuild without other people’s limits on you.
 ↳ You stop performing for approval.

🔥 New Energy 
 ↳ You shed the naysayers who drained your confidence.
 ↳ You protect your mindset like it’s oxygen.

💪 Resilience Recall
 ↳ You rediscover what was always your secret weapon: you.
 ↳ Reinvention isn’t new, it’s an old muscle.

🧭 Direction
 ↳ You discover what you actually want…
 not what you thought you should.

During my layoff, I fulfilled a lifelong dream:
I wrote 7 books in under a year.
Four were best sellers.

So if you’re starting again, know this:
We aren’t the outliers. We’re the pattern.
👉 Oprah was told she was “unfit for television news.” 
👉 Anna Wintour was fired from Harper’s Bazaar.
👉 Facebook rejected Jan Koum. 
He co-founded WhatsApp. Facebook bought it.

Being pushed out forces you to rebuild from intention, not inertia.

That layoff isn’t your ending.
 It’s your beginning.

👊🏼 When did getting pushed out become your biggest breakthrough?
♻️ Repost this for someone who needs to see their layoff differently.
👋 Follow Betsy Tong for turning career setbacks into comebacks.

In every failing team I’ve coached, the numbers were fine.
The conversations weren’t.

I get it, every quarter execs brag how they hit their KPIs.
The metrics give you alignment, clarity, accountability, scalability.
They show you what’s happening inside the work.

But numbers alone don’t build high-performing teams.
Behind every metric is a manager.

And if you’re leading humans, not just tracking output,
you need a second layer of KPIs:

Keep People…

1️⃣ Interested → Work should challenge them, not just fill time.
2️⃣ Informed → Context drives decisions, clears confusion.
3️⃣ Involved → Ownership beats compliance every single time.
4️⃣ Inspired → Energy creates momentum.

Of course, KPIs don’t literally stand for any of these.
But they do reveal the gap special leaders measure.

Because it’s easy to tighten the metrics.
It’s harder to tighten the purpose that made them.

KPIs tell you what changed.
How your people feel show you why it changed.

Data follows dialogue.
Not the other way around.

When the dialogue improves, the numbers do too.
Always in that order.

💬 Which of these four is the real gap you see on your team?
🔁 Repost this if your leaders measure output but never conversations.
🔔 For more leadership frameworks that actually work inside real teams, follow Betsy Tong

The smartest people in the room aren’t your competition.
But it is up to you whether you use them as fuel, or try to crush them.

Your ego starts sweating.
Your insecurity is screaming - Am I not going to measure up?
👉 But iron needs iron to get sharper.

And thanks to my great friends Maryann (MJ) Jamieson and Lindsay Linhart for always challenging me with their brilliance.

When I was younger and full of self-doubt,
Someone would say something really smart, I jumped in to find fault.
… showing how great I was too.
It just made me a jerk.

Does this sound familiar to you?

As I have gotten older, I now know I have a choice.
Give in to anxiety, or be challenged.
The ones who step up are the ones who grow most.

Here's what I've learned about working with people smarter than I am:

They're not here to expose you.
They'll expand you if you let them.

↳ That colleague who finds the mistake in your proposal? 
She just helped you win bigger.

↳ The team member suggesting a completely different approach? 
You got a new lens for every future problem.

↳ That person asking all the hard questions?
They just made you bulletproof.

When you are open to others catching what you miss,
they push you past your limitations, and
they strengthen your thinking.

So don’t choose ego over evolution.
Don’t let comfort keep you less capable.

Here is what turns their brilliance into your growth:

📌 If you start feeling small, you’re in the right place.
Now take notes like your career depends on it.

📌 After the sting fades, start being curious, ask questions, learn.

📌 Your job isn’t to compete with their strengths, it’s to make 1 * 1 = 7.
You multiply together.

No need to waste one drop of energy protecting your ego.
Be the sponge, absorb everything they know.

You’ll  grow faster in the presence of masters.

Don’t waste this advantage.
Use it.

📢 Who's the smart person who challenged you and made you better?
♻️ Repost if you're ready to grow faster
➕ Click to follow Betsy Tong for lessons on humility in leading.

Wall Street: "We want margins!"
Target and Walmart: "We'll cap wages."
Costco: "No."

Former CEO Jim Sinegal didn't run Costco like a typical retailer.
While competitors paid minimum wage and cycled through workers,
he paid MORE and kept people longer.

Everyone said he was crazy.
Wall Street yelled you will kill margins.
Costco's stock outperformed others for decades.

What Sinegal did was so simple. He paid people so they could live.
↳ Costco warehouse workers ~$26/hour
↳ Retail average: ~$17/hour

Plus he treated all types of work with respect.
He gave comprehensive benefits.
Health insurance. Retirement plans. Paid time off.
For everyone, not just executives.

And the business?
✅ Costco turnover: 8%
❌ Typical retail: 50-60%

Less hiring. Less training. More expertise.
Workers who stayed became the advantage.
Superior productivity per dollar spent.

This wasn't charity.
It was smarter business disguised as fairness.

And what is even better is the big ripples the strategy delivered:
✅ Healthier workers not burnt out from double shifts, 
✅ Ability to buy homes in their local neighborhoods, and 
✅ More time at home with their families.

Most CEOs optimize for quarterly financial measures.
They cave to Wall Street pressure to keep doing more for less.

Sinegal optimized for the people doing the work.
He proved you can pay people MORE
and still crush your competition.

The question isn't whether this works.
It's why so few leaders have the courage to do it.

This is what real leadership is.

👉 Agree?
♻ Repost this to show you are a leader who believes people are the advantage.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for frameworks on how to lead under pressure.

99% of skills can be taught.
The 1% high performers are built.

We’ve all had that moment,
feeling invisible at work,
carrying more than we should,
doing more than they notice,
hearing “not yet” when you know you’re ready.

When my boss left, I asked for his job.
He told me I wouldn’t even be considered.
I resigned the next week.

And after a career of promotions in Big Tech, 
here’s what I can tell you if you’re a high performer who feels stuck:

You weren’t overlooked because you lacked talent.
You were overlooked because managers still chase the myth.
They think high performers arrive fully formed.
They post a job hoping for the unicorn hire.

So when you showed up with potential, hunger, willingness,
they didn’t invest. They didn’t coach. They didn’t lift you. 
They judged your past, not your possibility.
That’s on them.

Because every unseen high performer eventually learns:
Your growth depends more on the leader you get
than the skills you started with.

No one suddenly “gets talented.”
Someone finally engineers the conditions where they grow.

Here’s how to tell if you have the right leader, the one who won’t let you shrink:
➡️ invests early
➡️ removes friction
➡️ protects your focus
➡️ shows you who you can become, even before you believe it.

And here’s how to spot a leader who holds your potential back:
❌ treats you like the average
❌ rewards polish over potential
❌ uses you as the team’s safety net
❌ mistakes silence for satisfaction

You weren’t unseen.
You've been undervalued,
led by someone who never grew enough to lift you.

You deserve to be developed, not dismissed.
And if you never had that kind of leader?

Be the one someone else needs.

Agree? Repost this to help your network ris ♻️.
And click to follow me, Betsy Tong for more 🔔.

I am nearly 60, and the best me I have ever been.
17 life lessons I wished I learned at 33.

Four years ago:
No calls on my birthday. No texts. No cake.
Told to "smile more" at work.
Friday night: Chips, Netflix, shame spirals.

Now I am excited, house packed for Thanksgiving.
Spent two weeks on the road with clients,
9,000 heard me speak last month,
Ozempic took away the food f@*%kery.

At some point in life, we all feel that melancholy...
dreams deferred, life milestones missed, others winning where we are not.
It took me years of soul searching, courses and books to get here.
Now I know I am on the right path for me.

The difference isn't luck or age.
If you apply these lessons, you will become happier in half the time. 👇 

1/ Happiness is a moment, not a permanent destination.

2/ Embrace sadness and challenge. 
Hard moments make good ones sweeter.

3/ Dodge envy. Comparisons are the thief of joy.

4/ Get out of your head. Assumptions make an a$*$ out of you..

5/ Live in the gain. Write down three things that were great every day.

6/ Surround wisely. 
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

7/ Eat real food. I’m now a vegan.

8/ Nap. Working without sleep is like driving drunk.

9/ Read everything. Books bring adventures to you.

10/ Be a craftsman. Obsess over getting better at one thing.

11/ Be present. Wrench the phone out of your hand.

12/ Socialize intentionally, even 2 minutes at Trader Joe’s counts.

13/ Be kind, especially to strangers on social media.

14/ Smile at strangers (unless you’re in a dark alley).

15/ Be random. Not everything needs a 22 point plan.

16/ Dance for 2–3 minutes every day to silly disco.

17/ Outsource or delegate unhappiness. 
Doing fewer things that make you stressed or unhappy makes you happier overall.

And if you are reading this and think it is too late,
I promise you: Your life can change slowly, and then suddenly.
Mine did. Yours can too.

💖 What lesson will you try for a week? 
You don't need to wait until you are 60. Share please!

♻️ Repost to inspire others to reinvent at any age.
🔔 Follow Betsy Tong for insights on building your next stage.

Annual reviews aren’t about your impact.
They’re about whether you make someone uncomfortable.

And the cost of missing the code?
You think you’re performing.
❌ They think you’re a problem.

It’s November.
Suddenly you’re replaying every meeting, not assessing what you did,
but guessing which part of you they’re about to judge.

What they say:

“Lacks executive presence.”
“Communicate better.”
“Be more collaborative.”
“Show leadership.”

These aren’t competencies.
They’re coded character traits.

What they mean:

➡️ “Executive presence.”
You didn’t perform loud confidence like they expected.
This is personality judgment dressed up as professionalism.

➡️ “Communicate better.”
They didn’t like your tone, cadence, or emotional temperature.
Not the message—your delivery style.

➡️ “Be more collaborative.”
They want you to be more visible, more available, more socially fluent.
This is about chemistry, not teamwork.

➡️ “Show leadership.”
They needed louder certainty or earlier dominance,
but they can’t name when or why.

And this is where the system gets cruel.

I once coached a brilliant analyst who got put on a PIP for “collaboration issues.”
On-time delivery. Zero complaints.

His real mistake?
He wasn’t loud.
He didn’t perform belonging. He just did the work.
The system punished him for not acting like family.

He quit.

Here’s the threat:
People don’t get blindsided for poor performance.
They get blindsided for failing an unspoken personality test.

If the feedback doesn’t make sense, 
Use these three exact questions to expose what’s really going on:

💡 Who on the team best demonstrates this trait?
 What do they do that makes you say that?

💡 Can you point to specific moments where you felt I didn’t show it?
 What were the exact words or actions?

💡 Going forward, what specifically do you need to see or hear for me to meet this expectation?

You convert a personality critique into concrete expectations,
so no one can weaponize popularity against you.

💬 Which of these coded phrases has been used on you,
and what did it actually mean?

♻️ If this hit a nerve, repost it so someone else realizes they’re not crazy.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for more truths nobody else says out loud.

JSESSIONID

li_at

Max Kimber SC

The biggest leadership risk isn’t poor communication.
It’s being confidently misunderstood.

Because once your message gets reinterpreted,
you don’t just lose clarity, you lose credibility, alignment and momentum.

Back at Intel, a colleague would walk out of stand ups saying:
“I told them XXX, why are they still screwing up.”

He wasn’t wrong.
He said the words.
But the team didn’t hear what he thought he said.

Because the real enemy in every team isn’t poor communication.
It’s the silent rewrite that happens in people’s heads.

Let’s pause here.
That rewrite?
It happens fast.

Ambiguity doesn’t wait.
It starts rewriting your intention the second it’s spoken.

And the gap between spoken and interpreted?
That’s where execution fumbles and dies.

You’ve lived this:
↳ “ASAP” - today, tomorrow, or next week?
↳ “Make it look better” - cleaner? different format? more detailed?
↳ “Just pull something together” - for whom? with what inputs?
↳ “Do what you think is best” - until it turns out it wasn’t.

These aren’t instructions.
They’re mind-reading assignments wrapped in corporate jargon.

And here’s the part most leaders stumble over:
Most messages don’t get ignored.
They get reinterpreted.

Every hop your message takes, it shifts a little more —
until the final version barely resembles the one you spoke.

By the time your request moves through:
heard → understood → remembered → prioritized → acted on…
…it’s bent, softened, or reshaped into something you barely recognize.

In childhood, telephone was a game.
In companies, it’s a cost center.

And it’s the #1 reason projects stall, teams spin, and leaders repeat themselves.
The bigger your team gets, the faster clarity decays.
That’s not a people problem.
It’s a complexity problem.

And in complex times, even tiny ambiguities get amplified fast.

Here’s a quick Clarity Checklist the best communicators use before assuming “I told them” was enough…

(Save this):

↳What I asked for - plain language
↳What they heard - repeat back in one sentence
↳What success looks like - the picture in your head
↳When it’s due - exact date, time, or trigger
↳What’s their motivation - Why or why not will they care
↳What’s out of scope - what you don’t want
↳Who owns the decision - and who does not

If you skip even one of these, you’re not leading with clarity.
You’re hoping for alignment.
And hope is not a plan.

Good leaders speak clearly.
Great leaders create clarity.

Where does clarity usually break down for your team — heard, understood, prioritized, or acted on?

💬 Where does clarity break down for your team?
🔁 If this shifted the way you see communication, repost it. Smart leaders share clarity.
🔔 For frameworks to lead with clarity and precision, follow Betsy Tong

Your team doesn’t want ping pong tables.
Promotions don’t make them love work.
Other people do.

Good leaders build teams that work.
The best leaders understand their relationships with each other make their day happy or miserable.

Studies confirm it:

It isn’t what they do that makes the team feel fulfilled.
It’s who they do it with.

Four out of ten workers say their peers are the reason they love their job.
(Virgin Pulse)

It’s not perks or paychecks.

It’s connection.

It’s how they feel about each other.

And it works the other way too.

Just as many dread the people they work for.

I once reported to a CEO who said he never made a friend.
Ever. In 31 years with the company.

He told me people only talked to me because of him.

When the board fired him after 13 months?
He walked out alone.

Your effect as a leader doesn’t start in all-hands.
It's in how your team talks when you’re not in the room.

It isn’t the mission statement or big ideas presented at all hands.

It’s built (or broken) in the everyday moments:

✅ How we build teams that listen, respect, and support each other.
✅ How we create spaces so that even the quiet ones speak.
✅ How we reward those work well with others.

If you lead people, pay attention to this:

You’re part of someone else’s reason to stay — or to go.
And it comes down to how you lead the team.

📢 Tell me about the best team you have ever worked on.
♻️ Repost if you think the people you work with are the best part of the job.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for tips to build high performing teams that like each other.

I asked a SEAL commander how he survived Hell Week.
He answered in the simplest, most terrifying way.

“You don’t beat the week.
You beat the moment.”

No fake bravado or crazy grit.
Just the truth of what happens when you’re freezing, exhausted, 
and every intelligent cell in your body screams quit.

And the reason it hit me? It felt familiar.

Not the wet, brutal training,
but the way my brain whispers when things become hard:

❌ “This is going to get uglier… bail now.”
❌ “You’re not cut out for this,” after one rough meeting.
❌ “Maybe my whole life plan is wrong,” after a bad week.

If you’re honest, you've had those moments too.

Here’s what surprised me.
SEALs have the same human failing.
They’re not fearless or superhuman.

My friend said they know the most dangerous moment, the one where many ring out, isn’t actually the hardest part of Hell Week.
It’s the anticipation that things will get worse.

That hit me. Because isn’t that when most of us quit?
Not from the thing itself, but from the story we sell ourselves about what’s coming.

And here’s the uncomfortable part, 
Most of us aren’t beaten by others, we’re beaten by our own doubt.

The ones who survive, SEALs or not, are ruthless about one rule:
Don’t make decisions about anticipation.

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

✅ Postpone quitting.
✅ Shrink your decision to the next breath, the next step.
✅ Focus on the actual moment, not the imaginary disaster.
✅ Use self-talk, calm breathing and humor to stay present.
✅ Believe you will adjust and adapt until you succeed.

Most smart people don’t fail from lack of trying.
They fail because they make decisions while over-stressed.

And the real lesson my friend gave me...

Don’t let 10 seconds of doubt decide your next 10 years.

💡 When was the last time you pushed through a moment you almost bailed on?
♻ Share this with someone who’s standing in that moment right now.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for frameworks on how to lead under pressure.

AI isn’t replacing you.
It is quietly eroding your reputation.
One confidently wrong answer a minute.

Your boss put “Use AI” on your development plan.
IT is tracking your log-ins.

Speed is rewarded now.
Common sense isn’t.

I’ve led global teams of 1,500.
Built businesses before thinking required a keyboard.
I know what confident-but-wrong looks like.

AI wears the same smile.

AI now writes your reports, your proposals, your thought leadership.
If it’s wrong, your name’s on the line, not the model’s.

We’ve seen it already.
Australia outed Deloitte for a report full of AI errors.
The news went viral for days.

Independent reviews put error rates ~30–67%. 
(Columbia Journalism Review)

The errors turn: 

❌ client rework into lost margin.
❌ compliance reviews into legal bills. 
❌ clients fact checking you before they sign.

AI is great at patterns; shaky on hard facts.

Before you ship an AI answer, run this 9-second gut check:

✅ Risk → Who pays if it’s wrong?
✅ Source → What proof backs this?
✅ Edge → Did the AI answer sound specific or formulaic?
✅ Judgment → Did you steer or nod along to AI’s answer?
✅ Alignment → Could you defend this in front of others?

AI is confident. 
You can't afford to be careless.

You’re not anti-AI.
You’re anti-bullshit.

Your competence still beats AI hype.

💬 Which of these 5 checks do you already run?
🔁 If your team is being told to use AI faster, repost so someone’s confident mistake doesn't become your clean-up job.
🔔 Follow Betsy Tong for how leadership shifts in the age of AI.

I hadn’t thought about him in twenty years.
Then I got the email one of my favorite teachers died.

Professor Richard Shultz.
The tears after so long surprised me.

Before him, my world was limited.
I judged others through my white-picket-fence lens:
overeducated, Western, privileged.

My life plan was predictability others covet.
The best schools, a great job, a family who loves me - A bow-tied life.
He changed that for me and 33 years of students after.

Prof. Shultz didn’t just lecture.
He didn’t only teach theory.
He never patted your head with “You’ve got potential, kid.”

He put me in real and uncomfortable situations.
↳ One of a few woman at the Iraq DMZ right after the first Gulf War
↳ Questioning how democracy was being rebuilt in Panama
↳ Debating the US Army’s role in a domestic drug war
↳ Sitting in military briefings I had no business being in.

Here’s what I understand now, and should’ve seen years ago:
Exposure changes people more than cheering ever will.

Many of us grow up inside our own limited mental box.
We don’t see the wall until someone drags us past it.
And what the best teachers do is exactly what great leaders do:

1️⃣ They take you places you’d never end up on your own.
(And don’t make a big deal out of it.)

2️⃣ They throw you into situations above your pay grade.
(They set the bar high because they know you will hit it.)

3️⃣ They show you how things work behind the curtain.
(The stuff no training ever covers.)

4️⃣ They let you borrow their perspective until you build your own.
(Not with slogans, but by bringing you along.)

5️⃣ They challenge how you think.
(And you only realize it years later.)

Prof. Shultz did that and more for me.
I wish I’d told him.
All these years later, I still think differently because of him.

Because the greatest thing you give someone
isn’t a raise or a title,
it’s a wider way of seeing.

💬 Who expanded your thinking before you were ready for it? Tag them.
♻️ Repost to remind others growth comes from exposure, not slogans.
➕ Click to follow Betsy Tong for leadership lessons built on experience.

A Blueprint for Leaders Building High Performing Thinkers

600 people didn’t just “quit” Paramount because of RTO.
They walked because it was never about culture.
It is quiet firing wrapped in a pretty PR package.

The CEO announced he wanted collaboration and innovation.
Everyone needed to come back 5 days a week to rebuild culture.
What he actually got was $185M in trust and talent walking out the door.

The mandate was for VPs and below.
Not for him.
Not for his team.
Nothing breaks culture faster than a double standard.

This was not a culture problem.
This was headcount cutting disguised as leadership.

I have seen this play in big tech many times.
Move the office, watch 30 percent quit, avoid paying severance.
Wall Street applauds.

But look at what was happening around the mandate:
$8B merger
$3B in cost cuts
2,600 layoffs already planned
Severance buyouts timed with January RTO

The biggest tell?
The timing was perfect.
The innovation language was a decoy.

During the remote years:
+76 percent subscriber growth
$6B DTC revenue
Stable EBITDA

Hybrid was working.
Executives ignored the evidence.

Paramount paid $185M severance to burn the exact people they needed.
They disrupted execution.
They collapsed morale.
They bought themselves a PR disaster.

The first to leave are never the low performers.
It’s the people you can’t replace.

If your CEO is about to copy this play, the signals show up early.
In 2026, one in 3 companies will kill remote work.

Here is how you read the signs in yours:

1/ “Culture” shifts from trust to proximity.
2/ IT starts tracking logins and badge swipes.
3/ RTO is “optional” until it becomes a loyalty test.
4/ Badge alerts appear and output stops being the priority.

If you see two of these, the playbook is active.
Your company will call the exits “voluntary.”

RTO is not the problem.
Using it as a decoy for silent firing is.

It destroys trust and burns cash.
It guarantees your best people leave first.

If you want to be the leader talent stays for, 
you measure outcomes, not obedience.
You build environments where people can actually think.
You create a place where they want to stay.

The leaders who win will not have the fullest offices.
You will keep the people who have other options.

📢 Which cost do you think leaders underestimate most?
♻️ Repost so more leaders rethink the price of forced RTO.
🔔 Follow Betsy Tong for insights other leaders will not tell you.

Gentle reminder. 
The people who matter won’t thank you for answering emails Thursday

Because here’s what actually happens:

My friend spent last Thanksgiving glued to her phone.
Shushing us while a German client raged about a late delivery.
And it wasn’t a one-off.

Our friendship became a series of last-minute text cancellations:
“Sorry, I know you’ll be pissed. Can’t make it.”

I knew her job was important.
I just didn't expect it to always be more important than me.
Eventually… I stopped waiting.

Then in March she was laid off.
Suddenly she had all the time in the world, and nothing to fill it.

Work replaced her in a month.
But the relationships she dropped,
They didn’t bounce back as fast.

Anything that costs you the people who care about you...
Not worth the trade.
Work can replace you.
Your family and friends can’t.

📢 Tag someone you’re grateful for today.
♻️ Repost to someone you know who needs a reminder, work is not love.
👉 Follow Betsy Tong for tips on reinvention.

AI didn’t steal thinking.
It stole the pause where we form judgment.
What's at stake? The moment that made you sharp.

Leader: “I don’t think like I used to.”
AI: “Relax. I’ll do it for you.”

It takes 29 seconds to ask AI.
↳You send the email faster.
↳Your brain relaxes.
↳And then ever so quietly, it gets lazy.
↳AI made thinking optional.

I feel it too. I advised CEOs long before AI existed.
Now I catch myself unable to think without a keyboard.
Not because I’m incapable, but because AI is always right there, offering me a shortcut.

Here’s the scary gap for leaders:

AI doesn’t replace the task.
It replaces the first 90 seconds of judgment...
the part where leaders define the problem.

And most others won’t notice it disappearing.
More and more, people go to AI before they think.

And slowly that voice creeps in:
“The model probably knows more than me.”
“No need to think—AI will handle it.”

That’s when judgment atrophies.
And that’s what leaders like us are actually afraid of.

Your judgment is the only competitive advantage left.

Here’s the blueprint the sharpest operators use to keep it intact:

1/ Define the problem before you open AI.
Most use AI like Google.
They ask a vague question, get a vague answer, and three hours later they’re 47 tabs deep with zero decisions made.

Decide what you’re solving first.
Treat the output like raw material, not the destination.

2/ Stop using AI for low-value labour.
Everyone automates emails and summaries.
High performers use AI for strategy, options, consequences.

Give the model a job title, not a to-do list.

3/ Inject your experience.
Models trained on Reddit give you Reddit-grade insight unless you lead with your real-world context.

Start with: “Here’s what I know. What am I missing?”
Your experience is the accelerant.
AI is the loud friend in the passenger seat.

4/ Question everything.
The most dangerous AI output is clean, confident, and dead wrong.
Make it defend its assumptions.

Make it argue with your world.
By round ten, you’ll finally get something worth using.

The pattern is simple:
AI doesn’t replace thought.
It amplifies whatever thinking you bring: Excellence or mediocrity.

Use it like a coach who sharpens your judgment, not a vending machine for answers.


♻️ If this hit a nerve, you’re not alone. Repost for other leaders who need a wake up call.
➕ Follow Betsy Tong for insights on AI and leadership.

taplio

Betsy Tong's Linkedin Analytics

Betsy Tong

Performance ScoreBetsy Tong's LinkedIn Performance

Betsy Tong's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

.css-6ytdur{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39, 43, 72, 1) 0%, rgba(33, 47, 183, 1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Betsy Tong's Linkedin Analytics

Betsy Tong

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Betsy Tong's LinkedIn Performance

Betsy Tong's Best Posts .css-1emoo84{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:400;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);}(last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Betsy Tong's Linkedin Analytics

Performance ScoreBetsy Tong's LinkedIn Performance

Betsy Tong's Best Posts (last 30 days)