Comparison doesn’t just “steal joy”—it actively increases stress and keeps you stuck. On this episode, Amy shares a personal story of rejection (including her latest pitch to Harvard Business Review) and the simple, practical method she’s using to move through comparison and rejection without spiraling.

If you’ve ever felt behind, not good enough, or stuck measuring yourself against others—this episode gives you a way out.

Chapters

00:00 Comparison Steals Joy

00:44 Harvard Rejection Story

03:56 Step One Self Compassion

07:23 Step Two Celebrate Others

12:53 Try It and Wrap Up

What You’ll Learn

• Why comparison and rejection feel so painful (and so human)
• The difference between eustress (helpful) and distress (harmful)
• A 2-step method to move through rejection quickly and authentically
• How self-compassion changes your experience of stress
• Why celebrating others only works after you support yourself first

Key Takeaways

• You can’t feel true joy while actively comparing yourself to others
• Avoiding rejection also means avoiding opportunity
• Growth lives in the uncomfortable “not knowing” space
• Self-compassion isn’t soft—it’s a performance strategy
• You’re not behind—you’re in the process

Links & Resources

• Amy’s book: Cheers to Monday
• Self-compassion assessment (via Kristin Neff)
• Contact: amy@amyleneker.com

Amy's new book, national bestseller 'Cheers to Monday' was selected by the The Next Big Idea Club as one of their must reads, and they invited Amy on their podcast to talk about her big takeaways from the book.

This week's episode of 'Less Stress, More Joy' is a feed drop of Amy's episode on 'The Next Big Idea Club Daily' podcast. Amy shares a practical, research-backed framework to help you rethink stress, redesign your work, and create space for more joy.

You’ll learn:

• Why modern work is designed to create stress (and what to do about it).
• The hidden “stress stories” shaping your behavior at work.
• How to use the Stress Ruler to quickly assess what’s really going on.
• The 5 types of work stress (and why treating them the same doesn’t work).
• A simple 3-step method to reduce stress without overthinking or burnout.

If you’re a leader, manager, or high performer feeling stretched too thin, this episode will help you shift from survival mode to sustainable success.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Big News

00:58 Why Mondays Feel Heavy

02:52 Work Is Broken

05:43 Stress Stories

09:20 The Stress Ruler

12:47 Types of Stress and How to Un-Stress

18:26 Wrap Up and Next Steps

Share this episode with anyone interested in stress awareness month, leadership coaching for women, work stress, leadership coaching, burnout recovery, workplace stress, stress management, employee wellbeing, leadership development, productivity, mental health at work, burnout prevention, workplace culture, stress and performance, joy at work, Cheers to Monday, or nonfiction authors.

Order 'Cheers to Monday' here: https://www.amyleneker.com/book

What if your stress at work isn’t just about your workload—but a misalignment with your values?

On this episode of Less Stress, More Joy, Amy Leneker explores how identifying and aligning with your core values can transform how you experience stress, conflict, and joy at work. Drawing from leadership coaching, workplace mediation experience, and research featured in her bestselling book Cheers to Monday, Amy shares a practical framework to help leaders and teams reduce stress without pretending it disappears.

You’ll learn why stress and joy are not opposites, how high stress pulls you out of your values, and how reconnecting with those values can improve decision-making, workplace relationships, and overall well-being.

This episode is especially valuable for leaders, managers, and professionals navigating workplace conflict, burnout, and team dynamics. Through real-world examples—including leadership coaching insights and conflict mediation cases—you’ll see how values like collaboration, autonomy, integrity, and honesty shape team culture and communication.

Amy also dives into:

• How to identify your top core values
• Why values are critical in leadership coaching and decision-making
• How workplace conflict is often rooted in misaligned values
• The connection between stress, burnout, and values misalignment
• How to build trust, compassion, stability, and hope in teams
• Why including yourself in your values is essential to avoid burnout

Whether you're a leader, team member, or entrepreneur, this episode will help you lead with clarity, reduce stress, and create more joy—without toxic positivity.

🎧 Perfect for:

leadership coaching for women, workplace conflict resolution, stress management at work, burnout recovery, emotional intelligence, team leadership, organizational culture, values-based leadership, and personal development.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Values Matter

02:34 Joy and Stress Aren’t Opposites

05:11 Find Your Top Values

07:30 Values in Workplace Conflict

12:05 When Values Shift

16:43 Include Yourself in Values

21:20 Connection and Hope at Work

Stress is not just a personal problem — and joy is not just a nice-to-have.

On this episode, recorded live during the "Cheers to Monday" book launch, Amy Leneker shares the Un-Stressing Method, a simple but powerful framework for understanding stress, responding with compassion, and creating more joy at work and in life. Drawing from national research on stress and joy in the American workforce, Amy walks through the five types of work stress, the three drivers of joy, and the barriers that get in the way.

She also explains how to use the Un-Stressing Matrix to move from overwhelm to action, why compassion is the highest level of connection, and how one unforgettable story from her 13th birthday shows what compassion in action really looks like.

If you’ve been feeling overloaded, disconnected, or stuck, this episode offers a practical way forward.

On this episode, Amy covers:

• The Un-Stressing Method
• How to see, sort, and solve stress
• The Stress Ruler and stress matrix
• The 5 types of work stress: schedule, suspense, social, sudden, and system
• The 3 drivers of joy: meaning, mattering, and momentum
• The 5 barriers to joy at work
• The 4-quadrant action plan
• Why compassion is more powerful than pity, sympathy, or empathy alone
• The big idea: stress thrives in isolation, and relief comes through connection

Stress thrives in isolation, and relief is gonna come through connection.

Chapters

00:00 One Good Thing

01:07 Stress and Joy Research

02:06 Step One See Stress

05:40 Step Two Sort Stress

13:57 Step Three Solve It

24:37 Compassion Connection Ladder

26:34 Birthday Story and Wrap

The RIGHT Questions: Acting on the Next Right Thing at Work

What if the biggest thing we’ve been taught about success at work is wrong?

This week on Less Stress, More Joy, Amy Leneker challenges the belief that stress is simply the price we pay for achievement. Instead, she argues that stress is often a signal that something in the system needs to change.

Amy shares a personal leadership story she still regrets: answering a work request just 48 hours after coming home from the hospital with her newborn daughter — a moment that led her to work through most of her maternity leave.

From that experience, she developed the RIGHT Questions Framework, a simple tool leaders can use when facing stressors they care about and have the power to influence.

The RIGHT Questions help leaders pause and act with intention by asking:

• How can I Reframe this stressor from a threat to a challenge?
• What is my role in this moment?
• How can I ground my decision in my values?
• How do I hold myself accountable?
• What is the next aligned action?

Amy also explores how our decisions ripple outward — shaping team trust, workplace culture, and the signals we send about what leadership actually requires.

This episode is for leaders, parents, and professionals who want to break the cycle of chronic workplace stress and lead differently.

Less stress. More joy. Zero toxic positivity.

• Order Cheers to Monday: www.amyleneker.com/book
• Unstressing Method: katiecouric.com/lifestyle/workplace/how-to-stop-stress-at-work/

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Work Stress Lie

01:03 The Right Questions Framework

01:47 Maternity Leave Regret Story

03:59 R I G H T Steps Explained

09:37 Impact, Power Dynamics, and Wrap-Up

Why are younger generations experiencing more stress at work than everyone else?

On this episode of Less Stress, More Joy, leadership coach Amy Leneker shares new insights from her national study on stress and joy at work — including why Generation Z is experiencing significantly more workplace stress than older generations.

Amy explains the five types of work stress that affect employees, why sudden stress and schedule stress are hitting Gen Z the hardest, and what leaders can do to create healthier workplaces across generations.

If you lead a team, work with younger employees, or simply want to understand how stress impacts today’s workforce, this episode offers practical ideas for creating workplaces with less stress, more joy, and zero toxic positivity.

On this episode you'll learn:

• Why Gen Z experiences more stress at work

• The five types of workplace stress affecting teams

• Why sudden stress has the biggest negative impact

• How schedule stress and meetings increase workplace pressure

• How leaders can reduce stress and remove barriers to joy

Because joy at work isn’t a luxury — it’s what helps people do their best work.

Chapters:

00:00 Gen Z Stress Preview

00:51 Study Setup and Generations

02:24 Two Big Takeaways

05:34 Five Types of Work Stress

07:56 Fix Sudden and Schedule Stress

13:15 Talk About Impact Without Stereotypes

17:09 Barriers to Joy and Wrap Up

Pre-order: Cheers to Monday, The Surprisingly Simple Strategy to Lead & Live With Less Stress & More Joy everywhere books are sold. Questions?  amy@amyleneker.com.

The State of Stress & Joy at Work 2026

On this episode of Less Stress, More Joy, Amy Leneker unpacks one of the most well-intentioned — and most damaging — leadership habits in modern workplaces: toxic positivity.

From “good vibes only” messaging to cringe-worthy icebreakers, forced joy often increases stress, reduces trust, and disconnects teams.

Drawing from her national study, The State of Stress and Joy at Work, Amy shares powerful data on what’s actually exhausting employees — and what truly creates sustainable joy.

You’ll learn:

• Why forced positivity increases burnout
• The connection between authenticity and trust
• The top 5 barriers to joy at work
• The top 5 drivers of real workplace joy
• How to create connection without the cringe

Chapters:

00:00 Why Good Vibes Backfire

03:01 Icebreaker Cringe Story

05:13 Connection Without Weird

08:09 The Data on Exhaustion

10:49 Top Barriers and Drivers

13:40 Stop Toxic Positivity

Pre-order Amy’s new book:

Cheers to Monday: The Surprisingly Simple Strategy to Lead & Live With Less Stress & More Joy at amyleneker.com/book

Have a question for a future episode?

Email: amy@amyleneker.com

Less stress. More joy. Zero toxic positivity. That’s the joyful rebellion.

How do you lead high-stakes, no-fail work without burning out yourself or your team?

On this episode of Less Stress, More Joy, Amy sits down with Shelley McDermott, President of FirstRule Group, to explore leadership, stress management, boundaries at work, and building a high-retention team culture.

Shelley leads complex public sector consulting projects — from retirement systems to opioid response initiatives — where the stakes are high and failure isn’t an option. Yet her team thrives.

Her secret? She calls it being a “diplomatic hostess.”

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• How to reduce burnout on high-performing teams
• Why psychological safety lowers workplace stress
• The leadership power of “wiggle room” in conflict
• How clarity (roles & responsibilities) reduces overwhelm
• Practical breathing techniques to reset in stressful moments
• Why comparison fuels anxiety — and how to stop it
• How servant leadership builds loyalty and retention
• The importance of boundaries without sacrificing ambition

If you’re a leader, manager, public sector professional, or high achiever navigating workplace stress, this episode offers actionable tools for stress reduction, sustainable leadership, and creating a people-first culture.

Because you can build a wildly successful career without sacrificing your health, your family, or your joy.

Less stress. More joy. And maybe even… cheers to Monday. Order Amy's book 'Cheers to Monday' amyleneker.com/book

Chapters:

00:06 Meet Shelley McDermott & the “Diplomatic Hostess” Superpower

02:41 Leading High-Stakes, No-Fail Work With More Joy

05:08 People-First Culture

08:12 Leadership Lessons

12:58 Team Stressors

19:03 Service as Success + Practical Stress Tips

Shelley McDermott is the President of FirstRule Group — a small, woman-owned business consulting firm headquartered in Olympia, Washington. Everyone at FirstRule has a superpower and Shelley is known as the Diplomatic Hostess — a nod to her leadership style and her love of cooking. Shelley and her business partner Stacy Steck started the firm in 2019 because they wanted to create a different kind of company where they could "hire great people and then love and care for them" knowing that if the consultants felt supported, they would provide great service for clients. You can read more about FirstRule Group at firstrulegroup.com. Shelley and Stacy would love to connect, you can reach them at ShelleyMcDermott@firstrulegroup.com or StacySteck@firstrulegroup.com. Shelley lives in Olympia with her husband, eats at local restaurants, and deeply values being of service.