Dr. David Burkus

Helping Teams Do Their Best Work Ever | Bestselling Author | Keynote Speaker | Organizational Psychologist

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Before you quit your job to chase a new career, try this instead.

Take on a few freelance projects on evenings or weekends. Just 5 hours a week.

Doing the actual work — even in small doses — will tell you more about whether you'll love it than any amount of research, career quizzes, or conversations with people who already do it.

And the flip side is just as true: if you can't sustain 5 hours of this new thing, you probably shouldn't be doing 40.

The goal isn't to have a perfect plan. The goal is to get real information before you make an irreversible decision.

What career have you always been curious about but never tested? Drop it below.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Sometimes the problem isn't that the work is wrong. It's that the work has gotten too small.

Research shows that people who use their strengths every day are dramatically more engaged — and more satisfied with their jobs.

But over time, it's easy to grow beyond the boundaries of your current role and not even realize it.

You stop being challenged. The work becomes repetitive. And what looks like disengagement is really just unused potential looking for somewhere to go.

The answer usually isn't to leave. It's to make the job bigger.

Leverage your strengths more deliberately. Find the gaps where you could contribute more.

Build the version of your role that actually fits who you are now.

What strength do you feel most underused at work right now? Drop it in the comments.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Being managed out doesn't come with a warning. It comes with a pattern.

Your responsibilities start shrinking — a project you owned becomes one you're just contributing to. A key account moves to someone else's list. Good work disappears and nothing replaces it.

Then you start getting left out of the loop. Meetings you used to attend. Decisions you used to be part of. Email threads where the reply-all suddenly stops including you.

That last one is easy to brush off. But it's not nothing.

Each of these on its own might be coincidence. Together, they're a signal worth paying attention to.

Which of these have you experienced? Tell me in the comments.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

What happens when @FreddyLA7 gets to Buc-ee’s?

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

Lmao how am I supposed to choose from all of this? This is overwhelming me😭😭😭

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

This is the step that requires the most courage.

Before you decide how to respond to being managed out, you have to be honest with yourself about one question: are you actually the problem?

If there's a real gap between what's expected of you and what you're delivering — that's fixable. Get specific about what needs to change, what you're committing to, and what support you need.

But if the issues feel politically motivated, or the organization's strategy has shifted around you — that's not a performance problem. That's an environment problem.

And you can't solve an environment problem by working harder.

Knowing which one you're dealing with is the most important clarity you can get right now.

Which situation have you found yourself in? Tell me below.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Getting managed out feels awful. But it has one advantage a sudden firing never gives you.
Time.

You're not being blindsided. You have a window — and how you use it matters.

Update your resume now, while you're not panicking about it.

Start collecting your best work: projects, deliverables, things you're genuinely proud of.

Save them somewhere you'll still have access to if you're no longer with the company.

Because the moment you're formally let go, that access is gone. Immediately.

The situation isn't ideal. But the preparation can be.

What's one thing you'd want to have saved before leaving a job? Drop it in the comments.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

We actually MADE money on our wedding. We sold sponsorships. On the right wedding cake, a Stake .com logo can pay five figures.

[Jon Acuff @JonAcuff]

We got married for $42. Squirrels as groomsmen. Borrowed the cage from a neighbor to catch them. Stole peanuts from a traveling circus elephant to train them. If you’re paying for your own peanuts you’re crazy.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

If you think you're being managed out, don't barge in and ask if it's true.

Ask something better instead.

In your next one-on-one, try this: "How would you define success in my role, and how are you measuring that?"

It signals that you're self-aware and engaged — not defensive.

It gives your manager a chance to tell you how they actually feel about your performance.

And it turns a vague vibe shift into real information you can act on.

Some managers will play it off. But most will tell you more than you expected.

What's the hardest conversation you've had to initiate with a manager? Share it below.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

There's a particular kind of workplace anxiety that's hard to name.

Your boss didn't sit you down. You're not on a performance plan. But something has shifted — and you can feel it.

That feeling has a name: being managed out.

It's when a manager tries to slowly nudge you toward the exit without actually firing you. No severance conversation. No formal warning. Just your role quietly shrinking until leaving feels like your own decision.

Sometimes it's because HR has made termination difficult. Sometimes it's because your boss doesn't have the courage to have the real conversation.

Either way — you deserve to know what's actually happening.

Have you ever experienced this? Drop a 👋 in the comments if this one hit close to home.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

When your job feels uncertain, most people go quiet and hope things improve on their own.

The smarter move is to get loud — with the right people.

If you're staying and fighting for your role, you need internal allies. People who know your work, respect your performance, and will speak up for you in rooms you're not in.

If you've decided it's time to go, your external network is now your most valuable career asset.

Either way, the time to activate those relationships is before you desperately need them.

Who in your network have you been meaning to check in with? Go send that message today.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

The employee makes a mistake. You step in closer. They get nervous. They make more mistakes.

You weren't wrong to notice a problem — you just triggered a cycle that makes it harder to fix.

This is called the setup to fail syndrome, and it's one of the most common traps in management.

The closer you manage someone, the more you signal that you don't trust them.

And people who don't feel trusted stop taking the small risks that lead to growth.

Sometimes the most effective management move is knowing when to back off — not double down.

Tag a manager who needs to hear this.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Transformation is hard.

Not because people lack vision. Most people have plenty of vision.

It's hard because vision alone doesn't make you do the uncomfortable thing on a Tuesday morning when you'd rather not.

What does? Knowing who's on the other side of your effort.

A specific person. A real face. Someone whose situation changes because you did the work.

That's what maximizes effort. Not a bigger why — a clearer who.

If you're trying to motivate real change in yourself or your team, stop chasing the grand vision and start answering that one question.

Who are you doing this for?

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

"Find your why" gets all the credit.

But it turns out most people aren't primarily motivated by a compelling answer to why.

They're motivated by a clear answer to who.

Who is served by what I do? Who gets helped when I show up? Who would notice if I stopped?

Why is abstract. Who is human.

And we were built to respond to humans — not ideas.

If your team's motivation is flagging, don't go looking for a bigger purpose. Go find a clearer who.

Who does your work serve? Answer in one sentence.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Go change the world. Seriously.

But when things get hard — and they will get hard — your vision statement won't be enough.

The grandiose why fades under pressure. It's too abstract to hold onto when you're exhausted and wondering if any of it is working.

What holds? A face. A name. A specific person whose life is better because you didn't quit.

The best reminder of why you started isn't a mission. It's a who.

Know yours. Write it down. Keep it somewhere you'll see it on the hard days.

Who is the person that keeps you going when the work gets difficult?

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Every leader has a job title that doesn't show up on the org chart: Chief Storytelling Officer.

Always ready with the story of the client whose problem got solved. The coworker who got the support they needed. The community member whose life got a little better.

That story is your most powerful leadership tool — and most leaders let it slip away unnoticed.

Start capturing. Every thank you. Every moment someone tells you the work made a difference. Screenshot it. Write it down. Keep a folder.

And if you're not in a leadership role yet — this still applies to you. Motivation doesn't require a title. It just requires paying attention.

What's a story from your work that you should have saved but didn't?

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

After all the research. All the data. All the frameworks.

It still comes down to this.

People want to do work that matters.

And they want a leader who sees that — and says it out loud.

Not once at the annual kickoff. Regularly. Specifically. In a way that connects their effort to a real person whose life is better because of it.

That's the whole job.

Not strategy. Not process. Not performance reviews.

Tell your people their work matters — and mean it.

Who's a leader in your life who did this well? Tag them.

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Great teams play chess, not checkers.

In checkers, every piece is treated the same way. Same expectations, same approach, same playbook for everyone.

In chess, every piece moves differently. Every piece has its own strengths, its own limitations, its own strategy. And the best chess masters don't wish their bishops moved like rooks — they build their game around what each piece actually does best.

Not everyone doing the same thing the same way — everyone doing the right thing in the right way because their leader actually knows them.

Is your team playing chess or checkers right now?

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Leaders spend a lot of energy crafting the big story.

The inspiring vision. The grandiose mission. The all-hands speech that's supposed to light everyone up.

But that's not what actually moves people.

What moves people is a simple, specific answer to one question: who is served by what we do?

Not a category. Not a demographic. A who.

The fastest way to remind your team why the work matters isn't a better presentation. It's a clearer answer to that question.

Who does your team's work serve? Can you say it in one sentence?

[Dr. David Burkus @davidburkus]

Company culture is a myth.

Not because culture doesn't matter — it matters enormously.

But "company culture" is really just the average of every team's culture inside it.

Which means the most important culture work isn't happening in the C-suite. It's happening in your team's weekly meeting. In how you give feedback. In what you tolerate and what you celebrate.

Every leader shapes a culture whether they're trying to or not.

And here's the part most leaders miss: talent alone doesn't make a great team. The team makes the talent.

Hire great people — absolutely. But if the culture isn't right, the talent won't stick, won't stretch, and won't perform.

What's one thing your team's culture does really well?