1124: How to Build Hope and Combat Burnout at Work with Jen Fisher

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

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4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jen Fisher discusses the strategic value of hope—and how leaders can harness it to improve wellbeing and transform the workplace.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) Why hope is a valid strategy in the workplace

2) How a few words can kill or build hope

3) How to counter your brain’s tendency to be overly critical

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— ABOUT JEN —

Jen Fisher is a global authority on workplace wellbeing, the bestselling author of Work Better Together, and the founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Team.

As Deloitte US's first chief wellbeing officer, she pioneered a groundbreaking, human-centered approach to work that gained international recognition and reshaped how organizations view wellbeing.

Jen is also the creator and host of The WorkWell Podcast, a TEDx speaker, and a sought-after voice at events like Workhuman, SXSW, Milken Global Conference, and Happiness Camp.

At the heart of Jen's work is the knowledge that hope is not just a feeling—it's a strategic imperative. She helps leaders harness hope as a catalyst for cultural transformation, guiding them to reimagine work as a force for human flourishing. She lives in Miami with her husband, Albert, and their dog, Fiona.

• Book: Hope Is the Strategy: The Underrated Skill That Transforms Work, Leadership, and Wellbeing

• LinkedIn: Jen Fisher

• Substack: Thoughts on Being Well

• Website: Jen-Fisher.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Study: “Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind.” by C.R. Synder

• Book: The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hope and anxiety are great partners for each other because what happens to me when I feel stuck
0:16.9	or when I'm catastrophizing, I can step back and say, what would hope tell me to do? Well,
0:22.4	hope would tell me to understand where I am now, understand how I want to get out of this place,
0:28.5	and create those pathways for myself. And so instead of staying stuck and staying anxious in a
0:34.5	really stuck place, I can identify multiple pathways in which I can get unstuck.
0:39.3	And that actually helps my anxiety because it says, oh, wait, there's not just one way and you're
0:44.5	not just stuck here forever. There's all these other ways in which you can move forward.
0:55.5	That's Jen Fisher.
1:00.4	She's a global authority in workplace well-being who helps leaders harness hope to transform cultures.
1:03.6	She shares more on the skill of hope in her latest book.
1:08.3	Hope is the strategy, the underrated skill that transforms work, leadership, and well-being.
1:28.3	So learn one, why hope is a valid strategy in the workplace. Two, how a few words can kill or build hope. And three, how to counter your brain's tendency to be overly critical. And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways, I recommend you sign up for the free Gold Nugget email newsletter found at Awesome at Your Job.com. I'm Pete McItis. This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job. And now here's Jen. Jen, welcome. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to dig into your
1:38.9	wisdom and to hear about hope. Could you share with us for starters? Extra surprising and fascinating discovery you've
1:45.3	made about hope as you've researched it. I would say that hope is not an emotion, which most
1:51.7	people think that it is. It's a cognitive process. It's not whimsical. It's not wishful thinking.
1:57.9	It's not positive vibes only, as a matter of fact, many, many times hope is
2:03.5	hard. And I would also say that hope is a daily practice. And obviously, I believe that hope is a
2:11.6	strategy. Okay. Well, so it's not an emotion. It's not positive vibes only. You said it's a
2:17.2	cognitive. What is it's a cognitive.
2:18.2	What is it exactly?
2:19.5	So what the research shows, so C.R. Snyder is kind of the original, if you will,
2:25.4	godfather of hope research.
	...

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