Layoffs, Leadership and the Question to Ask Before You Start “Doing”

Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Careers, Business

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

High achievers like to go after their goals, but what if in the face of disruption, we’re skipping a step in our hurry to get going and get “doing”? With ongoing layoffs and a new (sometimes scary) work landscape, so many of us are trying to figure out what opportunities remain, and what we should do next. But today’s guest, Victoria Foster, suggests we’re starting from the wrong place. Before trying to figure out what we can do, we should first ask: who do I want to be? Victoria is an executive coach and co-founder of FutureWomenX. She invites us to step out of scarcity, tap into our deeper gifts, and reclaim our agency. She argues that instead of clinging to old definitions of success or the skills we’ve mastered, we need to understand the values, beliefs, and strengths beneath them. That’s where possibility lives. In this episode of Hello Monday, Jessi and Victoria discuss: Why defining ourselves by what we do limits our ability to adapt How to uncover the gifts beneath our skills, and why they matter Why layoffs often trigger shame, and how to reclaim your story The importance of honoring where you’ve been before choosing what’s next How community and courageous conversations help us face the unknown Why 2025 demands a new mindset for navigating work and identity Continue the conversation with us at our last Hello Monday Office Hours! Join us Wednesday at 3 PM ET on the LinkedIn News page.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're often rewarded and promoted for the things that we're really good at.
0:04.7	They're the external things that everyone sees.
0:07.1	You know, I'm good at finance or you're a great journalist or whatever it might be.
0:11.4	Sure.
0:11.7	Right.
0:12.0	And that's how we're defining ourselves.
0:13.7	We're defining ourselves by our doing.
0:16.1	And when an industry shifts or you want to make a shift, it's really hard to think about possibilities and abundance if your narrow view of yourself is in these three skills that you've perfected your whole life.
0:27.8	Okay, so I have it now.
0:29.4	Yeah.
0:29.8	So there is a world in which interviewing could disappear, and I wouldn't implode.
0:37.1	You would not implode.
0:41.2	From the news team at LinkedIn, I'm Jesse Hempel, and this is Hello Monday. It's our show
0:46.7	about the changing nature of work and how that work is changing all of us. Folks, it's everywhere
0:53.3	you look. Headlines about layoffs, big tech, corporate America,
0:58.3	even roles that once felt safe. Feel like they're just disappearing. And if you're like me,
1:04.2	you know, somewhere in the middle of your career or even more senior, it can feel like the
1:08.3	floor is shifting beneath you. Like everything you have worked for
1:12.1	could just vanish overnight. What do you do if you leave your role and there's no clear next
1:18.4	play? Today on Hello Monday, we're talking about how to navigate that reality. And to help us
1:24.9	make sense of it all, we're bringing in Victoria Foster. Now, as co-founder of Future
1:31.5	Women X, Victoria has spent more than 15 years working with senior executives, global leaders,
	...

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