Saturday May 02, 2026

02 Holding it all together with Artemeshia Adams

Meet Artemshia "Meshia" Adams, a highly-accomplished People Ops and HR Leader! In this episode Meshia drops real‑world wisdom on authenticity, emotional labor, and modern, global leadership - showing how empathy, equity, and trust can reshape teams, cultures, and careers, especially in today's AI-enabled workplace.

1. Empathy and authenticity are essential leadership tools.

Being misunderstood—especially by controlling personalities—pushed Meshia to see through others' “self‑intoxication,” and lead with empathy, and stay real while navigating identity, code‑switching, and inclusive leadership.

2. Middle managers carry heavy, invisible emotional labor.

She spotlights the burden of holding sensitive information, shielding teams during change, and ensuring “schedule equity” so global collaboration doesn’t unfairly strain certain regions or individuals.

3. Influence grows through trust, adaptive communication, and intentional AI use.

Meshia builds influence through relationships, tailors communication across generations, uses AI for learning and ideation, and challenges leaders to rethink outdated definitions of what “good” looks like.