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- Are you hiding your age or leveraging your wisdom?
Are you hiding your age or leveraging your wisdom?
Sallyann Della Casa
January 08, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
Dear Lovely Human,
The first week of January is usually a graveyard of "new me" resolutions most of which involve trying to look, act, or feel ten years younger.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that the passing of time is something to be camouflaged, like a bug in the code that needs a patch. We scrub our resumes of early graduation dates and hesitate before mentioning a reference that might "date" us.
But here’s the raw truth I’ve observed from the thousands of data points we track at GLEAC: You cannot scale what you are trying to hide.
When we hide our age, we inadvertently bury the very context that makes our judgment sharp. We trade our "knowing" , that hard-earned and bone-deep intuition for a version of ourselves that is "fresh" but hollow. This year, I want us to stop treating our years like a liability and start treating them like the ultimate equity. Because in a world where AI can mimic almost any skill, it still can’t replicate the 20 years of "I’ve seen this movie before" that lives in your gut.
Are you showing up to the table as a diminished version of your past, or are you leveraging the bold, unfiltered wisdom that only time could have gifted you?
Let’s get honest about why we’re still playing small...
🎙️ My first podcast of 2026
He said “Women should not run for politics and be in leadership roles.”
Well, you can imagine what I said ;)
🤖 What is the latest news in AI & Emerging Tech?
AI doesn’t have to look cold or mechanical . Kelly Boesch’s work shows how emotional, surreal, and deeply human AI artistry can be. A reminder that creativity is evolving, not disappearing.
2 - No Priors Podcast (AI, From the People Building It)
If you want to hear directly from the engineers, researchers, and founders shaping AI, this is the podcast. Smart, grounded conversations that help you understand where AI is actually going.
AI upskilling isn’t about tools, it’s about rewiring how organizations learn and adapt. McKinsey makes the case that lasting AI adoption is a leadership and culture challenge, not a technical one.
Robots are now being designed to feel pain, nor suffer, but to react more safely and intelligently. This is a major step toward machines that understand the physical world the way humans do.
Meta is betting big on moving from social networks to “action networks” where AI doesn’t just connect people, but actually does things for them. If this works, social platforms may become execution engines.
✨ Lovely Human Guest Writer in January
Jenson Goh — Singapore
A systems thinker with a storyteller’s instinct Jenson is new to the community and caught my eye. I am a deep systems thinker at heart.
Before we tell you what Jenson writes about, it’s worth saying why he’s here.
Jenson is one of those rare people who doesn’t rush to conclusions. He watches patterns. He notices where history, human behaviour, and modern systems quietly rhyme. His writing doesn’t shout for attention, it invites reflection.
This week, he takes us back to the 19th century. Not to romanticise the past. But to borrow clarity from it.
🍾 What can a 19th-century widow teach us about systems thinking?
Most of us know champagne as a symbol of celebration.
Very few of us know the woman who quietly redesigned the system behind it.
When Madame Clicquot was widowed at just 27, she didn’t simply inherit a business.
She inherited uncertainty. Political instability. Fragile supply chains. And a world that assumed she would step aside.
She didn’t.
What fascinates me isn’t that she worked harder. It’s that she saw differently.
Cloudy champagne wasn’t a branding issue. It was a systems issue.
Instead of forcing output, she redesigned flow introducing riddling tables that allowed sediment to settle naturally. Consistency improved. Quality scaled. The product clarified itself.
This is what real systems thinking looks like to me.
Not control or hustle.
But restraint. Observation. Knowing where to act and where not to.
In a world that keeps rewarding speed, Madame Clicquot’s legacy reminds me that progress often comes from slowing down long enough to see the system clearly. Are you reacting to the noise? Or zooming out to see the system and bet on the leverage that truly matters?
A question to sit with:
Are you reacting to the noise? Or zooming out to see the system and bet on the leverage that truly matters?
📚 How Can I Stay Ahead in Learning & Development?
A powerful reminder that habits aren’t about motivation, they’re about systems. James Clear breaks down how small, consistent changes compound into massive long-term results.
Oxfam’s research shows how wealth, attention, and opportunity increasingly concentrate at the top. A sobering look at why leadership today must be intentional, not accidental.
Great leaders don’t avoid tension , they manage it well. A sharp, honest take on why under-staffing and clarity can actually build stronger teams.
This talk is a sharp reminder that real leadership isn’t about having all the answers, but about designing environments where people can do their best thinking and work. The shift from managing people to enabling them is where modern leadership actually begins.
⭐ Using our Gleac Social Selling Agent for Leadership & Community Building at Events I Attend or Wish I Could Attend
I am super ready to represent us at www.glmc.com this year! This one I will be on stage.
This is a secret and I am sharing it with you and giving you the tools to do it also on your own.
Here’s how I preparing for any event I attend or those I do not attend but want the network of everyone on stage using our GLEAC’s Social Selling Agent.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Chatgpt agent can scan page of event and pulls all the speaker linkedin profiles for you in minutes
These are then added to our Social Selling Agent which then each week leading up to the event comments on their linkedin walls.
Conversions on this is 87% so super high and they actually reach out to connect with you.
You then respond and have a human call or meet up.
It takes 5 minutes total to set up and the entire thing then works on its own.
The result? 💡
More meaningful conversations as you exponentially sprayed yourself to the network you want to be a part of and invite to your party;-)
Smarter CX insights for investors and founders
Join The Gladly Brief for insights on how AI, satisfaction, and loyalty intersect to shape modern business outcomes. Subscribe now to see how Gladly is redefining customer experience as an engine of growth—not a cost center.
💡 How Do I Broaden my Global Worldview? Introducing Zoroastrianism
Last year, we traveled by country.
This year, we’re traveling by belief.
Not belief as doctrine, but as something humans reach for when certainty runs out.
Religion isn’t just about gods.
It’s how people explain suffering, create order, mark time, and belong to one another.
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara, into a small Parsi Zoroastrian family.
Ratan Tata grew up inside the same quiet community — one that rarely seeks attention, power, or scale.
Neither man is remembered for Zoroastrianism.
Yet both were shaped inside one of the oldest moral frameworks still quietly in use — a worldview so early that many of its ideas now feel invisible.
Zoroastrianism is unusual not because it is strange,
but because it is familiar in ways we no longer notice.
Ideas we now treat as defaults:
that good and evil are real,
that actions echo beyond the moment,
that the future is shaped by human choice,
that there is meaning in how a life is lived
…entered the world quietly through this belief system.
To stay in the world — and take responsibility for how it turns out.
That posture shaped lives that look nothing alike:
one a global artist who refused to edit himself,
another a business leader known for ethical restraint and long memory.
Different paths.
Same underlying assumption.
That humans are not spectators in history.
They are participants.
In a time when many of us feel acted upon — by markets, systems, algorithms, uncertainty — this is an unsettling idea.
Guiding question:
What does it feel like to live as if your choices matter more than circumstances?
You cannot scale what you are trying to hide.
Clarity is what confidence looks like after experience.
What one calls “aging” — I call earned authority.
🍀 What Can I Do to Impact, Live Sustainably and Make the World a Better Place?
Sustainability isn’t just about big gestures — it’s about everyday choices that quietly add up. From circular living to digital decluttering, these resolutions make impact feel achievable.
Access matters. Princess Swan is making clean mobility more inclusive with an affordable, no-license electric bike designed for women and young riders.
Mel Robbins’ new protein drink is designed for real life — high protein, low sugar, and no unnecessary extras. A small but meaningful shift toward healthier daily habits.
Reflection is underrated sustainability — of energy, focus, and direction. This annual review helps you close the year with intention and start the next with clarity.
The quietest people at work are finally speaking up about environments that drain rather than enable them. A timely reminder that great leadership isn’t louder — it’s more thoughtful, inclusive, and designed for different ways of thinking.
And we’re off to a great start of the year! ✨
Your fans,
— Sal & the Gleac team
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