May You Be Your Best Self
It's time to go all-in on YOU.
May You Be Your Best Self is a month-long journey designed to help you pause, reflect, and realign with what fuels you — especially when the world around you is shifting. Each week brings a fresh theme, timely insights, and practical tools to help you rise above reactivity, reconnect with your purpose, and support others as they do the same.
Your Best Self is waiting—let’s begin!
Start Here
A Special Welcome from Our Team
It begins right here — with a message from our hearts to yours. Watch this short video from our Institute team as we kick off a month of reflection, growth, and inspiration.
Click play below and get inspired.
Your Best Self is waiting.
Week 1:
Know Your Power
How am I tapping into my unique strengths?
You have strengths that no one else does — now is the time to tap into them. This week, we’ll help you uncover what makes you uniquely powerful, so you can lead, live, and thrive from a place of authenticity and confidence.
Own Your Power
with Jessica O. Matthews
What if your greatest superpower is being exactly who you are? In this episode, innovator and social entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews joins host Susan MacKenty Brady to explore how tapping into your unique strengths—and giving yourself permission to dream big—can fuel lasting impact.
Tune in to rediscover the strength that’s already within you.
LISTEN NOW | Finding your Fight and Shaping the Future
Breaking Free from Self-Doubt:
How to Reconnect with Your Best Self
with Susan MacKenty Brady and Dr. Lynn Perry Wooten
Discover how reconnecting with your Best Self starts with identifying the unique strengths that energize and empower you. This blog offers practical strategies to help you notice what lights you up—so you can lead with authenticity, confidence, and impact.
READ MORE | Breaking Free from Self-Doubt
Authentic Leadership In Action
with Heather R. Younger and Kristen Palson
This episode delves into the essence of authentic leadership, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and leading with heart. It explores how understanding one’s own values, emotions, and behaviors can enhance leadership effectiveness and personal growth.
WATCH NOW | A Conversation About Self-Awareness and Heart
What Makes You Shine?
This reflection tool will help you discover how to lead with clarity, purpose, and impact.
Tap into your unique strengths, talents, and “superpowers” to lead with greater clarity and purpose. Use this tool to uncover what you do best—and how you can channel it to create positive impact for yourself, your team, and your organization.
Your Best Self, Reflected
Get instant insight—and a whole lot of feel-good—from the people who know you best.
Want a quick confidence boost and insight into your unique strengths? Send a quick text poll to learn more about your strengths:
- Text 10 people who know you well (personally and/or professionally)
- Ask each of them to send you three adjectives that describe you at your best.
It’s completely normal to feel a little vulnerable asking for feedback—just remember, this simple ask is part of the May You Be Your Best Self experience, and it’s a powerful step toward discovering what makes you shine. You’ll walk away with powerful feedback and a feel-good reminder of what makes you shine.
Join the #BestSelf Movement.
How are you tapping into your unique strengths?
- Tell us on LinkedIn!
- Create a post, tag the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership and share a quick insight, photo, or story using #bestself — so we can cheer you on and celebrate what makes you shine.
Week 2:
Fuel Your Fire
What am I doing to support my well-being right now?
This week is all about reigniting your energy and putting your well-being front and center. Get ready to reflect, recharge, and discover small but powerful ways to care for yourself so you can show up as your most vibrant, resilient self.
Leading with Calm: Finding Your Best Self in Chaos
with Lori Spicer Robertson
Feeling overwhelmed by change? In this inspiring episode, Lori Spicer Robertson shares how staying grounded, leading with authenticity, and choosing joy can help you return to your Best Self—even in the midst of chaos.
Tune in to rediscover the strength that’s already within you.
LISTEN NOW | Leading with Calm: Finding Your Best Self in Chaos
Persevering with Purpose
with Amy Purdy
Find inspiration, stay present, and lead with purpose—no matter what challenges you face. In this uplifting podcast, discover how micro-habits, gratitude, and purposeful connection can help you reclaim your time, energy, and joy—one intentional moment at a time.
LISTEN NOW | Persevering with Purpose
Why Thriving at Work is the Future of High Performance
by Susan MacKenty Brady
Thriving isn’t a luxury—it’s essential to leading well and living well. This piece invites you, as a leader, to treat your well-being not as an afterthought, but as a core part of your leadership. It offers both permission and encouragement to invest in practices that energize and sustain you—so you can show up fully, lead with clarity, and thrive from the inside out.
READ MORE | Why Thriving at Work is the Future of High Performance
The Authenticity Advantage
with Susan MacKenty Brady
What does it really mean to “be yourself” in a world that wasn’t built with you in mind? Here, Susan acknowledges the tension many women feel at work—and why showing up as your true self might just be your greatest strength.
1-MINUTE WATCH | The Authenticity Advantage
How are you taking care of yourself?
Reflect to Recharge and Reconnect.
Boost your energy and well-being with this quick, reflective worksheet. These simple yet powerful questions will help you check in with yourself and take small steps toward feeling more grounded, energized, and whole.
Reset in Under a Minute
A simple breathing technique to calm your mind and refocus fast.
Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique—a simple, science-backed practice to calm your mind, lower stress, and return to your Best Self.
Here’s how:
Sit up with your back straight and your feet on the ground. Position the tip of your tongue so it’s touching the back of your two front teeth.
- Start with a deep exhale.
- Inhale to a count of four.
- Hold for a count of seven.
- Exhale on a count of eight.
- Repeat steps 3-5 three more times.
This exercise helps calm your mind, lower stress, and bring you back to center in under a minute.
Join the #BestSelf Movement.
How are you supporting your well-being?
- Tell us on LinkedIn!
- Create a post, tag the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership and share a quick insight, photo, or story using #bestself — so we can cheer you on and celebrate what makes you shine.
Week 3:
Step into Thriving
How are you adding value in ways that matter to you and others?
It’s time to recognize the impact you make every day. Whether it’s in your workplace, your home, or for yourself, you’ll explore how your contributions create value—and how owning that can fuel even more purpose and momentum.
Leading from Your Best Self
with Astrid Sheil
From building emotional safety and trust to embracing humility and starting over, this podcast is a powerful reminder that leadership starts within. Discover how showing up with purpose, confidence, and compassion can ignite not only your own potential—but the potential in others.
LISTEN | Leading from Your Best Self
The Future of Inclusive Leadership: Thriving as a New Paradigm
by Susan MacKenty Brady
What if thriving wasn’t just personal, but essential to your leadership? This bold perspective invites you to rethink success, well-being, and impact as interconnected. Read the post to get inspired—and start leading from a place of purpose, resilience, and growth.
Adapt. Lead. Thrive: 3 Ways to Stay Ahead in Uncertain Times
featuring Susan MacKenty Brady
Uncertainty is the new normal. Learn how to lead with clarity, courage, and connection—especially under pressure. Join best-selling author and leadership expert Susan MacKenty Brady for a powerful session filled with practical tools to help you show up as your Best Self, build trust, and lead with purpose when it matters most.
REGISTER | Free Live Webinar
How am I making a difference?
A worksheet for recognizing your value.
This simple yet powerful worksheet helps you explore where and how you’re making a difference—whether at work, within your community, or for yourself. Reflect on your unique contributions, what others value about you, and where you feel called to make an impact.
Reset in Minutes
Feel more energized and grounded with these two simple exercises.
Do a 2-Minute Body Check-In
Quick mindfulness boosts energy and re-engagement. A study from Harvard found that mind-wandering is strongly linked to lower happiness—so tuning in to the present moment matters. A short body scan grounds you and renews focus.
Try it:
- Pause. Close your eyes or lower your gaze.
- Starting from your head to your feet, bring gentle attention to each part of your body.
- Ask: What’s tense? What’s calm? What needs care?
This helps build body awareness and emotional self-regulation—even in just 2 minutes.
Try a 10-Minute Outdoor Walk
Even a short walk outside can significantly improve mood, reduce stress, and boost energy. Research from Stanford University shows that walking in nature lowers activity in the part of the brain linked to rumination and depression. Just 10 minutes of natural light and movement can help reset your focus and increase feelings of vitality.
Join the #BestSelf Movement.
How are you adding value in ways that matter to you and others?
- Tell us on LinkedIn!
- Create a post, tag the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership and share a quick insight, photo, or story using #bestself — so we can cheer you on and celebrate what makes you shine.
Week 4:
Lead with Intention
How can I take meaningful steps towards becoming my Best Self?
This week, it’s all about Leading with Intention—aligning your actions with your purpose to create real, lasting impact. You’ll explore what matters most, set meaningful goals, and take clear steps toward becoming the leader—and person—you truly want to be.
Leading Through Change: Building Culture with Purpose and Empathy
with Pete Church
How do intentional leaders navigate uncertainty while staying true to their purpose? In this episode, Susan MacKenty Brady interviews Pete Church, a driving force behind the culture at Point32Health. Their conversation dives into what it means to lead inclusively and authentically in today’s workforce—especially in a complex, ever-evolving healthcare landscape.
This conversation offers real-world insight into turning intention into meaningful impact.
LISTEN NOW | Leading Through Change
Lead with Your Best Self: 3 Practices Every Leader Needs Right Now
In times of rapid change, strong leadership starts within. In this blog, learn three essential practices to help leaders stay grounded, build trust, and lead with purpose. These insights are more than just helpful—they’re vital for anyone leading through uncertainty.
READ MORE | Lead with Your Best Self
Adapt. Lead. Thrive: 3 Ways to Stay Ahead in Uncertain Times
with Susan MacKenty Brady
In this webinar, Susan Brady shares three essential leadership practices for navigating change with clarity and confidence. These practices aren’t just timely—they’re timeless. Because when leaders lead from their best selves, they inspire others to do the same.
VIEW | WEBINAR RECORDING
Your Leadership Action Plan: From Intention to Impact
Ready to turn insight into action? This Week 4 reflection worksheet helps you take meaningful next steps toward becoming your best self as a leader.
✔️ Set clear short- and long-term goals
✔️ Identify support and accountability
✔️ Build momentum with purpose
Whether you’re leading a team or leading yourself, this simple tool will help you move forward with clarity and intention.
Mid-Year Best Self Check-In
A simple pause to reflect, reset, and realign
Take a pause. Grab a journal, find a quiet space, and reflect with intention. Use these prompts to guide your mid-year check-in:
1. Looking Back
- In what moments so far this year have I felt most aligned with my Best Self?
- What am I proud of—big or small?
- What challenges have I faced, and how did I show up through them?
2. Checking In
- How do I feel right now—mentally, emotionally, physically?
- What’s energizing me these days? What’s draining me?
- What values have guided me this year—and are they still serving me?
3. Looking Ahead
- What would it look like to lead with more intention for the rest of the year?
- What small step can I take this week to move closer to my goals?
- What do I want to feel more of—and less of—in the second half of the year?
4. Support + Accountability
- Who can support or cheer me on in this next phase?
This mid-year check-in is your chance to reflect, reset, and recommit to becoming your Best Self—one intentional step at a time.
Join the #BestSelf Movement.
What meaningful steps can I take right now to become my Best Self—and sustain it?
- Tell us on LinkedIn!
- Create a post, tag the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership and share a quick insight, photo, or story using #bestself — so we can cheer you on and celebrate what makes you shine.
FREE WEBINAR
WITH SUSAN MACKENTY BRADY
Adapt. Lead. Thrive: 3 Ways to Stay Ahead in Uncertain Times
May 21 at 12pm ET
WITH SUSAN MACKENTY BRADY
In times of rapid change and uncertainty, the most powerful tool a leader has is the ability to return to—and lead from—their Best Self. In this energizing and actionable session, we’ll explore how to navigate complexity while fostering cultures where people can thrive, not just survive.
You’ll learn how to lead yourself with intention, communicate for impact, and inspire resilience in others. Whether you're managing a team, driving change, or simply trying to stay grounded, this session will equip you with practical strategies to lead with clarity, connection, and confidence.