What you say as a leader may take them seconds to forget...OR stay with someone on your team for decades.
Aimee George Leary is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at **Booz Allen Hamilton**, where she leads the people strategy for more than **35,000 employees**. In this episode of **Lead The Team**, she shares the painful early-career moment that permanently changed how she leads.
After honestly telling executives that a critical project was behind schedule, Aimee received a devastatin voicemail from a senior leader. She spent the entire weekend anxious about it. When she returned to work Monday, **the leader didn’t remember leaving the message**.
That experience taught Aimee a lesson she still carries more than 25 years later: **Your words as a leader carry. Choose them wisely.**
Ben and Aimee also explore:
• The three things that kept her at Booz Allen for 30+ years
• Why doing great work gets noticed—even years later
• How to create career opportunities without chasing promotions
• What listening and vulnerability look like at the executive level
• How Booz Allen is preparing 35,000+ people for AI
• The mistake leaders make when using AI to improve existing processes
• Why intentionality, optimism, and energy matter in leadership
If you lead a team, this conversation is a powerful reminder: **You may forget the moment. Your people may never forget how you made them feel.**
Follow **Lead The Team with Ben Fanning** for conversations with top executives, CEOs, founders, and business leaders about leadership, high-performance teams, AI transformation, communication, and building organizations that thrive through change.
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