⚖️ 3 strategic tensions I still find hard to balance

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

3 Strategic tensions I still find hard to balance 

Christmas period is my full introvert indulgence. I stay in my flat, alone with my thoughts — yes, by choice 😅 (I’ll face my share of festive chaos during Chinese New Year 🤯).

It’s the quietest headspace I get all year, and it’s when I naturally reflect on what mattered, what didn’t, and what I want to say yes to next.

Strategy, after all, is just a series of choices. And this is the season when I make mine.

You might be doing something similar heading into a new year — weighing work against personal needs, ambition against sustainability, visibility against space.

There are 3 tensions I still find hard to balance:

🌀 Being me vs what the algorithm wants 

This one’s the hardest. Staying true to how I think, while knowing exactly what the algorithm rewards:  binary positions, clean villains and heroes, quick tips, manufactured urgency.

I’m wired differently. I care about trade-offs, context and systems. And strategy is messy.

So I ask myself again: Am I writing for the algorithm? Or am I helping one person see something a little differently? Which one brings me more joy?

Yes, I know how to optimise — for clicks, views, engagement. (Trust me, my marketing friends remind me regularly 😅) But if I can’t do it in a way that feels like me, then what’s the point of building something on my own terms?

This year, I chose to create value first and find alternative paths to wider reach, on my own terms.

👀 Always visible vs protecting private space

The algorithm also wants everything loud and public — every conversation, every insight, every interaction, all visible on social media, now. For an introvert, that’s overwhelming😣. The constant need to be ‘on’ can start to feel performative. 

I’m drawn to the opposite: 1:1 DMs, private messages, small group conversations, deeper discussions. Social media is great for meeting new people. But the real value has always come from moving those connections off-platform and into something more personal.

This year, I’m still choosing depth of relationship over volume.

💪 I’m a hard T, learning to flex my F personality

When I write, record a podcast or share a LinkedIn post, I do it with my natural T (Thinking) tendency: every word must add value, people’s time is precious – don’t waste it!

But this year, people told me they enjoy the stories I share when we meet in person – at events, in one-to-ones, during the bootcamp. The human bits I rarely share online.

The most recent came just before Christmas, from Missy: “I’ve followed your writing since your first blog in 2021. I know how you think. But only this year, spending more time with you, did I really get to know you.”

For someone with a strong T preference, value has always meant insight first. I’m learning that, for some readers, value also comes from seeing the person behind the thinking.

So I’m choosing to flex my F more consciously.

All of the above comes with a cost. I choose to pay it deliberately - that’s strategy.

So, what tension are you balancing between work, leadership and being you?

And what conscious choices are you making as you go into 2026?

Because strategy isn’t just about decisions for your business. It’s also about the choices you make for yourself:

And those are often the hardest ones.

A note of gratitude from me to you

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who reads my newsletter, and to those of you who reached out this year to share what you were trying, struggling with, or winning at.

🚀 You trusted me with your ambitions.

🌱 You trusted me with your growth.

⌚ And you trusted me with your time — the most valuable thing any leader can give.

Thank you for letting me be part of your journey from HR Leader to Business Leader

Your courage makes my work meaningful.
Your progress makes HR indispensable to your business and your people.

Still strategic. Still me.

💛JooBee