What does Spider-Man have to do with leadership? For Heather Sager, more than you’d expect.

In this episode, BRG Director Shantee Hope sits down with Heather, her longtime friend and Senior Workforce Transformation consultant at Perceptyx, to discuss what happens when the thing you spend years hiding turns out to be what makes you good at your job.

Heather traces the story back to childhood: learning struggles in school in rural Pennsylvania, the shame of feeling like she processed the world differently than her classmates, and the moment Spider-Man’s secret identity gave her a new way to see it: as a source of power rather than a flaw to conceal. They dig into how that reframe followed Heather into the workplace, from catching costly errors nobody else saw to pushing back on outdated processes, and why she still tells colleagues when something feels off using her own shorthand: “my Spidey sense.”

The conversation dives into leading teams that span ages, cultures, and working styles; what artificial intelligence can reveal about whose face we picture when we imagine a leader; and why the goal involves actively making room for difference on a team.

A personal conversation about the parts of ourselves we are told to hide—and why they might be exactly what make us effective leaders.