We've all been in situations where we've been in back to back meetings, we've had stressful days, we've been in the middle of conflicts, and we've had no clue what to do.

Join the conversation as we introduce a series about coaching yourself in situations where you don't have easy access to the time or resources to speak to your own coach (or you don't have one) or a colleague, but you really need to sort through some things for yourself.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" is a question that instantly sparks fear -- especially when that question comes from your boss. Asking for feedback can feel like a blessing and a curse because once you know what someone thinks, then you know, but also, if something needs to change and you don't know how to change it, then you know and you feel stuck. Join the conversation as we talk about how to ask for -- and receive -- feedback.

If you've struggled to give feedback as a leader, this is the episode for you! Maybe you were afraid of hurt feelings, debate, or doing it wrong . . . or maybe you've given feedback before and it didn't make the difference you wanted it to. Join the conversation as we talk about what feedback is and why leaders avoid it. We'll give you tips and tricks for giving really good feedback and some resources for additional learning.

Pronoia is the opposite of paranoia -- it's the idea that the world has your back. The world (or universe, or god, or other people) has your back and is looking out for your greater good. This opposes the feeling we often have that the world is out to get us (or that other people are!). Join the conversation as we explore negative bias, fear, and that feeling of "waiting for the other shoe to drop" and what's possible if we take a look from the POV of pronoia (not to be confused with toxic positivity!).

We can tend to think in terms of the distinction between a manager and a leader and a coach. In this episode, we'll talk about all three, and how you can be a leader and a coach (and a manager!) all at the same time. Join the conversation as we talk about how to transition from a traditional style leader and manager, to becoming a leader who is also a great coach!

You're great at advocating for others, but when it comes to advocating for yourself as much as (or more than) you advocate for others, it can feel hard to impossible to fight for YOU.

Leaders have a tendency to “eat last” and make that mean that until everyone else is fully taken care of, you don’t get to ask for anything for yourself. In many cases, this leads to not only not moving forward in your career, but also being seen as the person who will do anything asked of you, which can cause a backslide in your career. Join the conversation as we talk about how self-advocacy can make a huge impact on your life.

When you carry unfinished thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from one place to another, you live in a space where you don’t get to move yourself forward in a complete way. Your toxic boss from two jobs ago comes with you and impacts how you feel about your current amazing boss. Your perfectionism from high school AP classes still impacts how you make decisions about whether a project at work is good enough. When you look for “closure”, often that comes in the form of looking for help or apology from someone else – this means that someone else controls whether you get to feel like a situation is closed. But when you seek “completion”, you get a chance to do the work within yourself to determine to how to move yourself forward.

Join the conversation as John and Lauren explore how using completion as a tool has helped them – and how it can support you as a leader!

"What do you want?" is a question that can cause a feeling of dread for busy leaders. When there's so much going on, so many decisions to make, and so much to DO, stopping to think about what we want can be completely overwhelming, and so . . . we avoid even thinking about what we want. Join the conversation about how to start thinking about YOU in the swirl of busyness!