Can we talk about women masking at work? I spend a lot of time in conversation with women who are the only woman or one of very few women in the room at work. There is a fatigue and malaise that comes from being in this position long term - even if you enjoy and respect many of the men you’re sitting beside. When a person is notably different from the majority of the people around them, they mask themselves to fit in, be taken seriously, gain a competitive advantage, and maintain safety. Here ar...
Mar 11, 2025•33 min
I’ve recently had multiple conversations with women leaders who have expressed their desire to intentionally build part of their leadership legacy around supporting emerging leaders. Of course, this makes my heart sing. As someone who has benefited from the guidance of women who came before me, I know firsthand how impactful it can be when just one person shows they believe in you. In this episode, I explore how women leaders can effectively support and nurture emerging leaders within their orga...
Mar 04, 2025•31 min
“You can’t pour from an empty cup!” There is this long-standing narrative that women should practice filling their cups so they have something in their proverbial cups to pour out and share with others in the form of time, energy, love, and/or care. This narrative reinforces that women should take care of themselves for the purpose of being better caretakers of others. Because, as the cultural narrative goes, caretaking at home, at work, and in our communities is a woman’s primary role. We are t...
Feb 25, 2025•22 min
"I see you pulling a Beyoncé here,” I said to my client who was really tapping into her own inner Bey. I’m referring to how Beyoncé broke the mold and rewrote the rules for herself—without anyone’s invitation or permission—to win her recent Grammy for Album of the Year. I saw the same thing with this client: breaking the mold and rewriting the rules for herself, without waiting for anyone’s invitation or permission. In fact, a number of the women leaders I work with are doing incredible work to ...
Feb 18, 2025•27 min
Every single time I mention being diagnosed with ADHD in my forties, women reach out to me. This has become the thing middle-aged women want to connect with me about the most. 10 years ago, I could have never guessed I would be talking about the importance of brain health for women leaders. This wasn’t something that was on my radar until two things happened: I realized through a series of doctors and diagnoses over the course of a decade that my brain is not average. Women all around me started...
Feb 11, 2025•38 min
The chaos and overwhelm you are feeling in this first month of 2025 is by design. The fear, if not panic, that strikes you every time you see a new news story is intended to break you down. Your worry about all the what-ifs has been strategically created so you stay distracted and disheartened. Being a sociology nerd at heart, I found myself at my desk last week making a list of all the ways systems of oppression are being intentionally woven into our US culture (on top of the systems of oppress...
Feb 04, 2025•31 min
I’m not a doctor or any sort of expert on women’s health. But I am an expert on my body, as I’ve had 49 years to get to know her. We’re pretty tight. I like to think I know everything about her. However, a recent doctor appointment taught me so many things I didn’t know about her! At 49 years old, this body of mine is teaching me so many new things. I never planned to do a podcast episode about my body at age 49, but I recently overheard a guy say, “So many more women are getting menopause these...
Jan 28, 2025•36 min
“Sara, should I stay or should I go?” This is a very common conversation I have had with coaching clients over the years. Because I have the great honor of helping women deeply (re)connect to their sense of self, my clients frequently find themselves in a position of having outgrown their professional roles. As they learn about themselves, embrace their strengths and talents, and challenge themselves to grow in new ways, there is an almost inevitable realization at a certain point, “I think I’m ...
Jan 21, 2025•31 min
Have you ever gone to someone you trusted to seek help and they became defensive instead of holding space for you? Have you ever been in a conversation and felt yourself getting defensive as someone shared information with you? You’ve likely been in both of these situations at some point, perhaps in personal and professional settings. I found myself in the first situation a while back. I took a very serious concern to two leaders I trusted and I left feeling stunned that two leaders I trusted co...
Jan 14, 2025•25 min
Every year I host an Annual Planning Workshop for my business coaching clients. This is a time for folks to look back at their wins from the past year, do some visioning for the upcoming year, and get crystal clear on the specific strategies and action steps they want to take to be successful in the new year. As I was leading this workshop in early December, it occurred to me that you all, my lovely leader listeners, could benefit from the same exercises I take my business coaching clients throu...
Jan 07, 2025•30 min
I have used stories in leadership for some time now and have found them to be such a powerful way to engage people as well as a means to appeal to people’s heads and hearts. Years ago, I started studying how other speakers I followed used stories and I took notes. As I’ve learned more about the power of storytelling from a theoretical perspective, so much has clicked for me in terms of how to use storytelling as a leadership tool and strategy. There is no doubt that stories drive authentic leade...
Dec 31, 2024•25 min
In the last episode of Shameless Leadership, I spoke about 5 Challenges Facing Women Leaders in 2025. While that episode had plenty of reasons to get us motivated and fired up, I am excited to kick off a conversation that leads with a positive edge this week. When we only focus on the challenges we face as women (or as a member of any marginalized group), it can feel harder to harness our power. So, how about we focus on our competitive edges, shall we? In this episode, I’m so excited to talk th...
Dec 24, 2024•32 min
To be honest, I was hesitant to spend thirty minutes pointing out the challenges facing women leaders, as I’m not sure we need to be reminded of what’s not working in our favor. However, as I started putting my notes together, I quickly decided that if I provide this list as a bit of a “Hey friends! Just a heads up…” and included some options for strategic responses we can all enter 2025 feeling better informed and well prepared to do our work to the best of our ability. So, here we go!! For me ...
Dec 17, 2024•37 min
This might sound counterintuitive, but great leaders aren’t afraid to be a little messy. Being messy is not a hall pass to be careless or cause harm. Being messy is about being your most authentic, imperfect, high-integrity self who isn’t afraid to make mistakes and be fumbly in front of others. This is an invitation for women leaders to embrace and model imperfection as a transformative professional strategy. Being an imperfect, messy-at-times leader can be a massive demonstration of strength, ...
Dec 10, 2024•29 min
Through my own evolution as a business owner in recent years and then through watching my son evolve as an athlete recently, I’ve had the opportunity to personally and professionally consider how our culture's obsession with performance and winning consistently creates toxic narratives that tend to diminish our inherent human value. In this episode, I do a deep dive into separating self-worth from achievement - something I have had to work really hard on as someone who likes to achieve, achieve,...
Dec 03, 2024•26 min
As you spend time within your team and organization ideating, creating, and growing, are you conscientiously co-creating a place where each person can participate fully with their best gifts? Is there enough safety and trust for people to take creative risks and ask seemingly silly questions? Have you created a culture where people feel safe to make mistakes? An excerpt from an exhibition on place at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC defines “place” as… “...
Nov 26, 2024•26 min
Shame can be a pervasive and isolating experience, but by examining your relationship with shame more closely, you can gain the tools to understand better and transform it. When you’re experiencing shame, it’s important to ask yourself a series of thoughtful questions designed to break down shame’s hold over you. These questions begin by addressing the specifics of a situation, identifying your feelings about the situation, and acknowledging the story you’re telling yourself about the situation....
Nov 19, 2024•30 min
When I facilitate conversations about inclusion and allyship with groups of women, someone inevitably says, “Men need to hear this too!” When I lead mixed-gender rooms of people through similar conversations, I am consistently heartened by how open to listening, learning, and practicing the men in the room are. In my experience, many male leaders want to be better allies, advocates, and accomplices. So, today I’m excited to talk about exactly how to make that happen! In this episode, I unpack th...
Nov 12, 2024•33 min
I have had the opportunity to be in the room with some incredible groups of women leaders recently. One of the conversations that has come over and over again is mentorship and modeling. A question I’ve been inviting women leaders to play with is, “What kinds of values do you want to be modeling to other women leaders? Are there any values that you tend to abandon (likely unconsciously) in your leadership that you would like to do a better job of honoring?” A few things commonly come up as women...
Nov 05, 2024•33 min
In anticipation of basketball tryouts today, my 12-year-old went to the park to get in some practice with friends last night. When he got home, he proudly shared that an older kid at the park complimented “hoops”. On the way to school this morning, he told me that he’s feeling really nervous about tryouts. It’s the first year the kids will be divided into varsity and junior varsity teams. This is big time! As we were walking, I talked to him about the close, often overlapping relationship betwee...
Oct 29, 2024•28 min
Ahhh, the elusive chase of work-life balance - increasingly referred to as life-work integration. Almost every time I am interviewed I am asked how women leaders can attain a better balance between their personal and professional lives. The struggle to achieve life-work integration impacts most women in leadership. Today, I’m going to invite you to forget about striving for the perfect balance. It’s time to rethink how you can blend your personal and professional life in a way that feels fulfill...
Oct 22, 2024•33 min
You may know by now that I could preach all day about how women are programmed by the patriarchy to show up in this world in very specific ways that primarily (and almost exclusively) benefit white men. Please know when I say “patriarchy” I am referring to a system that is not only harmful to women but also undermines and completely stunts the emotional development of most men. This system benefits few, but the few who benefit have the most tremendous power - globally. Our patriarchal society ha...
Oct 15, 2024•33 min
I’ve recently spent a lot of time in rooms of women. I’ve been a guest speaker at a couple of women’s retreats. I led my own women’s retreat. I’ve been to some incredible networking events for women. And, I just keep being reminded why it is so critical for women to be in rooms with other women. Women are facing epidemic levels of loneliness and isolation. Research from the Campaign to End Loneliness shows that women, more than men, report feelings of loneliness. We often don’t see other women i...
Oct 08, 2024•31 min
While I’m not much of a history buff, I am fascinated by humans and human behavior - even ancient human behavior. So, when presented with the opportunity to examine historical models of leadership in my Masters of Organizational Leadership program, I was all in. In studying leadership models across centuries and then within the decades of the last 120 years, there are undeniable patterns of leadership that are mostly about power and dominance and almost exclusively about the power and dominance ...
Oct 01, 2024•26 min
I have been in countless rooms over the last few years where the person leading designates the space a “safe space”. This designation is usually given right before an invitation for people to share something that may require some level of vulnerability. While I think the intentions of the folks saying this are good, I think there is actually more potential for harm than good when we deem a space a “safe space” without very seriously considering what creates actual safety for people and how treme...
Sep 24, 2024•30 min
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” Maya Angelou How you make people feel is a big responsibility as a leader. While you cannot control how others perceive and receive you, you can control how you attempt to engage and lead in positive, supportive, and authentic ways. The way you engage with the people you lead - from saying hello to delegating tasks to providing feedback to saying “Thank you” - matters. When I ...
Sep 17, 2024•31 min
In a culture that values and rewards outward confidence and assertive communication, it’s not surprising that extroverts tend to rise to the top as leaders more predominantly than introverts. Extroverts are commonly outgoing, charismatic, and less socially inhibited than introverts in group settings. While this may sound grand if you were born an extrovert, the downside to extroversion is that extroverts can take up so much space, they don’t leave space for others. As leaders, extroverts can be ...
Sep 10, 2024•30 min
The difference in self-assurance between men and women, particularly in professional settings, is called the confidence gap. This gap describes how, despite equal or even greater competence, women tend to underestimate their abilities and hesitate to pursue leadership roles, promotions, or high-stakes opportunities compared to men. In this powerful episode, I dive into the challenges women in leadership face when it comes to building and maintaining confidence. I examine how gender bias, social ...
Sep 03, 2024•31 min
Building a powerful and intentional personal leadership brand is essential to your leadership legacy. Whether you're an emerging leader or a leader looking to refine your current leadership style, this episode will give you actionable steps to create a personal leadership brand that aligns with your core values and allows you to make greater ripples of impact as you lead. We explore the following key questions to help guide your journey: What do you want to be known for as a leader? What legacy ...
Aug 27, 2024•29 min
Today is the day! The first episode of Shameless Leadership is LIVE. I couldn’t be more excited! In this first episode of Shameless Leadership, I dig into one of my very favorite topics: why women need to take up more space. This is a topic I have been passionate about for a long time now. In fact, you’ve likely heard me rant about it before. It feels like the perfect topic to kick off this new show for women leaders. Recent data overwhelmingly tells us that the number of women in leadership sti...
Aug 20, 2024•25 min
