Extra Shot of Leadership

You are hiring a new supervisor…you posted the job, you found the perfect candidate and your pretty excited that they are starting next week. Now what? Does the standard onboarding checklist apply? Having a clear strategy for what information you share and a cadence for when you share it can accelerate a new leader’s learning curve for understanding the business, the work and their team.

This week Kim and Pepper dive into supervisor onboarding. We’ll explore three key areas that will help ensure a smooth transition and set the stage for their success.

Join us as we share insights, tips, and real-life examples to help you onboard your new leader with confidence and ensure they hit the ground running!

Do you have an onboarding strategy? Share with us at [email protected]

Have you ever seen a leader totally lose it? And by lose it I mean expressing their frustration or disappointment with an outburst with voice raising, a battery of questions or a pounding on the desk. Was it you? Leaders typically have a high level of care and passion about the work of their department but when things go wrong their passion can turn into a display of anger. Though the outburst may be intended to drive actions that will fix the problem, it can often have the opposite effect where a team ends up focused managing the leader’s emotion rather than managing the problem.

This week Kim and Pepper discuss the causes and effects of emotional outbursts at work. They provide a 3-step approach for leaders who want to gain a deeper understanding of their emotional triggers so they can communicate more effectively when their team has missed the mark.

How are you good are you at managing your emotions at work? Share your story with us at [email protected]

How sharp are your coaching skills? Are you providing all the answers, or do you take the time to help your employees reach their own conclusions? Great coaching conversations are extremely valuable for employee growth and performance. The good news is coaching is a leadership skill that can be developed and sharpened. With a few tweaks, a little extra time, and the right questions, leaders can enhance their coaching conversations to add deeper meaning to an employee’s development.

This week Kim and Pepper discuss the steps Pepper has taken to improve her coaching skills over the last year. Pepper shares the importance of having the right having the mindset as well as some tips on asking questions that can help leaders become a more powerful coach and build deeper relationships at work.

How are you maximizing your coaching conversations? Share with us at [email protected]

Are your team members stressed, are they focused, are they ok? How do you know? With the workplace playing a central role in many people’s lives, it is important for team members to feel connected and supported by their leaders. So how do leaders balance building relationships with getting all the work done? Are they two separate things or do better relationships actually help get the work done?

This week Kim and Pepper discuss their thoughts on building relationships at work and open up about their hunger for deeper conversations. They each provide a few tips on getting the conversations started then share how these conversations and strong relationships help them to manage and guide the work.

Are your relationships with your team members helping or hurting your leadership? Share with us at [email protected]

Have you ever felt like your life and leadership compass needed recalibrating? Many leaders often contemplate a reset in January as they begin a new year while others may choose the fall when the school year begins again. Don’t worry if you missed those two opportunities, because the best time for a reset is when the time is right...for you! It may be when your daily schedule is packed full with meetings, projects, after school activities, dinners, vacations, hobbies, and everything else you have said “yes, sure, no problem” to, or possibly during a life altering event. What matters most isn’t the time of year, but the time spent reflecting on where you are spending your energy and what truly matters.

This week Kim and Pepper get back to their love of podcasting and roll on with episode #101. They discuss their hiatus from the show as well as what they did with their time while the record button was on PAUSE. They each share some personal stories of why they needed a reset and how it has impacted their life, their focus, and their leadership.

What can you accomplish with a continuous learning mindset? The answers to this question are absolutely endless! Anyone with an ongoing and self-driven pursuit of knowledge can build, create, or attain just about anything they set their mind to. Apply this thinking to leadership and leaders can soar to a level of leadership where the sky is the limit for what they can accomplish both personally and with their teams.

Cue the confetti cannons! This week Kim and Pepper celebrate their 100th episode of Extra Shot of Leadership. They reminisce about their early episodes and the things they have each learned over the past 3 years. They discuss their thoughts on lifelong learning and tie the conversation back to leaders that have their minds set on excellence.

What’s your take on lifelong learning and what type of learning are you focused on now? Share with us at

Great leaders rarely exist just by natural ability. Many great leaders have built their skills and reputation by way of feedback. Not the fluffy feedback but the tough stuff. The kind of feedback that can be painful to hear and can often leave a person feeling angry, confused, or frustrated. Just because they are a leader doesn’t mean they won’t struggle with the news or have to dig deep to listen, learn and take action.

This week Kim and Pepper discuss the tough stuff. Pepper shares a personal story of tough feedback she received, how she got past the shock and into action, and how the feedback has helped her improve relationships, deliverables, and perceptions of others.

What is the toughest feedback you have received and how has it helped you become a better leader? Share with us at [email protected]

Leaders with a continuous improvement mindset can drive their teams to accomplish great things. But what happens to leaders and teams when the leader is always striving for more? As they encourage their teams to do more and be more, what other message are they sending, and what are they giving up by chasing more?

This week Kim and Pepper reflect on their definition of success and discuss their thoughts and challenges with a life focused on more, more, more. They each share some ’aha’ moments then tie the conversation to leadership and the potential issues leaders and teams with the same mindset could experience.

How are you managing “the more”? Share with us at

Excellence in leadership can be reached with time and a conscious effort spent on skill improvement. This improvement requires an understanding of leadership skills, identification of personal strengths and opportunities, and a willingness to continue to grow. Let’s just assume for a minute that you know or have googled top leadership skills, and you are willing to continuously grow. Now, what’s the best way to assess your strengths and opportunities?

This week Kim and Pepper discuss the assessment tools that have helped them grow through their years of leadership. They share insight on the one tool they value the most and their personal stories of how the tool has helped them improve both personally and professionally. The best news is Pepper’s tool proves to be free and simple!

Have you assessed your leadership skills lately? What is your favorite assessment tool? Share with us at [email protected]

Good employees make mistakes and great leaders allow them to. If this statement is true, then how do leaders allow these learning opportunities without putting their organization’s and personal reputation in jeopardy?

This week Kim and Pepper discuss their thoughts on the value of failures. They share how they set boundaries around failures, manage them when they happen, use them as learning opportunities, and most importantly. recover from them quickly.

What are your tips for managing failures? Share them with us at