Leadership Beyond the Title

Have you ever been responsible for leading something, but you couldn't actually make decisions about it? You're accountable for the results, but someone else can change the plan without telling you — and when things go wrong, you're still the one holding the bag. How is that supposed to work?

This week I'm digging into one of the most common and least talked-about traps in the workplace: being handed responsibility without the authority to go with it. Because sometimes you haven't been given the room to lead, sometimes it's how you're showing up, and sometimes both are happening at once.

I walk through what it does to a team when a manager's decisions get overridden without her in the room, why people quietly learn to go around her, and why telling someone to "just be more confident" completely misses the point. Confidence doesn't tell an employee which of two conflicting deadlines comes first.

I also get honest about withdrawal — what it really means when someone who used to offer ideas just stops, and the difference between setting a boundary and giving up. And I share two stories from my own career: the time I stopped giving extra because nothing was ever enough, and the time two women used their influence to advocate for me when a manager was actively blocking my move into coaching.

In this episode:

• The difference between responsibility and authority — and why organizations treat them as interchangeable
• What happens to a team when a manager keeps getting overridden
• Why "be more confident" is useless advice when the real problem is structural
• Saviorism, rescuing, and the leader who has to make every decision
• What withdrawal actually looks like — and why it's not always a character problem
• Boundaries vs. checking out: how to tell the difference in yourself
• The moving goalpost women of color know too well — and when it's okay to stop chasing it
• Why the most meaningful leadership often happens for someone who isn't in the room
• How a title can narrow what other people believe you're capable of

The question I want you to sit with: Are you using your position to make it easier for other people to lead — or are you becoming another reason they can't? Because the title tells people where you sit on the org chart. What you do tells them how you lead.

🔗 Work with me — 1:1 & team coaching (helping leaders and teams get clear on roles, authority, and decision-making, and increase productivity by 50% or more): https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. If this conversation brought someone to mind, share it with them — it may be the starting point for a conversation you've needed to have.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

Have you been sitting in your car a little longer before walking into work? Not because you're early — but because you know that when you walk through those doors, you'll be the only one. The only Black woman. The only person of color. The only one who has to prove she belongs before she even opens her mouth.

This episode isn't a framework. It's honest. It's where I am right now — how I'm staying focused as a Black woman business owner while so much is happening in the world, and why I still haven't given up hope. If you've been carrying something heavy lately, this one is for you.

I get into the question I carry into every room that most people around me never have to ask — am I safe here? Not just physically, but safe to be myself, to be taken seriously, to make a mistake without being targeted. And I share the real reason so many of us are exhausted, and why it has nothing to do with being lazy, failing, or having imposter syndrome.

It's called weathering. Dr. Arline Geronimus's research found that the constant stress of racism and always having to push through wears on Black women's bodies faster than anyone else's — her studies show our cells showing signs of aging years ahead of white women the same age. We're not just tired. We're carrying it in our blood pressure, our sleep, our immune systems. In our bones.

In this episode:

• The question Black women carry into rooms that most people never have to
• Why it's not in your head — the microaggressions, the "what did you used to do?", the people stepping into your lane "to help"
• The data: Black women losing jobs at higher rates since 2025 while others held steady
• What reality TV (Big Brother, Traitors) reveals about who gets assumed guilty before they start
• Weathering — the name for the exhaustion you couldn't explain
• Why, even as we lose jobs, Black women are one of the fastest-growing groups of business owners
• How I keep going (not a formula): stepping away and resting, coming back to my mission, and refusing to do it alone

What I want you to walk away with: You might be the only person in that room — but you are not the only one. Take one more breath. Walk in. And when you need to, walk away and rest. Then come back to your mission, because the world needs what you're here to do.

🔗 Work with me — 1:1 & team coaching: I help Black women and leaders walk into rooms with systems thinking so they can grow their leadership, influence, and income — without shrinking or code-switching. Let's talk: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. If this resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it today. Take care of yourself, and take care of each other.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

Have you noticed people at work showing up differently lately — checked out, resistant, not themselves? There's a name for what's underneath it. I call it change grief: the grief that shows up when things aren't the way they used to be, and when it feels like you have to change who you are just to get through the day.

With layoffs, reorganizations, new leaders, return-to-office mandates, and AI reshaping everything, we're all navigating more change than we know how to process. And here's what I keep seeing as a certified change practitioner: we slap a framework on it — ADKAR, RACI, a process — and skip the human part. But the human side of change is the make-or-break of any change effort. Ignore it, and the grief people already carry amplifies two and three times over.

At the heart of it is identity. A layoff, a new boss, a new role, even a return-to-office order — each one presses on who we've known ourselves to be, and drops us into an unknown future. That's the "in between" we never deal with: not current state, not future state, but the grief in the middle.

In this episode I get into:

• Why change frameworks like ADKAR and RACI only take you so far — and where they fall short
• Change as an identity shift, and why layoffs, new leaders, and RTO hit so hard
• The "pause" between stimulus and response — and why grief lives there
• Navigating change with consciousness, so your amygdala doesn't run the show
• Meeting people where they are instead of writing them off as "not leadership material"
• Why leaders need to hold both — the human side AND the forward movement
• Planning your future instead of letting change happen to you
• The difference between leaving with bitterness and leaving with a plan
• Pulling from your own journey for insight (what my two layoffs taught me)

Whether you're leading a team through change or living through it yourself, this one will help you name what you're feeling and move through it with more agency.

🔗 This episode is sponsored by my 1:1 and team coaching — I help leaders and teams increase productivity by 50% or more using systems thinking and change management, bringing in the human side, not just frameworks and process. Let's talk: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. If someone you know is navigating change in their career or life, share this with them — it helps more people find the show.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

You interviewed. You prepared. You did the temporary role or put in the years — and they still chose someone else. The rejection is real, and so is the question underneath it: where do I go from here?

This week I'm getting honest about what happens next. I'll tell you about the time I worked my butt off in a temporary admin role, threw my name in the hat, and didn't get it — and how I was so hurt that I was flat-out mean to the person who did. What pulled me out wasn't pretending it didn't sting. It was asking a better set of questions.

I share the reflection questions I still use with clients today, why the people who didn't choose you are watching how you respond, and the mindset that actually moves you forward — without abandoning your why.

And the reframe at the heart of it: stop asking why they didn't choose you, and start asking whether you're choosing you. Because right now — in this exact moment — you have more leverage to shape your next step than you think.

I'll also name the hard truth: some organizations you should walk away from. And some are worth staying in and shaping. I'll help you tell the difference.

If you (or someone you love) just came up short on a role, this one's for you.

🔗 Work with me — 1:1 & team coaching (helping leaders grow their careers and teams increase productivity by 50%+): https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales 📬 Substack — Off the Org Chart: https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. Know someone who just didn't get the role? Send this their way.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

Decisions are the most emotionally charged thing that happens at work — which is why they stall, bottleneck, and turn into meetings before the meeting just to get everyone aligned.

This week I'm busting a belief: that there's a right or wrong decision at work. In a fast-changing market, there isn't. There's only a learning decision — an experiment you run like a scientist.

I break down the four frameworks everyone reaches for — RACI, DARCI, RAPID, and the Eisenhower Matrix — what each was actually built for, and why none of them get you to a clear decision. Then I share the simple approach I use with teams instead: just three roles that take the anxiety out of deciding and get you moving without the bottlenecks.

If deciding at work feels slow, political, or stuck — this one's for you.

🔗 Work with me — 1:1 & team coaching (increase team productivity by 50%+): https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales 📬 Substack — Off the Org Chart: https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. Know someone stuck on a decision? Send them this.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

If you get one thing from this episode, let it be this: you don't need more confidence. You're not broken. And you don't have imposter syndrome — you're being impacted by imposter treatment.

After a few weeks away (the tech kept stalling, and skipping one week made it easy to skip the next), I'm back — kids in school, routines settling — to talk about the hairy little monster I see over and over in my coaching: the belief that something is wrong with us. I'm here to dispel that myth.

"Imposter syndrome" puts the problem in your head and sends you chasing confidence to fix a self that was never broken. But run your own resume back — the degrees, the certifications, the years, the sacrifices. You prepared for these rooms. So why do you feel like you don't belong? Because the system — the biases, the culture, the treatment — is gaslighting you into believing you're not who your receipts say you are.

The 3 shifts I want you to make:

Name it as treatment, not a syndrome. A "syndrome" is something to diagnose, medicate, or fix in you. Treatment names what's happening in your environment — so you can find real solutions instead of trying to fix yourself. Separate feelings from facts. "The room went quiet so I don't belong" is a feeling. Five degrees, two certs, 15 years of experience — those are facts. Stick with the receipts. Reclaim your agency. Once you call it treatment, you get to choose your next tangible step instead of managing self-doubt. Step into your power and take up your space.

"But isn't that just blaming everyone else?" Naming treatment isn't refusing to grow — it's aiming your energy at the real thing, instead of exhausting yourself fixing a problem that was never you.

When you stop carrying this weight as personal failure, you free up the energy to lead, to make decisions, and to take up the full space you're meant to. That's full agency over yourself, your career, your team, and your life. And when you're called to lead, you're called to lead as you are — not as a shrunken version of some imposter.

Your reflection this week: Catch one moment and ask — is this me, or is this treatment? Just notice it. Awareness is the first step.

🔗 Work with me 1:1 or bring this to your team: This is the work I do in my one-on-one and team coaching — walking into the room pulling receipts instead of leaning on confidence. Book a call: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes weekly. If this helped, hit like and share it — it helps more people find the show.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

Becoming an entrepreneur isn't just about the money. It's about coming face to face with yourself — your capacity, your boundaries, and your leadership, 24/7.

If you think you can compartmentalize and focus only on your business without doing the internal work, this episo@de will change that. I'm sharing real-time what I'm learning as I step into the identity of entrepreneur — not just calling myself one, but actually embodying it.

Because the inner stuff shows up in your business whether you like it or not. It's like salt in a recipe — you can't see it, but you can taste it.

In this episode:

• Why entrepreneurship means being scrappy in a way a 9-to-5 never asks of you — no budget, no staff, no roadmap
• Emma Grede's Start With Yourself and the definition of entrepreneur: to undertake — and why an undertaker works with dead bodies. Something in you has to die to make room for who you're becoming
• Reframing failure through a biotech lens: an experiment that "fails" tells you exactly what to fix next
• Being honest about my own messy middle — still learning how to podcast, still learning how to speak into the ether
• What I wasn't taught: Black women have been kept out of the wealth-building conversation, and I'm catching up on money, taxes, and selling in real time
• The lie that business and personal don't mix — and how separating them kept me from the work that actually matters
• Honoring Henry Kimsey-House (founder of CTI), and why coaching starts with working on yourself
• Stop copy-pasting the guru. Study how they think, then build your own way
• The 3 identities you're always navigating: you at work, you with your family, and you with yourself — and how much you trust each one

The 3 inner worlds to explore:

1. Mental capacity & self-awareness — if you don't know how your mind works, it's running the show unconsciously
2. Somatic capacity & awareness — your body tells you the truth before your brain does (the body keeps the score)
3. Core motivations — not just your Enneagram type, but the why underneath the behavior

How you actually do the work: Documentation, documentation, documentation. Journal it, voice-record it, video it — then go back a month later and read your own patterns.

The heart of it: There's no org chart. It's me. The decisions, the priorities, the "even over" tradeoffs, what progress looks like — all of it. And if you're waiting on a golden title to do that work, you're going to lose out on this game.

🔗 Want an Enneagram assessment and session? Let's dig into your core motivations together. Reach me here: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes every Wednesday through August. If this was helpful, hit like, leave a rating on Spotify or Apple, and share it with someone who needs to do the deeper work — it really helps.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

Here's my prediction: in 2026 and 2027, more organizations are going to bring athletic coaching concepts into the workplace to train their leaders. And if you want to be effective, you'd be wise to learn the principles of team sports now.

As a basketball mom and a football mom, I've been bringing a sports analogy into corporations, county offices, government teams, and nonprofits for years — and every single time, it lands like a grand slam. In this episode, I break down why sports gives us the clearest possible picture of what real teamwork looks like, and the five principles that turn a group of individuals into a collective that actually wins.

The 5 principles of collective leadership:

1. Systems thinking — understanding how all the parts fit together, so everyone knows what's theirs to own
2. Build the network — not just the people, but the resources and tools the team needs to thrive
3. Prioritize relationships — trust is what makes teammates work hard for each other (people won't go to the wall for someone they don't trust)
4. Vested interest in the results — shared accountability and clear ownership, because if one wins, we all win
5. Transparency — on a field you always know the score and the yard line; our workplaces are rarely that clear

Also in this episode:

• Why this only works with team sports (football, basketball, soccer) — not one-person sports like golf or tennis
• Why "my, my, my" thinking would lose every game — and loses in corporate too
• What being a board chair is teaching me about building trust one conversation at a time
• Why the "don't make friends at work" advice is holding your team back
• Why there's no such thing as multiple priorities — a priority is one thing
• How I use an actual football and basketball as props in my team sessions — and why it beats another generic team-building event

The one takeaway: If one wins, we all win. Get clear on the goal, know your position, build trust, and stop operating from fear and scarcity.

🔗 Bring this to your team: I facilitate collective leadership sessions that beat the generic team-building event — real principles, real props, real takeaways. Let's talk: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes every Wednesday. Catch the rest of the Leading in Every Season of Life summer series.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs it and leave a comment — it helps others find the show.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

I'm about a quarter of the way into my summer series — and I wanted to pull back the curtain on the experiment itself.

This summer, I decided to come back and show up differently: a new podcast episode every Wednesday, weekly Substack newsletters, long-form content, and finding my own voice instead of copying how everyone else does it. Four-ish episodes in, I'm still figuring it out — and that's exactly the point.

This is an honest, behind-the-scenes check-in on how it's going: what I'm learning, what I'm still not doing the way I want to, and why leading imperfectly in public is part of becoming.

In this episode:

• Why I'm treating this whole summer series as an experiment — and choosing podcast and Substack over showing up everywhere on social
• The truth about working in public: it's cringey, it's uncomfortable, and it's how you actually grow
• Why I've always experimented — raising my hand for things I wasn't "ready" for, and how that grew my career
• Learning to share my story and my voice as an introvert who'd rather not be in the spotlight
• Why people don't trust the person who's always perfect — they trust the one with the courage to be open
• Courage as "throwing your heart over the fence" — and why asking for help isn't weakness
• Following your gut instead of over-studying and waiting to be perfect ("flying the plane while I build it")
• What my sons' basketball games taught me: you miss the shot, you get the rebound, you keep going

The heart of it: You don't need the finished style, the perfect plan, or every skill in place to start. You need the courage to try, to be seen doing it imperfectly, and to keep going when it's not buttoned up. That's not just how you build a business — it's how you lead in any season.

🔗 Work with me 1:1 — The Career Lab: Weekly coaching to help you show up with more clarity, courage, and agency. Book a call: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes every Wednesday. Catch the rest of the Leading in Every Season of Life summer series.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs it and leave a comment — it helps others find the show.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.

I was laid off in 2014 — eight and a half months pregnant, losing the job that grew me into an adult. Then again in 2024, on April Fools' Day, when my whole department got eliminated on a 9 AM call I almost didn't join.

The first time, I went straight into survival mode. Back on the "campaign trail" three weeks after having my son, never giving myself time to think about what I actually wanted. The second time, I made a different decision: I'm not rushing into the next thing. This time, I choose myself.

This episode is my honest origin story — the grief nobody prepares you for, the trust that breaks, and what it really means to step into leadership when the title gets taken away.

In this episode:

• The two layoffs, ten years apart — and why the second one changed everything
• The grief nobody talks about: losing your identity, your structure, your sense of purpose, and your financial footing all at once
• Why organizations make space for exit interviews and NDAs — but never for the human side
• Workplace survivor syndrome: the guilt, fear, and silence that settle over the people who didn't get laid off
• Why so many of us — especially women of color — walk into work never showing all our cards
• The loyalty myth: giving your all to a company that was never built to be loyal back
• Why your purpose stays the same even when the role changes — it's the execution that shifts season to season
• Viktor Frankl's pause between stimulus and response — and why leaders make conscious choices, not gut reactions
• Why advocacy and leadership are a requirement, not the exception
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket: diversifying your career, your income, and your sense of self

The heart of it: A layoff hits your identity, your safety, and your trust all at once. You're allowed to grieve it. You're allowed to side-eye the organization. But at the end of the day, you get to choose leadership — because leadership is a set of choices, and full agency over your life is a blessing worth slowing down for.

🔗 Work with me 1:1 — The Career Lab: Three months of weekly 60-minute coaching, plus access to me between calls. My clients walk away with more agency over their careers, less fear around networking, and a clear sense of purpose. Book a call: https://coachingwithtasheena.as.me/sales

📬 Read my Substack — Off the Org Chart: New research-backed articles every Sunday. https://substack.com/@tbraxtoncoach

Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tasheena/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtasheena LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasheena-braxton-msod-cpcc-orscc-ccmp-pcc-11b14a69/

🎧 New episodes every Wednesday. Catch the rest of the Leading in Every Season of Life summer series.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs it and leave a comment — it helps others find the show.

Media Credits: Images and visual content created with Canva and licensed via Storyblocks.