Shedding the Corporate Bitch

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

You're the most reliable person on your team, and that reliability might be exactly what's keeping you from the next promotion. 

In this episode, executive and career transition coach Laura Berman Fortgang joins Bernadette to unpack the entrepreneurial mindset every corporate leader needs, and why the people who do everything right often stay stuck as the "understudy" instead of becoming the star.

Laura has spent decades coaching executives and entrepreneurs through career change including work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She and Bernadette dig into why asking questions builds more real influence than giving answers, how to handle a manager who feels threatened by your visibility, and the delegation habits (especially common among women) that quietly cap a career.

Laura also shares the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, and managing yourself and your business that determine whether a corporate-to-entrepreneur transition actually works.

What You Will Learn

●      Build the entrepreneurial mindset that gets you noticed for promotion, without overstepping

●      Grow your influence by asking better questions instead of giving answers

●      Handle a manager who feels threatened by your initiative

●      Recognize the delegation trap that keeps capable people invisible for the roles they want

●      Know when you're actually ready to leave corporate and build your own business

●      How to apply the four pillars — messaging, methodology, marketing, managing 

●      Hear the client story of a stuck senior executive who took the reins and landed a C-suite role

Key Quote: “It's easier to find a new star than to replace the understudy.” — Laura Berman Fortgang

About the Guest
Laura Berman Fortgang is an executive and career transition coach and the author of Now What? Ninety Days to a New Life Direction. Her coaching career includes work with guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and she has spent decades helping corporate leaders and entrepreneurs navigate promotion, career change, and business transitions. Learn more at LauraBermanFortgang.com.

About Bernadette

Bernadette Boas is an executive leadership coach and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching, with 25+ years of corporate leadership experience — including VP and Chief Knowledge Officer roles — and 400+ executives coached across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations.

Related Episodes from our From Stuck to Leading Series:

●      Episode 3 - Shed - https://balloffirecoaching.com/whats-holding-you-back/

●     Episode 2 — Confront https://balloffirecoaching.com/5-inner-fears-destroying-your-leadership/

●      Episode 1— Discover https://balloffirecoaching.com/from-stuck-to-leading/

Leadership Gap Diagnostic: Take the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic to find out what's really holding your career back: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

Subscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for a new episode every week.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

Most leaders don't stay stuck because they lack skill, they stay stuck because of an authentic leadership identity they haven't claimed yet. 

In Episode 3 of From Stuck to Leading self-coaching series, Bernadette Boas breaks down the difference between a Borrowed, Performed, and Owned leadership identity, and walks through exactly what happens the moment you stop performing for the people around you.

This episode delivers the five concrete moves Bernadette's private clients use to shed a self-limiting story: finding the story behind a diagnostic gap, gathering the evidence that contradicts it, naming who you've been performing for, rewriting the story, and making one deliberate choice from it.

It builds directly on Episode 1 (Discover) and Episode 2 (Confront). If you haven't caught those yet, start there before diving into this one. https://balloffirecoaching.com/podcast

What You Will Learn

●      The exact story quietly keeping you out of the room for your next promotion

●      Why the people closest to you may resist your growth and why it isn't your problem to manage

●      The difference between a Borrowed, Performed, and Owned leadership identity

●      The 5-move method for shedding your limiting beliefs

●      How to find the evidence that proves your limiting story was never true

●      One deliberate choice you can make this week to start living your new story

Episode Chapters0:00 — Cold Open + Series Recap (matches — "the most dangerous moment..." opens the episode)

3:00 — What Shedding Actually Means 

12:00 — The Three Leadership Identities 

22:00 — Moves 1 & 2: Story and Evidence 

38:00 — Move 3: Who You're Performing For

42:00 — Moves 4 & 5: Rewrite and Choose 

47:00 — Bernadette's Story: The Milkman's Daughter (

52:00 — Close + Episode 4 Preview 

About This Self-Coaching Series

From Stuck to Leading: Episode 1 — Discover, Episode 2 — Confront, Episode 3 — Shed (this episode), Episode 4 — Create and Episode 5 — Accelerate (every other Tuesday). 

Related Episodes

●      Episode 2 — Confront https://balloffirecoaching.com/5-inner-fears-destroying-your-leadership/

●      Episode 1— Discover https://balloffirecoaching.com/from-stuck-to-leading/

DOWNLOAD FREE Leadership Gap Diagnostic

Take the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

Subscribe

Subscribe on YouTube (@ShedtheCorpBitchTV), Apple Podcasts, or Buzzsprout.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

You're outperforming everyone, and still getting passed over. 

A 30-year HR insider explains why companies reward compliance over contribution, and how to speak up without killing your career.  

Tim Sharp sat inside the HR rooms of the world's largest tech and pharma companies for three decades. What he saw drove him to write a book so honest his lawyer warned it could get him fired — so he published it under a pen name.  

In this episode, you'll learn: 

— Why the "good soldier" path stalls at middle management, and what the people who rise do differently 

— The "don't outshine the master" trap 

— How to manage your visibility without dimming it 

— What "soft corruption" in senior ranks means for who actually gets ahead 

— Who HR really represents (Tim's in HR — he said it, not me) 

— How Tim built real courage: 12 years sober, a values rebuild at 40, and the practice of speaking up  

GET TIM'S BOOK — important: it's published under his pen name. Search Amazon for: PHILIP ARMSTRONG FEYNG: "Busting Business Bullshit: From Corporate Nonsense to The Rise of The 20% Company" - HERE

Connect with Tim: LinkedIn — @TSharp1 | Facebook & Instagram — @TimSharp  

------------------------

From Bernadette, FIND YOUR LEADERSHIP GAP (free, 10 minutes): balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

Your leadership gaps aren’t measuring what you haven’t learned. They’re measuring what you’ve been afraid to confront. 

In this episode, executive coach Bernadette Boas names the five inner fears, including leadership self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and fear of failure that quietly run even the most accomplished leaders from the inside out.

This is Episode 2 of From Stuck to Leading, a 5-part self-coaching series built around the exact steps Bernadette uses with private clients. In this episode, you’ll finally see the direct line between what you’re carrying internally and the leadership gaps showing up in your diagnostic scores.

Be sure to DOWNLOAD your free leadership gap diagnostic and refer to it while listening thoughout the series - balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

ABOUT THIS SERIES

•       Episode 1 — DISCOVER: Who are you as a leader when no one’s watching? HERE

•       Episode 2 — CONFRONT: Meet the 5 inner fears destroying your leadership ← this episode

•       Episode 3 — SHED: What do you release, change, or expand? (coming soon)

•       Episode 4 — CREATE: What does the leader you’re meant to be look like? (coming soon)

•       Episode 5 — ACCELERATE: What’s the one move that changes everything? (coming soon)

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

•       Why leadership self-doubt and imposter syndrome are creating your diagnostic gaps

•       How to identify which of the 5 inner fears is running your leadership

•       The direct link between your internal fears and your team’s trust, performance, and engagement

•       A 3-step Confront framework for facing what’s been running your leadership from the inside

•       How to read your Leadership Gap Diagnostic scores as fear gaps, not skill gaps

KEY QUOTE

“Your diagnostic isn’t measuring what you haven’t learned. It’s measuring what you’ve been afraid to confront.” — Bernadette Boas

EPISODE CHAPTERS

0:00 — Cold Open / Series Intro
5:00 — Meet Your Five Inner Bitches
7:00 — Inner Bitch #1: The Imposter
9:30 — Inner Bitch #2: The Failure Avoider
13:00 — Inner Bitch #3: The Control Freak
15:00 — Inner Bitch #4: The People Pleaser
17:30 — Inner Bitch #5: The Approval Seeker
21:00 — Leadership Gap Diagnostic Spotlight Introduction
22:30 — Spotlight Question 1: Self-Awareness
25:30 — Spotlight Question 2: Executive Presence & Influence
27:00 — The 3-Step Confront Framework
33:30 — Coaching Question + I Dare You
34:30 — Outro + Episode 3 Tease
 

RESOURCES

•       FREE Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

RELATED EPISODES

•       Episode 1 — DISCOVER: Who Are You as a Leader?  HERE

•       Why Your Team Ignores You and What to Fix First 

•       Confident as F*ck: How to Stop Leading Through Fear with RACHEL LAWRENCE 

ABOUT BERNADETTE BOAS

Bernadette Boas is an executive coach, speaker, author, and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching. 25+ years in corporate America. 18+ years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 organizations. Host of Shedding the Corporate Bitch podcast.

SUBSCRIBE

•       YouTube: youtube.com/@ShedtheCorpBitchTV

•       Apple Podcasts: HERE

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

If you've been powering through your workday instead of actually leading it, this episode will change how you think about your next move. 

Bernadette Boas sits down with career strategy and executive coach Randi Roberts to talk about what it really takes to take control of your career path starting with the moment Randi turned down a company-recommended assignment to protect what mattered most to her family.

Randi shares how she rebuilt her own career like a strategic plan, why suggestions from leadership are not commands, and the small trusted circle she calls her "Holy Smokes List" when she genuinely doesn't know what to do next.

What You Will Learn

• How to tell the difference between a leader's suggestion and a required decision
• Why rehearsing a hard career conversation before you have it changes the outcome
• How to build a personal board of directors for your career
• What a Holy Smokes List is and why every leader needs one
• The first question to ask when a role stops fitting
• How to think like "future you" when evaluating an opportunity

Episode Chapters

00:00 – Cold Open: Are You Just Powering Through?
 01:00 – Randi's Own Career Demotivation Story Begins
 03:00 – Turning Down The Expat Assignment For Family
 04:00 – The Real Risks Of Pushing Back On Leadership
 06:00 – Rehearse The Hard Conversation Before You Have It
 08:00 – Suggestions, Not Commands: Getting In The Driver's Seat
 10:00 – Building Your Career Like A 25-Year Strategic Plan
 13:00 – Think Like Future-You, Future-CEO-You
 14:00 – The Pivotal Moment Randi Left Corporate
 16:00 – Step One: Figure Out What's Itching
 17:00 – Building Your Career Board Of Directors
 20:00 – The Holy Smokes List, Explained
 21:00 – Asking For Help Without Overthinking It
 25:00 – Randi's Free Right Time Guide
 26:00 – Close & Recap With Bernadette

About the Guest

Randi Roberts is a career strategy and executive coach who spent 30 years leading in corporate before launching her own coaching business nearly a decade ago. She helps professionals build intentional, strategic career paths instead of drifting through them.  Learn more: https://www.corlinroberts.net/

Related Episodes

•     How to Handle Workplace Disputes Before They Become Lawsuits — with Felicia Harris Hoss 
•    Employee Engagement Strategies That Actually Move the Needle with IAN WATTS 
•    Define What Winning Looks Like and Watch Performance Shift with JACKSON LYNCH 

Subscribe CTA

Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to Shedding the Corporate Bitch on any podcast streaming platform or YouTube @ShedtheCorpBitchTV and never miss an episode.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

In this 5-part series premiere of From Stuck to Leading, a five-part self-coaching experience on Shedding the Corporate B!tch, executive coach Bernadette Boas opens with the question at the foundation of every coaching engagement she runs: Who are you as a leader when no one is watching? 

Not your title, not your results, not your LinkedIn profile, but the leader who shows up when the pressure is on, the recognition is absent, and the next five minutes are going to reveal everything about who you actually are.

Drawing on 18 years of coaching over 400 executives, Bernadette walks Powerhouses through two diagnostic spotlight questions from her Leadership Gap Diagnostic — a free 25-statement assessment that places leaders in one of four performance tiers. The gap between how you intend to lead and how your leadership actually lands, and the gap between knowing you need to develop and actively closing that gap, are the two fault lines most leaders have never honestly examined.

This is the coaching experience designed to change that — without the price tag of private coaching. Download the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic and start the series with your full baseline in hand.

What You Will Learn Throughout The Series:

•       How to close the gap between the leader you perform and the leader you actually are

•       Why self-awareness in leadership is about accuracy, not self-indulgence — and how most executives are overestimating theirs

•       The difference between intending to close your leadership gaps and actively doing it

•       How one executive went from being passed over for VP to landing the role, at a different company, on her own terms, in 18 months

•       How to use the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic to establish your baseline for all five episodes in this series

Key Quote: "The leaders who sustain their impact, the ones who lead well under pressure, who earn genuine trust, who grow over decades instead of burning out, they are not the smartest or most talented. They are the ones who know who they are, clearly, honestly, and without the title doing the work for them." — Bernadette Boas

Episode Chapters: 

00:00:00 — Series Hook: Who Are You When No One Is Watching?

00:01:00 — Welcome + Series Introduction: From Stuck to Leading

00:02:00 — Bernadette's Story: From Fired to Foundation

00:03:00 — How to Use the Leadership Gap Diagnostic

00:05:00 — Branded Intro / How the Episode Works

00:06:00 — Spotlight Question 1: Do You Know How Your Leadership Actually Lands?

00:08:00 — Spotlight Question 2: Are You Actively Closing the Gap?

00:10:00 — The Four Leadership Tiers + Diagnostic Reminder

00:11:00 — The Identity Question: Returning to Who Are You When No One Is Watching?

00:13:00 — What Shaky Leadership Identity Looks Like

00:14:00 — Bernadette's Firing Story: The Identity Problem

00:16:00 — Client Story: Dana's Path to VP

00:18:00 — The I Dare You Challenge

00:19:00 — Wrap Up: What to Take Away Today

00:20:00 — Series Commitment + Subscribe CTA

00:21:00 — Preview of Episode 2: What Are You Avoiding?

ABOUT THIS SERIES — From Stuck to Leading: The Five-Part Self-Coaching Conversation

Every other Tuesday, Bernadette Boas asks one coaching question — the same question she asks every private client. Five episodes. Five questions. One complete leadership transformation arc.

•       Episode 1 — Who Are You as a Leader When No One Is Watching? [YOU ARE HERE]

•       Episode 2 — What Are You Avoiding That's Quietly Costing You Everything? [LINK WHEN LIVE]

•       Episode 3 — [Coming every other Tuesday]

•       Episode 4 — [Coming every other Tuesday]

•       Episode 5 — [Coming every other Tuesday]

Subscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube (@ShedtheCorpBitchTV) or your podcast platform so you never miss an episode in the series.

About Bernadette Boas:

Bernadette Boas is an executive coach, speaker, author, and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching. With 25+ years in corporate America — including VP and Chief Knowledge Officer roles — and 18 years coaching 400+ executives across Fortune 500 and high-growth organizations, she is the host of Shedding the Corporate B!tch. balloffirecoaching.com | coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall

Related Episodes:

•       I Got Fired So You Could Lead — The story behind the framework: HERE

•       The TIMER Framework Solo Episode: HERE

•       Why Your Team Ignores You: HERE

Subscribe & Follow:

New episodes of the From Stuck to Leading series release every other Tuesday at @ShedtheCorpBitchTV on YouTube. Subscribe and hit the bell so you're notified when Episode 2 drops — it goes deeper on the question every executive has been avoiding. All episodes are also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms.

Download the free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: tiny.cc/leadershipgapdiagnostic

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

Workplace dispute resolution is one of the least discussed and most costly blindspots in executive leadership. 

In this episode of Shedding the Corporate B!tch, executive coach Bernadette Boas sits down with Felicia Harris Hoss, of Harris Hoss Mediations & Arbitration, a nationally recognized mediator with 30 years of trial law experience, to break down early dispute resolution and why it is one of the most powerful, underutilized tools available to corporate executives and HR leaders.

Felicia explains why less than five percent of filed lawsuits ever reach trial, what that means for how executives should be approaching conflict, and why the decision to mediate early is not a sign of weakness, it is a strategic move that preserves relationships, resources, and reputation. 

She walks through the four Cs of mediation, the questions every executive should be asking their attorney, and how to shift from a reacting posture to a responding one in any dispute.

If you lead people, manage HR concerns, or sit in any seat where workplace conflict can escalate into legal action, this conversation will change how you think about resolution.

What You Will Learn

• What early dispute resolution (EDR) is and why it is ABA official policy

• When to engage a mediator before a lawsuit is filed

• Why litigation means surrendering control — and what executives can do instead

• The four Cs of mediation: confidentiality, control, creativity, certainty

• What questions to ask your attorney about workplace disputes and resolution options

• How the respond vs. react mindset shifts negotiation outcomes

• What 'winning' actually looks like in a corporate dispute

Key Quote

"If you go to the courthouse, you pass that baton called control to strangers. — Felicia Harris Hoss"

Episode Chapters

00:00:00 — The Legal Dispute Already Living in Your Organization
00:02:00 — Why Staying in the Room Changes Everything
00:03:00 — Meet Felicia Harris-Hoss: From Trial Partner to Neutral
00:06:00 — What Mediation Actually Is (And Isn't)
00:09:00 — Workplace Scenarios That Call for a Mediator
00:12:00 — Why Early Mediation — Before Positions Harden
00:13:00 — The Human Cost Behind Every Corporate Lawsuit
00:15:00 — Why Early Mediation Wasn't Working — And What Changed
00:17:00 — Ego, Fear, and the Real Reason Leaders Avoid Resolution
00:18:00 — The Courtroom Hands Control to Strangers
00:21:00 — The Four C's of Mediation: Confidentiality, Control, Creativity, Certainty
00:26:00 — Key Questions Every Leader Should Ask Their Attorney
00:27:00 — What to Know Before You Bring a Dispute to HR
00:31:00 — Why Even Lawyers Get Confirmation Bias
00:32:00 — Respond, Don't React: The Mindset That Changes Outcomes
00:34:00 — Bernadette's Takeaways for Every Leader and HR Professional

About the Guest

Felicia Harris Hoss, of Harris Hoss Mediations & Arbitration, is a 30-year trial attorney and nationally credentialed mediator who specializes in early dispute resolution for executives, corporations, and complex business conflicts. She co-authored Resolution 500 for the American Bar Association, which was unanimously adopted in 2024, making early dispute resolution official ABA policy. She also helped establish the American Arbitration Association's EDR Mediation Panel.

Learn more at HarrisHossPLLC| Connect on LinkedIn HERE

Related Episodes 

Employee Engagement Strategies That Actually Move the Needle with Ian Watts— HERE

Your Calendar is Lying - The Timer Leadership Framework— HERE

Slow Down To Go Fast with Loretta Stagnitto — HERE

Subscribe CTA

If this conversation gave you a new way to think about conflict, leadership, and control, subscribe to Shedding the Corporate Bitch on YouTube at @ShedtheCorpBitchTV for new episodes every week. You can also DOWNLOAD our free Leadership Gap Diagnostic and identify where your leadership needs the most attention right now.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

The 5-Step Transformation Framework That Turns Your Biggest Leadership Gap Into Your Greatest Strength

About This Episode:
After 25 years in corporate America as VP, Chief Knowledge Officer, global team leader, Bernadette Boas was fired and labeled a tyrant. What she built out of that experience is a proven, five-step leadership transformation framework she has since used with 400+ executives across SMB - Fortune 500 companies and high-growth organizations.

This episode is for the manager who is still in the seat, not facing termination, but feeling the gap between the leader they are today and the leader they know they are capable of being. That gap is showing up in your team, your results, and the exhaustion of performing a version of leadership that doesn't actually feel like you.

Bernadette walks you through every step of her Shift to Riches Formula — Discover, Confront, Shed, Create, and Accelerate, and gives you three specific actions to begin your own transformation today.

 What You'll Learn
•       Why the gap between the manager you are and the leader you want to be starts on the inside, not in your title or your org chart

•       How to identify the fears, insecurities, and ego-driven behaviors quietly costing you trust and results

•       The 5-Step Shift to Riches Formula — Discover, Confront, Shed, Create, Accelerateand how to apply each step immediately

•       Why building new goals without confronting old patterns is performance, not transformation

•       The three requirements for sustaining leadership change when organizational chaos pulls you back

•       Three actions to take today, not next week, to begin your own leadership shift

Key Quote
"The leader you are today was shaped by the fear you chose not to confront. The leader you're meant to be is waiting on the other side of that work." — Bernadette Boas

 The 5-Step Shift to Riches Formula
•       Step 1 — Discover: Who you are, who you want to be, and what internal fears and insecurities are getting in the way

•       Step 2 — Confront: Looking directly and honestly at what you discovered — without rationalization, blame, or shame

•       Step 3 — Shed: Releasing the behaviors, beliefs, and patterns that are no longer serving your leadership

•       Step 4 — Create: Building new behaviors, a new leadership identity, and new goals grounded in who you are choosing to become

•       Step 5 — Accelerate: Sustaining the transformation through iteration, accountability, and continued investment in your growth

 Your Three Actions From This Episode
1. Name your dominant internal fear or insecurity — fear, ego, self-doubt, imposter syndrome. Write it down. That is your Discover work.

2. Identify one behavior to shed — just one — that is showing up in your leadership and costing you trust, impact, or peace. Name it.

3. Write one sentence about the leader you are choosing to create. Not the leader your organization needs. The one you want to be. That sentence is your north star.

Resources & Links
Free Leadership Gap Diagnostic: balloffirecoaching.com/opt-in

Book a Discovery Call with Bernadette: coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@ShedtheCorpBitchTV

Bernadette's Website: balloffirecoaching.com

Podcast Page: balloffirecoaching.com/podcast

 About Bernadette Boas
Bernadette Boas is an Executive Coach, keynote speaker, and founder of Ball of Fire Coaching. A former Global VP and Chief Knowledge Officer, she has coached 400+ executives across Fortune 500 companies and high-growth organizations over 16 years. She is the author of Shedding the Corporate Bitch, published in 2011, and is currently authoring its sequel — Shift to Riches: The Guide to Your Success.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

Most leaders measure engagement with an annual survey and call it done. Ian M. Watts has spent two and a half decades proving that approach wrong and building a methodology that creates the kind of loyalty money alone will never buy.

In this episode, Ian joins Bernadette Boas to break down the real cost of employee disengagement,  and it is not a soft number. 

When fewer than 30% of your workforce is fully engaged, you are carrying a hidden expense equal to 18% of every disengaged employee's salary. For a company of 200 people, that arithmetic is brutal. But the more important question is why it keeps happening, and what leaders at every level can do about it right now.

Ian's ACTS method — Aspirations, Calling, Transformation, and Support, is a practical framework designed to create deep reciprocity between leaders and their people. Not through perks or ping pong tables, but by treating employees as whole human beings with goals, dreams, and lives that extend beyond the office. 

This conversation delivers both the business case and the blueprint.

What You Will Learn

•       How to calculate what disengagement is costing your specific organization

•       The four components of the ACTS method and how to apply them without budget

•       Why high performers leave while still producing — and what signals to watch for

•       The difference between buying compliance and earning commitment from your team

•       How the 'Dream Manager' concept achieved 50% turnover reduction and how ACTS builds on it

•       How to lead with heart-centered values even when the broader culture doesn't support it

•       Why succession planning — not just retention — should be your ultimate leadership goal

Key Quote: "Salary and benefits will bring people in. But you can't buy a hand — you have to win a heart." — Ian M. Watts

Episode Chapters:
00:02 — The Future of Leadership in an AI-First World
00:04 — Why Engagement Equals EBITDA (And Why Leaders Ignore It)
00:08 — Heart-Centered Leadership: What It Is and What It Isn't
00:17 — The ACTS Method: Aspirations, Calling, Transformation, Support
00:22 — Practical Steps Any Leader Can Take Today — With Zero Budget
00:14 — The Law of the Lid and Leading Within a Broken Culture
00:28 — My Greatest Success Is My Succession: Final Advice

About Ian Watts: 

Ian Watts is the founder of Employee Success Company and developer of the ACTS Engagement Method, a proven framework for dramatically improving employee retention and engagement. With more than 25 years of entrepreneurial experience and 400+ people hired and developed, Ian is an authority on what actually makes people stay, give discretionary effort, and grow inside an organization. 

Connect with Ian at employeesuccesscompany.com or follow him on LinkedIn and Instagram at @IanMWatts.

Related Episode: Define What Winning Looks Like 

Related Episode: Why Your Team Ignores You and What to Fix First 

Related Episode: Belonging Isn’t Culture. It’s Infrastructure for Performance 

Subscribe: If this conversation challenged how you think about leadership, subscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. New episodes every week for executives, HR leaders, and corporate professionals who are done settling for average.

Support the show

We'd love to hear from you. Send us fan mail!

Most team dysfunction doesn't start with a bad employee. It starts with a missing foundation. 

In this episode, executive coach Bernadette Boas lays out the five characteristics of a high-performing team and explains exactly why the absence of even one will unravel everything else.

If you have a team member who ignores direction, meetings that go nowhere, team members who won't give you feedback, or people who agree to your face and do nothing afterward, this conversation will arm you with strategies to change that. 

Bernadette draws on firsthand observations from dozen of businesses and her work with senior corporate leaders to show what high-performing teams actually look like and to give you a clear, step-by-step process for building one.

This is not a feel-good leadership episode. It is a working framework you can start applying this week.

What You Will Learn -

•       How to create an environment where your team can have honest, productive conflict without it becoming personal

•       Why chasing 100% agreement is the wrong goal

•       What accountability truly means (and why reframing it as 'reminding' changes everything)

•       How to involve your team in defining the culture they're being asked to live in

•       The five-step process for moving from a fragmented team to a high-performing one 

Subscribe - If this episode gave you something to work with, subscribe to Shedding the Corporate B!tch on YouTube at @ShedtheCorpBitchTV. New episodes every week for executives, HR leaders, and corporate professionals who are done settling for the team they have and ready to build the one they need.

Support the show