THIS Leader Podcast

Low trust doesn't always announce itself. It shows up as Sunday night dread, meetings where the same issues get rehashed without resolution, silos between departments, and difficult behaviors nobody takes the time to address. In this episode — Part 2 of a short Trust Series — we zoom out from individual relationships to look at the bigger picture: what happens when low trust infects an entire team or organization?

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to recognize the signs of organizational low trust — and why that "something feels off" instinct is worth paying attention to
• What low trust is actually costing your team (the research will surprise you)
• Why remote and hybrid work has accelerated trust gaps — and what to do about it
• Three strategies to build and sustain trust at the team and organizational level

Resources mentioned in this episode:

1. Stephen M.R. Covey, The Speed of Trust (Free Press, 2006)
2. Amy Edmondson — Psychological Safety research, Harvard Business School
3. Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage (Jossey-Bass, 2012)
4. Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report

Claire's Programs:

1. Working Genius Assessment
2. Building a High-Trust Workplace — clairelaughlin.com/high-trust-workplace
3. Team Reset Workshop — a half or full-day experience to help your team reset and recommit: clairelaughlin.com

Join the Conversation:

Are you experiencing low trust in your workplace? What "tax" are you paying? What strategies are you using to address the situation and maintain resilience? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague!

To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, so be sure to subscribe.

Until next time, lead the way!

In this episode, Claire explores the dynamics of low-trust relationships — what they feel like, how trust gets broken, and the one thing most people get wrong when they try to fix it.

The Key Insight: We have a compulsion to blame the trust problem on others. The secret to clarity and the possibility of rebuilding is to bring calm curiosity to the situation and BE the solution yourself.

Key Concepts Covered:

• The exhaustion of low-trust environments
• The difference between high-trust and low-trust relationships
• Six trust-breaking behaviors (informed by DDI training): Avoidance, Broken Commitments, Negative Assumptions, Inconsistency, Doubt & Control, and Self-Interest
• The downward and upward trust spirals
• Why changing YOUR interpretation is the most powerful starting point
• Smart trust and boundaries when relationships can't be rebuilt
• Claire's personal approach to unworkable relationships

Your Action Step This Week: Notice how you are interpreting people. When you feel defensive, pause and ask — is there a more generous interpretation? Then BE the solution. Use your best communication skills, treat them with respect, and let the chips fall. If it doesn't work, set the boundary.

Coming Up: What happens to teams and organizations when trust is low, practical strategies for rebuilding, and an exciting new resource to help you develop these skills.

Resources Mentioned:

1. Stephen MR Covey's concept of "smart trust"
2. Development Dimensions International (DDI)

Join the Conversation: Are you experiencing low trust in your work relationships? How do you know? What strategies are you using to address challenging, low-trust behaviors? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague!

To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, so be sure to subscribe.

Until next time, lead the way!

What if the key to leading your team more effectively wasn't a new strategy — but a new question?

In this episode, I talk with Erika Leonard, co-leader of the WorkPower Project at SafetyPowers.org, about what truly connected workplace communication looks like, and what quietly gets in the way.

Erika and her team set out to build communication resources for employees with disabilities — and what they discovered changed everything. The skills that help people with disabilities navigate the workplace turn out to be the same skills every leader needs to build trust, connection, and a team that actually works.

The Three Core Principles of Connected Communication

Erika shares the framework that SafetyPowers.org has taught across all ages and abilities for over 30 years:

• Be Aware — Self-awareness is the foundation. Are your habits still serving you, or have they become automatic and ineffective? Staying reflective keeps you from leading on autopilot.
• Take Charge — And not over people, but with them. Taking charge means creating space for genuine two-way conversation — not downloading your frustration or doing the work yourself.
• Get Help — Leaders often suffer in isolation, unsure what to do or afraid to ask. Building community and seeking out what's working for others is a leadership skill, not a weakness.

The Difference Between a Good Conversation and a Great One

Erika walks us through real video scenarios from the WorkPower for Employers course that show the same workplace conversation at three levels — from breakdown to breakthrough. The difference between them isn't dramatic. It's a shift in intention. One small question — "Is everything okay?" instead of "what are you doing?" — can completely change the outcome.

Repair is an Underrated Leadership Skill

We're all going to make mistakes. The question is what we do next. Erika and I talk about why repair — the skill of addressing miscommunication and making it right — is one of the most overlooked and most powerful tools in a leader's toolkit. When leaders model repair well, it strengthens the whole team.

Are You Missing the Gold?

One of the most thought-provoking parts of our conversation was this: could your standard hiring process be filtering out exactly the people you need? Erika shares practical ways to open up your recruitment approach — from offering multiple application formats to rethinking the traditional face-to-face interview — so you don't miss the "shining pieces of gold" who just don't shine in conventional settings.

The Question Every Leader Should Be Asking

Before you assume you know why someone is distracted, disengaged, or underperforming — pause. Ask yourself: How do I know? That shift from assumption to curiosity is where real connection begins.

Resources Mentioned:

1. WorkPower for Employers — Free video-based training modules on workplace communication and leadership skills. Explore real conversation scenarios and practical tools you can use immediately with your team.
2. WorkPower: Skills for Getting and Keeping Jobs — A companion course made by, for, and with people who have disabilities, covering communication skills for navigating the workplace.
3. Learn more about Ability Central

Visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me @Claire Laughlin Consulting on Instagram and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening! New episodes are released weekly—share with others who might benefit!

In this episode, we explore feedback as one of the most loving things you can do in a professional relationship—and why avoiding hard conversations is actually unkind.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why We Avoid Feedback: The real reasons we stay silent (and why those reasons are usually about protecting ourselves from discomfort, not protecting the other person)
• The Cost of Silence: How avoiding feedback leads to resentment, surface-level relationships, and even firing people who never knew they were failing
• Feedback as Love: Why quality feedback is an investment in relationships and an act of hope for a better future together
• The ICVA Framework: My four-step approach to make feedback conversations feel less scary—Intention, Concern, Vision, Action
• Real-World Example: A step-by-step walkthrough of addressing chronic meeting lateness using the iCVA framework
• When Feedback Goes Sideways: What to do when someone gets defensive, and how to recognize when trust needs to be built first.

Key Frameworks Referenced:

1. Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck's research on believing people can develop, learn, and improve
2. "Clear is Kind" - Brené Brown's principle that being honest, even when uncomfortable, is the most caring thing we can do
3. Radical Candor - Kim Scott's approach of caring personally while challenging directly
4. Mutual Purpose - From "Crucial Conversations" by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler—establishing shared purpose before addressing concerns

Your Action Step This Week:

Think about one relationship at work where things could be better. Get clear on your intention, picture the shared vision, write down your concerns using "I" statements, and brainstorm possible actions for both you and them. You don't have to have the conversation yet—just do this prep work.

Join the Conversation:

Is feedback hard for you? What strategies do you have for addressing challenging behaviors? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague who's leading through change! To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit. Until next time, lead the way!

In this episode, I welcome back Roxanne Harrison to explore how ancient wisdom can help modern leaders break free from the patterns that create burnout. As we enter the Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese lunar calendar—a year of intense energy and transformation—Roxanne shares how each of the nine Enneagram types can navigate high-energy seasons without exhausting themselves. If you've ever felt like you're running the same patterns over and over, giving everything to everyone else, or staying so busy that you miss the richness of the present moment, this conversation offers a powerful lens for reflection and renewal.

The Year of the Fire Horse: Energy and Transformation

The Chinese zodiac works in 60-year cycles, combining 12 animals with five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water). We're moving from the Year of the Wood Snake—which invited us to shed limiting beliefs and loosen our grip on old stories—into the Year of the Fire Horse, which calls us to rediscover freedom, adventure, and full vitality. Roxanne explains how the fire element ignites passion and transformation, while the horse represents untamed energy and movement. This combination creates an invitation: What would it look like to let go of what's holding you back and step into new energy?

Creating Rhythm, Not Rituals

One of the most practical insights from this conversation is the shift from rigid rituals to natural rhythms. Instead of forcing yourself into habits that feel like "shoulds," Roxanne encourages aligning with the energy of nature—the lunar cycles, the seasons, even your own energetic patterns throughout the day. When you work with your natural rhythms instead of against them, you create sustainable practices that energize rather than deplete you.

Walking Through All Nine Enneagram Types

Roxanne and I walk through each Enneagram type, exploring what each needs to loosen their grip on and what new energy they're being invited into:

• Type 8 (The Challenger): Let go of pushing the river and the belief that everything is a battle. Practice using just the right amount of energy instead of excessive force.

• Type 9 (The Peacemaker): Find a safe place to express anger and push boundaries. Getting into action clarifies priorities and commitments—anger can be a powerful motivator.

• Type 1 (The Perfectionist): Loosen the grip on needing to be right and appropriate. Try spontaneous dancing, get a massage, or color outside the lines of your self-imposed rules.

• Type 2 (The Helper): Notice when you're helping without being asked. Shift focus inward and do something creative just for you—write yourself a love letter.

• Type 3 (The Achiever): Catch yourself when everything becomes about goals and tasks. Try improv or something you're not guaranteed to be good at to loosen the fear of failure.

• Type 4 (The Individualist): Notice when you focus on what's missing or what could be. Keep a gratitude journal to anchor yourself in the present and what's actually going well.

• Type 5 (The Investigator): Recognize that relationships are resources, not energy drains. Reach out to someone once a week, and consider body practices like Qigong or yoga to get out of your head.

• Type 6 (The Loyalist): Be on the lookout when you shift from problem-solver to problem-seeker. Write down the things you thought might happen that didn't happen to shift out of hyper-vigilance.

• Type 7 (The Enthusiast): Slow down and be present. The richness of life includes the full wheel of emotions—sadness and struggle alongside joy—and rushing to the next thing means missing it all.

The Core Message: Notice Your Patterns

Throughout our conversation, Roxanne emphasizes that our patterns aren't wrong—they're brilliant adaptive strategies that helped us survive and succeed. The work isn't about fixing yourself; it's about noticing when you're running your pattern and asking: Is this still serving me, or is it now the very thing keeping me from what I want? As Roxanne says, "Until we can catch ourselves, we won't be able to change."

Resources Mentioned:

• Roxanne Harrison's workshop: "Riding the Fire Horse: An Enneagram Approach to Avoid Burnout" – Sunday, March 1st at Pleasure Point Dance Studio in Santa Cruz. Registration at pleasurepointsanctuary.com

• Learn more about Roxanne's work at roxanneharrison.com

Visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me @Claire Laughlin Consulting on Instagram.

New episodes are released weekly. Please share with others who might benefit!

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The Three Types of Clarity Every Leader Needs: Strategic Clarity (what work moves the needle), Responsibility Clarity (who owns what), and Progress Clarity (how we're tracking)—and why Strategic Clarity is the foundation for everything else.
• Claire's Personal Burnout Story: How working at a job she loved without knowing how she was measured led to exhaustion, and the specific steps she took to create her own clarity when her manager couldn't provide it.
• The Three Questions Framework: Powerful questions to ask your manager in a clarity conversation—What are my 3 most important outcomes? How will you know I've been successful? What leading indicators should I track?
• Leading Indicators That Create Progress: How to identify the weekly activities and milestones that predict success and give you that feeling of moving forward, even before final outcomes are achieved.
• Cascading Clarity to Your Team: Why having clarity conversations with each of your direct reports transforms team performance, shortens meetings, reduces emails, and builds true autonomy.

Take Action: Quick Start - AI Prompt for Clarity:

Copy and paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:

"I'm a [YOUR JOB TITLE] at a [SIZE/TYPE OF ORGANIZATION]. Here's my job description: [PASTE YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION]. Here are my organization's strategic objectives for this year: [LIST THEM].

Based on this information, help me identify:

1. The 3 most important outcomes I should be driving over the next 90 days
2. For each outcome, suggest 2-3 specific metrics that would indicate success
3. For each outcome, suggest 2-3 leading indicators I could track weekly to know I'm on track. Please be specific and practical."

Resources Mentioned:

1. Creating Clarity Guide: Download the complete framework, which contains conversation templates, week-by-week implementation plans, and progress tracking tools.
2. EVOLVE Leadership Program: Claire's new leadership development program is launching soon, with Clarity as the foundational first module. Downloading the Creating Clarity guide and you'll be notified.

Join the Conversation:

What practices help you stay grounded during overwhelming times? Please share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague who's leading through change!

To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit.

Until next time, lead the way!

You're committed to developing your people, but what happens when a crisis hits and you need results now? This is the tension between being patient and decisive—one of the hardest parts of leadership.

My guest, Frances Robustelli, City Manager of St. Pete Beach, Florida, faced this challenge head-on. Just months into her new role, back-to-back hurricanes devastated her community, shutting down 90% of the city's structures overnight. Crisis revealed exactly where talent lived and where dysfunction amplified chaos—and forced her to make staffing decisions faster than ever before.

Fran's Framework for Building Healthy Organizations:

Days 1-60: Listen First

• Meet with every leadership level, especially mid-management (where culture lives or dies)
• Share your leadership style and expectations clearly
• Build trust before implementing anything new

After 60 Days: Confirm and Commit

• Share back what you heard—the good, bad, and the ugly
• Build team commitments together (Fran created 10, let the team vote on which 2 to measure first)
• Link new tools that the team asks for

The Secret: Reinforcement Over Complexity

• Use quarterly all-hands meetings for accountability
• Create a clear meeting cadence around what matters
• When things go sideways, ask: "Do we have clarity here?"

Crisis reveals who we really are as leaders, and authenticity matters. As Fran says, "I'd rather be struck down being the real me than spend my life trying to please everybody." Her approach proves that developing people and delivering results aren't competing priorities—they're woven together.

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Fran Robustelli and the City of St. Pete Beach at stpetebeach.org

Contact me to learn about building team commitments in your organization

Visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me @Claire Laughlin Consulting on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening!

New episodes are released weekly—share with others who might benefit!

Welcome to Episode 50! We've made it to the top 1% of podcasters—and in this milestone episode, we're talking about why leadership transitions are so hard and what actually needs to change when you move to a new level.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The Peter Principle: Why people rise to their "level of incompetence" (spoiler: it's not about your capability—it's about operating at the wrong level)
• The Leadership Pipeline Framework: The three things that must change at every transition—your skills, time allocation, and work values
• The First Major Passage: Moving from individual contributor to manager, and why you can't keep doing everyone's work while also leading a team
• The Reality of Working Managers: How to balance your own deliverables with developing your team (even when your organization expects both)
• The Meeting Problem: Why you're working evenings and weekends, and what needs to shift in how you manage your calendar

Key Takeaway: What got you here won't get you there. If you're struggling at a new leadership level, that's not failure—it's a sign you're at a transition point and need to retrofit your foundation.

Resources Mentioned:

1. The Leadership Pipeline by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel
2. New Program Alert: I'm launching a pilot program to help leaders retrofit their foundations! Only 25 spots available. Email [email protected] with "RETROFIT" in the subject line to learn more.

Join the Conversation:

What strategies have you used to successfully manage a leadership transition? Or, what challenges have you faced when moving from one role to another? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague who's leading through change!

To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit. Until next time, lead the way!

In this episode, I explore how physical fitness serves as a powerful laboratory for leadership development—and why the lessons you learn pushing your body are the exact skills you need to lead yourself and others well.

The Translation Between Fitness and Leadership

If you're like most leaders I work with, you've heard yourself say: "I don't leave my desk for lunch." "I don't take breaks." "I don't have time to exercise." Sound familiar? But here's the paradox—when we pause to take care of ourselves, when we refuel and connect, everything else gets better. The discipline, the ability to handle discomfort, the power of shared struggle—these lessons are waiting to transform how you lead.

Doing Hard Things Builds Capacity for Everything Else

One profound shift that changes everything, is moving from "life shouldn't feel uncomfortable" to "I'm seeking discomfort because that's where growth happens."

When you train yourself to show up and do the work every single day, you build a foundation that prepares you for those exceptional moments—the breakthrough idea, the difficult conversation, the crisis that demands your best.

And doing hard things has other benefits:

• Recent research shows that lactate (a result of that burn you feel during intense exercise) actually improves cognition, brain plasticity, and long-term brain health
• Embracing physical discomfort can make you better at handling life's other challenges
• The emotional payback is exponential—walking away from doing something hard and feeling impressed and proud of yourself is incredibly powerful

The Power of Shared Challenge

When you experience something difficult with others—whether in a fitness class or navigating a workplace crisis—it becomes even more meaningful:

• There's an accountability that happens in community that you can't get working alone
• Shared struggle creates bonds to the team, the outcome, and the organization itself
• People remember how you make them feel more than anything else

Support and Challenge: The Leader's Balancing Act

Great instructors (and great leaders) balance on a fine line where they push you to your threshold without pushing to failure. They bring everyone up with them—sometimes above them—because the spotlight isn't for them. The best leaders create environments where each team member goes home feeling the win was their own, knowing they're capable of more than they thought.

Discipline and the Decision That's Already Made

Stop making exercise a daily decision. When you truly commit, you stop asking "should I work out today?" and start asking "what time?" This same principle applies to self-care, to showing up for difficult conversations, to being the leader you want to be, even when you don't feel like it.

• Training yourself to do hard things builds the baseline that allows you to be exceptional when it matters most
• Surround yourself with people who will cheer you on and allow you to take that leap
• Build a community that makes it hard to NOT show up

Resources Mentioned:

GOAT Santa Cruz: goatsantacruz.com (mention Claire Laughlin's name for something special!)

To learn more about my services and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit.

Welcome to Episode 48 of THIS Leader! As we step into 2026, I'm inviting you to pause before diving headfirst into another year of endless demands and obligations.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The Power of Intentional Reflection: Why getting clear on what you truly want - not what you think you should want - changes everything about how you lead and live
• Your Multiple Roles as Opportunities: How each role you play (leader, partner, parent, friend) is a chance to understand yourself better and show up with more generosity and joy
• Questions That Matter: Reflection prompts to help you envision your best days, strengthen your relationships, and identify where you can bring more patience, grace, and lightness to your life
• Permission to Dream Bigger: Why this year isn't about more achievements, but about creating more meaning, connection, joy, and impact

Key Reflection Questions from the Episode:

1. What will your best days look like in 2026?
2. Where can you let go of your grip a little and start enjoying the ride more?
3. Who in your life deserves more appreciation or a more consistent listening ear?
4. What new experiences will you invite into your life this year?
5. What would make this year feel significant to YOU?

Join the Conversation:

What practices help you stay grounded during overwhelming times?

Please share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Don't forget to Subscribe & Share:

If this episode was helpful, please leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend or colleague who's leading through change!

To learn more about my services, subscribe to my newsletter, and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @Claire Laughlin Consulting.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit.

Until next time, lead the way!