THIS Leader Podcast

In this episode, I explore how to build and sustain a successful mentoring program with Kara Reddig, Deputy City Manager, and Femi Omotesho, Management Analyst from the City of Elk Grove.

Why Mentoring Matters More Than Ever

Mentoring isn't just a nice-to-have, it's foundational to developing confident, capable leaders. The City of Elk Grove's program grew organically from a 2019 staff meeting on gender equity, proving that the best development initiatives come directly from your team's expressed needs.

The Secret Sauce: How to Structure a Mentoring Program That Actually Works

• Cross-departmental pairing process: Bring 10 people together to collaboratively match mentors and mentees—no behind-closed-doors decisions
• Balanced approach: Combine one-on-one mentor-mentee meetings with group training sessions every two months
• Clear framework: Provide working agreements, conversation guides, and ongoing support without micromanaging
• Breaking bread together: Include shared meals to build authentic relationships across departments

What Makes a Great Mentor vs. Manager

A mentor relationship focuses on you as a person, not just job performance.

Key differences:

• Goals are co-created, not assigned
• The relationship is voluntary and the power dynamic is more balanced
• Mentors often get as much from the relationship as mentees
• It's about long-term growth beyond daily tasks

Being an Effective Mentee: Your Role in the Relationship

• Take ownership: You're accountable for your own progress, mentors guide, but you drive
• Be proactive: Make it clear you're available and ready to absorb their experience
• Practice radical openness: Share your real goals and be receptive to honest feedback
• Act like a sponge: Tap into their experience and try new approaches they suggest

Finding a Mentor When You Don't Have a Program

• Look within your existing professional networks and associations
• Consider LinkedIn connections who align with your career goals
• Remember: people are honored to be asked, don't hesitate to reach out
• Create informal mentoring relationships by identifying someone whose path you admire

Results That Matter

Elk Grove's mentees consistently report increased confidence, personal growth, and job satisfaction. Many mentees have become mentors themselves, creating a sustainable cycle of development.

Resources Mentioned:

Download the "Launching a Successful Mentorship Program Tip Sheet" here

Connect with Kara Reddig on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kara-reddig

Connect with Femi Omotesho on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/femi-omotesho

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.

In this inspiring conversation with leadership expert Jonathan Bissell, we explore how to transform your leadership from reactive to intentional and create the kind of culture where people thrive.

The Foundation: Belief Creates Transformation

Everything starts with a powerful belief: investing in your people pays incredible dividends. When you truly embrace development as a core strategy, you'll create the kind of culture that attracts talent and drives results naturally.

The Upstream vs. Downstream Framework

Imagine spending your days building and developing instead of constantly fixing problems. Jonathan shares a game-changing approach:

• Upstream time: Proactively developing people and creating clarity
• Downstream time: Reacting to avoidable problems

Try this: track your time for one week and see the ratio. This simple awareness can transform how you lead.

The 70:20:10 Learning Model

You don't need endless budgets to develop amazing teams. The 70:20:10 learning model developed by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) suggests that learning happens through:

70% real, on-the-job work experiences and stretch assignments

20% socially through conversations with peers and mentors

10% formal training

The magic happens when you intentionally connect all three.

Creating Clarity That Empowers

Get clear upfront to create freedom for everyone. Share not just what you need, but why it matters and what success looks like. Provide context, set clear parameters, and give room for autonomy within those boundaries.

The Game-Changer: Consistency

Intentionality plus consistency equals transformation. Build simple, sustainable rhythms for development conversations and feedback.

You Are a Culture Creator

You're not just managing within your culture—you're actively shaping it every day. Embrace your role as a culture steward and watch your intentional leadership ripple throughout your organization.

Resources Mentioned:

The 70:20:10 Learning Model (Center for Creative Leadership)

Connect with Jonathan Bissell at hpi.team or on LinkedIn

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.

In this episode, I explore the concept of psychological safety and share specific communication practices that can transform your team culture.

Understanding Psychological Safety: The Four Stages. Building on Harvard professor Amy Edmondson's research and Timothy Clark's framework, I explain how psychological safety develops through four distinct stages:

• Level 1: Inclusion Safety – "Do I belong here? Can I be myself?"
• Level 2: Learner Safety – "Can I take risks and make mistakes without fear of judgment?"
• Level 3: Contributor Safety – "Are my unique gifts valued? Am I adding value?"
• Level 4: Challenger Safety – "Can I question things, including authority and established ways?"

Create Inclusion Safety Through Genuine Connection

• Acknowledge actively, deliberately drawing people into conversation.
• Move beyond generic questions like "Any other thoughts?" to specific invitations: "Joan, you've worked with similar clients before, what's your take on this?"
• Validate emotional realities before jumping to solutions

Build Learner Safety Through Better Responses

1. Change how you respond to questions. Replace sighs or "As we discussed..." with "I'm glad you asked that"
2. Normalize not knowing. Make "I don't know, but let's find out" stronger than pretending to have all the answers
3. Reframe mistakes as learning opportunities through questions like "What can we learn from this?"

Nurture Contributor Safety Through Recognition

• Give specific, meaningful recognition that connects contributions to impact
• Seek perspective before driving toward solutions
• Implement ideas with proper acknowledgment

Develop Challenger Safety Through Open Communication:

• Invite challenge with phrases like "Before we finalize this, what might we be missing?"
• Respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness when ideas are challenged
• Reward constructive dissent

These stages build on each other – you can't expect people to challenge the status quo (stage 4) if they don't even feel included (stage 1).

Personal Responsibility: Everyone plays a role.

• Practice appropriate vulnerability
• Be proactive about building trust
• Develop resilience to imperfect feedback
• Take ownership of growth

Remember, creating psychological safety isn't about perfection; it's about being intentional about communication. Research consistently shows that teams with high psychological safety innovate more, make fewer errors, and adapt better to change.

Resources Mentioned:

• Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety
• Timothy Clark's book "The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety"
• "The First 90-Days: A Team Approach to Onboarding" course. Contact me for more information.

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 @ClaireLaughlinConsulting.

In this episode, I explore why taking real time off is crucial for your leadership. I share my proven framework for making it happen without everything falling apart in your absence.

There's never a convenient time to take vacation; there's always another deadline, another project, another reason to stay connected. But I've discovered that my boldest ideas and biggest breakthroughs happen when I commit to true disconnection. Here's how you can do it too. In this episode, you'll hear about:

PLAN: Clearing the Path for Departure.

I share my pre-vacation process for evaluating what really matters using two powerful tools:

• The "Island Test" – "If I were stranded on a deserted island for three weeks, what would be the real consequence of this not getting done?"
• The "Delegation Matrix" – Sorting every task into four categories: Only Me, Training Needed, Ready Now, and Not Important

This forced evaluation becomes a "spring cleaning" for your workload, helping you distinguish between what's truly essential and what's self-imposed pressure. I share a personal story of learning this lesson the hard way by rushing to complete a report that ultimately wasn't even needed.

DELEGATE: Transferring Responsibility AND Authority

• Why delegation isn't just about handing off tasks but about developing leaders
• The crucial difference between micromanaging and true delegation
• Three practical delegation tips:
  • Transfer the WHY, not just the WHAT
  • Define the destination instead of giving instructions
  • Create safety for different approaches

I share an illuminating client story about an executive who thought she was "great at delegating" until an unexpected absence forced her to truly let go, with surprising results.

DEPART: The Power of True Disconnection

The magic happens when you completely unplug – no checking email, no quick text messages, no mental rehearsal of work problems. I explain the science behind why this matters: innovation and creativity come from the "default mode network" of your brain that activates during rest and daydreaming.

My "Departure Protocol" for ensuring true disconnection includes:

• The Digital Detox Declaration
• The Out-of-Office Ritual
• The Device Divorce
• The Mindset Reset

Building Organizational Resilience

I address the common objection: "I could never do this in my organization." The truth is, organizations that can't survive without one person for a few weeks have a serious vulnerability. Your absence isn't selfish; it's a strategic leadership move that builds team capability and resilience.

Resources Mentioned:

Episode 5: "Energize Your Team" – A companion episode about rest and renewal.

Remember, your ability to lead others is directly connected to how well you lead yourself. Taking time to disconnect isn't self-indulgent – it's one of the most strategic leadership moves you can make.

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 to This Leader Podcast! New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit.

In this episode, we dive into the science of emotional contagion and how being intentional about the emotions you project can transform your leadership impact. Have you ever seen someone walk into a room and instantly shift the energy? That's emotional contagion in action. Emotions silently spreading from person to person, often without us realizing it. As leaders, learning to manage this contagion is one of the most powerful, and underused, tools at our disposal.

The Science of Emotional Contagion

Research from Princeton reveals how our brains use "mirror neurons" to unconsciously mimic the emotional states of those around us. This isn't just a theory – it has measurable impacts on productivity, creativity, and even physical health through stress hormones like cortisol. Most importantly for leaders, emotions don't spread equally – the emotions of people with more power tend to have a greater ripple effect throughout teams and organizations.

Your Default Broadcast Channel

• Each of us has a default "broadcast channel" – especially under pressure.
• I share a personal story about how my unintentional broadcast affected my young son.
• The importance of recognizing what you're projecting to others, particularly when deadlines loom or unexpected problems arise.
• Why your broadcast matters: "When the pressure rises, all eyes turn to the leaders."

Rebroadcasting When Your Tone Isn't Helpful

Michelle Gielan's research shows we can consciously choose our broadcasts through a three-step process:

1. Recognize your current broadcast through physical and facial cues
2. Pause and reset – even 30 seconds can make a difference
3. Choose your new broadcast intentionally based on what your team needs

This isn't about being inauthentic or denying challenges – it's about being intentional about which aspects of a situation you emphasize and how you frame difficulties.

The Contagious Power of Positivity

Research by Shawn Achor shows that when leaders broadcast authentic positive emotions (not toxic positivity), it creates a "happiness advantage" with remarkable benefits:

• 31% higher productivity
• 37% higher sales
• Greater creativity and problem-solving abilities
• More resilience during challenges
• Lower turnover rates

I explain why negativity must be addressed as a performance issue and how positive emotions, when authentic, are actually more contagious than negative ones.

Remember, your emotional broadcast is a leadership choice, not just an automatic response to circumstances. When you begin to see your emotions as a leadership tool you can consciously use, you unlock a new dimension of influence and become a true architect of your team's emotional climate and performance.

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 @ClaireLaughlinConsulting.

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

Sources

Achor, S. (2010). The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Crown Business.

Barsade, S. G. (2002). The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and Its Influence on Group Behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644-675.

Engert, V., Plessow, F., Miller, R., Kirschbaum, C., & Singer, T. (2014). Cortisol increase in empathic stress is modulated by emotional closeness and observation modality. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 45, 192-201.

Gielan, M. (2015). Broadcasting Happiness: The Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change. BenBella Books.

Gielan, M., & Achor, S. (2015). The effects of news content on emotions, optimism and subsequent behavior. Unpublished manuscript.

Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J.T., & Rapson, R.L. (1993). Emotional Contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96-100.

Seppälä, E., & Cameron, K. (2015). Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive. Harvard Business Review, 12(1), 44-50.

In this episode, I explore how identifying and leveraging your natural talents can transform your energy, impact, and results, both for you and your team. Have you ever felt like the daily grind is draining the life out of you? Many leaders I talk with feel this way - not because they don't like their jobs, but because they're spending too much time on tasks that exhaust them and not enough on work that brings them energy and fulfillment.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

What Strengths Really Are

I explain the difference between learned skills and innate strengths - those natural talents that when paired with skills truly energize you. Using the metaphor of driving a car with bald tires on ice versus driving with perfect tires on an open road, I illustrate how working from your strengths creates traction and flow in your work life.

My Personal Strengths Journey

I share how I operated for years as a "workhorse" focused only on production, eventually discovering that this approach left me exhausted and unhappy. There was even a job I got fired from that, in hindsight, was a complete misfit for my natural talents. My breakthrough came when I realized I was reserving my most energizing work (strategic thinking and program design) for weekends, not recognizing its true value.

Three Ways to Discover Your Strengths

• Formal assessments - Tools like the Working Genius model by Patrick Lencioni can identify your natural talents.
• Self-reflection - Ask yourself when you lose track of time, what problems people come to you for help with, and what activities energize you.
• Feedback from others - Sometimes our strengths are so natural we don't recognize them as special.

The Real Cost of Ignoring Strengths

Research from Gallup shows powerful benefits to strengths-based approaches:

• People who use their strengths daily are 6x more likely to be engaged at work.
• Teams that focus on strengths are 12-15% more productive.
• Organizations see 15% lower turnover rates when employees work from their strengths.

But beyond statistics, there's a personal cost. When we operate outside our strength zones for too long, we experience depletion, work harder but accomplish less, and are more likely to burn out or disengage.

Bringing Strengths to Your Team

I share a personal example of how reorganizing work with my business manager Marissa based on our natural strengths dramatically increased our productivity and reduced stress. Even in organizations with rigid job descriptions, you can implement three practical strategies:

1. Task trading - Look for opportunities for people to trade responsibilities within a job class.
2. Process adaptation - Adjust how tasks are done, using technology, checklists, or collaboration to compensate for natural tendencies.
3. Role sculpting- Shift emphasis within existing roles to leverage individual strengths.

The key is starting the conversation with your team: "What parts of your job give you the most energy? Where do you feel you make your best contributions? What tasks consistently drain you?"

Resources Mentioned:

• "Reclaim Your Work Joy": A free guide to sculpt your role for maximum fulfillment.
• Working Genius Assessment: Available at workinggenius.com for $25.

Understanding your strengths isn't just for the workplace - it can transform your personal relationships, too. Remember, leading from strengths doesn't require grand gestures or complete overhauls. It's about consistent, intentional actions that align your work with your natural talents.

To learn more about my services, including team workshops on strengths-based leadership, visit clairelaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @ClaireLaughlinConsulting.

Thanks for listening!

New episodes are released weekly, and we'd love for you to share them with others who might benefit.

In this episode, Claire Laughlin shares her team's complete goal-setting system that keeps strategic priorities front and center all year long.

Learn how to transform vague annual objectives into actionable steps that create real momentum. We're officially into Q2, and if you're like most leaders, those ambitious January goals might be fading into the background as daily demands take over. This episode walks you through our exact process - from annual planning to weekly execution - that has transformed how the team approaches goals.

In this episode, we'll dive into:

The Annual Blueprint:

Hear about our December strategic planning retreat, where we reflect on the previous year before mapping out what's ahead. You'll learn why we create a visual timeline of the entire year, starting with our "big rocks" - the non-negotiable commitments already in place - before adding new strategic initiatives. Most teams do this backward, setting ambitious goals without first accounting for their actual capacity.

The Quarterly Breakdown

• Why compressing your execution timeline from 12 months to 12 weeks creates productive urgency
• How to transform vague annual goals into a clear roadmap with deadlines and deliverables.
• The importance of breaking quarterly targets into monthly actions and outcomes
• How this approach builds accountability across your team

The Rhythm of Review

This is where most planning systems fall apart - creating beautiful plans in January that never get looked at again. Claire shares the team's exact cadence of quarterly reviews, monthly planning sessions, and weekly team meetings that keeps goals consistently visible and builds momentum throughout the year.

Making It Work For You

Even if you're working within a larger organization with mandated planning processes, the key principles can be adapted to your context. Remember: what gets scheduled gets done. Block time for these planning and review sessions on your calendar right now. When you establish clear goals and maintain consistent focus on them, you're not just doing planning work; you're demonstrating what truly matters as a leader.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Goal-Getting System Template. (Click here to download from our podcast page)
• The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran

Our annual goal setting process was inspired by "Your Best Year Yet" by Jinny Ditzler.

To learn more about my services and for additional tools to enrich your leadership journey, visit clairelaughlin.com and connect on social channels @ClaireLaughlinConsulting

Don't forget to subscribe and share with another leader who might benefit. It feels so good to CRUSH our goals. New weekly releases every Tuesday.

In this episode, Claire Laughlin dives into the art of effective meetings and how to transform them from time-wasters into productive, energizing experiences.

What You'll Learn:

• The invisible workflow that underlies all good work and why understanding it matters for meeting design
• The five essential meeting types that every leader should master:

1. Ideation Meetings for defining problems and generating solutions
2. Decision-Making Meetings for evaluating options and making clear choices
3. Planning and Enabling Meetings for creating actionable roadmaps
4. Implementation Meetings (or "huddles") for alignment and quick adjustments
5. Learn and Review Meetings for continuous improvement

• How to define clear purposes and outcomes for every meeting
• Techniques for identifying exactly who needs to be in the room
• Strategies for transforming existing standing meetings
• Practical steps you can take immediately to improve your meetings

Key Takeaways:

• Most leaders have never been taught how to design and run effective meetings, yet they spend a significant portion of their time in them
• Common meeting problems include ambiguous agendas, revisiting the same ideas repeatedly, unclear decisions, and poor communication of outcomes
• Even if you're not the meeting organizer, you can influence meeting effectiveness through thoughtful questions and suggestions

Resources:

Improve you meetings immediately by using these meeting templates for different meeting types, available here: www.clairelaughlin.com/resources

Challenge for the Week:

Pick one recurring meeting on your calendar that isn't as productive as it could be. Identify the stage of work it addresses, clarify its purpose and desired outcome, ensure you have the right people attending, and structure the conversation to achieve your outcome.

In this episode, we delve into the complex reality that change is inevitable in our workplaces. Whether you formally lead a team or not, developing skills to navigate change effectively makes you an invaluable asset in today's rapidly evolving environment.

Understanding the Three Dimensions of Change

• Change we choose versus change imposed upon us
• Change that feels favorable versus unfavorable
• Change we can anticipate versus change that catches us by surprise

I introduce the powerful "change bridge" metaphor that explains why executives and team members often experience the same change in completely different ways. Leaders typically start crossing this bridge months before anyone else even sees it on the horizon, creating a disconnect in understanding and emotional readiness.

The Neuroscience Behind Change Resistance

David Rock's SCARF model helps us understand how our brains naturally respond to change as potential threats:

• Status - our standing relative to others
• Certainty - our need to predict what's coming
• Autonomy - our desire to control our circumstances
• Relatedness - our connection to people around us
• Fairness - our sense of equitable treatment

Through a practical example of implementing new project management software, I demonstrate how even seemingly simple changes can trigger all five threat responses and how leaders can address each one.

The Emotional Journey of Change: SARAH Framework People experiencing significant change often move through grief-like emotions that follow this pattern:

• Shock - the initial response when change is announced
• Anger - the emotional reaction that follows shock
• Resistance - reverting to previous behaviors or subtly opposing moving forward
• Acceptance - beginning to adapt to new realities
• Hope - seeing a positive pathway forward

These stages aren't linear, and recognizing where someone is in this journey helps you respond appropriately as a leader.

Practical Takeaways for Effective Change Leadership:

• Communicate early and often, sharing the WHY behind changes
• Build in elements of choice to address people's need for autonomy
• Acknowledge emotions directly to validate experiences
• Remember that your own reaction to change sets the tone for your team

Ultimately, your ability to navigate change is perhaps the most valuable leadership skill you can develop, not about avoiding discomfort, but moving through it with awareness and intention while bringing others along with you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Visit clairelaughlin.com for additional resources and tools
• Connect with me on social media @ClaireLaughlinConsulting

In this episode, we explore the critical relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership, with practical tools to enhance your impact through emotional awareness.

The Leadership Imperative for Emotional Intelligence:

Emotions are valuable data points, not workplace liabilities. Research confirms that leaders who accurately identify and manage emotions consistently outperform those who can't. When we disconnect from our emotions, we disconnect from our leadership power.

Building Your Emotional Vocabulary:

• Moving beyond "mad, sad, glad, afraid" to a richer emotional palette
• Using emotion wheels and charts for greater emotional precision
• Implementing daily emotional check-ins as a leadership practice
• Recommended resource: Brené Brown's "Atlas of the Heart"

A Framework for Working with Emotions:

I share a simple four-step process: check in with yourself, trace emotions without judgment, explore underlying stories, and assess whether these patterns serve your leadership goals.

Real-World Application: Through a workplace scenario, I demonstrate how emotional intelligence transforms challenging feedback situations from potential derailers into growth opportunities.

The Ripple Effect: Our emotional states directly impact our teams through emotional contagion. As leaders, we set the emotional tone that either energizes or depletes those around us.

Coming Soon: A conversation with Allison Livingston about her "Five Steps to Connect" methodology and its applications for leadership contexts.

Source Citations:

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Books. Bracket, M. A., & Rivers, S. E. (2014).

Transforming Students' Lives with Social and Emotional Learning. Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Feelingswheel.com

Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. Random House.

Allison Livingston: https://www.5stepstoconnect.com/about