What moves a career forward: great advice or someone willing to advocate for you? In this episode, Cade and Stacey explore the critical difference between mentors and sponsors, explaining why mentorship alone often isn't enough to unlock promotions, stretch assignments, and career growth. Drawing on research from Herminia Ibarra, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, and the research institute Catalyst, they unpack how sponsorship works, why it benefits both rising talent and senior leaders, and why many professionals are "over-mentored and under-sponsored."

5 key takeaways

• A mentor gives advice; a sponsor advocates for you
• Career decisions often happen in rooms you're not in
• Sponsorship leads to more promotions and opportunities
• Great leaders don't just mentor, they actively sponsor others
• Small, concrete asks make it easier for sponsors to support you

Chapters

01:03 The Room Where Your Name Comes Up

03:09 Mentors Talk to You, Sponsors Talk About You

05:32The Cost of Being Over-Mentored

08:19 Why Mentoring Alone Isn’t Enough

10:17 What Makes Someone Sponsorable

13:24 Three Ways to Build Sponsorship

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Why do some talented people get overlooked while others seem to attract every opportunity? In this episode, Stacey and Cade explore why great work doesn't always speak for itself and how visibility, not self-promotion, can shape career growth.

They unpack the difference between promoting yourself and promoting your work, discuss Harvey Coleman's exposure framework, and examine research showing why self-promotion carries different consequences for women.

You'll also learn three practical strategies for making your contributions easier to recognize without feeling inauthentic: craft a clear sentence about your work, share simple updates, and intentionally recognize the contributions of others.

5 key takeaways

• Great work needs visibility to create opportunities
• Promote the work, not yourself
• Exposure helps people recognize and trust your contributions
• Self-promotion can carry a higher social cost for women
• Simple, factual updates make your impact easier to see

Chapters

00:00 Why great work goes unnoticed

05:49 The myth that work speaks for itself

09:45 Visibility isn't the same as self-promotion

12:39 Why visibility is harder for women

17:15 Promote the work, not yourself

21:20 Three ways to make your work visible

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Leadership can be lonely, uncertain, and emotionally exhausting… but we rarely talk about pain at work. In today’s episode, Shawn Quinn shares his research on professional pain and why leaders often make things worse by rushing to solve problems or offering reassurance too quickly. Instead, he introduces a framework for helping people move through difficult moments: acknowledge emotions, create connection, build stability, and then take action. Shawn explains how leaders can support teams without becoming therapists, why hope matters, and how creating space for emotions can unlock stronger thinking, trust, and performance.

Key Takeaways:

• Professional pain is real
• Leaders often move to solutions too quickly
• People need emotional connection before action
• Anchoring helps people regain stability
• Hope comes from meaningful action, not forced positivity

Chapters

01:21 – Why Leaders Need to Talk About Professional Pain

08:16 – Why Positivity Isn't Always the Answer

16:25 – Processing Your Own Emotions First

26:22 – Helping People Feel Seen Before Solving Problems

34:05 – Anchoring People Through Uncertainty

37:58 – Turning Hope Into Meaningful Action

Learn more about Shawn and Lift Consulting here: https://www.leadingwithlift.com/

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

In today’s episode of You Might Try This, Stacey and Cade explore how assumptions about age shape the way leaders see, support, and develop their teams. They unpack why generational stereotypes often influence decisions without us realizing it, from hovering over younger employees to overlooking experienced team members. Drawing on research about stereotype threat and generational differences, they discuss how leaders can replace assumptions with curiosity and see people as individuals.

Key takeaways

• Age-based assumptions can quietly change how leaders treat people
• Generational differences at work are often smaller than we think
• Stereotypes can create self-fulfilling prophecies through our actions
• Leaders should focus on the individual, not the generation
• Curiosity helps uncover hidden strengths and capabilities in others

Chapters

00:01:34 – How age shapes first impressions as a leader

00:03:52 – Why new managers rely on assumptions

00:07:25 – The science behind stereotype threat

00:13:08 – How age bias changes the way leaders manage

00:15:46 – The myth of generational differences at work

00:22:31 – Three leadership experiments to challenge age bias

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

In today’s episode, Cade and Stacey explore why a sense of belonging is one of the most important, but overlooked, drivers of team performance. They explain that employees rarely disengage because of the work itself; instead, many quietly leave when they never feel fully included. Drawing on research, they discuss why social exclusion feels so painful, how leaders unintentionally create “centers” and “edges” within teams, and why belonging is a skill that can be intentionally built. They also share practical strategies leaders can use immediately to bring people into conversations, recognize overlooked contributions, and create stronger, more connected teams.

Key takeaways

• Employees are more likely to disengage when they feel excluded from the team than because of the work or compensation.
• Small leadership behaviors, like inviting quieter voices into discussions and building on their ideas, can significantly strengthen inclusion.
• Research shows that social exclusion activates the same brain regions associated with physical pain, making belonging a fundamental human need.
• Leaders should actively identify who is on the "edge" of the team and create recurring opportunities for those individuals to contribute and feel included.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Why belonging is the foundation of great leadership

00:05:01 - The science behind our need to belong

00:09:24 - What being "on the edge" looks like at work

00:14:20 - Belonging uncertainty and why small signals matter

00:19:03 - Leadership habits that create belonging every day

00:21:13 - Practical ways to bring people into the center of the team

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Today on You Might Try This, Cade and Stacey speak with Pascal Finette, author of Outlearn, about how organizations can accelerate learning by lowering the cost of failure. Pascal explains why companies often prioritize appearing competent over actually learning. The conversation explores rapid experimentation, low-fidelity prototyping, and curiosity-driven leadership as tools for navigating uncertainty. They discuss practical methods like one-day tests, premortems, and AI-assisted feedback loops, showing how faster feedback leads to better decisions and more adaptive, resilient organizations overall growth.

Key Takeaways:

• Make failing cheap and fast to learn faster
• Fear of looking bad blocks more innovation than money or talent
• Ask "what worked?" instead of "what went wrong?"
• Most decisions are reversible, so don't overthink them

Chapters

00:00 Why Organizations Reward Competence Over Learning

06:27 The Core Idea of Outlearn: Lower the Cost of Failure

11:22 Fear, Failure, and Creating Learning Cultures

16:08 Lessons From Failure: What Did You Learn?

20:28 Navigating Uncertainty and Making Better Decisions

30:16 The Coat Hanger Principle and Rapid Experimentation

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Leadership isn't about avoiding mistakes, it's about what happens after you make one. In today’s episode, Stacey and Cade explore why the moments after a leadership stumble can strengthen trust more than getting everything right the first time. Drawing on decades of research, they explain why leaders who own mistakes clearly, avoid defensiveness, and focus on what's next earn deeper credibility with their teams. You'll also learn the common traps leaders fall into after making mistakes and three practical exercises to help you recover well, build trust, and lead with greater confidence.

5 key takeaways

• Owning a mistake well can build more trust than never making a mistake at all.
• Leaders often undermine trust by either explaining away mistakes ("spin") or dwelling on them ("cratering").
• A strong recovery follows three steps: name the mistake, skip the excuses, and explain what you'll do differently next time.
• Addressing mistakes within 24 hours keeps small issues from becoming larger leadership problems.
• When leaders model accountability, they create psychological safety and encourage their teams to do the same.

Chapters

00:00 Why leaders lose trust after mistakes

02:10 The service recovery paradox and leadership

06:50 Two common mistakes leaders make after a stumble

12:19 The three-step framework for owning a mistake

20:08 Why it's never too late to rebuild trust

22:51 Three leadership experiments to practice this week

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Many new leaders assume that a title automatically gives them power, but they quickly discover that authority alone can only take them so far. In today’s episode, Stacey and Cade explore the difference between compliance and commitment, drawing on classic leadership research and real-world examples. They discuss why title-based authority often erodes over time, how influence is built through trust and relationships, and the hidden “currencies” that help leaders gain buy-in without relying on hierarchy.

Key takeaways:

• Titles create compliance, but influence creates commitment
• Authority is a limited resource
• The most powerful forms of influence are earned over time through expertise, relationships, trust, and credibility
• Effective influence is based on understanding what others value
• Leadership success at higher levels depends less on formal authority and more on the ability to influence peers, partners, and stakeholders who do not report to you

Chapters

00:00 — Why Titles Don’t Create Real Leadership Power

05:50 — The Six Sources of Power at Work

10:12 — Why Title-Based Authority Has Limits

15:19 — The Five Currencies of Influence

20:19 — Building Trust Through Relationship and Personal Currency

24:05 — Three Ways to Increase Influence Without Authority

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Welcome back!

In today’s episode, Stacey and Cade speak with executive coach and performance expert Jenny Evans about why stress and burnout are not just mindset problems, but deeply rooted in biology and chemistry.

Jenny explains how chronic stress triggers automatic chemical responses in the body that reduce access to the prefrontal cortex, shifting decision-making toward reactive, survival-based thinking. The conversation explores why traditional advice like “manage your mindset” only addresses symptoms, not root causes.

Key takeaways:

• Stress is primarily a physiological and chemical process, not just a mindset issue
• Decision quality declines as energy depletes throughout the day
• Recovery, not just effort, determines sustained performance
• Small “microbursts” of movement, breath, or focus can rapidly reset energy levels
• Designing environments to support habits reduces reliance on willpower

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Stress as a Chemistry Problem

06:25 Why High Performers Burn Out

12:22 The Impact of Decision Fatigue

17:17 Managing Energy Instead of Time

22:35 Simple Strategies for Energy Recovery

31:21 Building Long-Term Resilience as a Leader

To learn more about Jenny, visit her website: https://www.jennyevans.com/ and check out her book: The Resiliency Revolution.

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

Welcome back!

In this episode, Cade and Stacey explore the hidden burnout signals that leaders and high performers often miss until it’s too late. Drawing on the original research of psychologist Herbert Freudenberger and burnout expert Christina Maslach, they unpack why burnout is rarely about laziness or lack of commitment. In fact, the people most at risk are often the ones who care the most, work the hardest, and continue producing results long after they’ve started emotionally checking out.

Key Takeaways:

• Burnout was originally identified in highly committed, high-performing people, not disengaged employees
• Cynicism and loss of meaning usually appear long before exhaustion does
• High performers often hide burnout by increasing output and “pushing through”
• Small losses outside work (think exercise, friendships, reflection time, hobbies) can be early warning signs
• Leaders can spot burnout earlier by asking better questions about energy, momentum, and meaning

Chapters

00:00 The hidden cost of high-performer burnout

02:15 How burnout was first identified

04:21 The three stages of burnout leaders miss

07:34 Why high performers hide burnout so well

16:20 The early signals leaders should actually watch for

26:10 Practical experiments to catch burnout early

To learn more about us and the podcast, visit youmighttrythis.com and check us out on social media @youmighttrythis

#Leadership

#BurnoutPrevention

#WorkplaceCulture

#HighPerformance