RISE UP AND LEAD℠ · SHOW NOTES

Let Me Say That More Clearly

What Your Words Reveal About Your EQ

Season 3, Episode 30 · Solo · Airs Monday, September 28, 2026

Brief Summary of Episode

What are your people having to guess about because you haven't clearly said it?

In this solo episode, I'm talking about your mouth. Yep. You can take the assessment, read the book, and put “self-aware leader” in your bio, but eventually you're going to open your mouth, and that's where your emotional intelligence shows up. I walk through the hedges, disclaimers, and softeners so many of us reach for when we're uncomfortable, and why your people cannot lead from your intentions. They can only lead from what you actually communicated.

We close out our Engagement That Moves People℠ quarter with the thing that sits underneath all of it: clarity. We talk about why unclear leaders create uncertain teams, how to stop making people dig for the message, why clear does not mean cold, and how over-explaining is still unclear communication. I connect it all to Daniel Goleman's work on self-awareness and self-management, James Pennebaker's research on everyday language, Brené Brown's “clear is kind,” and my own research on how leadership develops through the reps. Then I hand you one sentence you can use this week: “Let me say that more clearly.” And I open the door to what's next: Say It Like You Mean It℠, starting October 8.

In This Episode

• Why your people cannot lead from your intentions, only from what you actually communicated
• How to remove the fog without removing the warmth, with before-and-after rewrites you can use right away
• One Rise Action for the week, and a preview of Say It Like You Mean It℠ beginning October 8

Related Resources

• Engagement That Moves People℠: The Leader's Engagement Tool (free Q1 companion), plus subscribe at drkimleadership.com to get Say It Like You Mean It℠ starting October 8

Connect with Dr. Kim Richardson

• Check out her website
• Follow her on Instagram @drkimleadership
• Follow her on TikTok @drkimleadership
• Follow her on X @drkimleadership
• Like her page on Facebook
• Connect with her on LinkedIn

Related Episodes

• S3E26: Do You Have Attendance… or Engagement?
• S3E28: Presence: Your Most Powerful Leadership Tool

More about Rise Up and Lead: Real Lessons, Real Stories, Real Talk

Welcome to Rise Up and Lead: Real Lessons, Real Stories, Real Talk—a podcast about the true journey of leadership and becoming. Hosted by Dr. Kim—Professional Certified Coach®, leadership strategist, and speaker—this show dives into the moments that shape us, the mindsets that sustain us, and the people who influence us along the way.

Each episode features real conversations with everyday leaders and brief coaching insights that bridge lived experience with research-backed leadership truths. Because leadership isn’t about titles—it’s about identity, emotional intelligence, and the daily decision to RISE.

If you’re ready to grow in who you are and how you lead, you’re in the right place!

What happens when you spend a career moving from “I have to do it all myself” to “we're bigger and better together”?

In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friend and former colleague Jody Sommerfeldt, who now supports the next generation of clinical faculty and student teachers at Old Dominion University. Jody and I go all the way back to our days as Technology Curriculum Integration Specialists in Newport News Public Schools, and her journey since then has taken her from the classroom to instructional technology to higher education leadership. We talk about the string of people — starting with her kindergarten teacher — who tapped her into leadership before she believed it herself, how she built trust and engaged people with zero positional authority, and the leadership mistake that taught her to stop carrying the load alone. She closes with hard-won advice for anyone still waiting for their next leadership seat: make your wishes known.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Jody's path from Suffolk classrooms to instructional technology to leading clinical faculty preparation at ODU
• How she built trust and engaged teachers with no positional authority — through humility, feedback, and follow-through
• The mistake that taught her the difference between “me, me, me” and “we, we, we”

STANDOUT QUOTES

“I have to be honest, for me, it's relationships, relationships, relationships.” — Jody Sommerfeldt

“I moved from the responsibility is on me, me, me, to the responsibility as we, we, we. From the me to the we.” — Jody Sommerfeldt

“Make your wishes known... that's a level of vulnerability as well.” — Jody Sommerfeldt

CONTACT JODY SOMMERFELDT

jsommerf@odu.edu

CONNECT WITH DR. KIM RICHARDSON

• Website: drkimleadership.com
• Instagram: @drkimleadership
• TikTok: @drkimleadership
• X: @drkimleadership
• Facebook: Dr. Kim Leadership
• LinkedIn: Dr. Kim Richardson

MORE ABOUT RISE UP AND LEAD: REAL LESSONS, REAL STORIES, REAL TALK

Welcome to Rise Up and Lead: Real Lessons, Real Stories, Real Talk—a podcast about the true journey of leadership and becoming. Hosted by Dr. Kim—Professional Certified Coach®, leadership strategist, and speaker—this show dives into the moments that shape us, the mindsets that sustain us, and the people who influence us along the way.

Each episode features real conversations with everyday leaders and brief coaching insights that bridge lived experience with research-backed leadership truths. Because leadership isn't about titles—it's about identity, emotional intelligence, and the daily decision to RISE.

If you're ready to grow in who you are and how you lead, you're in the right place!

HOOK

What comes to mind when you hear the word “presence”? Because whatever image just showed up — that's your most powerful leadership tool, and most leaders never think to sharpen it.

THE EPISODE

I want to bring my coach hat in for a second. Presence is a real, named competency in coaching — the International Coach Federation calls it Maintaining Presence, and it sits inside a bigger umbrella called Co-Creating the Relationship. That means presence isn't some isolated soft skill floating off by itself. It's connective tissue, the same way trust is connective tissue. Presence is what makes every other leadership competency actually work. You can have a whole Rolodex of deep questions ready to go, but if people don't feel your presence, none of those questions are going to land the way they should.

Here's the distinction I need you to sit with: presence is not a personality trait. It won't show up on your Myers-Briggs. It won't show up on your Strengths Finder. It's a skill — which means it can be practiced, and it means you don't get to say “that's just not who I am.” Presence is staying focused, staying observant, staying empathetic and responsive to the person in front of you, even while you're managing your own emotions in real time. It's being comfortable working in a space where you don't have all the answers. And it's creating space for silence — for someone to say “let me think about that for a second” and for you to actually let them.

“Engagement isn't created in the moment — it's sustained through presence.”

RELATED RESOURCES

Newsletter: Engagement That Moves People℠ (Q1 year-long support series)

Podcast: S3E27 with Cleveland Garvin (Dr. Kim's father)

ICF Core Competency 5: Maintaining Presence