I teach communication. And yet getting my ideas out of my head and into words that other people can actually receive takes me a tremendous amount of effort. My brain jumps around. I say the same thing over and over making meaning as I go. My husband thinks before he speaks. I think while I'm speaking. It's like we speak completely different languages. The point is — communication is hard. Even for people who do this for a living. And most of us are making the same fundamental mistake: we think communication is about our ability to articulate. It isn't. Communication is a loop. A process of shared meaning-making. And the breakdown doesnt happen just because someone didn't speak clearly — it happens in the gap between being heard and actually being understood.

What a Sound Healer Knows That No Leadership Book Will Tell You

One of the questions I get most from the leaders is some version of: how do I actually create connection on my team? How do I get people to open up, speak up, feel safe enough to say the hard thing? Psychological safety. Cohesion. Real connection. These are the foundations of every high-performing team — and most leaders have no roadmap for building them intentionally.

So I went looking for someone who does this better thananyone I know. And the answer surprised me. Rachel Kathryn Weber is a Chicago-based energy healer, sound healer, and retreat facilitator who takes rooms full of strangers and has them feeling genuinely safe and connected within minutes. Her work looks nothing like corporate leadership development. And yet what she knows about creatingpresence, vulnerability, and real connection in a group is exactly what leaders say they want for their teams — and almost never know how to build. I've been in Rachel's spaces. I've shown up with my arms crossed, looked like I didn't want to be there, and come back every single time. This episode is about why. Plus: Rachel channels a closing song live on the podcast. I asked. She delivered.

Find Rachel Kathryn Weber at: https://www.earthedempress.com/

Most managers are so focused on getting the work done, they never stop to ask: are we actually leaving room to do it well?

In this episode, I sit down with Reid — engineering manager, deeply well-read, and someone who introduced me to a concept I now can't stop thinking about: organizational slack. Not the chat app. The breathing room that separates a team that can think, create, and adapt from one that's just grinding toward collapse.

We get into why micromanagement is usually fear dressed up as accountability, the difference between being a manager and actually leading a team, and what Rasmussen's Drift model tells us about what happens when there's no buffer left in the system. We also talk motivation — why assuming your team is driven by the same things you are is one of the most common and costly mistakes a leader makes.

Plus: the case for being delusional, and why being a slacker might be the most underrated leadership skill of our time.

Learning to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

Every leader has said it: "I have an open door. Bring me your concerns." And then... nothing. No one comes. And yet somehow everybody's talking to everybody except the person they actually have an issue with. In this episode, I sit down with Danielle Loevy a mediator, executive coach, and former employment lawyer. We dig into why disagreement is a skill most of us prefer not to engage, why calling yourself "conflict avoidant" is a limiting label, and what's really happening when your team won't just talk to each other. Plus, she provides four pillars for actually getting good at disagreement. And yes, a foster dog makes a cameo.

Have you ever watched a murmuration of starlings? Thousands of birds, no leader, no plan — moving like one organism. That's not magic. That's emergence. And it's exactly what's happening on your team, whether you're paying attention or not.

This episode is about the invisible architecture of teams — the dynamics that form whether you design them or not. I walk through three layers of how team behavior actually develops, pull from Adrienne Maree Brown's Emergent Strategy, and revisit Kurt Lewin's counterintuitive finding: it's easier to change a group than to change an individual.

I tell two stories that made this real for me. The first: I went to a retreat, had a genuine transformation, came home — and my environment hadn't changed. The environment won. The second: I sat on a board where the defining norm was harmony. Don't disagree with the inner circle. I abstained from one vote. That was enough to break it.

Norms aren't rules. Nobody writes them down. But they run everything.

Most of us have been on teams our whole lives — sports teams, school projects, work groups — and still have no idea what a team actually is. Spoiler: most of what we call "teams" aren't. In this episode, I'm breaking down the difference between a working group and a real team, why interdependence is the thing that changes everything, and what researchers like Richard Hackman and Amy Edmondson actually mean when they talk about "teaming." It's more useful — and more unsettling — than the motivational poster version.

I also get honest about something personal: I grew up on sports teams and was sometimes a genuinely terrible teammate. Not because I didn't care — because I cared too much about the wrong things. If you've ever wondered why some groups click and others just... coexist — this one's for you

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessy-grossman/

@coachjessygrossman

zlncoaching.com

In this episode, Jessy Grossman and Amanda Hoffmann dive deep into the meaning of clarity — not as certainty or perfection, but as an ongoing practice of understanding, alignment, and curiosity.

Amanda shares her Core Alignment Model, a framework designed to help people reconnect with their identity, values, and aspirations—and to interrupt the growing epidemic of the borrowed self: the version of ourselves we adopt from others' expectations.

Rich, reflective, and refreshingly honest, this conversation will help you pause, notice, and reconnect. Learn more about Amanda Hoffmann's work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arhoffmann/

In this conversation, Katerina and Jessy explore the shiny, new ideas shaping the future of organizations—namely decentralization, democratized decision-making, and transparent information flow. Drawing on Katerina’s experience working inside emerging organizational structures and teaching on new technologies, they translate concepts from Web3, DAOs, and network-based leadership into practical lessons for leaders working in traditional companies today.

Together, they unpack why information sharing is becoming one of the most critical leadership skills, the strengths and limits of decentralized structures, and what corporate America can adopt (without needing a blockchain or token system). The conversation highlights the evolving role of leaders—not as answer-givers, but as connection-builders who create the conditions for people to collaborate, communicate, and make better decisions together.

As more organizations operate in complex, fast-changing environments, leaders are increasingly expected to orchestrate networks, not manage silos. This episode bridges the world of emerging organizational tech with real-world leadership challenges—and gives listeners practical ways to experiment with decentralized principles in their own teams.Learn more about Katerina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katerinabc/