You can feel it in your team: everyone’s nice… but no one’s honest. Real opinions happen in side chats, gossip is normal, and you’re overcommitting and burning out trying to “keep the peace.” If you’ve ever thought, “Why won’t my team just say what they really think?” or “Why am I the only one holding everything together?” — this episode is for you.

In Part 2 of this series on The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, Desiree and Tessa focus on three to help you stay calm and grounded.

• Speaking candidly (without blowing things up)
  How to pair candor + care so you can say the hard thing while still protecting trust.
• Eliminating gossip
  Why “venting” keeps you stuck and how leaders accidentally encourage it.
• Practicing integrity so you stop overpromising
  Getting real about people-pleasing, overcommitting, and dropping balls.

You’ll also hear:

• The difference between appreciation & validation
• Easy ways to show meaningful appreciation
• How these commitments work together to help your team be honest & direct

After listening, choose one conversation you’ve been avoiding and ask: “How can I bring candor, integrity, and appreciation into this so I feel more in control?”

Links Mentioned:
● The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
● Radical Candor by Kim Scott
● The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Most leaders want to lead with clarity,but in real life, it’s easy to slip into blame, defensiveness, people-pleasing, or overwhelm. You’re trying your best, yet you’re drained and stuck in the same patterns with your team.

In this episode, Desiree and leadership consultant Tessa break down the first three commitments of Conscious Leadership—taking 100% responsibility, choosing curiosity, and feeling your feelings—and how these shift you from reactive to grounded.

You’ll learn:

• What “above the line vs. below the line” looks like in real conversations
• How to take responsibility without becoming the hero or victim
• How curiosity instantly lowers defensiveness
• Why naming emotions boosts trust and presence

If you want to be a calmer, more intentional leader, these three commitments are the foundation.

Try this:
Pick one current issue and ask:

1. How did I contribute?
2. What am I curious about?
3. What am I feeling right now?

Key Takeaways:

• Responsibility = ownership, not blame
• Curiosity opens the door to real dialogue
• Your emotions don’t disqualify you—avoiding them does

Links Mentioned:
● The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

● The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

● Radical Candor by Kim Scott

● Soundtracks by Jon Acuff

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Most people hear the word “gratitude” and think of journaling or writing lists. But for leaders, gratitude is something much deeper, it’s a shift in how you show up at work, how you navigate pressure, and how you lead your team through tough moments.

The truth is, many leaders operate in constant survival mode. You’re reacting, firefighting, carrying the emotional weight of your team, and trying to stay composed even when you’re stretched thin. And when that becomes normal, confidence drops, relationships strain, and work starts feeling heavier than it should.

In this episode, Desiree Petrich breaks down four ways gratitude strengthens your leadership identity, improves team dynamics, and creates a healthier work environment. These perspectives will help you handle difficult employees, build trust faster, reduce conflict, and lead with more steadiness — without needing to pretend everything is fine or write in a gratitude journal every morning.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:

• How gratitude shifts you out of survival mode so you stop leading from stress and start leading from clarity
• Why gratitude builds self-awareness and helps you see your patterns, your growth, and the moments you should acknowledge in yourself
• How gratitude strengthens executive presence, helping you show up calmer, more grounded, and more influential in meetings
• Why gratitude protects your leadership energy, giving you more capacity to handle team dynamics, conflict, accountability, and tough conversations

If you want to be a more confident leader, build trust, and strengthen the culture around you — gratitude is one of the simplest, most powerful tools you can practice.

When you finish listening:
Choose one moment today to practice active appreciation. Say out loud something you’re grateful for in yourself, in a teammate, or in the effort it took to get through a hard moment. This is where real leadership transformation begins.

1. Gratitude stabilizes your leadership state so you’re not leading from urgency or overwhelm.
2. Gratitude sharpens self-awareness, which improves communication, delegation, and accountability.
3. Gratitude strengthens executive presence and helps you show up calmer and more confident.
4. Gratitude protects your leadership energy so you can handle difficult employees, conflict, and pressure without burning out.

Practice one moment o

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Communication at work is starting to feel artificial. In this episode, we break down how leaders can use human fluency to build trust, create psychological safety, and communicate with clarity without losing professionalism.

Have you ever left a meeting wondering if anyone actually said what they meant?

If so, you're not alone. Remote work, AI tools, and the pressure to “sound professional” are creating communication that looks polished on the outside but lacks honesty on the inside. And when communication feels more like performance than collaboration, team dynamics break down, trust erodes, and even your best employees start pulling back.

In this episode, I’m joined by Nadine Lavigne to talk about human fluency and why it’s becoming one of the most important skills in modern leadership.
If you want to fix a toxic culture, rebuild trust, communicate with more confidence, and create psychological safety without becoming overly casual or losing authority, this conversation is for you.

Last week, we talked about rebuilding trust when workplace drama takes over a team.
This week, we’re taking the next step and getting to the root of why communication feels strained on so many teams right now.

We unpack what it actually looks like to sound like a human at work again so you can lead more effective meetings, handle conflict with confidence, and build a team that communicates honestly instead of politely.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
• Why leaders today need human fluency to build trust, connection, and credibility
• How to stay authentic without losing authority or professionalism
• Simple communication shifts that create psychological safety and reduce conflict
• The role AI can play in improving—not replacing—real human leadership
• Why “polite” teams often struggle more with accountability, follow-through, and conflict
• How human fluency helps you handle difficult employees and fix communication breakdowns
• New manager tips you can use immediately to improve team conversations, clarity, and expectations

Connect with Nadine on LinkedIn

Nadine Lavigne is a partner in the Talent Development space, a leadership coach, speaker, facilitator and founder of BeREAL Partners.With over 20 years in corporate leadership roles at GE, Boeing, and various tech companies like IBM, she now helps individuals and teams lead with more authenticity, trust, and purpose. Nadine is passi

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Take your DISC or Working Genius assessment

Your team finally hits its stride, but how do you keep it that way? Learn the simple mindset that prevents conflict before it starts, builds trust fast, and keeps meetings focused. Practical scripts you can use today.

Last week we talked about five steps to turn workplace drama into team trust. The week before that, how to handle a negative employee. Today we protect those gains by shifting how you show up, before issues grow.

Teams slip back into artificial harmony, side conversations, and missed expectations. Leaders either jump to conclusions or avoid hard talks, and meetings drag without decisions.

Pain points
• Circular, low-energy meetings and quiet disengagement
• Second-guessing intentions and reacting to incomplete stories
• Pressure to have all the answers as a new manager

Solution
Lead with curiosity. Desiree breaks it into four practical habits you can model and coach:

1. Assume positive intent to create space before you respond.
2. Encourage the right kind of conflict so passion fuels progress, not drama.
3. Test the story you’re telling yourself to get out of assumptions and into facts.
4. Ask better, smaller questions like “What am I missing?”, “What does success look like for you?”, and “What’s getting in your way?”, so people own the outcome.

You’ll also hear how personality wiring (DISC and Working Genius) affects your default reactions, and why curiosity beats certainty when you want a team that’s engaged, accountable, and drama-free.

Key Takeaways
• Curiosity before conclusions keeps conflict constructive.
• Treat conflict as feedback to solve the real issue, not the symptoms.
• Small, open questions unlock clarity, buy-in, and faster decisions.

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Workplace conflict doesn’t just disappear, it spreads. Learn five practical steps to rebuild trust, strengthen communication, and fix a toxic culture so your team can perform at its best.

If you’ve ever walked into a meeting and felt the tension before anyone said a word, this episode is for you.

When workplace drama turns into silence, gossip, or passive-aggressive behavior, you’re not just managing conflict, you’re managing culture.

In this episode of You’re the Boss, Now What?, leadership coach Desiree Petrich shares the five steps she uses when she’s brought in to help teams rebuild trust and communication after conflict has taken root.

You’ll learn how to transform team tension into connection and turn uncomfortable conversations into meaningful progress. These are the same frameworks Desiree uses inside her leadership coaching and team development workshops, designed to help leaders protect their team’s energy and build healthy, high-performing workplaces.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How to identify when workplace tension has turned into toxicity
• The right way to “clear the air” without losing control of the conversation
• How self-awareness and behavioral tools (like DISC or Working Genius) reduce friction
• Why creating a shared team language makes accountability easier
• How vulnerability and consistency build long-term trust
• A simple monthly rhythm to keep conflict healthy and communication strong

Key Takeaways

• Conflict handled early builds trust. Avoiding it just builds resentment.
• Awareness dissolves drama. When people understand each other, tension loses power.
• Trust is a practice, not a project. It’s built through consistent, honest conversations.

Leadership Game Questions

• What are three things our team does well, and what are three things we could do better?
• What is one challenge we are currentlyl facing as a team? What can we change in ourselves to improve our situation?
• What group of people do we need to be more intentional about listening to? (Employees / Clients / Customers / Shareholders / Ambassadors / etc.)
• What makes a day successful for you?

"Keep the Conversation Going" Questions

1. What's working?

2. Where are we drifting from who we said we'd be?

3. What do we need to talk about before it turns into tension?

And if you’d like help facilitating these conversations, this is

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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One negative employee can tank performance by 30 to 40 percent. Learn how to tell the difference between realism and pessimism, protect team dynamics, and know when it’s time to let someone go with confidence.

Last week we talked about imposter syndrome, storytelling, and executive presence with a communication Matt Mosich. This week we shift from the stories in your head to the stories on your team.

If you’ve inherited a high performer who drags down morale, you’re not alone. Many first-time managers avoid action because conflict feels risky and backfilling is hard. Meanwhile, your best people consider leaving.

In this episode, we unpack the root causes behind “negativity” and why not all pushback is toxic. You’ll learn how to spot the difference between a realist who’s trying to protect the team and a pessimist who drains it, how to coach for better behavior, and how to document impact so HR conversations are clear and actionable. You’ll also get three reflection questions to help you decide if it’s time to let someone go.

Key Takeaways
• Realism vs pessimism: identify intent, not just tone, so you don’t label constructive risk checks as negativity.

• Coachable or contagious: use behavior impact and willingness to change to decide your next step.

• Protect the team’s energy: leaders keep culture by addressing harmful behavior early and documenting impact, not just attitude.

Want help understanding your team’s default styles so meetings stop derailing and decisions stick? Take a quick self-awareness assessment and explore DISC or Working Genius for your team at intentionalaction.net/self-awareness.

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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If you’ve ever felt like you don’t belong in your leadership role — or that you’re just “faking it” — you’re not alone.
This episode will show you how to stop letting imposter syndrome run the show and start leading with presence and authority.

Matt, an executive communication and storytelling coach, shares how he went from hiding behind self-doubt to helping CEOs and founders find their voice — and how you can do the same.

By the time you finish listening, you’ll discover:

• How to identify the stories holding you back and rewrite them
• What confidence actually is and how to access it before any meeting
• A simple storytelling framework to build trust fast with your team

Key Takeaways

• Confidence isn’t a feeling — it’s a choice you practice daily.
• Your story shapes how you lead. Rewrite it to reflect the leader you’re becoming.
• Storytelling builds trust faster than authority alone ever could.

Connect with Matt on Linkedin

Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Take the DISC or Working Genius Assessment and get a FREE 20 minutes debrief with Desiree

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Connect: Linked In | Instagram | Website