Shameless Leadership

Does visibility follow opportunities, or do opportunities follow visibility? The (perhaps hard) truth is that the opportunities you desire likely require visibility first. And… Creating that visibility lands squarely on you. Most people aren’t randomly discovered for their talent and unique perspective. The people who are platformed and promoted have intentionally and strategically made themselves visible enough to be discovered. Do you find yourself thinking: I'd like to have a greater impact I'd like to be recognized for my expertise I'd like to be considered for bigger opportunities I'd like more influence I'd like to be known for something I’d like to be seen as the hands-down best candidate for a new role Right now, the leaders who are getting invited into bigger conversations aren't necessarily the smartest, most credentialed, or most decorated people in the room. They're often the people who have done the work of clarifying what they stand for, what they know, and how they want to contribute. In this episode, I walk you through the exact steps to become more of a go-to voice in your industry. You may be thinking you need more experience or education before positioning yourself as an expert in your field. Nope. You’re already ready. Promise. I have no doubt your unique blend of education/experience/talent/perspective qualifies you to stand out in some way. So, let’s figure out how you can leverage that, shall we? Using my 5-step Authority Ascension Framework, you will move from Competence (owning your expertise, experience, and unique POV) to Clarity (your unique thought leadership framework) to Contributing (actually becoming more visible in various ways) to Confirmed Credibility (becoming known and trusted by others), and finally, to Called Upon (people coming to you with opportunities!) We will also spend some time digging into how women miss the mark with visibility and leave the door wide open for others to take up the spaces they are ready and qualified to fill. This will help you see and understand the (likely arbitrary, if not completely made up) rules you are letting hold you back. Major opportunities are often built from dozens of small visibility moments. This episode will help you position yourself for those little and not-so-little moments, from building your own content and frameworks to facilitating different kinds of conversations to speaking at events to mentoring others to getting interviews to getting published and more. Links Mentioned: June 24th Free Workshop: The Future-Proof Leader: Why Your Thought Leadership Matters Significantly More in the Age of AI: https://saradean.com/future/ Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perhaps we need to stop celebrating resilience. Because we may actually be celebrating toxic resilience. Hear me out. In the corporate world, telling a woman she is resilient is often just a polite way of saying, “We are going to give you an impossible workload, broken systems, and no support… and we expect you to smile through it.” In fact, if you’re complimenting my resilience, I may question if you were complicit in building and upholding the systems that made my resilience mandatory when yours was not. Somewhere along the way, resilience became high praise for women in leadership. But too often it’s code for “Figure it out, we’re not going to fix this.” Women are expected to absorb dysfunction, manage emotional labor, navigate bias, and hold everything together without complaint. When resilience becomes a requirement instead of a choice, it stops being empowering and starts being extractive. The truth is, many women develop extraordinary resilience not because they lack capability, but because they are operating inside systems that demand more from them than from their male counterparts. They are expected to be competent but warm, assertive but not threatening, and ambitious but endlessly accommodating. So they adapt. They endure. They carry. And then they’re praised for how well they survive conditions that were never equitable to begin with. But endurance is not the same as leadership strength. Endurance drains creativity, dulls voice, and quietly normalizes what should actually be challenged. Resilience is an important skill, but it should not be constantly taxed. Real leadership isn’t about how much you can tolerate - it’s about what you’re willing to transform. Instead of asking women to be more resilient, we should be asking why the system requires so much resilience in the first place. Sustainable leadership includes boundaries, advocacy, and the courage to disrupt what isn’t working. Sometimes the most powerful move a woman can make isn’t proving she can handle it. It’s refusing to carry what was never hers to hold. Links Mentioned: Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the world feels heavy and chaotic, I hear the same question from leaders over and over again: “What do I say?” In this episode, I talk about why that question matters and why saying nothing can be just as harmful as saying the wrong thing. When the people we lead are overwhelmed, grieving, angry, or exhausted, pretending it’s business as usual erodes trust and undermines our integrity as leaders. You don’t need perfect words or a polished message, but you do need the willingness to name the moment and lead with humility and humanity. What people truly need right now is trust, transparency, connection, and a sense of meaning in their work. This episode offers examples of what leaders can say to help people feel seen, supported, and safe, while still moving forward with compassion and grace. I share practical language leaders can use during tough days, weeks, or seasons - words that honor the moment without asking people to perform or explain their pain. These are ways you can acknowledge the reality of the moment without having to do a deep dive into sensitive topics. I also name what inclusive leadership requires beyond empathy. Trauma and systemic harm are not new for many people, and leaders need to be mindful not to center their own shock or selectively extend compassion. This conversation is an invitation to recognize privilege and power, elevate Black and brown voices and experiences, and act with integrity when neutrality could erode trust and integrity. Rest assured, you don’t need to be an expert on the issues at the center of global politics. You don’t need to be a therapist. You just need to show up as a human who demonstrates awareness and compassion. Sometimes the most powerful thing a leader can say is simply: I see this. I see you. You are not alone. Links Mentioned: Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leadership in 2026 is asking more of us. But, not necessarily in volume, output, or productivity. It’s asking more from us in terms of depth, awareness, nuance, and intentionality. The old leadership rules simply aren’t holding anymore - which is a good thing! In this episode, I break down six leadership trends I’m seeing shift in real time and what they mean for how we communicate, build trust, measure success, and lead humans through complexity and change. Shift 1: Control >>> Adaptability: Leadership power is shifting from control to adaptability, where flexibility, responsiveness, and calm under constant change matter more than rigid authority. Shift 2: Output-Focused >>> Wellbeing-Centered: Burnout leadership is giving way to sustainable leadership, where boundaries, emotional regulation, and long-term stamina are performance indicators, calling leaders to separate self-worth from output and productivity. Shift 3: Information Hoarding >>> Transparent Communication: Trust now depends on transparent communication, where leaders openly share what they know, name what they don’t, and commit to frequent and consistent communication rather than gatekeeping. Shift 4: Information Access Point >>> Insight Provider: With AI at our fingertips, leaders are valued less for sharing information and facts that people can find on their own and more for providing insight by connecting dots, adding nuance, and offering a unique point of view. Shift 5: Individual Achievement >>> Collective Wins: Leadership success is moving from individual advancement to collective wins, where authority is shared, responsibility is distributed, and progress and success are measured by how people rise together. Shift 6: Skill-Based Presence >>> Identity-Aware Influence: Leaders are increasingly expected to lead with identity awareness, cultural humility, and equity literacy, shifting the focus from representation to true belonging, trust, and psychological safety. These shifts aren’t about becoming a “better” leader in the traditional sense. They’re about becoming a more honest, adaptive, authentic, and human one. In 2026, the leaders who will have the greatest impact are those willing to let go of outdated metrics and practices, lead with clarity and care, and create environments where people don’t just perform, but actually belong, grow, and stay. Links Mentioned: Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Lean In and McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace 2025 report claims that, for the first time, women are less likely than men to want a promotion, stating that 80% of women want to be promoted to the next level, compared to 86% of men. They label this development an “ambition gap”, stating that women are currently less ambitious than men. This label is wildly inaccurate, deeply offensive, and grossly irresponsible. Calling these findings an “ambition gap” is strategic reframing that places blame back on women, per usual, while letting broken systems (and the power players who uphold them) off the hook. When powerful institutions confuse correlation with causation and misdiagnose the problem like this, women pay the price. Again. These kinds of reports shape policy, leadership decisions, funding priorities, and how women are talked about at work. This label is not ok. It is harmful. The report assumes ambition is singular and linear, defined by traditional corporate ascent, and treats women’s slower advancement or disengagement as a personal failure instead of a rational response to inequitable systems and poor resource allocation. Most critically, the report ignores caregiving realities entirely. You cannot meaningfully analyze women’s ambition in 2025 without examining care infrastructures - or lack thereof. Choosing to ignore this is a distortion of reality. In other words, this is gaslighting. In this episode, I highlight other voices and data that were conveniently ignored. This counter data shows us what we already know - women are more ambitious than ever. Rather than seeking out a deeper understanding of the data, Lean In and McKinsey opted to report dirty diagnostics. What we know about data analysis is that to get to the real why, you have to dig deeper, think critically, and ask crucial questions of the actual people impacted. This didn’t happen with this reporting. When you actually talk to women, the situation is clear. We are no longer willing to self-abandon inside systems that refuse to evolve. We know that to get to the reported 80%, we were required to work exponentially harder with fewer resources. This is proof of our ambition, resilience, and talent, not lack thereof. The headline is not about an ambition gap. The headline is that women are growing, evolving, and working smarter while institutions largely are not. In reality, what we are seeing is an institutional gap, a patriarchal gap, and a systems gap. The bottom line is this… If we want to truly understand the evolution of women’s ambition, we need to start by examining the systems that punish it. Links Mentioned: Lean In and McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace 2025: https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace Blessing Adesiyan on the Care Gap:https://thecaregap.substack.com/ More about Blessing Adesiyan: https://blessingadesiyan.com/ Chief and Harris Poll Data on Women’s Ambition: https://chief.com/articles/calling-bs-on-the-myth-of-womens-fading-ambition [Open Enrollment] Join Sara’s Aligned Leadership Incubator: saradean.com/aligned Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices