ChatGMB: Wisdom & Insights for Modern Leaders

"I've given this person so much grace and flexibility, and nothing is changing." <-- If you've said some version of that (or you've been putting off a hard conversation because someone is going through a lot right now), this one's for you. Most of us use "grace" and "flexibility" to mean the same thing. They aren't the same thing, and confusing them is one of the most common reasons accountabil...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this inspiring conversation with Paul D. Daugherty about community, philanthropy, and what it means to lead with humility in a moment when everything is moving fast and the stakes couldn't be higher. Paul Daugherty is the CEO of Exponent Philanthropy , the country's largest philanthropy leadership organization, serving over 1,400 funders across all 50 states....

Our Summer Guest Series continues with one of the most personal episodes of the season. Allison Williams is President and CEO of Wyman , a St. Louis-based youth development organization on a mission to connect teens to their voices, their strengths, and their futures through proven programs. Allison was also Marissa's practicum supervisor in graduate school and someone Marissa regularly cites as o...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this rich, honest, and vulnerable conversation with Natalia Sanyal, a humanity-first marketer, brand messaging strategist, conversion copywriter, first-gen immigrant, 3rd-gen entrepreneur, and overall incredible human.  Today, we're exploring the thing most leaders and mission-driven founders dread: marketing themselves. But Natalia is not here to sell y...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with a conversation that felt less like an interview and more like watching someone become themselves in real time. Lorena Martinez is a social worker, program manager, first-generation American, and daughter of Colombian immigrants who has spent her career working at the intersection of community service, social justice, international affairs, and human potential...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with Theresa Nicholson, Executive Director of South Park Inn in Hartford, Connecticut. Theresa has spent more than 30 years advocating for and managing vital services for people experiencing homelessness and severe mental illness, working her way from case manager to vice president to executive director across some of the most complex social service organizations...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this rich, expansive, and radical conversation with Nina Everflow, a consultant, facilitator, and designer of exceptional, equitable, and effective learning experiences. Nina helps social impact organizations design wisdom systems that turn transformational expertise into lasting practices, shared knowledge, and healthier cultures. She's also one of my favori...

In today's installment of our Summer Guest Series, we are joined by Julia Pileggi, co-founder of The Boom Room , spoken word performer, and one of those incredible people who build the thing the world needs because the thing didn't exist yet. In this electric conversation, we dive deep into the gap between who we know ourselves to be and who actually shows up when things get hard, the science and...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this rich, warm, and wide-ranging conversation with Nakeesha Ceran — affectionately known as Keesha — Deputy Director of Teaching for Change , political scientist, first-generation Haitian American, proud community college graduate, connector of people, and one of my favorite humans. Keesha has been part of the Millennial Manager Collective for three years, a...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this wide-ranging conversation with Fielding Jezreel , Founder of Jezreel Consulting and the Federal Grants Accelerator , and one of the country's foremost federal grant experts. Fielding and I reconnected recently after going to grad school together many years ago, and in this episode, we discover just how many parallels run through our stories, including to...

Our Summer Guest Series continues with this profound, energizing, and a-little-silly conversation with D'Juan Wilcher, a Navy veteran, a distinguished alum of Indiana University, and Deputy Director at the George W. Bush Presidential Center , where his work spans veteran economic opportunity, education pathways, mental health, and civic engagement. He's also a first-generation college student from...

What makes a great facilitator, an effective leader, and a strong network? According to this week's guest, the answer to all three is the same: strong relationships and deep curiosity. In this episode, I sit down with Brad Lademann, Associate Director of Quality Initiatives at the Missouri AfterSchool Network, where he has spent 11 years supporting after-school professionals across the state throu...

What if the thing standing between you and sustainable leadership isn't your mindset, your strategy, or your time management, but your physiology ? In this episode, I sit down with Blessing Uchendu , a licensed clinical social worker and somatic leadership coach who spent nearly 20 years in social work before bringing that clinical depth into coaching high-achieving women leaders. Together, we exp...

This episode of ChatGMB Wisdom and Insights for Modern Leaders is a little different because it's a conversation between Marissa and someone she coached. Brittany Rodriguez is the Senior Director of Programs at Hartford Youth Scholars , a college-access organization in Hartford, Connecticut, where she's worked for 9 years and was once a student herself. Marissa coached Brittany through FiveFrogs '...

In this episode of ChatGMB, Marissa talks with Elaine Lin Hering, speaker, facilitator, former lecturer at Harvard Law School, and author of the USA Today bestseller Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully . The conversation is both personal and practical, with a central premise that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, obstacles to good leadership, healt...

What do a closed office bathroom, a years-long sidewalk construction project, and a surprise $1,000 windfall have in common? They're all examples of disruptive change, and disruption, even when it's positive, carries a real cost for people, strategy, and outcomes. In this episode, Marissa speaks with Caitlin Harper, founder and principal strategist at Commcoterie , to dig into her work as a change...

Should you leave a job that no longer feels aligned or an organization that is dysfunctional or toxic? Or is it okay to stay, even when things are messy, frustrating, toxic, or less than ideal? In this episode, we tackle a question that has come up multiple times in our community this month: "Am I gross for staying?" Whether you're considering a job change, feeling trapped by circumstances, or try...

Lindsey Lerner is one of those people who makes you feel like the conversation you're having is the most important one you've had all week. She's an artist, documentarian, TED speaker, and creator of Field Notes from the Work (and the Wild ), a project documenting the unseen rituals, invisible processes, and quiet realities that fuel creativity, community, and change. She's spent nearly two decade...

Laura Goldstein and I met during pre-orientation week at Franklin & Marshall College, both of us drawn to community service before we could possibly know what that meant for our careers or futures. We lost touch for over a decade, reconnected through the magic of millennial social media lurking, and have ended up doing meaningful work together. She's attended our public retreats, brought me in...

So many leaders I work with and talk to fear micromanaging or surveilling their teammates. And that's good because nobody should be micromanaged or surveilled. Today's episode is all about how "I don't want to micromanage" is often an excuse for under-managing or not managing at all. Most of the time, when people say this, what they're actually describing is just... management. So where's the line...

You've heard it a thousand times: put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others. It sounds wise. It sounds right. But what if this well-meaning metaphor is actually making burnout (and burnout culture) worse?! In this episode, I get on my soapbox about the oxygen mask metaphor, including what it gets right, what it gets dangerously wrong, and why I think we need something better. You'll hear...

If you've ever been in a conversation at work where you could feel a gap and had no idea how to close it, this episode is for you. Bridge communication isn't about giving in or making everything comfortable. It's about having the language and tools to build bridges (sometimes one plank at a time) between feelings, perspectives, and intentions. In this episode, we cover seven communication bridges...

After our last episode, "Managers Are Not Therapists," hit a nerve, people started reaching out with validation and more questions: "But now what?" "Do I just... ignore what people are going through? Do I pretend I don't see it?" "Do I keep it moving and act like everything is fine?" This episode is the answer. I want you to walk away knowing in your bones that your leadership can be genuinely hea...

A lot of workplaces and leaders are trying to do better when it comes to emotions, and in many cases, we’ve swung a little too far. If emotional expression on your team feels blurry, heavy, or harder than it should… this episode is for you. We’re unpacking what it actually looks like to create a human-centered workplace without turning work into group therapy and without expecting managers to be t...

Few things derail momentum faster than a manager who changes direction constantly. One day it’s Project A, the next it’s Project B, and by Friday (or lunchtime) you’re left wondering if anything you’ve done all week will stick. It’s frustrating, exhausting, and it can erode trust and psychological safety over time. This is a listener question episode dedicated to Alisa. We unpack practical strateg...