Sorta Bossy

Every business dips. If yours hasn't yet, you just haven't been in it long enough. This week a listener asked one of the most real, vulnerable questions we've gotten: revenue is down, you need to let someone go, now what? How do you actually reabsorb their role without drowning, and how do you ramp back up when you're ready? Adrienne and Emily have both lived this. They get into the full picture,...

Dear Bossy is the advice column format of Sorta Bossy. Today's question, from an anonymous listener: "I send my team emails asking for updates, input, or confirmation, and half the time I just get nothing. I can see they read it, but they don't reply. Then I have to follow up in Slack or hunt them down in person, and suddenly they're like, yeah, I saw that. What am I supposed to do? Send a carrier...

Most leaders wait too long to fire. They hold on because it feels like the kind thing to do, or because they are not sure they have done enough, or because they just do not want to have the conversation. And the whole time, the rest of the team is paying for it. In this episode, Adrienne and Emily get into one of the hardest calls a leader has to make: when is it actually time to fire someone? The...

Welcome to Dear Bossy, our Sorta Bossy advice column! Adrienne and co-host Emily Doyle answer questions from listeners (all submitted anonymously) and pull real scenarios from the messy middle of managing people. Today's question, from an anonymous listener: "My manager uses AI for literally everything -- and I mean everything. She used ChatGPT for my performance review, wrote a farewell message f...

Most leaders don't set out to be people pleasers. But somewhere between wanting to be liked and trying to keep the peace, a pattern forms, and it becomes one of the most expensive habits a leader can have. In this episode, Adrienne and Emily get into why making everyone happy is not actually your job as a leader, what it costs you when you try, and how to make hard decisions with high care and zer...

Rachel Pedersen is a social media strategist, entrepreneur, and the kind of leader who will tell you exactly where she went wrong before she tells you what she got right. In the first-ever interview episode of Sorta Bossy, Adrienne sits down with her friend of nearly a decade to talk about what it actually looked like to build a team, blow it up (relationally speaking), and rebuild it into somethi...

Dear Bossy is the advice column format of Sorta Bossy. Think Dear Abby, but for real leadership situations. Adrienne and co-host Emily Doyle answer questions from listeners (all submitted anonymously) and pull real scenarios from the messy middle of managing people. Today's question, from an anonymous listener: "I have a team member who cries every time I try to give her feedback. Not harsh feedba...

Adrienne is joined by co-host and team member Emily Doyle for the first time, and they're diving into a topic that's deeply personal and deeply backed by research: why women leaders get labeled as cold, bossy, aggressive, or intimidating. and what's really going on underneath those labels. Adrienne shares the story of the first time she was called cold at age 21 or 22, in a group staff meeting , a...

If you've hired people, handed off tasks, and somehow still find everything coming back to you, this episode is the one you need. Host Adrienne Dorison breaks down why delegation isn't a skills problem. It's an identity problem. And no framework is going to fix that. This solo episode digs into the deeper psychological reason high performers struggle to let go, and what it actually takes to make t...

Most leaders were never actually taught how to lead, and this episode names that truth out loud. Host Adrienne Dorison opens Season 1 by diving into why so many of us ended up in leadership roles completely unprepared, and what we can do about it. Drawing on her years in corporate manufacturing and 15+ years in operational efficiency, Adrienne shares a candid story from her paper mill days, a rete...

Welcome to Sorta Bossy! If you found yourself in a leadership role without a roadmap, you're in the right place. Sorta Bossy is the podcast for managers, team leads, directors, and business owners who are figuring out leadership in real time, without the toxic boss energy. Host and operational efficiency expert (and co-founder of Run Like Clockwork, alongside Clockwork author Mike Michalowicz) pul...