ChatGMB: Wisdom & Insights for Modern Leaders

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...

Giving feedback is one of the hardest and most important parts of leadership. We overthink it, we avoid it, and sometimes we deliver it in ways that cause more harm than help. But feedback isn’t about criticism, it’s about connection, clarity, and care. In this episode, Marissa shares how to give feedback that helps people feel seen, not small. You’ll learn how to ground your feedback in compassio...

What do you do when it feels like your boss just doesn’t care about your goals? You’ve got ambitions, you’re working hard, and you’re trying to grow, but your manager chronically deprioritizes or ignores what matters most to you. Here’s the hard truth: it is part of a manager’s job to care about your growth, but sometimes they don’t. In this listener question episode, we offer thoughts, strategies...

Even the most confident leaders can spiral when someone points out a gap, mistake, or area for improvement. Our bodies tense, our brains defend, and suddenly we’re not listening, we’re deep in survival mode. In this episode, Marissa dives into: Why your body reacts to feedback like it’s danger, and what to do about it Five grounding moves to stay calm and open during tough feedback A clear framewo...

Episode Summary Managers are often promoted because they were great at their jobs, not because they were prepared to manage people. Too often, organizations assume that a one-off training or “big box” program will set new managers up for success. In reality, these approaches miss the mark and can erode trust, credibility, and team performance. In this episode, I unpack the most common mistakes I s...

Most of us have been both the person who has been triggered  and  the person who has unintentionally triggered someone else. So what do we do when harm happens, especially when it was unintentional? What’s fair? What does accountability look like? And how do you move toward repair? In this episode of ChatGMB , we explore one of the hardest (and most important) dynamics in modern wor...

Ugh! Feeling stuck! We all know that feeling. When you stare at your to-do list and can’t even pick a starting point, or when you’ve been in the same role for years and don’t see a path forward, or when you’re working toward change and it feels like you’re hitting wall after wall, or when you've been applying for jobs for months and just aren't landing anything. Perhaps you’re waiting for resource...

When a restructure is looming and everyone (including you) is freaking out, it’s easy to feel powerless as a middle manager. You may not control the decisions being made at the top, but you do shape how your team experiences this moment. In this listener question episode of ChatGMB , we share: How to protect psychological safety when stress and uncertainty are high. Ways to offer clarity without s...