Kristiana Corona
We've built workplaces that celebrate performance, but they neglect connection. And in this environment, loneliness becomes a quiet epidemic of leadership. Ever feel like everyone else has leadership figured out, and you're just making it up as you go? I've been there. I spent two decades leading design and technology teams at Fortune 500 companies, and for years, I looked like I had everything pulled together on the outside, but on the inside, I felt burned out, overwhelmed, and unworthy of the title leader.
Then a surprise encounter with executive coaching changed my life and dramatically improved my leadership style and my results. Now I help others make that same shift in their leadership. This podcast is where we do the work, building the mindset, the coaching skills, and the confidence to lead with clarity and authenticity, and to finally feel worthy to lead from the inside out.
Hey friends, it's Kristiana. Welcome back to The Worthy To Lead Podcast. If you've ever looked around work and realized that you don't have someone to talk to about the tough stuff, the pressure, the stress, politics, you're not alone. In fact, a recent Gallup report showed that nearly 40% of professionals do not have a single friend at work.
And that breaks my heart, first of all, because all of my favorite accomplishments over the past 23 years were with people I loved working with and who became lifelong friends. And secondly, when we lose that connection. The weight of leadership gets heavy really fast. We start showing up to every meeting with our invisible armor on.
We focus on defending ourselves instead of being open and curious like you are in conversations with friends. We juggle different emotions, but we don't really have a safe place to process them. So often, what happens is we'll bring them home and vent to our loved ones, which isn't always a healthy thing.
We convince ourselves that we just need the grit to push through that pain. After all, this is leadership. That's what we signed up for, right? Here's the thing. This doesn't have to be your experience. If this is you, I want you to know that leadership doesn't have to be lonely anymore, and it doesn't have to be a grind.
That's what I wanna talk about today. In this episode, we're gonna cover how coaching skills transform my leadership from exhaustion to confidence. And it also created more connections than ever on how leaders can build C-Suite level skills without losing their humanity. And I'll give you a peek inside the core leadership lab where leaders learn together and support each other every step of the way.
And why real growth, the kind that lasts, happens in community. Let's dive in. So over the past few months, I've had so many conversations with leaders that sounded like this. I'm tired. Not just physically tired, but emotionally spent leaders in the middle of corporate managers, senior managers, directors, senior directors, and even VPs are under more pressure now than ever.
They're navigating corporate reorgs, massive layoffs, and constantly shifting priorities. They're trying to hold it all together for their teams while silently wondering who is holding space for them. While AI is reshaping the workplace and budgets are tightening, and job competition is increasing, many leaders feel stuck and they're just not sure how they're gonna keep growing in a system that is shifting beneath them.
Three out of four leaders are experiencing burnout, which is probably not a surprise, and only one in five actually feels like their organization is helping them to grow. As a people leader, we've built workplaces that celebrate performance, but they neglect connection. And in this environment, loneliness becomes a quiet epidemic of leadership.
Seeing leaders stretch too thin with little to no support does not sit well with me, which is why I'm determined to see this change. I wasn't born knowing how to lead. I had to learn the hard way. And early in my career, I was promoted to a leadership role after having a strong track record as an individual contributor.
And because I could think strategically, but I had no management training. So I applied what I thought was good practice to people management, and found out I was wrong. I said yes to everything. I was involved in every meeting and every decision, and meanwhile, my team was waiting for me to solve every problem because I had positioned myself as the lead problem solver.
I went from being a high-performing IC to a complete bottleneck as a manager. I was exhausted from trying to be everywhere at once. I was frustrated, and I was convinced that leadership just meant sacrificing yourself and working 60 to 80 hours a week. How do people even do this? I was thinking. Then in 2016, everything changed.
I watched a live coaching demo as part of a leadership training. And for 45 minutes, I saw a confused and frustrated leader go through a complete mental transformation and come out of that session with confidence and an action plan without having been given a single piece of advice. The coach did nothing but ask questions.
It was so powerful. I felt like it was actually magic, and I remember my jaw hitting the floor. It was the first time I realized leadership doesn't have to be about control. It's about empowering others to help them think for themselves. And when I started using those coaching skills with my team, everything shifted.
I stopped giving step-by-step instructions, and I started communicating strategic intent. I listened more. I asked better questions, and I created space for my team to step in and take the lead. They became more confident and more capable. I became less reactive and more focused on high-level strategy, and for the first time, I could take a vacation knowing that they would be just fine without me.
Coaching didn't just save my sanity. It reshaped my leadership and my results. Teaching Leaders Coaching Skills is now a core part of my business and of our membership for leaders called the Core Leadership Lab. Over the past few months, we have been quietly running a pilot with over 50 human-centered leaders, testing, learning, refining, and something really beautiful has happened.
People started showing up not just for the leadership skills, but for each other. We've been connecting across companies and time zones, sharing stories, and realizing, you know what? They're not the only ones who are trying to lead with heart in a high-pressure environment. One of our pilot members said it perfectly.
This is not like other programs. It's personal. People are open, they're honest, and they genuinely wanna see each other grow. And that's really what it's all about. It's not about performance. It's about having a place where you can truly be yourself and show up. Because right now leadership development needs a reset.
A recent McKinsey survey found that 70% of executives believe that the biggest skill gap in their organization is leadership capability. And yet the most training programs still teach people to manage and not to lead. We don't need more standardized courses. What we need is learning and community. We need to be able to discuss important issues, to share failures, to ask each other how would you handle this situation, and to evolve together to handle whatever disruptive futures are coming.
And that is why I created the Core Leadership Lab to help leaders develop C-Suite-level leadership skills and critical thinking without giving up their humanity. We focus on developing human-centered leaders who are strategic people who can connect their ideas and their messages to the highest levels of the organization, and then coach others to do the same.
Because you don't have to choose between being people-first and being performance-driven. You can develop both sides. Here's the thing: when corporate budgets dry up and your company's focus shifts, I don't want you to be left on an island. I want you to be equipped to shape your own career so that no one else shapes it for you.
If you're feeling the ripple effects of continuous reorgs and layoffs, and the pressure to do more with less, this membership is designed for you. It's a space for leaders in the middle, the ones who are carrying it all and holding everyone together, to finally have a place to be invested in, to be valued and recharged.
It's a membership program focused on the things that really move the needle. Executive influence communication, coaching your team effectively, and building your personal brand. We don't just provide tools and templates. We provide a mental model, coaching, and the community that translates that into real results because leadership today isn't just about managing output; it's about influencing outcomes.
Building trust and coaching others to think at the next level. So let's take a moment and talk about what's coming up next. In the core leadership lab, we've got a live session that I'm really excited about. On December 5th, we have a coaching masterclass called Leading with Curiosity, master Coaching Skills that Transform Teams.
We're gonna dive into specifics on how to show up in coaching conversations with curiosity instead of judgment, which is really hard to do sometimes, and how to gracefully hold space for those tough emotions. And how do you start using them instead of being afraid of those emotions? How to start using them as data.
We'll have a hot seat, which is a live demo of executive coaching where a member can bring a real leadership challenge and work through it in front of their peers while being coached by me. You'll leave with a step-by-step coaching guide and checklist that will help you build confidence in coaching as a leader.
This session is open to all core Leadership Lab members, and it's where the transformation happens. We hope that you'll join us, and if you've been listening to this podcast and nodding along, thinking, I think I want this kind of support, consider this Your Sign. The Core Leadership Lab is open for enrollment right now.
You get access to live trainings, on-demand courses, and a community of exceptional, supportive leaders. And if you join by December 5th, you'll also get my bonus masterclass, becoming a LinkedIn thought leader. This is where I'll teach you how to elevate your profile, how to grow your influence, and to share your voice confidently online to attract those dream opportunities to you.
You can learn more or join us at worthytolead.co/member. And the truth is, you do not have to lead alone. You don't have to be the one who has it all figured out. You just need a space that reminds you of who you are, what you value, and what is possible when you do it in community. The world doesn't need more burnt-out leaders.
It needs you at your best, and I'd love to support you in that journey. See you inside the Core Leadership Lab to join us. Go to Worthy to lead.co. Slash member, and if you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to subscribe so you get all the new episodes as I release them. You can subscribe at worthytolead.co/subscribe, and please do share this with friends and fellow leaders who need some extra support during this difficult time.
Until next time, keep showing up. Keep doing the work that matters and keep leading like you're worthy to lead because you are. Bye for now.
