222. The Power of a Leadership Reset

What happens when a team loses momentum, motivation fades, or old ways of working no longer serve the business?

In this episode, Sue shares two real-world coaching scenarios that highlight the importance of recognizing when a team needs a reset. Whether you're leading a team through a long-term initiative that's lost energy or navigating a leadership transition that requires new ways of working, a thoughtful reset can create clarity, trust, collaboration, and renewed commitment.

Sue explores practical ways leaders can bring teams back together, reconnect people to purpose, and create an environment where trust, curiosity, and shared success can thrive.

Episode Highlights

• Why team motivation often fades over time—and how leaders can restore it
• The critical role purpose and "why" play in sustaining engagement
• How leadership transitions create opportunities to redefine team culture
• Why breaking down silos leads to stronger collaboration and better decision-making
• The value of using Start, Stop, Continue conversations to reset team dynamics
• How vulnerability helps leaders build trust during periods of change
• Why great leaders operate in the "gray" instead of assuming they have all the answers
• How standing for each other's success creates stronger leadership teams
• Ways to recognize when your team is stuck and needs a reset conversation
• How team resets can become powerful visibility and leadership opportunities

Connect with Susan M. Barber

If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader navigating change inside their organization.

You can also connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations.

https://susanmbarber.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

221. Leading Through Difficult Performance Conversations

In this episode of The Visibility Factor Podcast, Susan M. Barber shares real-world leadership scenarios she has been discussing with coaching clients as mid-year reviews approach. She breaks down how leaders can have more transparent, strategic, and growth-focused conversations with team members about promotion readiness, performance expectations, and development opportunities.

Sue explains why time in role alone does not determine readiness for advancement and why consistency, demonstrated competencies, and visibility matter more than assumptions or tenure. She also discusses how leaders can support employees by clearly identifying gaps, creating development opportunities, and delivering honest feedback in a way that builds trust rather than discouragement.

This episode is especially valuable for new leaders, people managers, and anyone navigating difficult performance conversations with their teams.

Episode Highlights

• Why many employees mistakenly equate tenure with promotion readiness
• The importance of demonstrating competencies consistently
• How to remove subjectivity from performance conversations
• What leaders should do when previous managers created unrealistic expectations
• Ways to help employees gain visibility with senior leadership
• Why promoting someone too early can ultimately hurt their confidence and success
• How transparency strengthens trust and development

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Connect with Susan M. Barber

If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader navigating change inside their organization.

You can also connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations.

https://susanmbarber.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

220. Breaking Free from the Habit of Solving Everyone Else’s Problems (with Leah Marone)

In this episode of The Visibility Factor Podcast, Susan M. Barber sits down with psychotherapist, speaker, and author Leah Marone to discuss the hidden cost of constantly helping, fixing, and rescuing everyone around us. Leah shares insights from her book, Serial Fixer: Break Free from the Habit of Solving Other People’s Problems, and explains how high achievers, leaders, parents, and compassionate professionals often become trapped in cycles of over-functioning, burnout, resentment, and emotional exhaustion.

Together, Susan and Leah unpack the difference between helping and fixing, why boundaries feel so difficult, and how many people unknowingly tie their self-worth to being needed. They also explore how emotional intelligence can sometimes lead us to overextend ourselves and why slowing down, becoming present, and asking better questions can transform our relationships and leadership.

Key Takeaways

• The difference between helping and fixing - and why many leaders confuse the two
• Why resentment is often a sign that boundaries are missing
• The hidden connection between self-worth and being “needed”
• How “serial fixing” shows up at work, at home, and in leadership
• The three common serial fixer types
• Why control can sometimes disguise itself as compassion
• The importance of slowing down instead of reacting immediately
• How toxic work environments can bait people into over-functioning
• The power of asking: “Tell me more”
• Why presence is one of the most overlooked forms of self-care
• How internal “bodyguards” like the inner critic and inner pleaser try to keep us safe

Book Recommendation from Leah

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Connect with Leah Marone

• Leah Marone Website
• Leah Marone on LinkedIn

Connect with Susan M. Barber

If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader navigating change inside their organization.

You can also connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations.

https://susanmbarber.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/