Worthy to Lead

Kristiana Corona

SUBSCRIBE to get alerted anytime I release new episodes and free tools & resources: https://www.worthytolead.co/subscribe Have you ever thought to yourself: “How can I get to be one of those leaders who truly inspires their team? I don't just want to manage the work, I want to impact the trajectory of their career." Maybe you want to be more strategic, but you’re constantly stuck in the weeds, feeling overwhelmed by managing all the details. You find yourself tethered to the desk, making every decision, and desperately wishing you could take a vacation without things falling apart. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Whether you are a new leader, an aspiring leader, or an experienced leader who has seen it all, this podcast has you covered. Kristiana Corona is a corporate leader, mom of 3, and certified executive coach. She's spent more than two decades building design and technology teams for Fortune 500 companies. Like so many leaders, she started off with very little training and made every mistake in the book. She felt completely unworthy of the title of “leader.” Along the way, a surprise encounter with executive coaching changed her life and led her to dramatically improve her leadership style and results. Fast forward to today and you’ll see the thriving teams that she has led: confident, resilient, strategic, and empowered. They’re making a real impact on the world. If you’re a leader looking for the tools, the mindset and the inspiration to help you become the leader you’ve always dreamed of - a leader who does feel worthy to lead - this podcast is for you. The Worthy to Lead Podcast is a business podcast that blends insights and interviews to provide you with the tools and mindset you need to develop teams of any size to be empowered and effective. Using techniques from executive coaching and other leadership best practices, you’ll learn to create a “coaching leadership style” that will transform the way you lead forever. Kristiana brings you step-by-step tools, frameworks, and insights into coaching, leadership, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, emotional intelligence, focus, mindset, and so much more. She won’t shy away from sharing personal stories of her own mistakes and challenges (and yes, there have been so many!). She dives deep, shares real talk, and takes the learnings to help guide you on the path to overcoming similar challenges for yourself. Along the way, she’ll interview amazing and inspiring leaders and experts across many industries who share their personal journey to feeling worthy and the strategies that got them there. Each episode is packed with inspiration and practical steps that you can use to start taking action today. Learn the best-kept secrets of coaching as a leadership style and how it can transform your life and unlock new potential in your teams. Join us as we go deep and explore what it takes to build an authentic leadership style that you, and others, are going to love.

  1. Aug 11

    Episode 46: FRICTION: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders | with Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship

    Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship are consulting psychologists and executive coaches who have spent decades working with executives and senior leaders, and they came to a conclusion that changed how I think about emotions at work entirely. We’re often taught to push past tension or ignore the defensiveness that spikes during tough meetings. But Maggie and Ross argue that friction isn't a problem to solve, but critical information for making decisions. Emotions are the medium through which all work happens. Their new book, Friction: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders, is backed by a national survey of over 1,100 working Americans, and it makes the case that human-centered leadership and emotional intelligence are becoming more essential, not less, as AI reshapes how we work. Order Dr. Ross and Dr. Maggie’s latest book, Friction:Website: https://www.talentsmarteq.com/friction/Amazon: https://a.co/d/09kK3yTq ADDITIONAL LINKS: Nir Eyal on habit-forming products: https://www.nirandfar.com/hooked/ MIT study on AI and cognitive load, "Your Brain on ChatGPT": https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/ Dr. Marc Brackett on the RULER framework for emotional intelligence: https://marcbrackett.com/ruler/ Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions: https://www.6seconds.org/2025/02/06/plutchik-wheel-emotions/ Lisa Feldman Barrett on how emotions are constructed by the brain: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/books/how-emotions-are-made/   CONNECT WITH MAGGIE:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiesass-phd/Website: https://www.talentsmarteq.com/ CONNECT WITH ROSS:Website: https://www.tuesdayadvisors.com/Substack: https://rossblankenship.substack.com/Website: https://www.rossblankenship.io/ CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA:Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacoronaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/

    Episode 46: FRICTION: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders | with Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship
  2. Jul 28

    Episode 45: Building Company Culture That Thrives with AI | with Dr. Kevin Sakamoto

    Dr. Kevin Sakamoto and I go way back. We worked together at Target, we've spent years comparing notes from our different corners of the world (he's a professor and product leader, I'm a design leader), and we enjoy diving deep and nerding out over leadership and innovation. We recently sat down to challenge how leaders are thinking about leading through AI. We get into the fear that some leaders are feeling right now: the quiet worry that their role, their relevance, their whole reason for being in the room might be slipping away. We talk about the IKEA case study that will truly make you rethink what's possible when a company decides to renew its people instead of replacing them. We dig into why middle management is having its own identity crisis, what an inverted apprenticeship looks like when your newest hire knows more about AI than you do, and why the smartest thing you can do right now might just be to gather everyone around a table to work through it together. If you've been bracing for impact instead of getting curious, this conversation is your invitation to try something different. REFERENCES: IKEA case study on AI-driven customer service and reskilling: https://employerbranding.news/resources/what-ikeas-ai-reskilling-story-looks-like-now-it-has-made-layoffs-too/  Entrepreneur.com article on the collapse of the middle manager layer: https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/as-companies-cut-managers-the-smart-ones-are-investing-in/498397  Zappos culture and the legacy of Tony Hsieh: https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithferrazzi/2024/07/10/the-new-growth-architects-three-companies-honoring-tony-hsiehs-legacy/ CONNECT WITH DR. KEVIN SAKAMOTO:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-h-sakamoto/  CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA:Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacoronaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/

    Episode 45: Building Company Culture That Thrives with AI | with Dr. Kevin Sakamoto
  3. Jun 30

    Episode 43: How Coaching Changed Everything About How I Lead

    For once, I'm not the host – I'm the guest. My friend and fellow coach Laurie Hall flips the script and interviews me about my own path: small-town Minnesota roots, unglamorous first jobs, and getting thrown into leadership with zero training. My early stumbles led me to coaching – the moment that changed how I lead for good – and into 23 years of building teams and inventing new roles for myself inside corporate. We talk about why I left a job I loved at Amazon at the start of 2025, the "human-centered leadership flywheel" behind my membership community now, and the mindset shift I keep coming back to: your work is not your worth. If I could create my own role inside four different companies, why couldn't I build the one I actually wanted outside of all of them? I hope this gives you permission to ask the questions you've been putting off. Be the first to know about new episodes, insights, and resources. Join my email list at https://www.WorthyToLead.co/subscribe CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA:Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacoronaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ 🎧 LISTEN TO LAURIE'S EPISODE:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-40-from-nasa-engineer-to-leadership-coach-navigating/id1748949789?i=1000768552476  CONNECT WITH LAURIE:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypetersonWebsite: https://newhorizonstrategies.com/

    Episode 43: How Coaching Changed Everything About How I Lead

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SUBSCRIBE to get alerted anytime I release new episodes and free tools & resources: https://www.worthytolead.co/subscribe Have you ever thought to yourself: “How can I get to be one of those leaders who truly inspires their team? I don't just want to manage the work, I want to impact the trajectory of their career." Maybe you want to be more strategic, but you’re constantly stuck in the weeds, feeling overwhelmed by managing all the details. You find yourself tethered to the desk, making every decision, and desperately wishing you could take a vacation without things falling apart. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Whether you are a new leader, an aspiring leader, or an experienced leader who has seen it all, this podcast has you covered. Kristiana Corona is a corporate leader, mom of 3, and certified executive coach. She's spent more than two decades building design and technology teams for Fortune 500 companies. Like so many leaders, she started off with very little training and made every mistake in the book. She felt completely unworthy of the title of “leader.” Along the way, a surprise encounter with executive coaching changed her life and led her to dramatically improve her leadership style and results. Fast forward to today and you’ll see the thriving teams that she has led: confident, resilient, strategic, and empowered. They’re making a real impact on the world. If you’re a leader looking for the tools, the mindset and the inspiration to help you become the leader you’ve always dreamed of - a leader who does feel worthy to lead - this podcast is for you. The Worthy to Lead Podcast is a business podcast that blends insights and interviews to provide you with the tools and mindset you need to develop teams of any size to be empowered and effective. Using techniques from executive coaching and other leadership best practices, you’ll learn to create a “coaching leadership style” that will transform the way you lead forever. Kristiana brings you step-by-step tools, frameworks, and insights into coaching, leadership, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, emotional intelligence, focus, mindset, and so much more. She won’t shy away from sharing personal stories of her own mistakes and challenges (and yes, there have been so many!). She dives deep, shares real talk, and takes the learnings to help guide you on the path to overcoming similar challenges for yourself. Along the way, she’ll interview amazing and inspiring leaders and experts across many industries who share their personal journey to feeling worthy and the strategies that got them there. Each episode is packed with inspiration and practical steps that you can use to start taking action today. Learn the best-kept secrets of coaching as a leadership style and how it can transform your life and unlock new potential in your teams. Join us as we go deep and explore what it takes to build an authentic leadership style that you, and others, are going to love.