The Spitfire Podcast with Lauren LeMunyan

Middle managers are holding it all: vague goals from above, the emotional needs of their teams, nonstop change, and now AI slop landing on their desks. Spans of control keep growing, training hasn't kept up, and Harvard Business Review research shows middle managers report the lowest psychological safety of any group in the organization. In this live session recorded with an audience of HR leaders, Lauren LeMunyan, MCC, founder and CEO of Spitfire Coach and self-described recovering middle manager, breaks down the pressure points squeezing the middle and what you can do about them, even with a tight budget. You'll hear: What has overtaken workload as the top driver of burnout How AI is accelerating a crisis that was already in motion The difference between a skill gap and a fit gap, and how to have each conversation Three low-cost ways to support managers: learning pods, buddy programs, and peer cohorts The middle is ready to thrive. It just needs support. Ready to make the case for investing in your middle managers? Join Lauren on October 29 for the Spitfire Executive Forum, a live working session where you'll draft your business case and map out a micro-pilot program you can bring to leadership. Bring your ideas, leave with a plan. Save your seat at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/J6Y7EaW8QVuXFm8ZbQSS6w 

We keep treating burnout like a workload problem. The data says something different. A 2026 study from unBurnt and Bentley University's Center for Health and Business mapped 33 workplace factors across 544 full-time U.S. professionals. The strongest predictors of high burnout clustered around uncertainty, ambiguity, and fear. Number one: unclear expectations about my role. Number two: the role of AI in my work. And managers were 1.7 times more likely than individual contributors to report high burnout. In this episode, Lauren LeMunyan, MCC and founder of Spitfire Coach, unpacks why the fog wears people down faster than the mountain, why managers are carrying the heaviest load, and how to bring clarity to your team without a budget or a reorg. In this episode: Why our brains find uncertainty more stressful than certain pain The unBurnt and Bentley findings: 86% moderate to high burnout, and why high performers hide it best What Gallup's latest engagement data says about clarity (and its link to profitability) The manager squeeze, and why AI is ambiguity on steroids Five clarity practices to start this week A two-question listener challenge to try with one person on your team Resources mentioned: unBurnt and Bentley University Center for Health and Business, When Burnout Looks Like Productivity: The New Risk to Innovation Capacity (2026) Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement 2025 UC Berkeley Haas School of Business research on AI and workload   Ready to clear the fog for your leadership team? Spitfire Coach helps leaders build the kind of clarity that keeps great people energized and performing. Book a conversation at spitfirecoach.com.   If this one landed, follow the Spitfire Podcast and leave a quick rating. It helps more leaders find the show.

Your best friend has a killer business idea. Your favorite coworker just became your boss. Your college roommate wants to hire you. Sounds fun, right? Sometimes it's the best decision you'll ever make. Sometimes it's the reason Thanksgiving gets awkward. In this episode of the Spitfire Podcast, Lauren LeMunyan gets real about mixing friendship and work. Drawing on nearly a decade of coaching C-suite leaders (and a few lessons learned the hard way), she breaks down what makes these partnerships thrive and how to protect both the relationship and the results. You'll hear: The conversations to have before you sign anything or say yes How to give honest feedback to someone you'd also call at 2am What clear roles and boundaries actually look like in practice How to handle it gracefully when the work relationship needs to change Whether you're thinking about launching something with a friend, managing one, or already in the thick of it, this episode gives you the language and the guts to keep both the friendship and the business strong. Grab your coffee (or your co-founder) and press play.   Calls to action: Got an idea for a future episode? Send it to [email protected]. Want free coaching? We're launching the Future Self Design Project, anonymous 1:1 coaching sessions where you bring the topic and we bring the framework. Apply here: https://spitfirecoach.myflodesk.com/futureselfapply Loved this episode? Follow the Spitfire Podcast and leave a review, it helps more Spitfires find us.

Burnout doesn't come with a trophy. No ribbon, no party, no "look how hard I worked" award. So why do so many high performers keep chasing it? In this live recording from my session at the CEHA conference, I take a room full of environmental public health leaders (the people everyone calls when something needs fixing) through what it actually takes to refuel your energy and reconnect with your purpose. And yes, I get real about my own story, from crocheting my way through college to pushing so hard I blacked out at an event I was running, and the one coaching question that changed everything. We dig into: Why your greatest strength might be your biggest energy drain The curse of the high performer (spoiler: the bar only goes up) How your body whispers, talks, yells, and then shuts you down, and how to catch it at the whisper The five stress responses, including "fix," the one that loves to masquerade as productivity Why "how do we do it?" is often a stress signal, and what to ask first Practical ways to protect your energy, from calendar buffers to the magic of a clear, kind "no" Calls to action: Got an idea for a future episode? Send it to [email protected]. Want free coaching? We're launching the Future Self Design Project, anonymous 1:1 coaching sessions where you bring the topic and we bring the framework. Apply here: https://spitfirecoach.myflodesk.com/futureselfapply Loved this episode? Follow the Spitfire Podcast and leave a review, it helps more Spitfires find us.

You can't make someone change. Not your boss, not your teammate, not that one person in every Zoom meeting who makes your blood pressure spike. But you can get clear on where your actual influence lives, and that's the whole game. In this episode, Lauren breaks down the concept of your Zone of Influence: what it is, how it expands and contracts based on trust, and why trying to force change in a space that isn't safe is a losing bet. She talks through contributor safety, the four stages of psychological safety, and why trust is never all or nothing. If you've been white-knuckling your way through a toxic dynamic hoping it'll finally click for the other person, this one's your permission slip to zoom out and ask a better question: where do I actually have power here? In this episode: Why you can't out-effort someone else's willingness to change What contributor safety is and how you build it How to figure out your "lane of safety" with people who haven't earned your full trust Why your zone of influence isn't fixed, it can get bigger or smaller depending on the environment When it's time to stop pushing and start looking for a better environment instead Calls to action: Got an idea for a future episode? Send it to [email protected]. Want free coaching? We're launching the Future Self Design Project, anonymous 1:1 coaching sessions where you bring the topic and we bring the framework. Apply here: https://spitfirecoach.myflodesk.com/futureselfapply Loved this episode? Follow the Spitfire Podcast and leave a review, it helps more Spitfires find us.

We trust chatbots with 70 to 80 percent of our decisions without blinking. Put an actual human next to us at a conference, and suddenly we're hiding behind a pastry, hoping nobody makes eye contact. In this episode, Lauren unpacks what happened at a cybersecurity conference this week: a keynote on AI and trust, a wave of social anxiety in a room full of extroverted tech people, and a stranger who gave her the best networking advice she's heard in a while: be a fat penguin. (Yes, really. Listen to find out why.) It's a conversation about psychological safety, why chatbots feel easier to trust than people, and why the fix for adult loneliness isn't confidence. It's just someone willing to break the ice first. Calls to Action Have a topic you want covered on the show? Send it to [email protected]. We're launching the Future Self Design Project and looking for volunteers to receive free coaching (30 to 45 minutes, fully anonymous). Apply here: https://spitfirecoach.myflodesk.com/futureselfapply  Enjoyed this one? Leave a review and send it to a friend who needs to hear it. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or head to https://www.spitfirecoach.com/episode  

Here are the 10 everyday conversation habits that quietly cost business owners the sale, from over-explaining price to skipping the follow-up, plus what to say instead of each one.   If you caught yourself in even one of these ten, don't just nod along, go fix it in your next conversation. Subscribe to the show so you don't miss the next one, and if this episode hit home, send it to a business owner who needs to hear it. Leave a rating while you're at it, it helps more people find the show. And if you want more of this straight to your inbox, head to spitfirecoach.com and get on the list. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/S2ck2zu5ed8 🎧 New episodes of The Spitfire Podcast drop weekly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. 📅 Ready to pitch from a position of confidence? Book a free discovery session

Making friends used to be easy. Same neighborhood, same school, same team, done. As adults, it's a different game, and most of us are quietly bad at it. In this episode, Lauren talks about the loneliness epidemic hiding behind our "connected" world, why rejection hits your brain like physical pain, and the one habit that got her a coffee date with a total stranger two weeks after moving to a new city. If you've ever waited around hoping someone else would make the first move, this episode is your permission slip to be the one who instigates the invitation.   🎧 New episodes of the Spitfire Podcast drop regularly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. 📅 Ready to define your own boundaries and lead with more clarity? Book a free discovery session  

A talk on why "I don't know" is a leadership superpower, not a weakness, delivered at the NGLCC Leadership Conference. Covers the body science behind uncertainty, psychological safety, imposter syndrome, and practical language swaps for leading through not-knowing.

You've been told to be an empathetic, open-door, servant leader who puts everyone else first. In this episode, executive coach Lauren LeMunyan explains why that advice is quietly burning leaders out, and gives you a better model built on core values, not self-sacrifice. You'll learn: ✅ Why boundaries have to be tied to your core values to actually stick ✅ The exact language to use when a boss or client crosses a line after hours ✅ Why "people should just know" is the #1 boundary myth ✅ How to spot the moment you've stepped outside your own scope ✅ Why saying yes to everything is a fast track to resentment and burnout If you've ever hung up a call feeling stretched thin and wondering how you got talked into it again, this episode is your reset. 🎧 New episodes of the Spitfire Podcast drop regularly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. 📅 Ready to define your own boundaries and lead with more clarity? Book a free discovery session