You’re the Boss, Now What? with Desiree Petrich | Leadership and Team Development for Managers and Team Leaders
A leadership podcast for managers who want stronger teams, less drama, and more trust at work.
If you are a manager of people, this podcast is your playbook for the real challenges of leadership!
Each week, your host Desiree Petrich shares practical tools and frameworks from Working Genius, DISC, and The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team to help you:
- Hold employees accountable without micromanaging
- Handle conflict at work before it turns into drama
- Build trust and respect as a confident, credible leader
- Fix a toxic culture and create a team that takes ownership
- Lead effective team meetings that inspire engagement and action
Whether you’re leading a small team or an entire department, you’ll learn actionable strategies to create better communication, deeper trust, and a workplace people actually enjoy showing up to.
You’ll also get quick takeaways from bestselling leadership books, so you can skip the fluff and apply what works!
You’re the Boss, Now What? is your weekly dose of coaching for managers who want to do more than manage, they want to lead.
Popular Topics Include:
One-on-one meeting frameworks, handling team conflict, addressing passive-aggressive behavior, rebuilding trust after drama, navigating difficult employees, setting expectations without micromanaging, improving accountability conversations, fixing toxic communication patterns, leading effective team meetings, delegation strategies for overwhelmed managers, increasing team buy-in, coaching underperforming employees, giving feedback that lands, managing impostor syndrome at work, and creating a healthier, more human-centered culture.
You’re the Boss, Now What? with Desiree Petrich | Leadership and Team Development for Managers and Team Leaders
Leadership Tips | Create a Positive Spiral
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It’s easy to underestimate the impact of small actions.
A smile.
A compliment.
A simple “thank you.”
But those moments don’t stop with the person in front of you. They carry.
In this episode, I share a real-life story that reminded me how quickly positivity can spread and how one interaction can completely shift the tone of a day.
The question becomes:
What kind of ripple effect are you creating?
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
- How small actions create a positive ripple effect in life and leadership
- Why your energy impacts more people than you think
- Simple ways to create more positivity in your everyday interactions
Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead
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Desiree (00:01.304)
Hey friend, this is your weekly leadership tip from Desiree. One small idea to carry with you into your life and leadership this week. And this week's tip is to create a positive spiral. This is something I've talked about in my keynotes and my workshops for a long time. The exact term is creating a positive affective spiral. And the idea is just that every time you smile at someone or say hello or do something kind for someone, that positivity that you just gave to them is going to
impact their life in a positive way and the lives of the people they touch. But I was reading a book the other morning that talked about it again, because we always have to learn leadership lessons over and over again. And it gave a crazy number. They said that your one positive action can affect 80,000 people. And I was thinking about it all day as I drove to go mediate a team discussion, a team that was having a hard time getting along as I drove home.
I'm thinking about as much.
Desiree (01:06.126)
I'm thinking about all the opportunity that we have to create positive change. It was on Friday and my husband and I were going to be going out to supper. We hadn't hardly seen each other all week. We were going to have a small date night and we walked into our favorite restaurant. It was packed. This restaurant is very rarely packed, even though I personally think it's one of the best, but it was packed and we just said, we're not going anywhere else. Everywhere else will be packed too. We want to be here. So they sit us down at one of the only
open tables and I just in my head at that moment thought don't have too high of expectations. Don't worry if the food takes a long time. I'm here to spend time with my husband. Just people watch. It'll be fine. I was shocked when our waitress came up right away, got our drink orders, said, hey, did you see that we got new menus? She spent a good three minutes, which if you've ever been wait staff when it's super busy, that's a very long time.
She told us what new things on the menu were worth our time, completely changed my mind about what I was going to have. She was super kind. She didn't look like she was running around. Needless to say, this created a positive effect on me. The conversation I then had with James, guess I don't know because I don't have a magic mirror, but I just thought I am in a lot better mood than I would have been if she would have come up and she had been crabby and she had been frustrated.
because of all the things happening. When we got our food, it was honestly one of the best things I've ever had from this restaurant. Brand new menu, brand new thing, and we were both extremely satisfied with what we were getting.
Desiree (02:52.44)
So as anticipated with how busy the restaurant was, it had been a while before we had gotten our food, which was fine. But I made a comment when the waitress came and checked on us and I just said, I am very impressed. And she goes, why is that? And I said, because despite how busy it is in here, there is so much food coming out of that kitchen just consistently. I mean, I'm sure they are stressed to the max back there, but I have not seen a lull.
I have not seen any negativity coming from any of the staff. And I just said, please tell the kitchen that they're doing a great job. I know for a fact, having worked at this restaurant, they don't get told that enough, but I just wanted them to know that it was making an impact on the people in the restaurant to know that food was coming out. And her eyes went wide and she just said, I will tell them they need to know that they never get told that. Thank you. And she went back and told them.
Thank this later. By the way, food was amazing. If you want a restaurant recommendation in Marshall, Minnesota, let me know. But it just goes back to reiterate this point now that you've heard about my entire Friday lunch date or separate date. It goes back to this idea that the positivity that is affected, even reading something positive that morning completely changed the course of my day. It changed the course of who I wanted to be positive towards and who I wanted to show gratitude and appreciation for and wanting to make sure that other people got the same
good mood that I was now thankful to have in that moment. So what positive spiral can you create in this moment? What kind thing can you say? Who can you smile at? Who can you text? Who can you give a call to and just share your appreciation with them? Who can you compliment on something that they worked hard on? It could be something as simple as a spreadsheet all the way to a project that's taken a year. Who and what?
Can you do?
Desiree (04:54.828)
What can you do in this moment to create a positive spiral for the people around you?
Desiree (05:11.352)
I have been loving getting feedback from you on the messages on my LinkedIn of the changes that are being made following these really short mini episodes. So send me a message on LinkedIn. Let me know what positive spiral you created by listening to this. And I will see you back here every week for a new tip on life and leadership.