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Sorta Bossy

Sorta Bossy

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85% of leaders never get trained. If you became a manager, team lead, or founder without anyone actually teaching you how to delegate, fire someone, or hold people accountable—this show is for you. We're tearing up the old leadership playbook and figuring out what actually works. Hosted by Adrienne Dorison

2026 Sorta Bossy Podcast
Economie Réussite personnelle
Épisodes
  • Revenue Is Down, and Someone Has to Go. Now What?
    Apr 21 2026

    Every business dips. If yours hasn't yet, you just haven't been in it long enough.

    This week a listener asked one of the most real, vulnerable questions we've gotten: revenue is down, you need to let someone go, now what?

    How do you actually reabsorb their role without drowning, and how do you ramp back up when you're ready?

    Adrienne and Emily have both lived this. They get into the full picture, the mindset, the framework, and what it actually looks like inside a small team going through a contraction.

    What they cover:

    • Why dips are not a sign you're failing, and why one investor won't back anyone who hasn't had one
    • The difference between letting someone go for performance vs. letting someone go because the business has changed direction, and why the second one is actually harder
    • How to look at your team like a coach, not a friend: who do you need for where you're going, not where you've been
    • The 4T framework for reabsorbing a role: Trash, Trim, Transfer, and where AI fits in now
    • Why you should do a time audit before you reassign anything
    • How to keep team morale up when the remaining people are scared they're next
    • What to do when someone has to absorb a role that isn't in their natural strengths -- and why giving them grace and space matters more than speed
    • The clean slate exercise: if you were starting from zero, what would you actually build?
    • Why limited resources produce better creativity than unlimited ones
    • How to leave the door open with people you let go -- and why that matters more than you think

    Submit your own questions at www.sortabossypodcast.com

    ⏱️ Time Chapters

    00:01 Welcome and banter

    13:16 Today's question: revenue is down, someone needs to go -- how do you reabsorb their role?

    13:45 If you haven't had a dip, you haven't been in business long enough

    15:40 Contraction and expansion: this is just part of it

    16:37 When the business changes direction and good people no longer fit the new model

    17:29 How to evaluate your current team against where the business is actually going

    18:27 Why financial pressure sometimes forces the business decision you should have made months ago

    19:49 Ask yourself: if this were a client's business, what would you tell them to do?

    20:16 Start with a time audit -- know what's on everyone's plate before you reassign anything

    20:46 The 4T framework: Trash, Trim, Transfer, and where AI comes in

    23:28 Reabsorbing tasks into the remaining team: aligning strengths and capacity

    24:20 How to keep morale up and make reabsorption feel like an opportunity, not a burden

    25:41 Give people grace when they're learning something new -- especially if the previous person made it look easy

    27:34 The clean slate exercise: go from zero to one instead of ten to one

    30:23 Adrienne's own contraction story and what she had to reabsorb herself

    33:27 You're not failing. The metrics just changed.

    34:26 How to leave the door open with people you let go

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    38 min
  • Dear Bossy: My Team Won't Reply To Emails
    Apr 14 2026

    Dear Bossy is the advice column format of Sorta Bossy.

    Today's question, from an anonymous listener:

    "I send my team emails asking for updates, input, or confirmation, and half the time I just get nothing. I can see they read it, but they don't reply. Then I have to follow up in Slack or hunt them down in person, and suddenly they're like, yeah, I saw that. What am I supposed to do? Send a carrier pigeon? I feel like I'm nagging them constantly just to get basic communication.
    "

    Adrienne and Emily flip this one on its head. The team is not the problem. The system is.

    What they cover:

    • Why emailing your team for updates is the first thing to fix, not the last
    • The single communication channel rule and what happens when teams are operating across email, Slack, Voxer, WhatsApp, and the project management tool all at once
    • Why asking for updates is actually asking your team to do extra work that reduces everyone's efficiency
    • The daily standup format: wins, concerns, and tomorrow
    • How a project management tool with a Slack integration can give you visibility without a single follow-up email
    • Why constantly asking for confirmation quietly signals that you don't trust your team
    • How faster feedback loops prevent the thing leaders hate most: finding out the deadline isn't happening the day before it's due

    Submit a Dear Bossy question: sortabossypodcast.com

    ⏱️ Time Chapters

    00:01 Welcome to Dear Bossy

    05:12 Today's question: my team won't reply to my emails

    07:34 Fix this first: pick one communication channel and stick to it

    09:06 Emily's take from the team member side: why are you emailing when the answer is in the dashboard?

    10:12 What you actually need: a project management system with real visibility

    11:09 The daily standup: wins, concerns, and tomorrow

    12:36 How concerns and roadblocks create a low-stakes space for honesty

    13:57 Stop asking for updates -- it is not their job to babysit you

    15:45 Why constant confirmation requests quietly destroy trust

    16:01 How a project management system eliminates the late-night "did they do that?" spiral

    17:55 Faster feedback loops: how to find out a deadline is slipping before it's too late

    18:25 Making standups visible to the whole team so others can step in and support

    19:22 The bottom line: there should be no reason to email your team for internal updates

    21:47 Rapid Fire with Adrienne

    Transcript

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    27 min
  • When Is It Actually Time to Fire Someone?
    Apr 7 2026

    Most leaders wait too long to fire.

    They hold on because it feels like the kind thing to do, or because they are not sure they have done enough, or because they just do not want to have the conversation.
    And the whole time, the rest of the team is paying for it.


    In this episode, Adrienne and Emily get into one of the hardest calls a leader has to make: when is it actually time to fire someone?

    They cover the red flags, the due diligence, and the question nobody asks out loud: Would you be relieved if they were gone?

    Note: This is not legal or HR advice. Labor laws vary by state and country. Do your own due diligence on the legal side.

    What they cover:

    • Why most leaders wait too long -- and what it costs everyone else on the team
    • The difference between firing someone for performance vs. letting someone go for business reasons
    • How to have the expectations conversation if you never had it during onboarding
    • What incremental improvement actually looks like and why you should be tracking it
    • The cancer cell problem: how one disengaged person sets the new standard for everyone
    • Red flags: working around someone, avoiding assigning them things, or people saying they'd rather do double the work than deal with that person
    • The "would I be relieved?" gut check and when to trust it


    Before you fire, ask yourself:

    ✅ Have I been crystal clear about expectations?

    ✅ Have I given them specific feedback on what needs to change?

    ✅ Have I given them adequate time and support to improve?

    ✅ Have I documented the issues? (protect yourself legally)

    ✅ Is this a performance issue or a fit issue? (both are valid reasons)

    ✅ Have I consulted HR/legal? (cover your bases)

    ✅ If they quit tomorrow, would I rehire them? (if no = fire)

    ✅ Am I keeping them out of guilt or because they’re actually contributing?

    We love context! Submit your question to Dear Bossy: sortabossypodcast.com

    ⏱️ Time Chapters

    00:01 Welcome and banter

    07:55 Today's topic: when is it actually time to fire someone

    09:01 Why leaders hold on too long and what makes it so hard

    10:34 Firing for performance vs. letting someone go for business reasons

    11:48 Why the firing should not be a shock if you have done the work

    13:33 Start here: have you actually clarified expectations?

    15:21 What the expectations conversation should look like

    16:44 Give them a runway and look for incremental improvement

    18:24 When they are not improving: what to track and when to act

    19:27 The attention problem: your worst performer is getting 90% of your time

    21:14 What the team sees when you protect one person at everyone else's expense

    22:26 When someone is working the checkmate -- emotionally checked out and waiting to be fired

    23:52 How one person's low standards become the new floor for the whole team

    24:46 Red flag: you are working around them or avoiding giving them assignments

    25:48 Red flag: people would rather work twice as hard than deal with that person

    26:38 Red flag: you are nervous to bring things to them as the leader

    27:24 The gut check: would you be relieved if they were gone?

    29:22 How to define expectations backwards: what would great look like? What would bad look like?

    31:50 Do not fire on vibes -- but do not wait forever either

    33:18 The checklist: how to know when it is time

    Transcript

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    34 min
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