You Might Try This
Leadership is complicated, especially when you’re figuring it out in real time. You Might Try This is a weekly podcast for people who want to lead well without , burning out, selling out, or pretending they have it all figured out. Hosted by executive coaches Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan, the show brings decades of experience working with leaders at global brands like Nike, Google, Walmart, and Microsoft into honest, practical conversations about what leadership really looks like day to day. Each episode explores the messy, human side of work, from managing your first team and navigating power dynamics to bu...
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The Boss Equation: How to build the most important relationship in your career without losing your integrity
<p>Managing up can feel uncomfortable, but avoiding it can quietly stall your career. In this episode of You Might Try This, hosts Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan unpack why your relationship with your boss is the most important one at work. They explore the hidden risks of being “invisibly excellent” or overly agreeable, and why both approaches can limit your impact. Stacey and Cade reframe managing up as a mutual responsibility and share practical ways to build trust, increase visibility, and stay aligned. </p><p></p><p>If you’ve ever felt overlooked or misunderstood, this episode offers a more i...
The Conflict Reflex: Why your default response to tension is working against you—and what to do instead.
<p>Why do we still avoid difficult conversations, even when we know the cost? In this episode, Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan explore the hidden reflexes driving conflict avoidance and escalation at work. Drawing on neuroscience and behavioral research, they explain how our brains interpret social conflict as physical pain, triggering automatic responses like silence or aggression. The discussion goes beyond awareness to offer practical ways to get “upstream” of these reactions by identifying what you’re protecting, whether it’s your relationships, self-image, or sense of control.</p><p></p><p>Takeaways</p>Avoidance is often a reflex, not a choice...
The Courage Tax: What you pay every time you delay the conversation that needs to happen
<p>Why do difficult conversations feel so much harder the longer we avoid them? In this episode, Stacey and Cade unpack the hidden “taxes” leaders pay when they delay hard conversations at work; from damaged relationships and declining performance to mental overload and unnecessary anxiety. They explore why silence often costs more than honesty. The conversation offers practical tools for leaders, including how to start difficult conversations, avoid climbing the ladder of inference, and use curiosity instead of judgment. </p><p>Takeaways</p>Avoidance has real costsSilence is often misinterpretedThe story in your head is usually worse than realityStart with obse...
The Good Soldier Trap: Why being dependable can become a liability with LaToya Jordan
<p>In this episode of You Might Try This, Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan welcome Executive Coach and She Leads and Succeeds host LaToya Jordan for a powerful conversation about the “good soldier” trap: the career pattern where being dependable, helpful, and highly capable can quietly limit long-term growth.</p><p>Together, they unpack how high-performing professionals, especially women, can become boxed in by their own excellence as executors, fixers, and problem-solvers. From “office housework” to low-visibility, high-effort tasks, the episode explores why saying yes too often can keep leaders stuck in support roles rather than strategic ones.</p><p>Takeaway...
The Feedback Friction: Why “constructive criticism” usually constructs a wall
<p>In this episode of You Might Try This, Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan explore why leaders avoid giving feedback. They break down the psychology behind feedback fear, including how negative feedback triggers a real pain response in the brain and threatens identity.</p><p>Challenging outdated methods like the feedback sandwich (also known as a sh*t sandwich), they introduce practical tools like the SBI (situation-behavior-impact) framework, an “adjective ban,” and feedforward strategies. The result: clearer, more constructive conversations that build trust, improve performance, and turn feedback into a powerful tool for leadership growth.</p><p></p><p>Takeaways </p>Cl...
The Expert Trap: How being the smartest person in the room can become your biggest liability
<p>In this episode of You Might Try This, hosts Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan explore a critical leadership shift many high performers never see coming: when the skills that earned you a promotion start holding you back.</p><p>They unpack the “expert trap”: how relying too heavily on your own expertise can turn you into a bottleneck, undermine your team’s confidence, and quietly derail your leadership trajectory. Through real-world examples and research-backed insights, Stacey and Cade explain why rewriting your team’s work, stepping in too fast, or role-modeling instead of coaching can erode trust, limit growth, and prev...
The Harmony Illusion: Why a nodding team is more dangerous than a resisting one
<p>When leaders encounter resistance, the instinct is often to push harder, explain more, or shut down the conversation entirely. But what if resistance is actually a sign of engagement and silent agreement is the real danger? In this episode, Stacey and Cade unpack why a nodding team can be more harmful than a resistant one, and how leaders can turn pushback into energy, insight, and momentum.</p><p>What You’ll Learn:</p><p>• Why resistance is a sign of engagement, not failure</p><p>• How stress responses like control and avoidance shape leadership behavior</p><p>• The hidden dangers...
The Delegation Bottleneck: Why your desire to "help" is secretly stalling your team
<p>Delegation is one of the most important leadership skills, and one of the hardest to master. In this episode of You Might Try This, executive coaches Stacey Philpot and Cade Cowan unpack why delegation creates so much discomfort for managers and leaders, and how shifting from assigning tasks to delegating responsibility can transform your team, your leadership impact, and your workload.</p><p>In this episode, you’ll learn:</p><p>• Why delegation is about responsibility, not just tasks</p><p>• The emotional barriers that make delegation so difficult</p><p>• How poor delegation creates burnout and bottlenecks</p><p>• A th...
The Trust Equation: Why social capital isn't a "vibe"—it's a calculated asset
<p>In this conversation, Stacey and Cade take a closer look at social capital and why trust sits at the center of it. They break down what trust really means in practice, introducing the trust equation and its core components: credibility, reliability, and intimacy. The discussion also examines how self-interest can either strengthen or undermine trust, depending on how it shows up in our actions and decisions.</p><p>Together, they explore how these dynamics play out in leadership and everyday relationships, from building influence to maintaining strong professional connections over time. The conversation offers thoughtful, practical insights into how...
The Logic Illusion: Why facts and ROI fail to win real commitment
<p>In this episode, Cade Cowan and Stacey Philpot talk about what influence really means in leadership and why it often matters more than having a title. </p><p>They explore the idea of leading beyond your role and how real influence comes from how you relate to people, not the authority you’re given. Stacey breaks down the difference between “pushing” influence versus “pulling” it, sharing why influence works best when you focus on understanding what others care about instead of trying to persuade or control them.</p><p><br></p><p> They also touch on common assumptions we make at wo...
