Asking for Help Is Strength, Not Failure
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
Release Date: 11/04/2025
The Hidden Cost of Emotionally Unpredictable Leadership
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
Have you ever worked with a leader whose mood seemed to determine the mood of the entire team? In this solo episode of Becoming Unshakable, I’m looking at the hidden cost of emotionally unpredictable leadership and why our emotional consistency has such a powerful effect on the people around us. Teams are constantly reading their leaders, often before a single word is spoken. They notice our tone, body language, reactions, and energy, and those signals can influence whether people feel safe enough to speak up, challenge an idea, admit a mistake, or raise a concern. That is where emotional...
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Excellent Performance Requires Extreme Recovery
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What if becoming unshakable has less to do with pushing harder and more to do with learning how to recover? In this solo episode of Becoming Unshakable, I’m talking about something leaders often undervalue until they have already hit the wall: intentional recovery. We spend so much time thinking about performance, results, responsibility, and caring for the people around us that it can become easy to overlook the person carrying all of that weight. But sustained performance requires capacity, and capacity has to be restored. I share why I believe leaders should begin thinking of themselves...
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Celebrate What’s Good—Even When You Don’t Know What’s Next
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
Can resilience become the very thing that keeps us in difficult situations longer than we should stay? In this episode of Becoming Unshakeable, I speak with James Ferguson, an award-winning Culture Pioneer and respected voice in workplace culture. James shares how losing jobs, working under poor leaders, and facing an aggressive cancer treatment shaped the way he thinks about leadership, perspective, and perseverance. During his treatment, a doctor warned James that the chemotherapy could “remove the glue” holding him together. James made a personal decision that it would not remove his...
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Psychological Safety Isn't About Being Nice
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What if trying to keep everyone comfortable is actually making your team less safe? In this episode of Becoming Unshakable, I tackle one of the biggest misconceptions I see around psychological safety: the idea that good leaders protect people from difficult conversations, disagreement, or discomfort. They don't. Psychological safety means people can question decisions, admit mistakes, raise concerns, and bring uncomfortable truths into the room without fearing embarrassment, punishment, or retaliation. That doesn't remove accountability. In fact, when safety and accountability exist together,...
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Why Your Hardest Season Isn’t Wasted: Finding Strength in the Struggle
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
Have you ever looked at the person you were becoming and realized you no longer recognized yourself? Jane Grote Abell grew up inside Donatos Pizza, the family business her father founded with a belief that business could be built on love. After the company was sold to McDonald’s, however, Jane found herself working under a leadership style that gradually caused her to operate from fear. She began questioning her decisions, shrinking her circle, and changing how she showed up at work. The woman who had always been encouraged to speak up slowly lost her voice. Then, while sitting alone in the...
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How Death Teaches Us to Truly Live
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What does it really take to become unshakeable when life forces you to confront your own mortality? In this episode of Becoming Unshakeable, I welcome longtime friend, innovation leader, author, and Sustainovation founder Nick Kittle for a deeply personal conversation about resilience, self-leadership, relationships, and what it means to live differently after a life-changing experience. At 35, Nick died for 22 seconds during a medical test. What felt to him like four days became a turning point that changed how he thought about time, work, relationships, and the life he wanted to lead. He...
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The Hidden Tax of Corporate Uncertainty
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What if the biggest thing holding you back is not failure, but uncertainty? In this episode of Becoming Unshakable, I explore what I call the Tax of Corporate Uncertainty, the hidden emotional and mental cost we all pay when we delay decisions, avoid difficult conversations, or wait for the "perfect" moment to act. Whether it is in our careers, relationships, finances, or personal growth, uncertainty has a way of draining our confidence, energy, and momentum long before anything has actually gone wrong. Together, we'll look at why our minds often prefer familiar discomfort over uncertain...
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Why I wrote The Unshakable Team: A New Leadership Book for Teams under Pressure
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What if the strongest leaders are not the ones who keep bouncing back, but the ones who learn how to remain steady when the pressure never stops? In this special solo episode of Becoming Unshakable, I’m sharing some news that means so much to me: my new book, , is officially available for pre-order. But this episode is about more than announcing a book. I want to take you behind the scenes of the journey that led me here, why I moved away from the naming convention of my previous books, and how a chance conversation with my publisher in London gave me permission to follow the direction...
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When Discomfort Becomes Your Advantage
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
What if becoming unshakable requires being shaken first? In this episode of Becoming Unshakable, I welcome Artesha Moore for a candid conversation about discomfort, failure, grief, identity, and the lifelong process of learning who you are beneath the armor you built to survive. Artesha believes you cannot understand resilience without experiencing moments that test everything you thought you knew about yourself. From crying every day during her first senior leadership role to eventually becoming a CEO and discovering that success did not silence her inner critic, she shares how each difficult...
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The Secret Behind Sustainable Excellence
Becoming Unshakable With Heather R. Younger
Have you ever stopped to consider that the missing ingredient in sustainable excellence isn't working harder, but recovering better?In this solo episode of Becoming Unshakable, I explore one of the most overlooked aspects of leadership and personal resilience: intentional recovery. We often celebrate relentless effort, packed calendars, and constant availability, but what if those habits are quietly limiting our ability to perform at our best? Drawing inspiration from elite athletes like LeBron James and the Williams sisters, I share why high performers invest so heavily in maintaining their...
info_outlineIn this episode of Becoming Unshakable, I had the privilege of welcoming two inspiring guests, Mary Beth Sandin and Kristina Fusella. It was my first time hosting two people at once, and the conversation felt like sitting down with old friends who have walked similar roads of challenge, growth, and self-discovery. Together, we explored what it means to stay grounded when life feels uncertain and why asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather an act of genuine strength.
Kristina shared how her Taekwondo practice has shaped her understanding of balance, both physically and emotionally. Her reflections reminded me that being unshakeable is not about staying perfectly still, but about finding stability while in motion. Mary Beth brought a different kind of insight, showing how self-awareness, preparation, and allyship can create calm even in moments of chaos. Hearing both of them speak so openly about fear, confidence, and connection felt deeply human.
What stayed with me most was our discussion about grace, vulnerability, and the quiet courage it takes to ask for support. We discussed the unrealistic expectations women often place on themselves, the importance of having allies, and how small moments of encouragement can have a profound impact. If you are someone trying to hold it all together, this conversation will remind you that strength often begins the moment you decide to reach out.