 |
The Communicative LeaderAuthor: Dr. Leah OH
On The Communicative Leader, we're making your work life what you want it to be. Do you need years of training or special equipment? Not at all my friends. Simple, yet thoughtful changes in your communication can make great strides in displaying your leadership ability. And why the heck should you care about leadership communication? Well, communication is the yardstick others use to determine whether or not they see you as a leader. Ahhh don't be scared, I got you. We will walk through common organizational obstacles and chat about small, but meaningful communication-rooted changes you can integrate immediately. No more waiting for the workplace to become what you hope it will. Nope. You, my friends, will be empowered and equipped to make those changes. Let's have some fun! Can't get enough? Join our weekly email list to receive episode recaps, previews, and most importantly, communication-rooted solutions for your everyday workday questions and experiences. Sign up here: http://eepurl.com/h91B0v We'd love to hear from you! Send us your questions and requests via email or a voice note to TheCommunicativeLeader@gmail.com. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Careers, Education, Self-Improvement Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
The Invisible Load: How Unpacking 'Good Daughtering' Can Transform Leadership Communication and Prevent Workplace Burnout
Episode 9
Tuesday, 24 February, 2026
Send a textEver feel like the quiet glue holding everything together at home and at work, only to find your clarity fading and your calendar bursting? We dig into the hidden world of invisible labor—what communication scholar Dr. Allison Alford calls “good daughtering”—and how those caring reflexes migrate into our offices, meetings, and leadership choices. From anticipating needs and smoothing conflict to absorbing crisis after crisis, these habits can lift a family yet quietly drain a leader’s focus, confidence, and strategic voice.Together we unpack what daughtering looks like in professional life: jumping in before delegation, volunteering for tasks that don’t advance your career, softening hard truths to keep harmony, and avoiding productive tension. Dr. Alford offers a practical language shift—naming care provisions, emotional triage, and cognitive load—to replace vague labels like “office mom.” With sharper words, teams can finally see, value, and share the work that sustains culture. We also talk policy and practice: treating daughtering-related PTO as legitimate, narrating contributions in small doses, and building norms that reward the thinking and time behind the scenes.The heart of the episode is a reset from reactivity to strategy. We explore the tradeoff between hedonic hits—those fast, feel-good fixes—and eudaimonic satisfaction, the slower payoff of teaching, delegating, and building capacity. Real leadership makes space for others to try, fail, and grow. That means leaving purposeful gaps, rotating non-promotable tasks, and welcoming the kind of tension that produces better ideas. You’ll leave with a simple audit to map your invisible labor, micro-boundaries to protect bandwidth, and conversation starters to make unseen work visible without the guilt spiral.If you’ve been carrying the backpack alone, consider this your signed prescription to set it down and share the load. Subscribe, share this episode with a teammate who does “all the little things,” and leave a review telling us the first invisible task you’re ready to name and renegotiate.Support the showI've poured all my best work into my newest book, Amplifying Your Leadership Voice: From Silent to Speaking Up. If today's episode resonated with you, I know the book will be a powerful tool. You can order it now! Thanks for listening and for being a part of The Communicative Leader community. To get even more exclusive tips—like the ones we talked about today—join us at TheCommunicativeLeader.com.
