Worthy to Lead

SUBSCRIBE to get alerted anytime I release new episodes and free tools & resources: https://www.worthytolead.co/subscribe Have you ever thought to yourself: “How can I get to be one of those leaders who truly inspires their team? I don't just want to manage the work, I want to impact the trajectory of their career."Maybe you want to be more strategic, but you’re constantly stuck in the weeds, feeling overwhelmed by managing all the details.You find yourself tethered to the desk, making every decision, and desperately wishing you could take a vacation without things falling apart. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.Whether you are a new leader, an aspiring leader, or an experienced leader who has seen it all, this podcast has you covered.Kristiana Corona is a corporate leader, mom of 3, and certified executive coach. She's spent more than two decades building design and technology teams for Fortune 500 companies.

Worthy to Lead is a business podcast hosted by Kristiana Corona, with 47 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Kristiana Corona hosts Worthy to Lead, a business show with 47 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Worthy to Lead

  Episode 46: FRICTION: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders | with Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship

  Aug 11, 20261h 2mS3

  Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship are consulting psychologists and executive coaches who have spent decades working with executives and senior leaders, and they came to a conclusion that changed how I think about emotions at work entirely. We’re often taught to push past tension or ignore the defensiveness that spikes during tough meetings. But Maggie and Ross argue that friction isn't a problem to solve, but critical information for making decisions. Emotions are the medium through which all work happens. Their new book, Friction: How Tension, Emotion, and Change Reveal Better Leaders , is backed by a national survey of over 1,100 working Americans, and it makes the case that human-centered leadership and emotional intelligence are becoming more essential, not less, as AI reshapes how we work. Order Dr. Ross and Dr. Maggie’s latest book, Friction: Website: https://www.talentsmarteq.com/friction/ Amazon: https://a.co/d/09kK3yTq ADDITIONAL LINKS: Nir Eyal on habit-forming products: https://www.nirandfar.com/hooked/ MIT study on AI and cognitive load, "Your Brain on ChatGPT": https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/ Dr. Marc Brackett on the RULER framework for emotional intelligence: https://marcbrackett.com/ruler/ Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions: https://www.6seconds.org/2025/02/06/plutchik-wheel-emotions/ Lisa Feldman Barrett on how emotions are constructed by the brain:   https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/books/how-emotions-are-made/     CONNECT WITH MAGGIE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiesass-phd/ Website: https://www.talentsmarteq.com/ CONNECT WITH ROSS: Website: https://www.tuesdayadvisors.com/ Substack: https://rossblankenship.substack.com/ Website: https://www.rossblankenship.io/ CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/

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  Worthy to Lead

  Episode 45: Building Company Culture That Thrives with AI | with Dr. Kevin Sakamoto

  Jul 28, 202637 minS3

  Dr. Kevin Sakamoto and I go way back. We worked together at Target, we've spent years comparing notes from our different corners of the world (he's a professor and product leader, I'm a design leader), and we enjoy diving deep and nerding out over leadership and innovation. We recently sat down to challenge how leaders are thinking about leading through AI. We get into the fear that some leaders are feeling right now: the quiet worry that their role, their relevance, their whole reason for being in the room might be slipping away. We talk about the IKEA case study that will truly make you rethink what's possible when a company decides to renew its people instead of replacing them. We dig into why middle management is having its own identity crisis, what an inverted apprenticeship looks like when your newest hire knows more about AI than you do, and why the smartest thing you can do right now might just be to gather everyone around a table to work through it together. If you've been bracing for impact instead of getting curious, this conversation is your invitation to try something different. REFERENCES: IKEA case study on AI-driven customer service and reskilling: https://employerbranding.news/resources/what-ikeas-ai-reskilling-story-looks-like-now-it-has-made-layoffs-too/   Entrepreneur.com article on the collapse of the middle manager layer: https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/as-companies-cut-managers-the-smart-ones-are-investing-in/498397   Zappos culture and the legacy of Tony Hsieh: https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithferrazzi/2024/07/10/the-new-growth-architects-three-companies-honoring-tony-hsiehs-legacy/ CONNECT WITH DR. KEVIN SAKAMOTO: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-h-sakamoto/   CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website:  https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ Substack:  https://worthytolead.substack.com /

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  Worthy to Lead

  Episode 44: INTEGRITY is NOT a Liability in the C-Suite. It’s Your Competitive Edge | Interview with Rusty Atkinson

  Jul 14, 202656 minS3

  Rusty Atkinson spent twenty-five years climbing into the highest levels of corporate technology, including time as a CIO, and he vowed not to stop caring about his people in order to get there. In this Worthy to Lead podcast conversation, we get into the real cost of leading with integrity: the rooms Rusty wasn't invited to and why he'd make the same trade every time. He walks us through the six stumbling blocks he identifies in his book, The Integrity Edge , from lack of trust and unchecked ambition to the slow drift toward a toxic culture, and he hands us a Courage Model for building the kind of conviction that holds up when the stakes are high, not just when it's convenient. If you've ever assumed that toughening up and caring less is just part of the job description at the top, this is your permission slip to choose another path. REFERENCES: The Integrity Edge by Rusty Atkinson: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRN8YWKM Love as a Business Strategy by Mohammad Anwar: https://www.loveasabusinessstrategy.com/ CONNECT WITH RUSTY: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustyatkinson/ CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com  

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  Worthy to Lead

  Episode 43: How Coaching Changed Everything About How I Lead

  Jun 30, 202640 minS3

  For once, I'm not the host – I'm the guest. My friend and fellow coach Laurie Hall flips the script and interviews me about my own path: small-town Minnesota roots, unglamorous first jobs, and getting thrown into leadership with zero training. My early stumbles led me to coaching – the moment that changed how I lead for good – and into 23 years of building teams and inventing new roles for myself inside corporate. We talk about why I left a job I loved at Amazon at the start of 2025, the "human-centered leadership flywheel" behind my membership community now, and the mindset shift I keep coming back to: your work is not your worth. If I could create my own role inside four different companies, why couldn't I build the one I actually wanted outside of all of them? I hope this gives you permission to ask the questions you've been putting off. Be the first to know about new episodes, insights, and resources. Join my email list at https://www.WorthyToLead.co/subscribe CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/ 🎧 LISTEN TO LAURIE'S EPISODE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-40-from-nasa-engineer-to-leadership-coach-navigating/id1748949789?i=1000768552476  CONNECT WITH LAURIE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriehallformerlypeterson Website: https://newhorizonstrategies.com/  

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  Worthy to Lead

  Episode 42: From Fear to Fluency: VP Andy Vitale on How to Lead AI Innovation with Confidence

  Jun 16, 202649 minS3

  Andy Vitale has been building with AI since 2015, across healthcare, banking, mortgage, marketing, and now tax software, long before it became a leadership talking point. He was auto-suggesting medical codes at 3M before most people knew what machine learning was. He helped increase loan volume at Rocket Companies by billions of dollars through conversational AI. And now, as VP and Head of Product Design and AI Center of Excellence at TaxWell, he is shipping AI-powered features within a single tax season while spending 75% of his week in AI-related work, at the VP level, hands-on. In this conversation, we trace that full arc: what it looked like to build with AI before it was a trend, how product teams are working differently now, why design systems have become a competitive moat, and what separates the leaders who will thrive in this moment from the ones who quietly become speed bumps. If you have been feeling the pressure to get fluent in AI and lead your team through a transition you are still figuring out yourself, this episode is worth a listen. REFERENCES: Claude: https://claude.ai Wisprflow: https://wisprflow.ai Figma Make: https://www.figma.com/make/ Cursor: https://cursor.com/ CONNECT WITH ANDY: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyvitale/ Website: https://www.andyvitale.com/ Design Executive Council: https://www.designexecutivecouncil.com/ CONNECT WITH KRISTIANA: Website: https://www.worthytolead.co/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristianacorona Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthytolead/ Substack: https://worthytolead.substack.com/

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