Explore every episode of the podcast Leadership Rehearsal

Growth conversations are one of the most avoided topics in leadership — and one of the most important. In the Season 1 finale, Alex breaks down what development actually means, why leaders avoid these conversations, and how to approach them with clarity and confidence. We explore the difference between in-role development and career development, introduce the 70-20-10 framework from the Center for Creative Leadership, and tackle the conversation most leaders dread: what do you say when someone wants to grow but the opportunity is not there? This episode includes a Solo Rehearsal to help you prepare a real growth conversation and a Team Rehearsal to put it into practice. This is where everything we have rehearsed this season comes together.

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Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

Most leaders know feedback matters. What they struggle with is how to give it without damaging the relationship — and how to receive it without getting defensive. In Episode 9, Alex breaks down both sides of the feedback conversation. We explore how to receive feedback well, including what to do when two people give you completely opposite feedback and how to identify when something is worth acting on versus a one-off. Then we get into how to give feedback effectively using the SBIA model: Situation, Behavior, Impact, Action — a practical framework that moves feedback away from feeling like a verdict and toward a real conversation. This episode includes a Solo Rehearsal to help you draft and pressure-test a piece of feedback you have been sitting on, and a Team Rehearsal to put it into practice. ⁠

Click Here⁠ for the Episode 9 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

Most leaders only talk about performance when something goes wrong — and by then, it is already too late. In Episode 7, Alex reframes performance management as an everyday practice, not an end-of-year event. We break down the two dimensions of performance — the what and the how — and explore why leaders who only track results are missing half the picture. We introduce the Five Whys, a root-causing framework that helps leaders get beneath the surface of what they are observing before they act on it. And we apply it to wins, not just concerns — because understanding why something went well is just as important as understanding why something went wrong.

⁠Click Here⁠ for the Episode 7 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community to rehearse alongside other leaders!

One-on-ones are your most valuable individual leadership tool — and one of the most underused. In Episode 6, Alex breaks down how to reclaim your one-on-ones from status updates and build them into your most intentional leadership time. You'll learn how to think about your one-on-one as part of a broader communication rhythm, how to set the right cadence and duration for your team, how to design a shared agenda that puts your team member in the driver's seat. This episode includes a Solo Rehearsal to help you build your own one-on-one structure and a Team Rehearsal to introduce it to your team. ⁠

Click Here⁠ for the Episode 6 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠⁠Join our free community to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Unclear expectations are one of the most common — and most avoidable — sources of frustration on a team. In Episode 5, Alex explores why leaders skip expectation-setting, what it actually costs when they do, and how to set expectations that make accountability easier and feedback more effective. You'll learn how to define what good looks like before work begins, why clarity is not micromanaging, and how to navigate setting expectations when you are not clear on what they should be.

Click Here⁠ for the Episode 5 Worksheet 

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community ⁠to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Psychological safety isn't a culture initiative — it's a performance condition you build through daily behavior. In Episode 4, Alex breaks down what psychological safety actually is (and what it isn't), why you can't announce it into existence, and introduces four behaviors from Amy Edmondson's research that create the conditions for your team to speak up, take risks, and do their best work. You'll also hear why the environment you create for your team is yours to own — regardless of what's happening above you in the organization.

⁠Click Here⁠ for the Episode 4 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community ⁠to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Leadership becomes sustainable when it’s rooted in who you actually are — not the persona you think you have to perform. In Episode 3, Alex introduces Radical Authenticity and explores how values act as your leadership compass. You’ll learn how misalignment leads to burnout, why authenticity builds credibility and trust, and how to translate your values into observable leadership behaviors. This episode includes a practical Values Mapping exercise and a team rehearsal to help you practice showing up with clarity and consistency. 

⁠Click Here⁠ for the Episode 3 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community ⁠to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Leadership is built through trust and consistent follow-through. In Episode 2, Alex breaks down why relationship building is one of the highest-ROI leadership skills and introduces the Relationship Bank Account framework: deposits, neutral interactions, and withdrawals. You’ll walk away with a practical audit to assess your relationship capital and strengthen trust with your team. Simply put: without trust, even small interventions become heavy lifts.

⁠Click Here⁠ for the Episode 2 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community ⁠to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Leadership isn’t a title—it’s a practice. In this episode, Alex Gonzalez breaks down the difference between managing and leading, and shows you how to audit your time over the past week to see where your energy is really going. Learn how to identify tasks you can delegate, automate, or eliminate, and discover ways to bring your team into your leadership development to build trust, clarity, and a sustainable leadership practice.

Click Here for the Episode 1 Worksheet

Leadership Rehearsal helps leaders build a sustainable practice to prioritize their time, lead authentically, and balance the needs of their people and business.

⁠Join our free community ⁠to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Welcome to Leadership Rehearsal, a podcast where leadership is a practice, not just a title. In this trailer, I introduce Season One, focused on what we call manager hygiene—revisiting the leadership basics we were never taught and untangling habits we developed on our own.

You’ll get a taste of what to expect each week:

• Solo rehearsal: guided reflections to sharpen your leadership

• Team rehearsal: practical exercises or questions to bring directly to your team

Season One explores topics like feedback, authenticity, psychological safety, setting expectations, and managing performance—all with the goal of helping you lead with clarity, balance, and intention.

I’m Alex Gonzalez, leadership facilitator, former corporate leader, and Founding Artistic Director of Latiné Theater Lab.

Subscribe now and start rehearsing your leadership.

Join our free community to rehearse alongside other leaders!

Most leadership journeys start the same: you’re promoted to your first management role with little to no training provided! Suddenly, you’re expected to lead, but no one showed you "how."

Welcome to Leadership Rehearsal. Join Alex—former corporate leader turned Artistic Director—to build a practice that lets you prioritize your time and be the leader you actually want to be. Through practical tools and data-backed exercises, we bridge the gap between business targets and human needs. Because management is a title, while leadership is a practice.

See you in rehearsal!