The WorthTheWork’s Podcast

The promotion announcement isn't the hardest conversation.
It's the one that should happen before it.
Every promotion creates two stories: the person moving forward and the person being passed over.
Most organizations invest heavily in celebrating one and leave the other to figure out what happened.
And that's where trust starts to unravel.
In Episode 14 of Worth The Work, The Promotion You Didn't Give, Courtni Hughes-Bochenek explores the leadership responsibility that comes with saying no.
We're talking about the conversations leaders avoid, the damage caused by vague promises, the difference between "not yet" and "not here," and why a missed promotion can become the beginning of an employee's quiet exit.
Because the decision matters. But how you handle the relationship afterward matters just as much.
Before you send the next promotion announcement, make the harder phone call first.
🎙️ Listen to Episode 14 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
#WorthTheWork #LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #TalentManagement

In this episode of *Worth the Work*, Courtni Hughes-Bochenek walks through six uncomfortable questions that make up the culture audit most companies refuse to run — revealing the gap between what your values page says and what your workplace actually rewards, and challenging leaders to pick one question, look honestly, and close one small gap this week.

What does working fatherhood really look like? In this episode of Worth the Work, host Courtni Hughes-Bochenek sits down with Sims Tillirson—founder of the Tillirson Consulting Group and dad to two boys, ages 3 and 5—to talk about the realities, pressures, and possibilities of being a working dad.
From chaotic 5 AM morning routines to being fired while on paternity leave, Sims opens up about the side of working parenthood that rarely gets airtime. We dig into the misconceptions people have about working fathers, the "trophy problem" of over-praising dads for basic parenting, the very real mental load his wife carries, and how their household divides labor by playing to each other's strengths rather than splitting everything 50/50.
Whether you're a working parent, an HR leader, or just someone trying to understand what's happening on the other side of the pick-up line, this conversation is a candid, funny, and sometimes raw look at modern fatherhood—and what workplaces still get wrong about it.

Worth the Work — Episode 11: You're Not a Good Leader If People Have to Recover From You Some leaders you learn from. Others you have to recover from — and sometimes they're the same person.
 
In this episode of Worth the Work, Courtni Hughes-Bochenek digs into a question most leadership conversations skip: not "are you a good leader?" but "what does it actually feel like to be led by you?" She unpacks why success and being difficult to work for aren't mutually exclusive, how leaders create an "emotional wake" their teams silently adapt to, the hidden cost of manufactured urgency, and the difference between leaders who are polished upward but toxic downward.
 
She makes the case that leadership isn't about being perfect — it's about being self-aware enough to own impact, not just intention. If you've ever wondered whether your team is thriving under your leadership or just surviving it, this one's worth the work.

We've been talking about working motherhood the wrong way.
For years, the conversation has centered on how women can better manage the load — how they can be more resilient, more efficient, more boundaried. But the real question isn't how to make work easier for mothers. It's where workplaces are making work unnecessarily harder.
In this solo episode, Courtni Hughes-Bochenek reframes working motherhood as a workplace issue — not a women's issue. She names the invisible norms that create friction (the 8 AM meeting, the 5 PM test, the assumptions about ambition after kids), the trap of treating mothers as a category, and the questions every leader should be asking about how their culture actually operates.
Because when we get this right for working mothers, we usually make work better for a whole lot of other people too.
This one is for the leaders shaping the workplaces we all work inside — and the working moms who've been told to solve a problem that was never entirely theirs to solve.

Episode 9: Beyond The Job
Courtni opens by challenging the pressure to love every part of your job — work doesn't have to be your whole identity to be worthwhile. Her guest, Eric Mavor, a Director of Operations at Medline, shares how his leadership style evolved managing teams that grew from 20 to 300+ people, emphasizing a "human first" approach and figuring out what makes each person tick.
Key themes:• Leadership as connection, not control — Eric credits his creative, personable style (team grilling events, celebrations) for building trust and morale, shaped by years of gaining confidence and autonomy.• Identity beyond the job — Both agree work is a means to an end, not the whole self; understanding that makes leaders more empathetic.• Boundaries and balance — Eric reframes work/life balance as intentionality rather than hours, citing habits like cutting off email notifications, protecting off-hours, and drawing inspiration from Cal Newport's writing.• Mindset and outside interests — Running, family time, and outdoor adventures recharge him; interpersonal communication skills (an unlikely community college class) shaped his leadership more than he expected.• Advice for over-identified workers — Lean into demanding seasons when needed, but stay introspective: journal, remove distractions, and identify the other "hats" you wear (parent, athlete, partner, etc.).• Closing note — Not everyone's identity outside work looks the same (parent, hobbyist, etc.), but human-to-human connection — at work or outside it — is what people ultimately need.The conversation ends warmly, with some light technical hiccups and a shared appreciation for authenticity in leadership.

Episode 8: You Can Be Grateful And Still Want More
Courtni Hughes-Bochenek explores the tension between contentment and ambition — how you can genuinely love the life you've built and still want more without it undermining your gratitude.
Key points:
Gratitude shouldn't become an obligation to stay the same; it should ground you, not trap you.Wanting "more" doesn't mean your current life is bad — it can simply mean wanting something different, not necessarily better.Ambition is often celebrated early in a career but viewed with suspicion once someone has "made it" — including in how leaders react when employees want to keep growing.Wanting more doesn't always mean wanting bigger — sometimes it means wanting less (less stress, less climbing, more freedom or alignment).The core question she lands on: not "what should you want," but "who are you becoming, and what does that person want?"Closing thesis: you can love where you've been and where you are, and still be curious about what's next — both can be true.

Episode 7: The Job Is Not the Point
What if loving your job was never supposed to be the goal?
For years, we’ve been told to find our passion, follow our purpose, and build careers that fulfill us. But somewhere along the way, meaningful work became an expectation that we should love our jobs—and that if we don’t, we’re doing something wrong.
In this episode of Worth the Work, Courtni Hughes-Bochenek challenges that idea.
Because work can matter without becoming your identity. You can be ambitious, engaged, and excellent at what you do—and still believe the most important parts of your life happen outside of work.
In this episode, we explore:
Why the “do what you love” narrative may be doing more harm than good
The difference between meaningful work and needing work to fulfill you
Why your identity shouldn’t rise and fall with your career
What People & Culture leaders may have gotten wrong about employee engagement
Why respect, trust, fair pay, clarity, and a life outside of work matter more than convincing employees to “love” their jobs
How holding work a little more loosely can help us make better decisions about our careers—and our lives
And maybe the question we should be asking isn’t:
“Do you love your job?”
Maybe it’s:
“Are you building a life you love beyond it?”
Work matters. But it is still only one piece of a life.
Work can wait. Your life is happening now.
🎙️ Worth the WorkHonest conversations about engagement, culture and modern work.
Hosted by Courtni Hughes-Bochenek
If this episode resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who might need the reminder, and join the conversation in the comments: What exists in the bigger piece of your life?

In this episode, host Courtni sits down with Mel Goodman — tech industry veteran turned founder of WorkMom — to unpack the slow drift that leads high-achievers to burnout before they ever see it coming.Mel shares her own story: 15 years in corporate, multiple burnout cycles, postpartum anxiety, and the moment she found herself hoping to be on a layoff list. That wake-up call led her to leave Salesforce, take a severance, and build a business helping senior leader moms redesign their lives before they fall apart.Together, they dig into why burnout doesn't look like collapse — it looks like someone still performing, still delivering, but completely disconnected from themselves. And why the popular fixes (rest, self-care, boundaries) aren't enough when the real problem is life architecture.Key themes:The four invisible loads of modern motherhoodWhy the most competent women are often the most burned out"You can't self-care your way out of a structural problem"What it actually takes to step back into alignmentConnect with Mel Goodman:https://www.linkedin.com/in/melgoodman/https://www.workmom.io

Worth the Work | Episode 5 "Closing the Leadership Gap with Emily Dills"
What happens when your best performer becomes a manager — and no one prepares them for it? In this episode, Courtni sits down with Emily Dills, corporate and executive strategy expert, to tackle one of the most overlooked challenges in the workplace: the leadership gap.
Emily breaks down why being great at your job doesn't automatically make you a great leader — and what organizations and individuals can do about it. At the heart of the conversation are the 4 leadership mindsets every manager falls into:
The Mentor — High expectations + high support. The goal.
The Protector — All support, low expectations. Feels caring, but stunts growth.
The Enforcer — High expectations, zero support. Breeds burnout and fear.
The Avoider — Sidesteps hard conversations and hopes things resolve themselves.
Emily and Courtni also cover what the first 30 days in a leadership role should really look like, why emotional intelligence and time management are the two most critical foundations for new managers, and how organizations can build a true leadership culture — not just check a training box.
Plus: why Emily focuses her work on middle managers, the ROI of investing in your people, and her simple advice for anyone trying to drive change in their organization: start with the new and the willing.  Emily loves to begin her work by focusing on one leader and a small team because from there the ripple effects often push out through the whole organization.
Get In Touch With Emily Dills:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilydills/
https://www.emilydills.com/