Leadership Series · Premium Executive Edition
7 Minutes. 7 Steps. 7 Days.
A practical leadership playbook to help you build a team environment where people feel safe enough to tell the truth.
Start with regulation before the hard conversation.
Learn seven practical steps for making speaking up safer.
Use simple language your team can actually use when friction shows up.
Build a repeatable rhythm for repair, honesty and better conversations.
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7 Minutes
to regulate before you react
7 Steps
to make speaking up safer
7 Days
to begin changing the pattern
The Cost of Silence
When People Stop Telling You The Truth, The Problem Doesn't Disappear.
They may nod in the meeting and have the real conversation somewhere else because it no longer feels safe—or worth it—to say the hard thing directly.
The result can be delayed mistakes, missed information and decisions made without the input that could have changed them.
The playbook starts somewhere most leadership advice skips: the body. Physiology first, then the skills.
the estimated cost of a single moment of silence.
Inside the Playbook
A Simple Framework for Harder Conversations
The practice is built around three sevens: seven minutes to regulate, seven steps to make speaking up safer, and seven days to change the pattern.
01
Regulate First
Before you chase anyone else's truth, make sure you can hear it. Notice what your body is doing before you create a story.
02
Find the Truth Underneath
Question your interpretation. Ask what happened, what you assumed it meant, and what you are afraid to say or admit.
03
Own Your Part Out Loud
Model imperfection. Name something you got wrong without adding a “but,” then say what you will do differently.
04 · Welcome Problems
Thank people for bringing problems before asking for a solution.
05 · Explain Decisions
Explain the real reason and trade-off behind a “no.”
06 · Teach Language
Give your team four moves for truth that lands: own, observe, ask, need.
07 · Repair Mistakes
Acknowledge the situation, name the impact and communicate what changes next time.
Start With The Body
The 7-Minute Practice
Seven minutes of breath and reflection designed to help you move out of survival mode and into the part of your brain that can hold a hard conversation.
Regulate before you respond.
Run the seven-minute practice once before you begin, then each morning for the next seven days. You are practicing the pause you will need when someone says something you do not want to hear.
Medical advisory: The playbook notes that the activated breathwork should be skipped or modified if you are pregnant, have a heart or lung condition, or are recovering from surgery. Breathe at your own pace and stop any time.
7-Minute Audio Practice
The Seven-Day Practice
Repair, Then Repeat.
By day seven, the goal is not a perfectly honest team. It is a nervous system that can stay in the room when the truth walks in—and a few people who have noticed it is finally safe to bring it to you.
Stephanie Bacon, PhD · stephanie-bacon-phd.com
Hi, I'm Stephanie
For 25 years I worked next to people who were doing everything right and still hitting a wall.
Not from lack of effort. Not from lack of intelligence. From lack of capacity. Capacity is not a character trait. It is a physiological state, and it can be rebuilt. I watched brilliant leaders lose access to their own best thinking in the middle of a hard week, and then blame themselves or the team.
My doctoral research confirmed what I had already seen. When the nervous system is overloaded for long enough, clear thinking, honest conversations, and decisions made well are the first things to go. That is the gap I work in. When it closes, the ripple moves fast.
Dr. Stephanie Bacon, PhD
© Stephanie Bacon, PhD · Leadership Playbook Series
7 Minutes · 7 Steps · 7 Days