Grounded and Aligned™
The podcast for people in senior roles who carry real responsibility - budgets, teams, visibility, and pressure - that doesn’t switch off at the end of the day.
If your role has grown faster than your comfort zone…
If you’re managing up, setting boundaries, delegating, and absorbing more than you used to…
If you care about being effective and human (without being inauthentic or pushing yourself past your limits), this show is for you.
No hype.
No generic advice.
Just grounded conversations for navigating complex roles with composure and self-trust.
In this speaker series, Karen is talking to experts on the challenges and opportunities for leaders in 2026.
Guest: Laurie-Ann Murabito
In this episode of Grounded and Al...
In senior roles, you are expected to have a point of view.
You are promoted for judgment and decisiveness. But there is a structural risk that emerges at VP and SVP leve...
In this episode of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen Gombault addresses a pressure most senior leaders recognize immediately: how to stay focused when the organization feels uns...
In senior roles, pressure is constant. Decisions are visible. Stakeholders bring urgency, frustration, and competing priorities into the room. You cannot control those inpu...
At senior levels, challenge is constant, questions are direct, assumptions are tested in real time, and comments are brief and often ambiguous.
In this episode of Grounde...
If you’re operating with sustained responsibility, constant decision flow, and expanding scope, overwhelm often shows up not because of poor time management, but because of...
In Episode 54 of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen examines a recurring challenge among executives who have recently stepped into broader or more senior roles. While early st...
In this episode of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen addresses a pattern that consistently undermines senior leaders taking on new roles: delaying decisions in the name of cert...
Taking on a broader mandate at VP or SVP level is rarely accompanied by clear operational boundaries. The remit expands, visibility increases, and expectations accumulate ...
In this episode of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen Gombault reflects on leadership through an unexpected but instructive lens: observing how people respond when authenticity, ...
This episode was recorded on December 31, 2025.
It’s a simple pause at the end of the year to look at what actually made a difference, personally and professionally.
In t...
The meeting is scheduled for the next day.
A decision needs to be made. Teams are waiting for direction.
As you review the materials one final time, you see it immediatel...
