Whether you are an executive looking for the fuller picture, a compliance leader, a manager tackling a difficult issue, or an employee unsure of how to raise a concern, this podcast is your invitation to help build a workplace where everyone feels safe to share their perspectives and bring their best selves to work.
Jen Marr is the author of Showing Up and Lifting Up, two books that have become touchstones for building real resilience in the workplace. Her path into this work started in an unexpected place, supporting the Sandy Hook Elementary community and then finding herself 700 yards from the finish line when the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, four months apart. Watching how people in crisis felt isolated even when money and resources were poured into helping them sent her on a decade-long study of what people actually need when they’re destabilized, distressed, or overwhelmed, and how that need is showing up more and more in today’s workplaces.
In this conversation, Jen and Sana dig into why self-care and clinical support alone aren’t enough without the relational piece, why a quick five-minute check-in beats a long agenda-driven one-on-one nobody has time for, and why screens have quietly turned communication into just informing. They talk through the generational divide between “native analogs” and “native digitals,” and how leaders can meet both where they are. The centerpiece of the conversation is Jen’s “awkward zone,” a framework for the four ways good intentions miss their mark, and why being a good person doesn’t automatically mean your impact lands the way you meant it to.
Additional Resources:
Learn more about Jen Marr’s books, “Showing Up” and “Lifting Up”
Learn more about Showing Up LLC
Learn more about OmbudSana
Subscribe to Spoken in Confidence on YouTube for more content!
Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn
Learn more about PeopleForward Network
Key Takeaways:
- Self-care and clinical support matter, but without relational connection at work, neither one holds up.
- A five-minute “what do you need today” check-in beats a long agenda-driven one-on-one nobody has time for.
- Words only account for a small fraction of communication, so screen-only messages easily get misread.
- Leaders need to recognize the real skill gap between native analogs and native digitals rather than dismissing either.
- Good intent doesn’t guarantee good impact. The “awkward zone” is where that gap shows up most.
Sana Manjeshwar
What if the hardest conversations at work were the key to building trust, retaining talent, reducing risk, and creating a culture where people want to stay?
Spoken in Confidence with Sana Manjeshwar is a podcast for executives, HR leaders, compliance professionals, legal teams, managers, and workplace decision-makers who want to navigate conflict with more clarity, confidence, and care.
Hosted by Sana Manjeshwar, a former HR leader, employment lawyer, and organizational ombudsman, this podcast explores workplace conflict, conflict intelligence, psychological safety, speaking up, leadership accountability, employee trust, compliance, and healthier workplace cultures.
Each episode features real stories, practical tools, and honest conversations with leaders who chose to handle conflict differently. Listeners will gain insight into how high-performing organizations surface concerns early, build safer channels for employee voice, reduce costly turnover, and strengthen trust across teams.
Follow Spoken in Confidence and learn how today’s leaders can turn conflict into a strategic advantage while creating workplaces where people feel safe to share, stay, and do their best work.