Manager Memo podcast · Len Samborowski, MBA Associate Professor, Nichols College

Be Authentic: Flipping Fear to Fuel

·39 min·2 clips

She stopped trying to please audiences and started “serving my audience” instead.

Dr. Alexandra Plasenik joins Manager Memo with a simple aim: help executive women speak with more confidence, clarity, and authenticity. Her background stretches from the United Nations to the European Commission and top business schools across Europe, plus life in six countries. The host keeps the conversation loose and curious, and that gives Plasenik room to talk about how language, leadership, and self-presentation shift once the goal becomes serving an audience instead of trying to win it. She says she used to focus on pleasing the audience and losing authenticity, but now she accepts that not everybody will like her. That shift makes the work feel easier and more honest. The discussion then moves to a coaching moment with an executive who did not want to join an exercise. Rather than pushing, she treated the refusal as voluntary and later learned the person was afraid the exercise would force him to dig deeper than he was ready for. That turns into a lesson in patience and trust. From there, the episode turns to imposter feelings and the sentences people repeat to themselves. Plasenik says those lines often come from somewhere else, like a parent, teacher, neighbor, or another early influence. Her advice is to name them so they can be seen for what they are instead of treated like identity. The final stretch turns to her forthcoming book about overcoming fear of public speaking, communicating effectively, and keeping self-confidence. She says it is mainly for female speakers, though men are welcome to read it too, and expects it out around February 2026.

As heard by us

A practical take on confidence, authenticity, and speaking without shrinking.

Be Authentic: Flipping Fear to Fuel focuses on speaking with confidence and clarity without losing personal voice in the room. Dr. Alexandra Plasenik reads as a communication coach with a steady, practical style, and the strongest idea here is the reminder to serve an audience…

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Need to speak up without performing for approval?

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