Chief Psycho

Building psychodynamic leaders + psychologically safe teams
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04/28/2026

Pokémon felt simple at the time.

Catch them. Train them. Win.

But it quietly taught a lot early.

Effort leads somewhere.
Not everything happens immediately.
You lose, reset, and keep going.
And doing more isn’t always the same as doing it right.

None of it was framed as advice.

It was just how the game worked.

Also… who was your favorite Pokémon?

Mine was and still is Squirtle. 🩵

04/27/2026

Some things move fast. Some things don’t.

Regulation isn’t about matching pace.
It’s about knowing your own.

✨

04/24/2026

Finally made it back to run club. 🫶🏼

Taking it slower than usual while I recover from a slight tear in my right meniscus. Still some discomfort, so easing back into it.

Not the pace I’m used to, but it felt good to be out there again.

Also helped that PBRC teamed up with Sambazon this week for Earth Day. 🍓

Mud run next week… please don’t tear. Otherwise, will be carrying me to the finish line. 😂🤞🏼

04/22/2026

Most people don’t consciously build their identity.

They reinforce it.

You do something well -> it gets recognized -> you repeat it.

Over time, that pattern becomes internal.

You don’t just perform the role. You start to see yourself through it.

That works… until the reinforcement changes or stops.

That’s where things get uncomfortable.

Because without feedback, output, or validation, the signal that once told you who you are isn’t there anymore.

For many people, that’s what makes transition difficult.

Not a lack of direction, but a lack of reinforcement.

04/20/2026

There’s something about the presence you bring and the service you receive.

Not always, but enough to notice.

Is it training… or energy?

Still deciding.

10/10 experience at either way. 🥗

04/17/2026

Since moving to San Diego, Shahed was one of the first people I really connected with.

She’s the kind of friend who loves you and holds you accountable at the same time.

I’ve come to appreciate how rare that is.

Grateful for her. 🫶🏼

Keep finding your people. They’re out there.

04/15/2026

High performance doesn’t break randomly, it follows patterns.

Most of those patterns are well understood:
• Performance improves with stress until it doesn’t
• The body accumulates strain faster than it recovers
• Cognitive capacity gets exceeded long before effort drops
• What once felt like overextension becomes baseline

At the same time, high performers tend to compensate.

They take on more, stabilize more, and carry more than their role requires.

That behavior gets reinforced by the system.

Until something shifts and when it does, the response is usually the same.

More effort, but the issue isn’t effort.

It’s capacity and without understanding the underlying mechanisms, the response will always miss the problem.

04/13/2026

One of the more defining moments in my career.

I spent two months in India working on a site launch while coaching an executive team on psychological safety.

When I first arrived, I ran into some health challenges.

Not ideal timing, but it forced something I hadn’t fully understood yet.

Leadership doesn’t stop. It bends.

The environment shifts. Your capacity fluctuates.
Pressure shows up differently than expected and the work still has to hold.

That experience changed how I think about this, because psychological safety isn’t something you introduce when things are stable.

It’s something that has to hold when they’re not.

Across different levels.
Different expectations.
Different ways pressure moves through a system.

That means learning how to adapt without losing structure.
How to stay clear without overcompensating.
How to stabilize without taking everything on.

That’s the part of the work I’ve come back to most since and what my summer cohort is all around next. Can’t wait! 🙌🏼

✨

04/10/2026

Not all behavior at work is just “behavior.”

Some of it reflects deeper patterns.

But without the right lens, those patterns either get mislabeled… or missed entirely.

Inattention gets called unreliability.
Avoidance gets called laziness.
Control gets called leadership.
Defensiveness gets called confidence.

At the same time, there’s also a tendency to overcorrect and label everything as clinical.

Both miss the point.

The work isn’t to diagnose people casually.

It’s to understand what’s actually driving the behavior before deciding how to respond.

The same behavior can come from very different places.

If you don’t know the difference, you won’t respond effectively.

04/08/2026

Dogs remind us to slow down and enjoy the moment.

Took Vino to the dog beach in OB this weekend and he did the exact opposite.

Spent the entire time sprinting up and down the beach like he had to prove he was the fastest frenchie to hit the sand.

Didn’t stop once.

Now he’s been down for the last few days in hibernation (see last photo for reference). 😂

04/07/2026

Part III. Live at 4 pm PT.

The last two sessions were about understanding pressure — how it shows up in teams, how it moves, and how quickly it gets misinterpreted.

Today is where that shifts. From conversation… to structure.

Psychological safety isn’t something you just talk about. It’s something your systems either support or undermine every day. It must be prioritized in order to be reciprocated.

It shows up in your policies, your protocols, and your leadership behavior — in the signals your team is already reading, whether you’ve defined them or not.

This final session is about building that in a way that actually holds under pressure, without overcomplicating it.

Grateful to be closing this out with .marzolino and .

If you’ve been following along, this is where it all connects. This is where it starts to show up in how you actually lead.

See y’all later! ✌🏼

Registration link: https://leadhershipexperience.com/Webinar/CULTURE

04/05/2026

PSA: Objects in mirror are hotter than they appear. 🔥

Blenders is running 30% off sitewide for spring break right now.

If you’re looking to pick up a pair like these, I’ve been wearing the Eclipse in Inferno — they’ve got a ton of different colorways in this style too. 🙌🏼

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http://www.chiefpsycho.com/

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