198. What Fearless Leaders Know About Building Great Customer Experiences | Kristen Kavanaugh

Many leaders still believe emotions don't belong in business.

That limiting belief creates workplaces where employees stay quiet when problems appear, avoid taking ownership for customer outcomes, and follow directions even when they see flaws that will affect customers.

Fear is data. It signals when people feel unprepared, unsupported, or uncertain about priorities. When leaders ignore those signals, communication erodes, decision quality declines, and customers experience preventable mistakes and service failures.

In this episode of Doing CX Right®, Stacy Sherman talks with Kristen Kavanaugh, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and Tesla culture executive, about how courageous leadership turns fear into insight and action. Kristen shares what she learned from leading Marines in high-stakes missions and from developing leaders inside Tesla's fast-moving production environment. She explains how confronting fear directly, whether in military operations or corporate transformation, builds discipline, transparency, and faster, more confident decisions that protect both employees and customers.

From listening to this episode, you will learn how to:

• Identify behaviors that show fear is influencing team performance
• Use emotional data to uncover leadership and operational risks before they reach customers
• Practice courageous leadership that encourages honesty and customer accountability
• Replace avoidance with structured communication that drives faster resolution
• Apply proven methods from Tesla and the military to enhance results under pressure

Listen now to hear why emotions are not a side effect of business; they are the business and shapes every decision, every interaction, and every outcome.

As Stacy Sherman says:

"Emotions are the experience, and matters FAR more than you think.™"

Learn more at DoingCXRight.com. 

Book time with Stacy through this link.