Storycraft Lab

Big things happening at Storycraft Lab 🚀✨

As we evolve, we’re bringing new perspectives into the Lab. We’re thrilled to welcome two leaders to the Storycraft Lab Advisory Board who share our obsession with high-trust experiences and meaningful connection.

Carolyn Dolezal: A growth-minded executive coach and advisor. Carolyn specializes in high-stakes strategy and culture-shaping, helping good leaders become great ones. 🧠

Lindsay Merkle: An Experience-Led Growth Architect and Founder of HeyMerks. Lindsay engineers relationship-first marketing strategies that create the conditions for trust, engagement, and meaningful business outcomes. 📈

Growth for us is about adding the right perspectives to the mix! Welcome Carolyn and Lindsay to the Storycraft Lab Advisory Board 👋

What does empathetic leadership actually look like in practice?

We spent an hour with leaders across industries during our March Agents of Change session, and the patterns were clear: Empathy becomes visible in how you make decisions, manage energy, and build trust.

The following Guiding Principles emerged from this session:

⚖️ Empathy + Decisions
Empathy is a decision strategy. Your decisions are where empathy becomes real. It shows up in what you prioritize, what you say no to, and what you protect. Empathy is intentional tradeoffs.

⚡ Energy
Leadership requires energy management. Different people contribute differently. Your job isn’t to standardize your team, but instead to orchestrate their contributions.

🔍 Know Your People
If you don’t understand your people, you’re guessing. The work is in getting to know how they think, how they show up, and what they need to contribute.

🤝 Real vs. Performative
Trust is built (or broken) in patterns. Trust comes when you ensure your actions align with your words.

✨ Consistency / Authenticity
People watch what repeats. Trust builds over time in what you consistently follow through on.

🔄 Leadership Powerskill
Empathy has evolved. It is NOT a soft skill. Empathy is how leaders make decisions under pressure.

👤 Identity
Empathy isn’t theoretical. It shows up in how leaders operate every single day.

A special thank you to our co-hosts, Tavar James and Carolyn Dolezal, for leading this exploration with such candor and insight.

We also want to recognize our incredible contributors who brought their own “front-line” leadership experiences to the table. Thank you for sharing your expertise and helping redefine the practical operating models of empathetic leadership.

Interested into applying to join our Agents of Change sessions? Comment the word “AGENT” below!

Last week’s Agents of Change roundtable was, quite simply, electric. It was our most lively and insightful conversation to date with a deep dive into what empathetic leadership actually looks like in practice.

Tomorrow, we are dropping the Guiding Principles that emerged. From empathy as a decision strategy to the reality of energy management, we’re sharing the breakthroughs that happened at the table.

That said, we are opening applications for our upcoming roundtable sessions. 📥

This program is designed for visionaries who are passionate about: Fostering deep-rooted belonging within their organizations, driving transformational growth for their teams, and designing human-centered experiences that prioritize connection. ✨

If you’re ready to move beyond traditional structures and join a community of like-minded leaders, we want you at the table. Apply to join the next cohort here! Comment AGENT and we’ll DM you the application.