Jen Marr Featured on Deb Knupp Podcast
April 15, 2026 (Oconomowoc, WI) — Jen Marr, CEO of Showing Up and author of Lifting Up: The Transformative Power of Supportive Leadership, was recently featured on Deb Knupp’s podcast.
In the episode, Deb and Jen discuss what it really takes to lead people well when life is messy, work is relentless, and uncertainty is no longer the exception.
Their conversation sits at the exact intersection where modern leadership tends to fall apart: we say we value empathy, but we often confuse feeling it with knowing how to act on it.
Jen shares:
“Empathy and compassion are nouns. They are feelings. And so in order to help someone, you need an action. You need a verb.”
Jen’s work is rooted in a hard truth that most workplaces still resist: support is not a “soft skill,” and human flourishing is not a perk.
In a world shaped by burnout, fragmentation, and rising loneliness, leaders are often the closest thing people have to a functioning support system, and that reality changes what leadership is responsible for.
What’s quietly radical here is Jen’s insistence on support without rescuing and care without lowered standards.
She describes the Awkward Zone™ that keeps well intentioned leaders stuck, then offers a practical way through it, from micro-moment skills to fast & frequent check-ins that build trust and accountability at the same time.
Underneath the entire episode is a challenge to the reflex many leaders default to: outsource the human part to HR, push through, stay “professional,” and hope it all works out.
Jen makes the case that this is exactly how cultures drift and how people quietly break.
So what can we do?
Jen offers some practical tips that leaders can implement immediately:
Once a week, ask one person you lead a question that has nothing to do with work, then remember the answer and follow up later.
Practice the “2–10s”: 1) When you come within 10 feet of someone, make eye contact and say the person’s name. 2) Assume there’s a “10” of potential within that person.
Replace the monthly agenda-heavy 1:1 with fast, frequent check-ins. Short enough to be sustainable, consistent enough to build trust.
Are you ready to level up your leadership? Let’s go!
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Showing Up LLC is a social good company whose mission is to bridge the gap between those who care and those who feel unseen.
Our training tackles the nuanced space of relational leadership: teaching the skills to lead teams through uncertainty and disruption.
We Show Up. We Lift Up.
The HX Collective explores the human experience through three lenses: work, relationships and self, through raw, authentic conversations rooted in human-centered design. Each episode offers gripping stories, thought-provoking discussion, and concrete tools that help you rethink your relationship with distress and strengthen your whole human experience.