329: The Power of Being Yourself at Work with Claude Silver

In this Workday Playdate, Erin welcomes leadership trailblazer Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, for a conversation about authenticity, empathy, and emotional fluency at work. This episode is a heart-forward guide to showing up as your full self so you can build trust, spark creativity, and lead with courage in today’s complex workplace.Erin and Claude explore how emotional safety, vulnerability, and presence directly impact performance, innovation, and connection. At the heart of the episode is a call to expand at work. Through improv principles like “yes, and,” culture addition (not culture fit), Erin and Claude offer leaders real ways to create psychologically safe, high-trust environments where people actually thrive.
Inside This Episode:

• Authentic Leadership: Why being yourself at work is strategic
• Emotional Safety at Work: How trust and psychological safety unlock creativity, loyalty, and performance
• Claude’s Journey: From surf instructor to Chief Heart Officer
• Water as Wisdom: Flow, movement, and calm as leadership metaphors
• Improv at Work: Using “yes, and” to build collaboration, presence, and connection
• Culture Addition: Moving beyond exclusionary culture fit to build stronger, more inclusive teams
• Emotional Fluency: Learning to “speak human” and release outdated professionalism norms
• Trusting the Long Game: Patience, vulnerability, and leadership lessons from Gary Vaynerchuk
• Purpose & Joyful Service: Choosing love over fear to create real impact

Practical Takeaways:

• Discover your authentic self through values, triggers, and feedback
• Practice grounded presence and emotional regulation
• Expand instead of shrink in moments of discomfort
• Lead with love, clarity, and courage

Who This Episode Is For:

• Leaders ready to show up more authentically
• People managers building emotionally safe, high-performing cultures
• Anyone navigating burnout, disengagement, or uncertainty
• Remote and hybrid leaders creating connection without proximity
• Humans who want to lead with more empathy, purpose, and play

Your FreebieYou want to support your people the same way you want to be supported—but in fast, emotionally charged moments, the right words can be hard to find.Enter, your free resource - Human Leadership in the Age of AI: An Empathy Playbook. It gives you a simple, 3-part list of human-first phrases you can use in meetings, emails, and one-on-ones.Empathy isn’t extra anymore. It’s essential. Download your Empathy Playbook here.
Connect with Claude Silver

• Claude’s LinkedIn
• Claude’s Instagram
• Claude’s website
• Claude’s book

Connect with Erin Diehl x improve it!

• Erin’s website
• Erin’s Instagram
• Erin’s TikTok
• Erin’s LinkedIn
• improve it!’s website
• improve it!’s Instagram

For more information on improve it! visit www.learntoimproveit.com.

Connect with Erin Diehl

🌟 Learn more about Workday Playdate: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/podcast-page
🎤 Book Erin to speak: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/keynote-speaker
📚 Workshops & Team Experiences: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/experiential-training
💌 Learn more about Erin: https://www.itserindiehl.com/meet-erin
📱 For more information on improve it! visit www.learntoimproveit.com.

Loved this episode?

If this conversation made you think differently about work, leadership, or building joyful teams, please follow Workday Playdate on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who could use more play in their workday.