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Avagasso Leadership Coaching
The Avagasso Blog
In the Avagasso blog, we delve deep into our power as warriors and leaders to share our insights, musings, experiences, and wisdom with our fellow dragons who are seeking to unlock their power and expand their inner and outer worlds.
So, read on, my courageous leader...

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🐉🔥 Tuesday’s Spark & Fire landed on one Enneagram type by accident.
And somehow, that accident opened something much bigger. We landed on the Investigator. And I didn’t explore it alone. Sanne. Nicol. Robin. Different perspectives . Different experiences . Different ways of seeing the same pattern. And that is exactly where the real value lives. Not in the framework. But in the diversity around it. At first, I thought: Will this even be enough? One type. One page. One small corner of the book. But the deeper we went, the more something impor

Sarah Gruneisen
Mar 263 min read


The Empathy Lie: When Leadership Talks About Empathy Wrong
What Spark + Fire revealed when we stopped pretending empathy is simple The randomizer led us to page 163, the empathy chapter from my book, and I ended up reading most of the chapter this time as the attendees wanted me to keep going. Not the strategy chapters. Not the frameworks. The messy one. The one where I admit that empathy has never been simple for me. Because for most of my life, I have lived between two extremes. Sometimes I feel too much. I absorb tension, grief, a

Sarah Gruneisen
Mar 107 min read


The Dragon You Call “Impatience” Is Probably Your Genius
Guilherme thought his problem was impatience. He thought leadership meant being calm. Measured. Emotionally even. At work, he was “the chill guy.” At home? Not so much. His wife saw the dragon. The irritation. The internal fire. The “just do it” energy. He thought it was something to fix. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most leaders are not struggling with weakness. They are struggling with unmanaged power. The Lie We’ve Been Sold About Emotional Maturity We are taught th

Sarah Gruneisen
Feb 172 min read


From Stuck Senior to Recognized Leader
Why technical excellence was never the real barrier There is a version of being “stuck” that looks impressive on LinkedIn. You are senior. You deliver. You’re respected for your technical output. You’re reliable. And yet… You feel like you are standing outside the real room. You see influence happening. You see decisions being shaped. You see impact being made. And you are not quite inside it. This is not incompetence. It is not lack of skill. It is often a communication barr

Sarah Gruneisen
Feb 154 min read


💚 Weekend Blessing 🐉
May this weekend bring soft strength, to lay down what weighs heavy, and to open your heart to what connects us all. We may walk...

Sarah Gruneisen
Oct 10, 20251 min read


🧠 Why, If You’re Neurodivergent in Tech, You Need The Leadership Leap
“We weren’t made to follow someone else’s path. We were made to build our own —sometimes sideways, sometimes spiraled, but always real.”...

Sarah Gruneisen
Sep 16, 20253 min read


🌍 Why, If You’re an Immigrant in Tech, You Need The Leadership Leap
“Belonging isn’t just about place. It’s about feeling seen—in a room, in a role, in your own skin.” I didn’t write The Leadership Leap...

Sarah Gruneisen
Sep 15, 20253 min read


👩💻 Why, If You Are a Woman in Tech, You Need The Leadership Leap
“Sometimes we’re not breaking glass ceilings — we’re walking barefoot across their shattered pieces.” If you are a woman in tech, you...

Sarah Gruneisen
Sep 14, 20253 min read


💚🐉 A Weekend Blessing
Wishing you companionship that warms your heart, belonging that feels like home, and peace that stays with you long after the weekend ends.

Sarah Gruneisen
Aug 15, 20251 min read


Diversity in Tech NL – A Night of Purpose, Power, and Collective Wisdom
I had the joy and honor of facilitating a deeply personal and powerful meetup for the Diversity in Tech NL community. The theme?...

Sarah Gruneisen
Mar 26, 20255 min read


Why Every Leader Should Support Women in Tech Meetups (And How Men Can Be the Best Allies)
What drew you to tech? Was it the excitement of solving complex problems? The impact of building something meaningful? The dream of...

Sarah Gruneisen
Feb 25, 20253 min read


Last day of our 4-day challenge: Embracing Differences 🐉
🔥 The best leaders celebrate their differences. By embracing who they are, leaders inspire authenticity, create space for diverse...

Sarah Gruneisen
Dec 19, 20242 min read


Those Lights Are Bright! Trusting the Experience of Others
❤️🔥 What happens when someone on your team says something doesn’t feel right to them, but it seems fine to you? Do you dismiss it, or...

Sarah Gruneisen
Dec 5, 20242 min read


How do you unlock the true potential of diverse teams?
In today’s multifaceted work environment, growing trust within diverse teams is essential for cultivating innovation and achieving...

Sarah Gruneisen
Dec 2, 20242 min read


Embracing the Whole Person: We Cannot Pick and Choose Traits Like Shopping at a Grocery Store
🛒🐉 Just as we cannot expect a dragon to change its scales or its unique breath on command, we cannot pick and choose the traits we want...

Sarah Gruneisen
Sep 10, 20242 min read


The Transformative Power of Empathy in “Sociopath: A Memoir, Patric Gagne, PHD”
Recently, I read into a powerful memoir that deeply resonated with my journey in understanding human behavior and leadership. The...

Sarah Gruneisen
Jul 22, 20241 min read


The Dual Nature of Dragons: 20 Pairs, 20 Unique Motivations
Did you have a bad experience with a helper (a needy martyr) that left you judging other helpers unfairly? As leaders, it's crucial to...

Sarah Gruneisen
Jul 17, 20242 min read


Empathy Beyond Borders: Aya’s Asylum Odyssey
On this day of celebration, I want us to think of those suffering in our midsts (here is an animation I made as requested by my daughter,...

Sarah Gruneisen
Apr 27, 20241 min read


Lyria’s Odyssey - Chapter 12: The Harmony of Fire and Heart: Lyria’s Balanced Leadership
As Lyria and her allies reveled in their victory over the Crystal Tempest, a new challenge loomed on the horizon. The realms, now...

Sarah Gruneisen
Mar 20, 20243 min read


Dragon Dynamics: Navigating Remote Work Across Diverse Team Member Styles
A notable statistic around remote work highlights that 94% of employees feel their work productivity is the same or higher than before...

Sarah Gruneisen
Mar 5, 20242 min read
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