HBR Presents

I'm Yario Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful

leaders who fit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying

their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little

more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

Today's guest is someone will call Emily to protect her confidentiality.

Her career has followed a winding path. She's worked as an

engineer, a corporate lawyer, and then transitioned into tech. She's focused on the marketing

side and until a few months ago had been working at the C-suite level until her recent career move.

I actually just transitioned into a new role for a very large company. So kind of moving away from the startup scale up growth environment, I kind of felt like

I needed to take a little bit of a break, although that hasn't, it's not exactly how

things have worked out.

So far, I've stepped into a role where I was initially going to be an individual contributor

and I kind of felt like I've been managing for more than a decade and I kind of wanted to

transition something different. And then I just quickly stepped back into the management role again.

With any big career transition, it can often be a very self-reflective time.

As you leave one role and start another, especially at a new company, in a new place,

it's natural to want to reassess what really matters to you and what your goals are.

That's where Emily is today.

I'm not sure if I'm in the right role, and I'm not sure if being a manager is the right role for me.

I kind of feel like it was a natural progression and I really find it fulfilling, but I think in some cases it also can be really exhausting.

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