Imagine a state where you can get from big cities to big nature in less than half an hour, with some of the best quality of life in the nation.

Welcome to Minnesota, America's least stressed state.

Learn more at exploreminnesota.com slash live. I'm Muriel Wilkins, and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR podcast network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit 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 Denise to protect her confidentiality.

She spent much of her career in project-oriented roles and a few years ago made the move to an organization where she's increasingly gaining more leadership responsibility.

In the past year, I've had a lot of growth opportunities.

You know, I came in as an individual contributor, but especially in the past year, I've been giving more leadership responsibilities and management and being able to showcase the work that we do

to our executive teams, our board, our stakeholders.

I'm still a individual contributor on the org chart, but unofficially I've been given more

management, the kind of visionary leadership responsibilities and the communication being that face and that creator to kind of guide the direction of my team and gotten really great feedback from that.

Denise feels like she's on the way up the ladder, but there's a bit of a catch, the culture of her organization.

You know, I've come to see and be outright told that to be seen as a leader here, There's a bit of a catch, the culture of her organization.

You know, I've come to see and be outright told that to be seen as a leader here, you need to be personally close to top leadership,

preferably with decades of personal relationships with them, which I do not have. You know, this kind of history of hiring and promoting friends based on personal relationships

has evolved somewhat, but it's still, how do I thrive as an outsider in a more insular,

insider environment, where relationships are often valued higher than experience or technical skill sets.

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