I'm Ariel 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 Ben to protect his confidentiality.

He has a background in a number of industries and is now in a role where he manages a large manufacturing team.

It's demanding.

I get up before five in the morning. I put in,

on average, about 11 hours a day. I've got a 45 to 50 minute drive there and back each day.

And so it's a lot. And I guess, you know, that's one of the reasons that I stepped away from a previous employer. Ben cares deeply about doing right by the organization and the team,

but reached out because he's struggling with whether he can make the impact he wants in his

company without working as much as he does. Many of the things that I took for granted of having in place at my previous employer,

they don't have. And so the structure that they have has worked for them for a long time.

And I think they're realizing that these are growing pains, right? We've got to get better and

we've got to get more standard and we've got to get more predictable.

But they really don't have that structure in place. So that's one of the challenges is I know how to do those things.

How do I do that without it consuming me and me finding myself in the place where I'm working 11 or 12-hour days and

coming home and feeling like I need to do another hour or two of email to keep up with

the rest of the flow.

Ben is trying to find a way to balance having an impact, being a good leader and protecting

...