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.

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'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 Naomi to protect her confidentiality.

She's a lawyer and has followed a pretty traditional career trajectory, from law school to a big firm to an in-house counsel job.

But even though she acknowledges she's done well for herself, she's feeling unsettled.

At times, I feel like I'm going through a very stereotypical midlife crisis, and I'm definitely,

you know, kind of wondering is like, what sort of left for me? What do I really want? Am I happy? I mean,

I feel like I'm not that happy, but yet I'm not really unhappy. And you just kind of get feel lost.

Naomi got to where she is today by following a certain blueprint that always led to the next

accomplishment. Now she's unsure of what's next, and she's seeking clarity.

Hopefully, for me, it's quieting some of the noise that's buzzing in my head,

that's clouding my decision-making process.

You know, sometimes my thoughts are like, kind of like lasers that are dispersed,

and I hopefully maybe could fine-tune it to get a little bit more clarity so that I can go through this process in my head

and feel good about what my next steps are.

...