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 Rebecca to maintain her confidentiality. She's a C-suite-level

executive working in private equity-backed

companies and has over 20 years experience in corporate finance. She likes to fix things,

and she likes a challenge. Rebecca is facing a problem. Earlier in her career, she stayed at

companies for long periods of time. But in the last few roles she's had, she keeps

wanting to leave. And something about that just doesn't feel right to her. The challenging things for me

is when I'm tasked to go fix things and I get in there and there's all these sacred cows,

what I typically do is I tend to then devolve into this. I can't fix this. I can't fix this.

So, you know, if nobody's going to listen and I can't fix it, then I got to move on to the next

thing and where's my next job coming from. And then I go into another fix and then I find myself

in these same situation. So I don't really have a good, I can't really cope yet.

I haven't figured out how to lean into the discomfort.

Rebecca isn't sure if she's leaving too quickly, giving up or being a quitter.

Or if she just hasn't found the right company enrol yet.

What I would like to see is I would like to see myself able to see it through.

...