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 Benjamin to protect his confidentiality.

He's been mission-driven for a long time and has a real interest in helping people.

Really, it was in college. I would see a lot of pictures up of different, you know,

humanitarian aid things internationally. And it would actually like, I would almost get stomach pain just thinking about the need out there in the world. You know, people, especially

without access to resources or that were struggling.

Finally, I literally quit school to go and jump in.

Just kind of didn't look back and eventually I had to go back to school. But it was just kind of just a passion thing for people out there that were struggling.

Benjamin has spent the bulk of his career so far working

internationally with humanitarian-focused organizations. He moved his way up to middle

management and recently landed his first senior leadership role at a nonprofit. But I was itching

to get back to like really helping people in a direct way. I heard about this nonprofit up in here where I am now,

mainly helping people in recovery.

And I just fell in love with the mission and then the founder.

She wouldn't take no for an answer.

It was a huge step up for me because I was kind of like middle management with very little kind of impact in the overall organization.

And lo and behold, there's a medium-sized but growing nonprofit bringing me on as the executive director, supposedly taking over for the founder.

...