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Women at Work

Let Go of the Beliefs That Limit How You Lead

Women at Work

Harvard Business Review

Entrepreneurship, Workplace, Business/management, Business/entrepreneurship, Progress, Resources, Gender, Equality, Business/careers, Women, Hbr, Careers, Management, Business, Harvard, Human

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many of us have internal beliefs—I need it done now, I know I’m right, I need to be involved—that feel like truth but actually hold us back as leaders. Executive coach Muriel Wilkins calls these counterproductive beliefs “hidden blockers,” and she talks the Amys through the process of identifying theirs and then reframing them. They also look at how blockers show up in team and organizational behavior, like when lack of trust results in too many meetings, and discuss how leaders can shift culture by first examining and adjusting their own assumptions.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.

0:04.7

I'm Amy Gallo.

0:05.7

And I'm Amy Bernstein.

0:11.0

A regular guest of ours, executive coach Muriel Wilkins, is here with us yet again,

0:18.5

yay, with her signature mix of candor and compassion.

0:22.7

Hello, thank you for having me here again. Nice to have you back. So great to see you.

0:27.4

Muriel, every time you're on the show, you help us see what being a leader actually requires on the

0:33.8

inside. And you've channeled that special gift into your latest book. Tell everyone what

0:38.8

it's called. Absolutely. So my latest book is called Leadership Unblock, Breakthrough the Beliefs

0:45.2

that limit your potential. So I have to be honest, I identified with several of those

0:51.7

beliefs, but the one I focused on is the belief called, I need it done now.

0:57.7

And I identified with another of them, the I know I'm right, which I understand Muriel is one you

1:04.6

have struggled with as well. Yes, have struggled with, struggle with, and probably will

1:10.5

always struggle with, but with a little bit more ease.

1:14.0

So we'll go with the detail about those hidden blockers and the steps you had us go through, which we strongly recommend our listeners go through too.

1:23.4

Yeah, we went from vague feelings of we know we need to make a change all the way to

1:29.1

concretely listing what we need to start and stop doing.

1:34.0

Not only so that we as individuals can reach our full potential, but also so that our teams can

1:40.9

and our organizations can as well.

1:47.0

All right.

1:47.6

So,

1:48.0

Muriel, before Amy B and I tell you about the awareness we got from reading and reflecting,

...

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