If you've ever thought, it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. This episode is for you. I'm

Maura Aaron's Mealy, and this is the anxious achiever, the show that looks at the intersection

of mental health and leadership and work and asks, how can we do it all better?

Muriel Wilkins is one of the wisest voices in leadership today.

She's a longtime executive coach and she's host of the great HBR podcast Coaching Real

Leaders. And she's author of the new book, Leadership Unblocked. And like so many of us

anxious achievers, Muriel knows what it feels like to get in your own way and to hit a wall,

even when you're really great at your job. One of the stories in her book, which we'll talk about

today, involves a man who is friggin smart. Okay, this guy

knows the answers. He's always right. And his employees and his team kind of resent him for it.

You probably know this person. You might even be this person. You're really good at what you do. You're so smart,

but it's actually blocking your leadership. In this conversation, Muriel and I talk about common

blockers and what happens when the same beliefs that made us successful start to hold us back.

The belief that our worth depends on our performance, that control

keeps us safe, that perfection somehow protects us. We talk about how we've learned to reexamine

our own stories and through Muriel's incredible body of work, how to get unlocked. My conversation with Muriel M. Wilkins.

Hi, Muriel. Hello. I'm so excited to be here with you. Oh, Muriel, you are one of my heroes.

And I mean, such a wise voice. I love that you wrote this book. I have to tell you in full disclosure, I have been saying for months now, I'm blocked. I'm just blocked. I am getting in my own way and I can't get out of my own way. And so this book, it was helpful because I was like, I'm the problem.

Mm-hmm.

That acceptance that like, I'm the problem.

It's me.

Yeah.

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