Podcast Summary: "How Should I Plan for my Next Role when I’m Happy with the One I’m In?"

Podcast: Coaching Real Leaders (Harvard Business Review)
Host: Muriel Wilkins
Episode Date: October 6, 2025
Guest (Pseudonym): Gia

Overview

This episode focuses on a unique but increasingly common leadership dilemma: How do you proactively plan your next career move when you are genuinely happy and thriving in your current role? Host Muriel Wilkins coaches Gia—an accomplished leader managing large, diverse teams—through her conflicting desires: to stay challenged and grow, while not losing the contentment she's worked hard to achieve. The coaching session explores Gia’s personal values, lessons from past career moves, managing fear of unknown outcomes, and how to approach career progression conversations intentionally.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gia’s Current Career Context and Satisfaction

• Gia shares her past of finding (and not finding) the "right fit" roles, and for the first time, feels "completely in love with my job" and company culture.
• She attributes her thriving and creativity in challenging environments to her upbringing in a country with many everyday hardships.

  "All of those challenges, since you were born, make you creative because you have to find solutions every day to survive." – Gia (05:11)

2. The Challenge: Planning the Next Step Without Losing Current Fulfillment

• Gia is aware that staying in her comfort zone too long could stifle her growth, but fears leaving a great situation only to regret it.

  “What if I do it and I’m not good at it? … But also what if I don’t do it and I stop enjoying what I’m doing now because… you get into that comfort zone.” – Gia (05:04)

• She's seeking intentionality: “How can I continue to bring impact and not be scared of the next step and build that next step for myself and understand first, what is it? Second, what to do about it and how to get there right.” (04:40)

3. Defining Values and Intentionality

• Muriel guides Gia to articulate what matters most to her:

  • Managing large, diverse teams and creating psychological safety
  • Being challenged and having opportunities to grow
  • Working for managers and peers who support and complement each other
  • Company culture that genuinely values people and has real impact

• Gia emphasizes that money is no longer a primary motivator if a role isn’t a values fit.

  “If I’m happy where I am, I’m not going to go somewhere else because they offer me more money… this doesn’t bring the happiness.” – Gia (08:41)

4. Aligning Personal and Company Values

• They discuss how Gia’s values mirror her company’s emphasis on people and culture, suggesting that her optimal next move would be in areas or teams undergoing transformation, needing strong, sensitive leadership.

• Gia prefers roles with high cultural diversity and challenge (e.g. EMEA or APAC markets, customer-facing director roles) and is eager to scale up her team size.

5. The Fear of Choice and Making the Wrong Move

• Muriel uses the restaurant metaphor: with more choices comes fear—what if you don’t like the dish you picked? How do you “course correct”?

• Gia relates this to career moves: “If the food is not good… I would rather order something else and eat something I absolutely love… life is too short to not eat something you absolutely adore…” (19:38)

• Muriel reframes the fear of making the wrong choice as an opportunity to exercise self-efficacy and psychological safety for oneself.

  “What creativity is to me is the ability to deal with the unknown. If things were known, we wouldn’t have to create.” – Muriel (25:44)

6. Transforming Perspective: Focusing on Gains, Not Losses

• Muriel challenges Gia to focus on what she stands to gain rather than what she might lose.

  "What if your approach to this was not grounded in what you have to lose… What if it was grounded in what you have to gain?" – Muriel (29:24)
  “That’s a total difference… focus on what do I have to gain… let’s face it, maybe I also have to gain because it’s experience.” – Gia (29:56)

• Muriel uses the breath metaphor: “To live… you have to do both [inhale and exhale]. You don’t just exhale & you don’t just inhale… you look at them as a… there are things I might gain and there are things that I might lose. What does the whole picture look like? And does that whole picture fit with what matters to me…?” (30:36)

7. Practical Steps for Intentional Career Progression

• Gia identifies actionable steps:

  • Have transparent career growth discussions with her manager, being explicit about her values and motivations
  • Prepare her team for succession so she can move roles without disruption
  • Ask for support that is specific and “laser focused” to help bridge her to her next move, e.g., exposure to new geographies or teams

• Muriel coaches Gia on how to frame these conversations:

  “Break those questions up. Let him answer the first… and then it’s like, oh, so when you look at where I am now, what experiences do you think I would need to gain in the next year or two…? Let him share.” (36:30)

8. Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On intentionality:

  “It’s about really taking a look inside and taking the time to listen to myself… There are no guarantees… So I think it’s a stripping down to what is really important to me and fits my values.” – Gia (08:11)

• On self-efficacy:

  “Only you can understand how to create your own psychological safety… It’s not necessarily knowing what the plan is going to be. It’s knowing that if you were to take that next step, if it goes well you’ll be able to handle it… and if it doesn’t, you would be able to handle it.” – Muriel (26:09)

• On lessons from the session:

  “My main outcome from this conversation is look at what do I have to gain in the next step. … It was kind of here, but it was not organized and I was not asking myself the right questions. … now I understand that this is how I frame what matters to me, to myself. … And ask question by question to really understand also [my manager’s] opinion…” – Gia (40:21)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:57] – Gia describes her current happiness and sense of belonging at work
• [04:40] – Gia frames her challenge and her desire for intentional, long-term planning
• [08:11] – The definition of intentionality and the importance of values
• [11:51] – What matters to the company and aligning with personal values
• [14:15] – Gia’s thoughts on next roles, geography, and diversity
• [18:38] – The metaphor of choice, fear, and committing to decisions
• [23:44] – How Gia would handle making a move that didn’t work out
• [25:44] – Muriel recaps Gia’s resourcefulness and need for psychological safety
• [29:24] – Reframing from fear of loss to learning and gain
• [36:30] – Strategies for career progression conversations
• [40:21] – Gia summarizes her takeaways and new clarity

Actionable Guidance

• Identify and clarify your core values and strengths.
• Frame your career development conversations around what matters most to you, being proactive and transparent.
• Approach change by balancing potential gains and losses, not just focusing on what you might lose.
• Embrace psychological safety and self-efficacy: trust your resourcefulness whether it works out or not.
• Request and define the specific kind of support you need from your manager/organization—don’t leave it to guesswork.
• Regularly ask yourself: What do I have to gain? What do I have to lose? What have I already overcome in similar situations?

Noteworthy Takeaways

• Being content in your current role doesn’t mean closing off growth—it’s an opportunity for proactive, intentional planning.
• Fear of loss is natural but can be reframed as a chance for growth and resilience.
• The most sustainable career progression aligns your next steps with your enduring values, not fleeting perks.
• Agency in decision-making is strengthened when you organize your thinking, ask the right questions, and structure development conversations.

Resource Mentioned:

• The Culture Map, a book Gia loves for understanding and working with global teams (12:36)

This episode is an insightful resource for anyone at a career crossroads—or simply wanting to continue growing without undermining current happiness and success. Gia’s journey illustrates that the greatest risk isn’t always moving—sometimes it’s staying still. And the antidote is intentionality.