Podcast Summary: HBR On Leadership — The “Hidden Blockers” That Are Limiting Your Leadership Potential

Host: Harvard Business Review (Amy Gallo & Amy Bernstein)
Guest: Muriel Wilkins, author of Leadership Breakthrough: The Beliefs that Limit Your Potential
Date: November 12, 2025
Episode Focus: Understanding and overcoming the internal “hidden blockers” that stifle leadership growth and effectiveness.

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the concept of “hidden blockers”—internal beliefs that unconsciously hold back leaders from reaching their full potential. Muriel Wilkins, an experienced executive coach and author, joins hosts Amy Gallo and Amy Bernstein to discuss how these invisible mental frameworks shape behavior, how to recognize them, and what it takes to unlearn them for personal and organizational growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Hidden Blockers

• What is a Hidden Blocker?
  • Muriel describes hidden blockers as “basically a belief. It lives on the inside of you, which is why it’s often hidden, because you’re not even aware that it’s there.” (04:12)
  • These beliefs often stem from past experiences and perceptions, not facts, and serve conflicting purposes—sometimes protecting us, but also limiting our progress.
• Why Are Blockers Hard to Identify?
  • People tend to blame external factors for their challenges, rarely asking, “How am I contributing to the issue that’s at hand?” (03:04)
  • Awareness is uncomfortable because it means personal responsibility for change.

2. Examples of Hidden Blockers in Action

• Blocker #1: “I Need It Done Now”

  • Amy Bernstein shares her struggle with urgency and her journey from “super responsiveness” to focusing on priorities:
    • “I was not separating the urgent from the important. And then relatedly, I was letting other people’s urgency be my urgency.” (05:20)
  • Muriel reframes the belief: Move from “I need it done now” to “I need to focus on what actually needs to get done today.” (08:48)

• Blocker #2: “I Know I’m Right”

  • Amy Gallo identifies with the “know-it-all” blocker, sharing a pivotal feedback moment:
    • “Do you know at the end of every sentence, there’s a silent ‘you idiot’ that you don’t say, but it’s in your tone?” (12:43)
  • The cost: This attitude can shut out others, damaging relationships and team dynamics.
  • Muriel stresses: “It always comes back to, what’s your goal? What is it that you want as a leader? How do you want others to experience you?” (11:18)

3. Building Awareness of Blockers

• How Can Leaders Uncover Their Own Blockers?
  • Awareness often comes from “dissonance”—a feeling that something isn’t working. The dissonance can be internal (behavior not matching values) or external (performance doesn’t meet expectations). (15:02)
  • Muriel’s coaching revolves around asking, “What would you need to believe in order to achieve your goal?” (17:57)

4. Helping Others See Their Blockers

• Observation & Permission

  • “If you have shown all along as a leader or as a colleague that you are very self aware and... do the work, believe me, people are watching. And you have much more permission and leeway to say, ‘Hey, can I share something with you…’” (20:20)
  • Always ask for permission before offering feedback; “Feedback is so loaded. Can I share with you my observations?” (22:19)

• Productivity, Control, and Value

  • Many blockers arise from a desire to feel valued, safe, or in control. Leaders need to evolve from seeking external validation to finding intrinsic self-worth to avoid unproductive control behaviors. (18:26)

5. Recognizing Organizational Blockers

• Meetings as a Symptom

  • Over-reliance on meetings often signals hidden blockers around trust and decision-making:
    • “We would need to trust that the people who are in the room will actually make the right decision. And that starts hitting the nerve.” (28:24)
  • Change is only sustainable if the underlying group beliefs are surfaced and addressed—not just the surface behavior. (27:38, 30:24–31:12)

• Leaders Must Go First

  • Lasting organizational change starts with leaders aligning their behavior and mindset with desired values. “A leader cannot move an organization to a capacity level that they haven’t reached.” (32:18)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On self-awareness:
  “Once you start making movement, it will change the dynamic of the circumstance no matter what.” – Muriel Wilkins (03:04)

• On evolving beliefs:
  “Do the mantras or beliefs or principles we live by at certain points of our career… necessarily serve us well when the situation or the context or the goal has changed?” – Muriel Wilkins (06:16)

• On the feedback that wakes you up:
  “Do you know at the end of every sentence, there’s a silent ‘you idiot’ that you don’t say, but it’s in your tone.” – Amy Gallo recounting a colleague’s feedback (12:43)

• On changing culture:
  “If there is misalignment around what the purpose of the meetings are, that in and of itself is a belief.” – Muriel Wilkins (30:01)

• On sustainable change:
  “People can modify behaviors, but if they don’t modify the thing that’s driving the behavior, it’s short lived.” – Muriel Wilkins (26:05)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:33] — What is a hidden blocker? (Muriel Wilkins)
• [03:04] — Why we don’t see ourselves as part of the problem
• [05:20] — Urgency as a blocker (Amy Bernstein example)
• [08:48] — Reframing the urgent-to-important belief
• [09:58] — The “I know I’m right” blocker (Amy Gallo example)
• [12:43] — Receiving hard-hitting feedback from a peer
• [15:02] — How leaders can develop awareness of blockers
• [18:26] — How basic needs fuel limiting beliefs at work
• [20:20] — How to help others see their blockers
• [22:19] — How to start a helpful conversation about blockers
• [24:34] — Amy Bernstein's approach to pointing out blockers in others
• [26:05] — Why surface-level changes don’t stick
• [27:38] — Meeting overload as a collective blocker
• [28:24] — Lack of trust as a root cause for too many meetings
• [30:01] — Misaligned meeting purposes as limiting beliefs
• [32:18] — Organizational change must start with the leader

Practical Takeaways

• Self-reflection is essential: Lasting leadership change starts with surfacing and reframing your own hidden beliefs.
• Sustainable change isn’t just about modifying behaviors or processes, but the underlying beliefs that drive them.
• Organizational culture mirrors the maturity and awareness of its leaders; leaders must model the change they want to see.
• Support others by building trust, seeking permission, and sharing observations—not judgments.
• When tackling systemic issues (like meeting overload), focus on the collective assumptions and trust levels, not just changing the rules.

Final Thoughts

Through candid discussion and tangible examples, this episode emphasizes that leadership growth is less about technical skills or external circumstances, and much more about surfacing, questioning, and reshaping the beliefs that silently run our professional lives. Both personal and organizational breakthroughs require courageous internal work and ongoing reflection.

For more insights and resources, visit HBR.org.