Leadership unblocked - Muriel Wilkins


A big shoutout to Harvard Business Review Press and Netgalley for allowing me to review an advance copy of the book Leadership Unblocked by Muriel Wilkins. I have been a big fan of Muriel’s podcast Coaching Real Leaders for a while now. It fascinated me how she was able to get us a unfiltered peek into a coach and coachee’s conversations and lead the listener through the process of helping solve problems. I have also recommended her podcast on LinkedIn and shared to my contacts who are coaches themselves.
I had absolutely no clue that she was coming out with a book - until I read her LinkedIn post about leaders who are caught in this belief of having to do everything “now” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-you-dont-have-get-all-done-now-especially-before-maignan-wilkins-bkq9e/) that I learnt she was sharing some of her top learnings from years of coaching executive leaders. I immediately ran to netgalley to check if they had her book listed for review - and thank god it was! (Prices in India for books are sometimes too steep for a freelanceer like me). I requested for a digital copy - and was reasonably confident since all my previous requests to HBRP have been approved. In a few hours I had the book in my iPad for review.
I started the same eagerly and given the captivating way of telling the stories and the learnings, I was done with it in a couple of days!! Here is my detailed look at the book:

Muriel weaves the idea of coaching executives starting from her own story of being blocked due to deeply held assumptions (hidden blockers) sometimes needing a coach (or in her case her partner Arden who ‘coached’ her), to unravel and deal with them. With her personal tale setting the context of the rest of the book, she then takes apart seven top blockers based on her coaching experience - such as “I need to be involved”, “I know I am right” to “I don’t belong here”. In each of these blockers she uses a coachee’s struggles at work to run us through the process of helping them unblock themselves (this is important as she guides but does not feed solutions to them). She beautifully presents the background of the coachee and why they came into the coaching (or were suggested by the organization) and the various meetings she has with them to run through the process of helping them 1) realize they have a blocker 2) label that blocked 3) understand why the blocker came into being and finally 4) reframe that belief to take action. The details she provides are sufficient enough to know the coachee’s problems while not going too much towards boring the reader (though I hope Muriel will come up with v2, v3 etc of this book!). This keeps the chapters very light and digestible. She further summarizes the key learnings for each chapter as a Coach Yourself section to help you if you believe you have a similar blocker in your life.
As I read through the seven blockers I could identify leaders in my life who had the same symptoms as the coachee she wrote about - if only someone had helped them realize their blockers and guided them (goes to show how important executive coaching is!). I also saw parts of my own blockers showing up in some of the stories. They were very revealing and helped me realize that I too need to reflect of some of the concepts from the book!
In summary I believe this is a must read for anyone in leadership positions (for sure) and those interested in coaching as a profession, and to anyone who wants to learn and improve themselves at work.