Send us Fan Mail

We've spent the last four episodes inside the follower's experience. Today, the camera turns.

Naomi was the kind of leader everyone wanted on their team — present, capable, genuinely caring, and always the first person in the room when something went wrong. Her results were strong. Her team performed. And something was quietly falling apart underneath all of it.

In this episode, Dr. Ashley Newcomb introduces the over-functioning leader — the leader whose most well-intentioned habits are systematically dismantling the engagement, initiative, and ownership of the people around them. She also steps off-script to name something that doesn't get talked about enough: the specific ways that women in leadership, younger leaders, and leaders who fought hardest to earn their place can be most vulnerable to this pattern — and why that matters.

Because the goal of leadership is not to be needed. The goal is to build something that doesn't depend entirely on your presence to function.

🎧 Listen now and grab free resources at inspiredcoaching.net

---

Topics covered in this episode:
Over-functioning leadership | Leadership blind spots | Employee autonomy | Organizational Cinderella Syndrome | Organizational Learned Helplessness | Women in leadership | Leadership development | Follower dependency | Organizational resilience | Psychological safety | Servant leadership | Manager vs. leader | Workplace culture | Employee empowerment | Leadership accountability

Keywords:
over-functioning leadership, leadership blind spots, employee autonomy, women in leadership, organizational resilience, follower dependency, Organizational Cinderella Syndrome, Organizational Learned Helplessness, servant leadership, leadership development, workplace culture, employee empowerment, Dr. Ashley Newcomb, The Resilient Organization podcast, Inspired Coaching and Leadership