Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs That Limit Your Potential
Murrel M.Wilkins
Harvard Business Review Press (October 2025)

Do yu get in your own way? Isn’t it time to do something about that?

Many (if not most) wounds in life are or seem to be self-inflifcted. That is especially true of leaders. As Pogo the Possum once observed,”We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Muriel Wilkins is convinced — and I agree — that many (if not most) blocks to personal growth and professional development are ones we have adopted and established, sometimes defended…and frequently do not recognize. Long ago, Henry Ford suggested, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”

This is especially true of leaders, and those who follow them sense it.  Insecurity and latent hostility tend to be contagious.

Wilkins wrote this book to help as many people as possible to “uncover and break through [various hidden blockers] so they are free to deal with their challenges more productively and effectively and, as they begin to get the hang of the process, more efficiently and with greater ease. But not everyone has access to an executive coach, and most of us don’t know how to coach ourselves. That’x exactly why I ‘ve written this book. My hope is that Leadership Unblocked can function as your portable coach, a dependable, and wise companion as you endeaver to become free of the blockers that are holding you back from”  from your own personal growth and professional development.

Wilkins makes highly effective use of several reader-friendly devices such as mini-commentaries that are inserted throughout her lively and eloquent narrative. For example, discussion of the seven “Hidden Blockers”:

First, “Signs You Are Blocked” by one or more of them.” Then the mini-commentaries on the seven “Hidden Blockers”when facing leadership challenges, sometimes several on the same day:

1. “I Need to Be Involved” & Signs you may have this blocker and its potential costs (Pages 44 and 50)
2. “I Need It Done Now” & Signs and potential costs (66-67 and 72)
3. “I Know I’m Right” & Signs and potential costs (90 and 95)
4. “I Can’t Make a Mistake” & Signs and potential costs (115 and 123)
5. “If I Can do It, You Can Do it” & Signs and potential costs (143 and 148-149 )
6. “I Can’t Say No” & Signs and potential costs (Page 166 and 172)
7. “I Don’t Belong Here” & Signs and costs (Pages 186 and 194-195)

Wilkins explains with rigor and clarity HOW to recognize, understand, and then diminish (if not eliminate) these self-defeating blockers that have delayed or denied the personal growth and professional development you have worked so hard to achieve.

One final point. Once you have completed the process and begun to apply the insights and counsel that Muriel Wilkins provides in abundance, you will become well-prepared to to help others to complete the same process in ways and to an extent most appropriate to their own situation. That is a benefit of incalculable value, especially to supervisors with several direct-reports.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Leadership Unlocked: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the Introduction, “We All Get blocked,” the aforementioned mini-commentaries inserted throughout Wilkins’s lively and eloquent narrative, and the Appendix — “Coach Yourself Worksheet ” (Pages  227-230) that, all by itself, is worth far more than the cost of purchasing a copy of Leadership Unlocked.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.