Leadership Unblocked With Muriel Wilkins - TWMJ #1019

10 snips

Jan 18, 2026

Muriel Wilkins, an executive coach and CEO of Paravis Partners, shares her expertise in guiding senior leaders through complexities. She emphasizes the importance of inner work over traditional strategies for effective leadership. Muriel discusses how unconscious beliefs hinder potential and highlights adult development theory as a lens for leadership growth. The conversation also covers integrating AI in decision-making, fostering discernment, and the idea that while pain is inevitable, suffering is a choice leaders can navigate.

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INSIGHT

Problems Appear As Patterns

Leadership problems often show up as repeating patterns rather than crises.
Muriel frames leadership growth as inner work, not just external skill fixes.

ANECDOTE

Launching By Volunteering

Muriel Wilkins launched her coaching career after struggling to find coaches who combined business acumen with leadership development.
Her first paid client came from volunteering to co-facilitate a nonprofit leadership meeting where she impressed a head of leadership development.

ADVICE

Coach Yourself First

Build the capacity to coach yourself so you can coach others more effectively.
Muriel knows she's done when clients start asking themselves the right questions without her.

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Welcome to episode #1019 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

At a time when leadership is being tested less by strategy and more by inner capacity, clarity of judgment and emotional steadiness, the work of Muriel Wilkins stands out for its insistence that progress begins from the inside out. Muriel is an executive coach, CEO of Paravis Partners, and a trusted advisor to senior leaders navigating complexity at the highest levels of organizations, drawing on more than two decades of experience working with C-suite executives and high-potential leaders. A Harvard Business School graduate with a background in consulting and corporate leadership, she brings uncommon credibility to the often-abstract world of coaching, pairing business fluency with deep insight into human behavior, adult development and decision-making under pressure. Her book, Leadership Unblocked - Break Through The Beliefs That Limit Your Potential, distills years of coaching practice into a clear-eyed examination of the unconscious beliefs that quietly constrain leaders, revealing how assumptions about control, certainty, identity and responsibility shape (and often limit) how leaders respond to challenge. Rather than offering tactical fixes or performative confidence, Muriel's work focuses on expanding a leader's capacity to hold complexity, see multiple options and respond with intention rather than reflex. She explores how leaders mature over time, why success can actually stall growth, and how unexamined beliefs turn everyday pressure into unnecessary suffering. Her perspective reframes leadership development as adult development, emphasizing that the ability to lead others sustainably depends on a leader's willingness to do their own internal work. In an era defined by uncertainty, generational shifts and accelerating technology, Muriel's thinking argues for a quieter but more demanding form of leadership... one rooted in self-awareness, discernment and the courage to question one's own mental models before attempting to change anyone else's. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 52:33.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
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Here is my conversation with Muriel Wilkins.
Leadership Unblocked - Break Through The Beliefs That Limit Your Potential.
Paravis Partner.
Coaching Real Leaders Podcast.
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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Executive Coaching. (02:13) - The Journey to Coaching. (05:26) - Common Themes in Leadership. (07:37) - The Evolution of Executive Coaching. (10:50) - Leadership as Coaching. (11:49) - Generational Shifts in Leadership. (15:08) - Adult Development and Leadership. (17:57) - The Illusion of Status. (20:55) - Authenticity in Leadership. (24:42) - Adult Development Theory in Practice. (26:41) - Understanding Adult Development Theory. (30:04) - The Evolution of Coaching Practices. (32:12) - Shifting Perspectives on Leadership. (34:53) - The Role of AI in Leadership. (39:47) - Discernment and Decision-Making in Leadership. (47:44) - Navigating Current Challenges in Leadership.