Episode #285

Suffering From Your Own Success

Have you ever found yourself buried under the weight of the very success you worked so hard to achieve?

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Winning a giant grant or getting the opportunity to head your own research center are amazing accomplishments. With success comes new responsibilities that demand unique skillsets – good problems to have, but ones you need to manage to avoid burnout and overwhelm.

Today, I am offering a sneak peek from the Scholar’s Voice® Alumni Podcast, an exclusive feed available only to academics who have taken Navigate 12-week program, Elevate, Amplify, or Leading Now.

In this episode, I share a coaching story about a client whose incredible research accomplishments left her managing multiple large projects without the systems or support to handle them. Together, we’ll explore what happens when achievement outpaces infrastructure, and why the skills that get you to the next level aren’t always the ones that help you thrive there.

Listen in to learn how to stop suffering from your own success so you can lead with more clarity, confidence, and sustainability.

When Success Creates New Problems

Academic careers often bring unexpected growing pains. Winning big grants and managing multiple projects can unintentionally thrust you into leadership and management roles you never trained for. I talk about why these “good problems” can still feel overwhelming, and how to recognize when your success is stretching you thin.

Thinking Like an Organizational Leader

To thrive after securing a big grant or heading a significant project, you need to see your research portfolio as its own kind of organization. By clarifying roles, setting up sustainable systems, and thinking intentionally about leadership, you can reduce stress and expand your impact. I share strategies for shifting into this mindset so your success feels manageable and rewarding rather than draining.

Leading Now & The Scholar’s Voice® Alumni Podcast

Leading now is a nine-month program for academic leaders (PIs, department chairs, program directors, and more) that combines workshops, group coaching, and unlimited one-on-one coaching to help you upgrade your management and leadership skills. Participants also receive access to an exclusive private podcast (with episodes like this one), where I share candid stories, strategies, and behind-the-scenes coaching insights you won’t hear anywhere else.

Get all the details about Leading Now here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v_PAcIH7-k6a2LP-3SDhDNvkNH9sMjg_PfMLHZfHBIk/edit?usp=sharing

Apply for Leading Now here: https://airtable.com/appZn0gDpFjamaDko/shr5Sa5DyBrY1gOH0

“Good problems, like problems that are the result of success or good things that happen, are still problems. They can still make us suffer quite a lot.”

“Whether you are doing what you are ‘supposed’ to be doing by going out and getting funds or you are doing what you deeply desire to do, the results of success are the same – you end up with people who you need to manage and projects that you need to manage. Your skillset for doing that management, sometimes, is not caught up to the level of management skill that you need.”

We’re receiving applications for our next cohort of Leading Now. Check out the program details and start your application process here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Apply here!
Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
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