Ep. 161 - Face Your Fears: Escaping the Workaholic Trap

The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast

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The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 161 - Face Your Fears: Escaping the Workaholic Trap
Aug 25, 2026 Season 1 Episode 161
Doing Business in Bentonville

Fear and rigid control will stall any organizational change before it even begins. Leaders are facing more uncertainty than ever right now, and relying on outdated perfectionism actively harms both the business and the team. Elise Mitchell, leadership strategist and author of Leading Through the Turn, breaks down how to navigate intense business pivots without losing your mind or alienating your people.

We sit down to dissect the mechanics of managing people through disruption. The conversation covers the dangers of target fixation, the necessity of Ginchi Ginbutsu for true frontline awareness, and using cognitive strategies like identity-based motivation to maintain momentum. The real turning point happens when she shares a profound lesson from riding motorcycles about looking through the turn instead of staring directly at the hazards in your path.

The hardest phase of guiding a team is confronting your own need to control the outcome, addressing conflict head-on instead of letting it fester, and recognizing that legacy companies fail when executives stay isolated in their offices. You will walk away with a functional framework to stop rescuing your team and start empowering them to think for themselves when the pressure spikes.

If you care about building frontline resilience, managing complex people issues, and developing a growth mindset, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this conversation with a fellow leader who is navigating a major transition. What is the biggest leadership hazard you need to stop fixating on today?

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