Who Are You When Nobody Needs You in Corporate?

Breaking the High-Performer Cycle of Being Needed, Overworked, and Burned Out

Week 4 of The Trust Tax Investigation: How We Break the Cycle

What happens when being needed becomes part of who you are?

• You become the dependable one.
• The calm one.
• The person who figures it out.
• At work, people know they can count on you.

At home, people depend on you.

And eventually, carrying responsibility doesn't even feel unusual anymore.

It just feels like you.

My guest today, Oksana Lukash, knows that experience firsthand.

She became a mother at 19 while attending college and working full-time. She navigated layoffs, single parenthood, economic uncertainty, and a career in fast-moving biotech and life-sciences organizations.

Survival mode became normal.

Then something unexpected happened.

Life became calm.

And Oksana realized she didn't know how to operate without a fire to put out. 

That realization eventually led her to a much bigger question:

Who am I when I'm not defined by what I do for everyone else?

And that question takes us directly into Week 4 of The Trust Tax Investigation.

Because we're no longer simply asking how the pattern develops.

We're asking:

How do we break it?

When Your Worth Becomes What You Do for Others

Oksana describes spending much of her life defining her value through her roles:

• Being a mother.
• Being a wife.
• Being a great employee.
• Being a leader.
• Being the person other people could count on.

What she hadn't spent much time asking was:

What do I want?

That question initially felt selfish.

But learning to answer it changed the way she approached her relationships, her career, her leadership, and the environments she chose to enter.

As Oksana puts it:

You are the main character in your own story.

And you don't have to outsource permission for how you live it. 

In this episode, we explore:

•  What happens when survival mode becomes so normal that calm feels uncomfortable 
•  How being dependable can become part of your identity 
•  Why high performers can unconsciously measure their worth by what they do for others 
•  The power of asking yourself, "What do I want?"
•  Why knowing your values helps you decide which rooms and opportunities actually belong in your life 
•  How leaders can help people explore growth before simply promoting them into another role 
•  Why organizations should stop copying other companies' cultures and build systems around their own people 
•  How invisible work stays invisible when leaders focus only on what gets done instead of how it gets done 
•  Why meaningful one-on-ones should uncover roadblocks rather than simply collect project updates 
•  How leaders create psychological safety by asking employees for feedback about their own leadership 
•  Why developing people requires curiosity, relationships, and shared responsibility—not simply giving capable people more work 

The Trust Tax Investigation

Oksana's story helps us see something important about the Trust Tax.

Sometimes the organization learns:

She can handle it.

And sometimes the individual has learned:

Being the person who handles it is what makes me valuable.

Put those two beliefs together and you can create a powerful cycle.

The dependable person keeps stepping in.

The organization keeps trusting them with more.

The work gets done.

Everyone moves on.

And very few people stop to ask what that person wants, what they're carrying, what is getting in their way, or whether someone else should be developed to carry some of it.

Breaking that cycle requires change on both sides.

For the individual:

Stop defining your value solely by how useful you are to everyone else.

Ask what you want.

Know what matters to you.

Decide where you do your best work.

Stop outsourcing permission for your choices.

And for leaders:

Get curious.

Ask what development means to the person you're leading.

Understand what is getting in their way.

Create opportunities for people to experiment and grow.

Remove roadblocks.

Invite feedback.

And build systems that develop people rather than continually relying on the same dependable people.

That's how we begin replacing the Trust Tax with trust, alignment, and sustainable results.

Rewrite Your Story

There's a line from this conversation that belongs at the center of this entire special series:

You are the main character in your own story. 

But many of us have been living stories written around what everybody else needs from us.

They depend on me.

I can't let them down.

I need to prove my value.

I'll worry about what I want later.

Those stories may have helped us survive.

They may even have helped us succeed.

But they don't have to determine what comes next.

Start Your Own Trust Tax™ Investigation

See the pattern. Listen for the story. Decide what you want to carry forward.

🔎 Take the free Trust Tax™ Assessment
Discover the responsibility and leadership patterns most likely to contribute to burnout before burnout becomes the whole story. About 7 minutes, with immediate personalized results.
https://unceilingzone.com/start-trust-tax-assesssment

🎟️ Join us for Rewrite Your Story — October 15
A leadership workshop + live comedy show at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan with Natalie H. Luke, Ph.D. and Merit Kahn.
https://rewriteyourstoryevent.com

Connect with Oksana Lukash

Oksana is a people and culture leader with extensive experience in biotech, life sciences, startups, and growing organizations. Her approach to leadership centers on understanding people as individuals, removing barriers to their success, and intentionally building workplaces around the people and culture an organization actually has—not simply copying what another company is doing. 

🌐 Website: OksanaLukash.com

💼 LinkedIn: Oksana Lukash on LinkedIn

Follow The Trust Tax Investigation

Week 1: When Success Becomes a Trap
Week 2: Why Does This Happen?
Week 3: How Organizations Support Burnout
Week 4: How We Break the Cycle

Subscribe to UnCeiling You on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:01

Welcome to the Unsealing You podcast. I'm Dr. Natalie Luke, your host. And since July the 20th, we've been conducting what I've called the trust tax investigation. We started with a question. How can someone who is successful, capable, and trusted end up being so burned out? In week one, we looked at when success becomes the trap. We saw how being dependable, capable, and willing to take responsibility can slowly turn into doing more than your share. You keep delivering, so from the outside, everything looks fine, even when it's costing you. Then in week two, we asked, why does this happen? We looked underneath the behavior at the expectations, the identity, the chronic pressure, and the nervous system. We began to see why high performers don't simply wake up one morning and decide to overwork. The pattern develops over time. Eventually, what is unsustainable can start to feel normal. Then in week three, we widened the lens to look at how the organization supports burnout. Because burnout isn't an individual problem. When dependable people repeatedly step in, solve the problem, absorbed unfinished work, or compensate for unclear ownership, the organization can begin to rely on the workaround. The work gets done, but the underlying problem doesn't get fixed. And that is where the trust tax becomes expensive for the people, operations, and the business. So now we've reached the most important part of the investigation. What do we do about it? This week is about breaking the cycle. Because once you see the pattern, you have a choice. You can examine the story underneath it, the story being, I have to get it all done. Everybody depends on me. I have to prove myself. I can't disappoint them. This is what leadership requires. Instead, you ask, is this story still serving me? And is it keeping the entire system stuck? This week we're going to explore what happens when we change the story, change the behavior, clarify responsibility, communicate differently, and build systems where trust doesn't mean one dependable person has to do it all. We've investigated the trust tax. Now it's time to start replacing it with trust, alignment, and sustainable results. Today I'm talking with Osana Lakish, a people leader who knows firsthand what it means to become the dependable person everybody counts on. Osaka helps us to explore how to break the trust tax by separating our identity from being needed, getting clear about what we actually want and building workplaces where leaders remove roadblocks and develop people instead of continually rewarding the person willing to carry more. Let's get started. And one of the things that you wrote is that it you know what it feels like to be the dependable one, the calm one, the person that everybody turns to. And what I'd like to um do is have you take me back to a normal Tuesday. And what did it look like when you were in the throes of everyone counting on you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Oh, we're we're starting deep. Uh thank you, Natalie. That's my life. It's been, I think, just part of my life without me realizing that that's just how it was. And part of it is I became a mom very young at 19. I was going to college full-time at that time. I was working full-time already in a corporate environment. So during the day I was at work, I was taking classes in the evenings and on the weekends. And then I found out that I was going to be a mom. So my daughter's dad and I did the responsible thing, got married, tried again our best to be the best parents for our daughter. But that meant that not only did I have then the pressure of work, of continuing my education, I then also had a tiny little human depending on me. She also decided to surprise us and arrive early by two months. So then at 19, not only were we navigating parents, but also navigating having a premi baby and everything that came with that. Also, we had some challenges with our families, and then, but every the world keeps moving on. I experienced my first layoff as I was actually pregnant with my daughter. Um and I experienced that a week, a week or two after getting married and coming back from my honeymoon. And that was also a situation where it was myself and another actually employee within that company. We were the only two pregnant people. We were the only two that were restructured and replaced while both of us happened to be out at the same time. So then you pile on on top of that, navigating that situation. So it's just, I think survival mode then was part of what I had to do. I never looked at failure or, in a way, stopping or not being dependable one, especially when it came to my daughter, because that was never a choice. And then fast forward, her dad and I separated when we were both 23. And then it's navigating the world of being a working professional, wrapping up my degree and schooling, now navigating being a single parent, navigating that transition, not only again for myself, but more importantly, again for my child. And most of my career has been in biotech and life sciences, startup, small to mid-sized companies. I love the chaos, I love the pace, but with that also comes significantly higher rate of change and instability. Think through again the issues that happened in 2008 crash when all investments again got frozen, the impact that that had on companies, layoffs that we've experienced since then, the just keep multiplying and going through. So, and part of the role that I'm in, right? Human resources and people operations by nature, there's what we hope to do when we come in every single day. And then there's what the day decides we're going to do and navigate. So part of part of the experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah. That is, and I remember the 2008-2009 economic downturn. And it really can have an impact on a person because now you feel like not only do you have to work hard, but you're constantly having to prove yourself because you never know what's gonna come next. Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Right. And that was if we look back prior to that, the market was doing really well in terms of homes. Plus, there were very few regulations compared to what we have now. I mean, again, I remember buying our my first town home, and I'm not exaggerating. The conversation was my right, uh, my daughter's dad and I at the time walked in. We were asked, how big of a loan do you want? We just threw out a number. This said, cool, send us a few documents, and we were approved within days. Versus fast, and that should not have happened. So at the same time, you had a wave of talent that went into the mortgage industry because that was the place to be. And then when everything came to a screeching halt, all of those individuals were out of work because, right? Like you couldn't give a home, you couldn't give homes away at that time. But then again, when the market came back up, a lot of folks went back into the industry. And we know that that is very cyclical. And again, that was very tough because then being back on the hiring phase with some of the companies I've been part of is having those net conversations with the candidates of you love real estate and you love the mortgage industry. And the only reason you're looking for another role is because the market is down right now, but we can't take the chance on bringing you in right now and into a different area because we know when that turns around, you're gonna leave again. So it's navigating all of those things as well was very challenging because right, you want to help people, but at the same time, you want to serve patience in the space that I was in.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah. So just going back to you being immersed and working hard, I could see where it's almost like life and death in a sense.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

It's like having fight or flight all the time. It's you're you're not not only work-wise, business-wise, everything else, but then in my situation, navigating, uh being a single parent, sharing custody. We also had a very unusual schedule where we swapped days with my daughter or with my daughter's dad every other day and every other weekend because that was a schedule that worked best for her. But that just meant it was constantly back and forth for us. So it was absolute survival. But when you're in it, you're not realizing that. And when you have a bigger purpose and a reason of why you're doing it, and for me, it was always my daughter, you look at it differently. I think we realize uh potentially the depth and how intense those times were when we fast forward and we have those moments or periods of calm. And for me, that was a realization a couple of years back where I honestly fell into the space where I did not know how to operate in calm. I didn't know how to operate in normal, where everything was okay. Work was going great, economy was great, things at home were great, everything like there were not fires to put out. And I felt completely lost and almost restless because it made me pause and realize right how I've operated in a completely different environment up to uh up until then.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

That's an interesting thing because I I totally understand that because I when things get calm, everything's settled, I kind of think like, wait a minute, where is the next fire coming from? And wait, who am I without a fire to fight? So let's talk about like your identity in that situation where you're you see the big picture, you want the best for your daughter, you want to make sure that you're you're providing for your daughter in a way that is the best for her, versus your identity when you're in a situation where it's okay, everything's fine.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, and truly, if I'm completely honest and authentic with myself, you, and all the listeners, I never pause to really even understand my identity. And that has actually been a very big focus of mine over the last year and a half or so is helping others not get stuck where I was. I always again put the value of myself and my worth by what I did for others, by being a mom, by being a wife, by being a great employee and a leader within the organization and all everything that I did for others. At no point ever did I stop or even think that it was okay for me to figure out what is it that I wanted, because that felt very selfish. And there was a moment actually last year, my husband and I were very late to the game and we discovered the show Scandal on Netflix last year. And the reason I bring it up is what stood out to me is because in every single episode, Olivia Pope asked every single potential client before deciding whether she was gonna work with them or not, the question of what do you want? And if they were not able to answer that, she did not work with them. And that truly like so resonated with me because it made me ask, I'm like, I've never asked myself what I wanted. And it felt so selfish. It felt just the culture. I was raised in Moscow. I was raised during the communist regime. I moved to the United States when I was 13. So those formative years were very important being in a different country. And right, my worth as a woman was very much defined by my ability to be a mom, a wife, right, taking care of a home and all of those kind of gender-focused, very clear expectations. So, and that's what I threw myself into. But then when I started doing more of that reflection and finding myself and really doing the work of being comfortable with who I am, finding my own identity, not being any version of me, but truly being me, it made me such a better partner. It made me a better wife, and it made me better in every single aspect of my life because I was grounded in who I am. I was able to figure out what mattered to me, what environments helped me do my best work, unleashed my potential and write the skill sets and my superpowers and what environments and situations completely drained that. So then I could use that as a filter to navigate and decide what rooms do I need to be in and what rooms I shouldn't be in, what tables I need to be sitting right in, and with who. And now it's not, I'm not giving away that decision making completely to somebody else. It truly becomes a partnership in any aspect of my life. Like even right now, the two of us had to choose and decide to agree to do had to have this conversation together, the right to bring the audience something hopefully meaningful. But we also, during the process of leading up to this at any point, could, right, if something came up, decided that this was just not the right partnership. And it doesn't make it right or wrong. And I think when you realize that you are absolutely the main character in your own story, you have to be your biggest champion, your best friend. And you do not outsource the permission to anyone but yourself, and you make decisions for what matters to you and what you want to do and start living your life according to that. Everything completely changes. Because I also believe that we attract what we put out. And I've been in situations of very low funk, self-esteem, self-worth, and everything else. And that, regardless of how hard I tried not to show up that way, I reeked of it in every single conversation and every single outing and every single conference or networking event. And the moment I truly started doing the hard work and finding myself, I literally would have people come up to me and they're like, What happened? You are glowing, right? You are there's just now also like a pool when you walk into the room that like like we want to talk to you, right? It resonates. So we need to really do that for ourselves and not look at it as it being selfish. That is the most loving and kindness gift that each of us can give to ourselves and those people that matter in our lives.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

That really helps me because one of the things that I would get stuck on is what kind of value am I adding? And I was thinking in terms of value from the definition of the person that was receiving the value instead of the type of value I wanted to live or give. And so knowing where I want to make an impact is critical here. For the past four weeks, the trust tax investigation has been following a pattern. A capable person becomes what others can depend on. More responsibility follows. They adapt, they compensate, they find ways to keep everything moving. And because the work keeps getting done, the pattern can become almost invisible. But this week, we're not just investigating the pattern. We're asking, how do we break it? And what we're hearing from our guests is breaking the cycle, it doesn't mean caring less, achieving less, or becoming less dependable. It means doing something differently. It can mean communicating for connection. Instead of trying to get everything exactly right, it can mean stopping the need to prove your value by how much you carry and advocating for the value you already create. It can mean separating your identity from being the person everybody needs and developing others instead of continually stepping in. And sometimes it happens in a single moment when you notice yourself about to please, perform, stay silent, or take something on that isn't yours. And choose differently. That's where rewriting your story begins. Because the story may say, I have to do it, and need me. It's easier if I just take care of it. But when we change the story, we change the behavior. And when enough behaviors change, we begin changing the system. So see the story, change the belief, set the boundary, build trust, lead differently. That's how we begin replacing the trust pact with trust alignment and sustained impact. Now, let's get back to the conversation. And not everybody's going to see my impact, not everybody is going to value my impact. Just asking that question can change. You s in the note that you gave me, there was one phrase that kind of, you know, made me stop and think a little bit, and that was that you said responsibility is culturally rewarded and absorbed silently. What does that actually look like to you? Because it's it's rarely a bonus or a promotion, I would think.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, well, and first of all, in order for us, I wanna I want to encourage folks to really be mindful and thoughtful of the language that we use, the phrases that we use that just write our generational or that we grew up with, and really pause and think through the concept of them. So for example, the one we use all the time is treat people the way you want to be treated. And I actually fundamentally completely disagree with it. Why would I treat you the way that I want to be treated? Because it then automatically makes it all about me. I need to treat you the way that you want and need to be treated right now, depending on whatever it is that your needs are and what's going on in your in your world that you're willing to share. So at work, in whatever capacity anyone works, if you have a consulting business, if you are in the corporate environment, it doesn't matter. Start building those true relationships. Care about people, get to know them. And again, be the leader and a partner and a coworker that treats people the way they need and want to be treated because it becomes about them. And people, again, right? We all know the phrase that we forget what people did, read, or said to us, but we will never forget how somebody made us feel. And that goes back to that. So it's leaning in and having those conversations. As a leader, be curious. It's it would be my job to find out, Natalie, what does development and growth look like to you? What is your definition of it? And once I know that, it's my responsibility then as your leader to help put you in those situations, projects, and exposure that give you access to then right, maybe gain those skills or try before you buy on right, the things that you think that you might be interested in doing. And by us doing that, right, again, I'm giving you exposure. I'm letting you maybe again lead a project where I can still be your biggest, also your second biggest champion because you need to be your first one. But I can guide you to successful completion and then see if your actual hands on experience matched, surpassed, or fell short of what you thought it was going to be. So now let's say whatever. That project was, you can come back and be like, oh my gosh, this was actually right. Thank you. This was even so much more than I thought it was. And I'm even more interested in doing X, Y, and Z. Fantastic. We can continue developing you to help you reach that next step. Or you can say, this was fantastic, loved it, learned, don't want to have anything to do with it. Awesome. That's also, we should celebrate that because you learned it again, right? In this environment where now we can again focus on you trying other things and not doing what we do. We just promote people, kind of throw them into a new role and it's a sink or swim. And then we give them investment opportunities, a coach development when they're sinking, when they've already are right on the verge of potentially being fired. If they're a people leader, when half of their team has left, all the bridges are burned, everything is on fire, and it becomes more of a punishment. Let's reverse that because the damage we cook we control the amount of damage that we create if we're intentional and thoughtful. And you're gonna be so much more successful if that path aligns with what your interests are versus it's prescribed and you're kind of forced to make a role work for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yep. Totally 100% agree. So as a CPO, you're often the person in the building, the system other people experience as overwhelming. What is it like to sit on both sides, the design of the structure, and also be crushed by the structure?

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Yeah, and that's where I would say too is why I love the smaller and startup companies. And I've had an opportunity to be employee number 17 at a company and build that talent focus and an appreciation for our people into the DNA of the company. So then, and why I say that is then the system was not a scratching. I then was able to understand what was our culture, what were our values? How were we going to be as we continue to grow up and as we continue to evolve? And I build an environment and ways of working that made sense for us. I've been using this phrase called Frankensteining, and I use that for both individuals and companies. We get so obsessed with chasing whatever the latest trends are, whatever's going on on TikTok and Instagram, whatever all the big logos that we all recognize are doing, rolling out and trying to copy a little of all of that into our own lives and into our own companies. Why? So my analogy to this is let's say, right, you and I were fortunate enough to live closer to each other. Or actually, I'm actually going to be in Michigan on next week. I'm doing a keynote there. But let's say, again, we decided to have dinner together and you invited me to your home. I come over and on your kitchen counter, you have your pill organizer with all the supplements or any prescriptions or anything like that that you take. I would never ever, and I think most people would even consider walking up to it and blindly just starting to take your supplements and your prescriptions, right? Yes. I mean, your reaction says it all. Why would why would anyone? We have no idea what it is, we have no idea what it's for, we have no idea if it works for us. But that to me is what we're doing by copying what all the other companies are doing. We are taking whatever it is that they're letting us see. We have no idea why they rolled out the things that they did. What were the decisions, right? What were all the things that led up to them making those programs and establishing whatever it is that they did? So why are we just copying and pasting it? So to me, it's as crazy as going in and starting to take somebody else's medication. So I focus internally on why us? Why do employees choose to work with us? Why do our employees choose to stay with us? Why do the employees choose to leave us? Why do our customers choose to work with us versus another company that does pretty much the exact same thing? And then building ways of operating and working that focus on that. Because I, the companies that I'm part of, I want us to be unique. I want us to be a snowflake. I don't want us to be a version of something that already exists. And I truly believe that every company's main competitive advantage are its people. With the information that's out there on the internet, and now with AI, there's a blueprint for every company of what's working well and what's not. So somebody with enough prompt skills and time on their hands can clearly find out how to copy your service or product and make it better and address the issues that your customers are having. And of course, I'm simplifying right this for the example. But it's again, the way you make your people feel that's intentional, that's authentic. That is something that you lean into every single day. That's so difficult to copy. So that's where focus internally, be obsessed with your talent, build ways of working that make sense for you, not for your neighbor across the street.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

One of the things I like to talk about is the invisible emotional labor that tends to fall disproportionately on high performers overall, and particularly high performing women who tend to have two different funnels coming at them. There's the work funnel and then there's also their family funnel for the most part. Why do you think the labor stays invisible even when well-intentioned organizations like ones that you would run are are there? How how do we expose that?

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah. It's, I think, again, the focus on the what gets done, not how. And we get just again, like think about the one-on-ones that happen. Check-ins a lot of times don't even happen with your leader. Is it right? Is it intentional? Is it thoughtful? Or does it look like, hey Natalie, I know we have 45 minutes, but I'm getting pulled into another meeting, so I can only give you 15. Give me a rundown of all these projects uh because I need it for a board slide, or I need to report it back to somebody else. So let me know what's going on with all of this. Cool. Okay, thanks. Um, do you have anything for me? Because I really gotta read. No? Cool. Bye. I see you in a few weeks. That is not a one-on-one, right? One-on-one needs to be, again, both directional. It's about our relationship. It's about me also actually getting to know you as a person. How's everything going? What went well since last time we met? What are the things that are getting in the way? What are give me like true examples of what has like made you want to pull your hair out since we last met? Have those conversations. What are roadblocks that are right in front of you right now that I can help move so you can continue right working and being successful on your deliverables? Let's partner together on a project you're currently working to where your outcome is that much better, right? It becomes what I call feed forward, and there's an amazing book. It's called the feedback fix versus focusing on feedback, what you could have, shoulda, woulda done a few months ago or a year ago. And then it's also, hey, Natalie, how am I doing? What are like, right? How am I driving you crazy? What do you need more of? What do you need less of? But that again, you wouldn't start obviously if the or the foundation is not there and the relationship is not there, but it's those conversations. And then if you give it to me when I say, hey, what's drive, what am I doing that's driving you crazy? And you actually give me a true answer, as a leader, I need to sit with it. I need to be very mindful of my body language and facial expression. For example, I do not have a poker face. So I know that about myself, right? And let's say if it stings and it's an ouch factor that now hurts my feelings, that can totally happen. But it's not me then jumping at you and being defensive. It's again thanking you for sharing that. And if potentially, again, right, I'm a little now jarred and hurt, that can happen. It's not trying to understand what's going on in the moment. It's still wrapping up the meeting and then taking the time for me to sit with what you just shared and my feelings and emotions, and then having a follow-up with you. And first of all, saying, Hey, Natalie, thank you so much for sharing that. Right. I know it probably was very uncomfortable for you. To be honest, it right took me back a little bit, but I appreciate your bravery. Can we spend a little bit more time going a little bit deeper? And can you give me specific examples, right? Of so I can unpack this and we can figure out, right, I can work on reacting differently or doing something differently in the future. That's what leadership is. If I feel like I have the right to give you insights on where you're doing great and where you need to be better, how do I know if I'm a great leader and a leader that you need if I don't create the space to give you for you to give me those insights back? And why should you take my recommendations if I never create the space for you to say, right, to do that in reverse as well? And that right there, as uncomfortable as and painful as and sticky as it is for both of us, talk about the relationship that now it builds and the trust and the psychological safety. And potentially hopefully we get to the point where we're like, hey, let's have a word or let's have some sort of uh, I don't know, a symbol or something that next time I'm talking over you, I'm interrupting you, whatever it is that you told me I do.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

I think all of that is very valuable. And these are the things, the relationships that we would like to aspire to. And when you have these types of relationships in a company, you're going to keep your people for a long time. And your people are gonna be very, they're gonna deliver in a way that the company can be successful. Thank you so much for being on Unsealing You. About four weeks ago, we started this investigation with a question. How does success become a trap? And after these conversations, I don't think the answer is that high performers simply need to become more resilient. The trust tax showed us something more complicated. It can begin when a person proves dependable. People trust them with more, extra responsibilities become normal. And because the person keeps getting the work done, the organization may never see what their success is concealing. Unclear ownership, unfinished work, broken processes, poor communication, or responsibilities that keep routing to the same people. Eventually, the workaround becomes the way the organization operates. The person pays through overwork, lost energy, disengagement, or burnout. The organization pays through rework, higher cost, turnover, lost capacity, and the problems that remain hidden because someone keeps compensating for them. But throughout this investigation, we discovered something underneath all of it. There is often a story keeping the pattern alive. I have to get it done. Everybody depends on me. If I don't step in, who will? I need to prove that I belong here. Leadership means caring more. These stories have helped us to become successful, but they can also keep us and the people around us stuck. And that is why the trust tax investigation leads directly to the Rewrite Your Story event. On October 15th at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan, Merritt Kahn and I are bringing this work into the room for a full-day leadership experience, followed by Merritt's live one-woman theatrical comedy show optimistic personality disorder. Makes me smile every time I say it. Because understanding the pattern is only the beginning. At Rewrite Your Story, we're gonna see the story that's driving your patterns, changing the beliefs that keep it going, and setting boundaries to clarify ownership, building systems of trust instead of systems that depend on someone continually rescuing them and ultimately learning how to create results without burning out the people responsible for producing them. The workshop helps you see the story. The comedy helps you let it go. And maybe that's the most important thing this investigation has shown us. You don't have to abandon your ambition. You don't have to stop being dependable, and you don't have to care less. You can rewrite the story that says your value comes from how much you carry. You can develop other people, you can share responsibility, you can build trust without becoming trapped by it, and you can lead in a way that lifts others and releases you. Rewrite your story, break the cycle, lead differently. I'd love to see you and your team on October the fifteenth at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan.