Badass Leaders: Too Nice to Lead? The People-Pleaser Trap – S2 E10

In this episode of the Badass Leaders Podcast, Angela Gill Nelms sits down with leadership advisor Russell Harvey to unpack the deeply human side of leadership resilience. Russell shares candid stories from his career about navigating workplace bullying, confronting people-pleasing tendencies, and learning how to assert boundaries without losing empathy.

Together they explore how strengths-based leadership can help leaders better understand themselves, build more resilient teams, and respond more effectively to pressure.

Russell explains why empathy can sometimes become a liability for leaders, how people-pleasing quietly erodes authority, and what it takes to shift from surviving leadership stress to leading with confidence and clarity.

The conversation also dives into practical frameworks like strengths-based leadership and tools such as StrengthsFinder and Working Genius, offering leaders concrete ways to understand how they show up under pressure.