If you’ve ever wondered why certain triggers, conflicts, or self-sabotaging habits keep reappearing, this episode will help you understand them at a deeper, transformative level.

By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of how to access your own shadow, reclaim lost parts of yourself, and unlock a level of self-awareness that elevates both your leadership and your life.

Every high achiever has a few “derailers” lurking beneath the surface, patterns that show up under stress, exhaustion, or uncertainty. In this episode, Maya and Steven D’Souza explore how your shadow influences your leadership, your choices, and your career path… often without you realising it.

Drawing on psychology, Jungian theory, embodiment, biology, culture, and meaning-making, Steven explains how the shadow forms, how it shows up in adulthood, and why ignoring it keeps leaders repeating the same patterns on autopilot.

You’ll Learn:

• What the shadow is — and why high achievers often overlook it

• The link between shadow work and career choices, fulfilment, and identity

You can connect and find out more about Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/m/in/mayagudka

Connect and find out more about Steven on his website https://stevendsouza.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-d-souza-5351712/

If you’re a high achiever who has built success through relentless doing, pushing harder, and staying “always on,” this episode will challenge and transform the way you think about achievement.

Maya is joined by bestselling author and leadership thinker Steven D’Souza, whose book Not Doing explores how pausing, letting go, and working with natural rhythms can lead to more success, not less. Together, they unpack the paradox every high achiever eventually faces: you can’t think, act, or lead clearly from a place of frenetic action.

Steven offers a radically refreshing perspective on leadership, ambition, creativity, and sustainable performance. This is not about sacrificing drive, it’s about discovering a more effective, easeful way forward.

If you’ve been feeling burnt out, reactive, overstretched, or like the world is pushing you faster than you want to go… this conversation is for you.

You’ll Learn:

• Why high achievers become trapped in over-action
• The concept of negative capability and why leaders need it
• A new, calmer relationship to time that unlocks creativity

You can connect and find out more about Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/m/in/mayagudka

Connect and find out more about Steven on his website https://stevendsouza.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-d-souza-5351712/

Confidence isn’t one thing, it’s many. There’s confidence in your expertise, confidence in being visible, confidence in your new identity, and even confidence in speaking your truth.

In this episode, Maya breaks down three things she often finds herself saying to clients about confidence. From treating confidence like a muscle you can train, to understanding how external factors (like a disengaged boss) can chip away at your self-belief, she reveals what truly helps high-achievers rebuild confidence that lasts.

You’ll also hear why fluctuating confidence is actually a good sign, one of self-awareness, not weakness and how to reframe imposter syndrome as a useful inner signal rather than an enemy to silence.

You'll Learn

• The three types of confidence every high-achiever needs
• Why confidence is built through doing, not waiting
• How toxic dynamics (or poor managers) quietly erode confidence
• Why confidence naturally fluctuates and why that’s normal
• How imposter syndrome can reveal valuable self-awareness
• A small communication tweak that signals confidence instantly

Download the free Career Blindspots Checklist (https://www.mayagudka.com/career-blindspots-checklist)designed for high achievers who want to uncover the subtle habits that quietly hold them back.

To find out more about Maya you can connect with her at www.mayagudka.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagudka/

If you’re waiting for a promotion, title, or recognition before you start showing up as a leader, this episode will change your approach.

In this short and powerful reflection, Maya shares how one simple shift in energy and self-perception helped a client step into leadership long before the title arrived - and how that ripple effect transformed his time management, confidence, and balance.

Through personal stories from her own career at KPMG and lessons from coaching hundreds of senior leaders, Maya unpacks the truth: people promote you when they can already see you at that next level. The secret is to embody it first.

You'll Learn

• Why confidence and energy signal leadership readiness
  

• How to “act as if” without being inauthentic
  

• The real power of executive presence and how it’s built
  

• How others start to see you differently once you shift your own energy
  

• A simple daily exercise to embody your next-level self

To find out more about Maya you can connect with her at www.mayagudka.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagudka/

If you’ve ever been told “let your work speak for itself,” “say yes to everything,” or “stay out of office politics,” this episode will change the way you think about career success.

Maya breaks down three of the most common and well-meaning pieces of advice that secretly hold high achievers back. These beliefs can quietly limit your visibility, overload your schedule, and block your access to real influence inside your organisation.

Through client stories, practical insights, and mindset shifts, you’ll learn what to do instead so that your career effort actually moves the needle without burning out or playing the political games you’ve avoided.

What You'll Learn

• Why “let your work speak for itself” is career sabotage in disguise

• • How to stop saying yes to everything and protect your focus
  • The truth about “office politics” — and how to build influence authentically

• • The mindset shifts that free you from invisible effort and help you rise

  • A simple next step to identify what’s keeping you stuck

    
    

  Download the free Career Blindspots Checklist (Career Blindspots Checklist | Maya Gudka ExecCoach) designed for high achievers who want to uncover the subtle habits that quietly hold them back.

  To find out more about Maya you can connect with her at www.mayagudka.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagudka/

  
  

In this final part of our mini-series, Maya and Graziela dive into two of the most common and misunderstood patterns in high-achievers, especially those in leadership or caregiving roles. You’ll discover why avoiding conflict and over-giving can erode your confidence, your clarity, and your career and most importantly, how to shift into the sage mindset that restores power, presence, and peace.

We cover:

The hidden costs of people-pleasing and conflict avoidance

How these saboteurs undermine leadership and wellbeing

A 4-step framework for having difficult conversations with grace

Why boundaries are not selfish

How to activate your “sage” powers to lead with empathy and impact

The hidden costs of people-pleasing and conflict avoidance

How these saboteurs undermine leadership and wellbeing

A 4-step framework for having difficult conversations with grace

Why boundaries are not selfish

How to activate your “sage” powers to lead with empathy and impact

To find out more about Maya you can connect with her at www.mayagudka.com

Connect with Graziela on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracoaching/

In part two of the Positive Intelligence mini-series on The Executive Coach Podcast, Maya Gudka and executive coach Graziela Cajado-Ogland explore two saboteurs that organisations often reward: the Hyper-Achiever and the Hyper-Rational.

These patterns can fuel incredible performance, but left unchecked, they distort our sense of self-worth. Maya's clients are increasingly coming to her specifically wanting to work on their self-worth, and this conversation explores why that matters.

Maya shares openly how these saboteurs have impacted her personally, and Graziela brings insights about the real cost of overusing these patterns in leadership and life.

The conversation covers how we link our value to our results and what happens when we fail, why being overly rational can leave people feeling unheard, and the three magic words for high-achievers: "Do you want to be heard, hugged, or helped?" They discuss treating emotions as data rather than distractions, and redefining success on your own terms.

This episode is particularly relevant for leaders who feel their self-worth is tied to outcomes, high-performers struggling to connect emotionally, anyone navigating career transitions or identity shifts, and coaches and executives ready to lead with more empathy.

You’ll Learn:

• Why hyper-achieving can erode self-worth
• How hyper-rationality limits emotional connection and leadership effectiveness
• The link between internal judgment and judgment of others
• Practical ways to redefine success and reclaim your self-worth
• How to treat emotions as data—not distractions
• How to honour your values without burning out

Who This Is For:

• High performers who feel pressure to constantly prove themselves
• Leaders who feel emotionally disconnected or misunderstood
• Coaches, execs, and entrepreneurs ready to build more sustainable success
• Anyone navigating transitions in identity, career, or relationships

You can connect and find out more about Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com

Connect with Graziela on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracoaching/

If you're a high-achiever, what's holding you back likely isn’t a lack of ambition or skill—it's the unseen internal patterns running in the background. In this powerful episode, we explore the Positive Intelligence framework by Shirzad Chamine to reveal the 9 "saboteurs" that drain your energy, impact your leadership, and quietly sabotage your success.Executive coach Graziella Lazzarini joins Maya to lay the foundations of this framework and introduce the Judge the master saboteur. Together, they share real-world leadership examples and personal stories that make this framework immediately relatable and practical.If you’ve ever struggled with perfectionism, people-pleasing, over-control, or being overly rational, this episode will leave you with a whole new lens on yourself and the people around you.What You’ll Learn:The 9 saboteurs and how they show up in high-achieversWhy the Judge is the most damaging of allHow empathy, not judgment, transforms leadershipThe difference between high standards and self-sabotageHow to begin shifting these patterns to lead with more clarity, confidence, and calmThis is the first of a 3-part mini-series exploring Positive Intelligence and how it can elevate your leadership, relationships, and inner peace.You can connect with Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com