{"podcast":{"title":"The Empowered Leader Podcast","slug":"the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842","podcast_index_feed_id":7445842,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/59236.rss","website_url":"https://substack.iprofessionalcoaching.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/59236/d1e51b0f12362ecf4e737c35b4aa226f.jpg","author":"Margaret Williams, MS, ACC","episode_count":608,"summary":"The Empowered Leader is a community-based publication for women who are done contorting themselves to survive broken systems and are ready to lead with power, clarity, and impact.","last_synced_at":"2026-08-01T14:23:12.679288+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842"},"episode":{"title":"Are You Part of the Problem or the Solution?","slug":"are-you-part-of-the-problem-or-the-solution","published_at":"2026-05-28T12:14:57+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842/are-you-part-of-the-problem-or-the-solution","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842","url":"https://substack.iprofessionalcoaching.com/p/are-you-part-of-the-problem-or-the","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/199590679/4b4547cb9a50a9b52775a8e68d8c1c53.mp3","summary":"The hardest intel you’ll ever gather is on yourself. Today, we’re going to ask a question most women avoid for as long as they can. Not because they’re afraid of the answer. Because they already suspect what it is. Are you part of the problem? Or are you part of the solution? The honest answer is usually both. I want to say something before we go any further. This is not a piece about self-blame. The systems you’re operating in are real. The bias is real. The unfair load is real. None of that goes away. But foresight requires you to do something most leadership content won’t ask you to do. It requires you to audit yourself with the same honesty you audit everyone else. Because if you can’t see your own patterns, you can’t change what’s coming. If you’re in the room, you’re in the data. The Reflex Most of the women I work with want to be the solution. They’ve been the fixer their whole lives. The one who stepped up when no one else would. The one who carried the team, the family, the project, the legacy. That’s not vanity. That’s survival. When you grow up in a system that scapegoats women, especially marginalized women, you learn fast that being indispensable is one of the few forms of protection available to you. So you build a whole identity around being the solution. The competent one. The one they can count on. The one without whom things fall apart. And then one day, you wake up exhausted, resentful, and stuck. And you wonder how you got here. You got here because being the solution stopped being a strategy and started being a cage. Three Places Good Women Become Part of the Problem Let me name them. Not to shame you. To free you. One. The Over-Functioning. You took on the work nobody else would. At first, that made you valuable. Then it made you essential. Now it…","meta_description":"The hardest intel you’ll ever gather is on yourself. Today, we’re going to ask a question most women avoid for as long as they can. Not because they’re af…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":545,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842/episodes/are-you-part-of-the-problem-or-the-solution/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-empowered-leader-podcast-7445842/are-you-part-of-the-problem-or-the-solution.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}