What Happens When Leadership Becomes Unsustainable: Leader Mental Health with Melissa Doman | 403
Leadership gets glorified a lot and understood very little—and in this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil cuts straight to the part no one wants to talk about: leader mental health.
She’s joined by Melissa Doman, organizational psychologist, former clinical mental health therapist, founder of the Workplace Mental Health Method, and author of Yes, You Can Talk About Mental Health at Work and Cornered Office. Melissa works with global companies like Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Estée Lauder, helping leaders and organizations have honest, practical conversations about mental health—especially at the top.
Together, they unpack the outdated leadership norms that reward burnout and punish humanity, the real mental health toll of constant pressure and scrutiny, and what it actually looks like to lead in a way that’s both effective and human. Because if leadership becomes miserable enough, the good ones won’t stay—and that should scare all of us.
In this episode, Nicole and Melissa explore:
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Why leadership mental health is still the elephant in the corner office
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How outdated ideas about power, stoicism, and authority hurt leaders
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Common mental health struggles leaders face, including anxiety, worry, negativity, and helplessness
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Why communicating capacity is a leadership skill, not a weakness
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How followers can better support leaders
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What companies can do right now to make leadership more sustainable
At the end of the day, this conversation makes one thing clear: if we want better workplaces, stronger teams, and sustainable success, we have to start treating leaders like humans—not machines.
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Connect with Melissa:
Website:https://www.melissadoman.com/
Book:https://www.amazon.com/Cornered-Office-Leadership-Mental-Health/dp/139435035X
IG: https://www.instagram.com/thewanderingmel/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadoman1/
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