In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey’s Justine Jablonska chats with Melody Wilding about her book, Trust Yourself: Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work (Chronicle Prism, May 2021). Based on Wilding’s research and work as an executive coach, licensed social worker and professor of human behavior, the book is both an empathetic exploration of the power of sensitivity, specifically in high achievers, and an actionable guide to mastering it. An edited version of the conversation follows.
What problem were you trying to solve with this book?
This book was meant to solve the challenges that come with being both highly sensitive and high achieving. As an executive coach, human-behavior professor and licensed social worker for 10 years, I kept seeing repeating challenges among my clients: impostor syndrome, self-doubt, perfectionism, people-pleasing.
It became very clear that these challenges were coming from the intersection of being highly sensitive, meaning that you think and feel everything more deeply and being high achieving.
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