139 | Why So Many High-Performing Women Burn Out in “Successful” Careers featuring Miriam Groom
episode
Career Growth for Working Women | Career Advancement, Visibility, Promotion, Raises
19 min
2 speakers
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Why do high‑performing women feel burnt out despite “successful” careers?
What if burnout isn't just about doing too much, but spending too much time disconnected from who you actually are? In this episode, I speak with psychology-led career strategist Miriam Groom about why so many high-performing women end up exhausted, emotionally disconnected, and overextended in careers that look successful on paper. Miriam shares how understanding your natural wiring, strengths, and authentic self can can completely change the way you approach career growth and fulfillment. Are you ready? Let's dive in.
Welcome to Career Growth for Working Women. If you're feeling tired in a way rest alone won't fix, or successful on paper but unsure what's next, you're not broken. You're not alone. I'm Shannon, a promotion and compensation coach, and this space is about helping women grow their careers with clarity, confidence, and sustainability, not pressure or hustle. Take a breath, settle in, and let's talk about what's really going on beneath the surface. Hello, welcome to the show. My guest today is Miriam Groom, and what stood out to me about her work is that she explores something many high-performing women experience, but rarely fully understand. Why do so many capable people end up in careers that look successful on paper, but feel exhausting, misaligned, or emotionally unstable in reality?
Miriam's perspective comes from both personal experience and professional expertise.
How does Miriam explain the difference between over‑working physically and over‑working psychologically?
After experiencing burnout in what appeared to be the perfect career, she began questioning why traditional career advice often fails people who are highly capable but deeply overextended. With a background in psychology, recruitment, and human capital, she eventually built a psychology-led career strategy firm focused on helping people understand not just what they're good at, but how they're actually wired to work, lead, and perform sustainably. Today, her work helps professionals navigate burnout, career transitions, and the deeper patterns that keep people stuck in over-functioning mode. Miriam, welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
Thanks for that. That's a mouthful.
Okay, so many high-performing women are not just overworking strategically, they're overworking psychology. What do you mean by that?
So the whole premise, when I hit my burnout, I wanted to know what was going on. One main thing that I figured out was that, one, I was saying yes to way too many things, which a lot of women do. We're agreeable by nature. And so we'll say yes to a lot of things without saying, well, does it align to who I am? Does it align to my skill set? Does it align to my interests?
What role does saying “yes” to everything play in career burnout?
But the problem is, is that we don't know the answers to what interests us, to what our skill set is, is because we've kind of gone through the motions, if anybody's like me, through their lives and said, just the opportunity is there, so I'll take it. I'll get pregnant, so I'm going to have kids. I'm, you know, this is the opportunity that's here now. I'm going to take it. And so what ended up happening was that I was running a family business and Then I worked for a large Fortune 500 and one of the big four. And I just kept on just taking all these roles and all these tasks that everybody asked of me. And then I burnt out because one, I didn't have my own guardrails to understand how much time i was just taking on every day but also changing your brain and moving from one very different task to another is very tiring especially if you're doing it from one thing that you're not not very developed in to another thing that you are developed in and so you get into this flow state but then you break out of it and so what i ended up doing was i um
When I was on burnout, I got a psychology degree. I did all my psychometrics, which is basically like assessments that kind of figure out who you are and what you want to do. And I wished I had access to like a profiler, somebody who was a psychologist who could just like read me, who could figure out who I am and ask me questions, my behaviors, just how I acted, what my interests were when I was a kid, all these things that could kind of devise who I am as a person without me having to do the hard work.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why do high‑performing women feel burnt out despite “successful” careers?
0:00–1:44
2
How does Miriam explain the difference between over‑working physically and over‑working psychologically?
1:44–3:02
3
What role does saying “yes” to everything play in career burnout?
3:02–6:59
4
How can uncovering your natural gifts and brain‑based strengths prevent burnout?
6:59–10:46
5
What practical tools (journaling, psychometrics, childhood reflection) does Miriam recommend for self‑discovery?
10:46–14:15
6
Why is aligning daily tasks with your strongest brain pathways essential for flow and fulfillment?
14:15–19:16
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Career Growth for Working Women | Career Advancement, Visibility, Promotion, Raises
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