How to Stop People Pleasing at Work: The Fawn Response in High Achievers

If you're ready to get measured results for both personally and professionally, schedule an appointment with Jahmaal Book your Root Cause Intensive today! Sometimes what looks like being dependable is really a stress response in disguise.

In this solo episode, Jahmaal unpacks the fawn response and why high performers can spend years being rewarded for patterns that are actually rooted in people-pleasing, fear, and the need to keep everyone else comfortable. He gets into how those patterns take hold, why they can be so hard to recognize, and what it looks like to start interrupting them in real life.

It’s a conversation about learning to stop treating other people’s approval like a requirement for your own peace. Episode Highlights: 0:00 - Intro 0:25 - When your body says no but you still say yes 1:05 - Introducing the five stress responses 4:20 - Fight, flight, freeze, flop, and fawn 5:37 - What the fawn response actually is 6:01 - Why fawning can look like excellence 7:03 - Signs of fawning in high performers 8:50 - How fawning can show up differently in women 10:47 - How fawning can show up differently in men 13:18 - The belief underneath people-pleasing 14:21 - Where the fawn response can begin 16:09 - Becoming “the responsible one” too early 17:06 - When faith, culture, or family encourage self-erasure 18:42 - Three ways to start breaking the pattern 18:52 - Create a gap before saying yes 19:52 - Trace the belief back to its source 20:56 - Practice small, safe disappointments 23:14 - What healthy boundaries actually mean CONNECT WITH JAHMAAL LinkedIn: Website: YouTube: BUY ME A Coffee - with this link: https://buymeacoffee.com/listenthenspeak?new=1 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company.

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