July 13, 2026 · 44 min · Episode 756
Reclaiming Energy: Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins on Psychological Safety at Work
About this episode
Anika sits down with Dr. Mickey Fitch Collins to expose the leadership development trap most companies fall into, uncover the psychological safety crisis silently burning out middle managers, and reveal the counterintuitive secret to sustainable organizations: it's never about the strategy. It's about the people executing it—and whether they feel confident enough to show up as their whole selves.
In This Episode
- Bass fishing to breakout rooms: How 30 years of professional fishing taught her more about leadership than any MBA—and why early public speaking shaped her entire career
- The leadership development gap: Why companies wait until burnout is critical to invest in leaders, and the cost of reactive vs. proactive development
- Middle manager isolation: The push-pull stress of serving two masters, losing peer relationships, and why leaders are abandoned once they "make it"
- Psychological safety as the foundation: Why you can't build better leaders without first creating spaces where people can be honest, vulnerable, and whole
- The burnout epidemic: How the WHO classifies burnout as a health concern, and why control-based work models are burning people out
- Remote work and trust: Why flexible work aligned with individual needs enhances motivation, and why monitoring software is the opposite of trust
- Learn It Lounge podcast: Building community among L&D professionals by sharing authentic problem-solving stories
- The giving phase: What's next for Mickey—coaching, speaking, and helping others grow while designing a life centered around family
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction: From pro bass fisherman to leadership facilitator
- 06:23 Why she left higher education after 20 years and a PhD
- 08:00 The pandemic pivot: From C-suite to corporate learning and development
- 16:00 The most common breakdown when companies scale: Delayed leadership investment
- 20:20 Why outsiders and consultants bring objective credibility
- 24:30 The push-pull of middle management and burnout
- 30:31 Psychological safety as the antidote to burnout
- 34:32 Work models and control vs. trust: Why flexible work beats surveillance
- 38:26 How Learn It Lounge started and what's next for Mickey
Key Insights & Takeaways
Insight 1: Leadership Is a Learnable Skill, Not Innate Expertise
Being a great founder, engineer, or visionary doesn't automatically make you a great people manager. Leadership—coaching, vision-casting, conflict resolution, delegation—is a skill set that must be built. The organizations that win are the ones that invest in emerging leaders before they're in crisis mode, not after.
Insight 2: Proactive Development Beats Reactive Intervention
Companies that delay leadership investment until burnout, turnover, or conflict forces their hand end up spending 3-4x more on reactive solutions. The smartest organizations identify rising stars early and develop skill sets before people are drowning.
Insight 3: Psychological Safety Is the Foundation of Everything
You cannot build better leaders, improve communication, or increase engagement without psychological safety. When people can admit mistakes and be vulnerable without fear, they stop wearing masks and performing—and that's when real growth happens.
Insight 4: Control-Based Work Models Are the Opposite of Trust
Strict hours, in-office mandates, and monitoring software send one message: "I don't trust you." When organizations care for the whole human—flexible work, autonomy, trust—they get higher motivation, lower turnover, and higher profitability. The research is clear.
Insight 5: Storytelling Creates Meaning Beyond Data
We make decisions with data, but we make meaning with stories. In the age of AI and critical thinking, storytelling and authentic presence are just as important as problem-solving skills.
Resources & Links Mentioned
Learn It
Learn It Lounge Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-learnit-lounge/id1817436348
Conversations with L&D professionals sharing authentic problem-solving stories and best practices
About Dr. Mickey Fitch Collins
Dr. Mickey Fitch Collins is a leadership facilitator and learning strategist at Learn It, specializing in leadership self-efficacy and building confident leaders. With a PhD in Leadership and Higher Education, a master's degree in Counseling and Student Personnel, and a bachelor's degree in Psychology, Mickey spent 20 years in higher education leadership before transitioning to corporate learning and development during the pandemic.
Her unique origin story includes 30 years of professional bass fishing experience—competing at the national level with 30+ sponsors, speaking at expos and on radio and TV. This early experience shaped her public speaking confidence, marketing acumen, and deep understanding of leadership in male-dominated environments.
Connect with Dr. Mickey Fitch Collins
Learn It Website: https://www.learnit.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/
Open to: Coaching, speaking engagements, and mentoring emerging leaders
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Article
Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins on Psychological Safety, Leadership Burnout and Developing Middle Managers
Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins is a leadership facilitator and learning strategist at Learn It who spent 20 years in higher education before moving into corporate learning and development. On Your Brand Amplified, she tells Anika Jackson why organizations wait too long to develop leaders, why promotion can be isolating and why psychological safety is the first defense against burnout. Her point: organizations that wait until their best people burn out pay three to four times more to fix the problem than if they had acted early.
Why did Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins move from higher education to corporate learning?
Because she had drifted from what energized her. Mickey Fitch-Collins spent 20 years in higher education, from student support counseling to senior leadership. She holds a PhD in Leadership and Higher Education, a master's degree in Counseling and Student Personnel and a bachelor's degree in Psychology. During the pandemic, she realized she was spending more time fighting for resources than helping people learn and grow.
She moved into corporate learning and development and brought her transferable skills with her. It took humility, a willingness to be a student again and an adjustment from academia's slower pace to the speed of business.
Why do new managers burn out?
Often because they are promoted and then left alone. Mickey Fitch-Collins teaches that leadership is a learnable skill set, including coaching, vision-casting, conflict resolution and delegation, not an innate gift. Organizations promote people for being good at their jobs and assume they will figure out management. Once leaders "make it," coaching and development tend to stop, exactly when the role gets more complex.
Promotion is also isolating. A new manager leaves a peer group behind, cannot confide in direct reports, sees fellow managers as competitors for resources and may have a distant supervisor. Middle managers feel pulled between two masters, and that loneliness and self-doubt feed burnout. The World Health Organization recognizes burnout as a health concern, and Mickey treats it as a serious organizational issue, not a morale problem.
What is psychological safety, and why does it matter for leaders?
Psychological safety means being able to say you are unsure, that you made a mistake or that you do not have all the answers without fear of repercussion. Mickey Fitch-Collins's research on leadership self-efficacy, the confidence leaders feel in their ability to do their work, points to a key factor: people burn out not only from overwork but from not feeling safe enough to be honest. Without safety, people wear masks and perform, and keeping up the performance is exhausting.
The organizations doing well, she says, do several things differently:
- They invest in emerging leaders early, before a crisis.
- They give real, actionable feedback, not just praise.
- They let leaders admit mistakes without career damage.
- They offer flexibility and autonomy instead of rigid hours, in-office mandates and monitoring software, which signal distrust.
When organizations care for the whole person, she notes, they see higher motivation, lower turnover and stronger profitability.
Why does storytelling matter for leaders?
Because, as Mickey Fitch-Collins puts it, we make decisions with data but make meaning with stories. She learned that in an unexpected place: decades in professional bass fishing, competing nationally with more than 30 sponsors and speaking at expos and on radio and TV, often to rooms of men many years older than her. In an age of AI, she sees storytelling and authentic presence becoming more valuable, not less.
Today she works with emerging leaders in cohort programs, hosts the Learn It Lounge podcast for L&D professionals and has built her life around family, flexibility and what she calls a giving phase. Her conviction: companies grow when their people do.
Key takeaways
- Waiting until leaders burn out makes the fix three to four times more expensive than acting early.
- Leadership is learnable, and development should continue after promotion.
- New and middle managers are often isolated, which feeds self-doubt and burnout.
- Psychological safety lets people admit uncertainty and mistakes without performing.
- Flexibility, honest feedback and early investment lead to higher motivation and lower turnover.
Listen to Anika Jackson's full conversation with Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins on Your Brand Amplified.
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