Tap Your Wild Courage with Jenny Wood
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Release Date: 03/23/2025
Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Dr. Rosalind Chow is a professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School of Business, and also affiliated with the group at Dietrich College. Her research, teaching, and writing focus on how we all participate in social systems in ways that have implications for the maintenance or attenuation of inequitable outcomes. She currently serves as the faculty director for , offered through the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with Deloitte. CLIMB focuses on preparing Black and Latino professionals for leadership positions...
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The music used in this episode is Keeping Score by Independent Music Licensing Collective (IMLC) Source: Free Music Archive (CC BY-NC-ND) In her 18 years at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive, and she most recently led a large operations team that helped drive billions in revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career, which grew to one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history. Through the program she founded, she has trained tens of thousands of people on: acing a job search, building...
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Sabina Nawaz episode: The music used in this episode was Sweeping Broomstick by Jangwa from Free Music Archive (CC BY) Sabina Nawaz is an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina gives dozens of keynotes, seminars, and conferences each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities. During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s...
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Jennifer Moss episode: The music used in this episode was Senility by Jangwa from Free Music Archive (CC BY) Jennifer Moss specializes in future-focused leadership development, expertly balancing employee well-being with performance. As an award-winning writer and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, she specializes in transforming workplace culture using data-driven leadership strategies. Her book, The Burnout Epidemic tackled employee burnout and was among Thinkers50's "10 Best New Management Books for 2022." Book: WHY...
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The music used in this episode was Hurt by Unheard Music Concepts from Free Music Archive (CC BY) Website: Book: HOW TO GET ALONG WITH ANYONE: The Playbook for Predicting and Preventing Conflict at Work and at Home by John Eliot and Jim Guinn The average American worker spends 156 hours a year engaged in moderate-to-intense workplace conflict, and managers spend twenty-six percent of their time addressing and resolving conflicts on their teams. It doesn’t have to be this way. Drs. John Eliot and Jim Guinn have three decades of experience building and...
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Deborah Perry Piscione is cofounder of the Work3 Institute, an AI and Web3 advisory firm. She is also a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and innovation and future-of-work thought leader. She is the author of multiple books, including the New York Times bestseller Secrets of Silicon Valley. She was previously a staffer in the U.S. Congress and at the White House, and she served as an on-air commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Website: Book: by Deborah Perry Piscione, Josh Drean (Jan) Book promo: With disruptive technologies on the...
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By Paula Davis A holistic, research-backed framework that helps leaders design healthier team cultures to unlock high-performance and increase well-being intelligence at work. In the wake of the pandemic and on the cusp of the generative AI revolution, the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. Chronic stress, burnout, and employee disengagement have reached crisis levels, and leaders are struggling to keep their teams motivated and inspired amid relentless change and uncertainty. Conventional management approaches are no longer sufficient, demanding a new leadership framework to...
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Ximena Vengoechea is a user researcher, writer, and illustrator, and the creator of The Life Audit. She is the author of several nonfiction books and journals, including the new book, and companion (forthcoming). Her previous books include , which received a starred review from Library Journal and was named one of BookRiot's Best Books of 2023, and , which was a Next Big Idea Club finalist in 2021. Her writing has appeared in Inc., The Washington Post, Newsweek, Forbes, and Fast Company, among others. She also writes , a newsletter about staying...
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Iris Bohnet and are leading gender experts and Harvard researchers. Their work centers on data-driven evidence to create accessible strategies to bridge the gender gap at work and create environments based on fairness. What makes Iris and Siri’s work different is that they focus on changing behaviors around equality, not attitudes. As they show, this helps us move from virtuous intentions to visible action without trying to tackle people’s deeply held beliefs. Iris and Siri explore these issues in their upcoming book (Harper Business; January 28, 2025; must-read nonfiction...
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LAURA NGUYEN is an experienced marketing executive and entrepreneur with an extensive background in data-driven marketing, digital marketing, and communications for Fortune 500 companies. She is the founder of Solle Solutions, a marketing consultancy. Laura is also a certified executive coach, helping mid-career, high-achieving leaders go from burned out to balanced through her coaching program and online community. Laura received her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science at Truman State University, and her Master in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. She...
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In her 18 years at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive, and she most recently led a large operations team that helped drive billions in revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career, which grew to one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history. Through the program she founded, she has trained tens of thousands of people on: acing a job search, building relationships, personal branding, effective email writing, landing the right mentor, maximizing workplace influence, and most importantly, increasing confidence. Jenny’s writing has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes. She is an FAA-licensed private pilot, a daily hiker, an improv student, a tap dancer, and a zucchini bread connoisseur. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two young children and her husband, Jon. She met Jon by chasing him off the NYC Subway, and the New York Times featured their story.
WILD COURAGE: Go After What You Want and Get It
A bold, empowering, and energizing guide to embracing your ambition and chasing after what you want from an executive who spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks at Google.
What if the traits you need to get ahead are the exact opposite of what you’ve been told? To be successful you need to be Weird, Selfish, Shameless, Obsessed, Nosy, Manipulative, Brutal, Reckless, and Bossy. And that takes courage. WILD COURAGE: Go After What You Want and Get It is an energizing and empowering guide to embracing your ambition and chasing after what you want, from Jenny Wood, an executive who spent 18 years from entry-level to executive at Google. Wood reclaims nine traits from their negative shackles and teaches you how to apply them in a savvy and sane way to supercharge your success, whether you’re trying to impress your new boss, snag a stretch promotion, or land a life-changing deal.
Wood knows her way around courage. In this book, she shatters conventional wisdom about achieving your goals. She gives you permission to ditch your fear and chase after what you want, unapologetically.
Wild Courage will teach you how to be:
Ø Weird: Win as you or lose as “who?”
Ø Selfish: Be your own champion.
Ø Shameless: Kick impostor syndrome to the curb and self-promote with ease.
Ø Obsessed: Push, persist, and perform at your highest level.
Ø Nosy: Get curious to network confidently and learn from others.
Ø Manipulative: Build influence with empathy and manage up like a pro.
Ø Brutal: Draw lines and stick to them. Embrace the power of no.
Ø Reckless: Err on the side of action and take healthy risks.
Ø Bossy: Steer others to success, even if you’re not in charge yet.
Wild Courage coaches you to smash through your fear of discomfort, failure, and the judgement of others, to embrace your boldest self in pursuit of what you want. To be successful, you need to have courage. Wild amounts of it.
Wood can speak to:
- Getting what you want. Unapologetically.
- Increasing confidence at work—and in life.
- Communicating effectively and powerfully.
- Recognizing how tiny daily actions can have a big impact.
- Discovering work-life balance and the power of boundaries.
Gather Your Courage. Overcome fear to achieve your biggest ambitions. Stand out to get what you want in life. Just don’t expect it to be easy.
Chapter 1. Weird: Win as you or lose as “who?” Within your so-called weirdness lie your greatest strengths. Hone and highlight every ounce of weird you’ve got.
Chapter 2. Selfish: Be your own champion. Give everyone a leg up at your own expense and get trampled. Start showing up for yourself.
Chapter 3. Shameless: Find your swagger. Audacity—shamelessness—is a survival skill. How will you learn whether you’ve got the goods if you don’t act like it first?
Chapter 4. Obsessed: Push, persist, and perform. None of these traits will serve you if you don’t learn to deliver—not for some company but to achieve your ambitions.
Chapter 5. Nosy: Get insatiably curious. Curiosity drowns out fear and pulls you toward what is most exciting to you. Use it as a compass.
Chapter 6. Manipulative: Build influence through empathy. Whether you’re selling a product, an idea, or yourself, the ability to win friends, allies, and supporters is all about mutual benefit. Figure out what people want and get it for them.
Chapter 7. Brutal: The power of no. People-pleasing pleases no one and keeps you small. Brutality is cleaner, more effective, and far kinder. Cut through the bull and spare everyone’s time, energy, and attention.
Chapter 8 Reckless: Err on the side of action. Better to learn from your mistakes than waste time predicting the consequences of every decision. Think fast and fearlessly—if you’re on the fence, do it.
Chapter 9. Bossy: Steer others to success. All the traits and habits that looked so negative in this Table of Contents come together and create a leader. Cultivate allies, partners, and collaborators. Help them aggressively. Push them mercilessly. Win their gratitude. Achieve amazing things together.