287: The Next Leadership Gap: Women, AI Readiness, and Emerging Technology with Kendra MacDonald
Release Date: 02/10/2026
298: How to Communicate With Clarity Under Pressure: Leadership Skills for Women in Tech
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
Do you communicate with clarity when the stakes are high — or does your voice go quiet at exactly the moment it matters most? In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, I break down one of the most underrated leadership skills for women in tech: communicating with clarity under pressure. Not when things are calm and you've had time to prepare — but when someone challenges you in front of the leadership team, when an executive asks a question you weren't expecting, or when you can feel the room watching to see how you respond. This is not about confidence. It's not about personality. It's...
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297: AI Leadership Strategy: Your 90-Day Blueprint for Winning with AI — with Charlene Li
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
If your organization is running AI pilots that aren't moving the needle, waiting for the right moment to commit, or treating AI as a technology problem for IT to solve — this episode is the reset you need. Charlene Li, NYT bestselling author and one of the world's leading voices on disruptive leadership, joins Toni for her second appearance on Leading Women in Tech. When she was last on the show in , the AI conversation was just beginning to accelerate. Now, with her new book Winning with AI: The 90-Day Blueprint for Success freshly published, Charlene brings a framework that is both more...
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296: Office Politics for Women Who Hate Office Politics
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
Office politics. Just reading those words probably made you want to click away — and that reaction is exactly why this episode exists. If you're a high-achieving woman in tech who has built your career on results, integrity, and doing excellent work, the idea of navigating office politics probably feels like a compromise. Like you'd be becoming someone you don't recognise. But here's what nobody says out loud: not engaging with office politics is itself a political choice. And for most high-performing women in tech leadership, it's one that is quietly costing them promotions,...
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295: Authentic Leadership in the Age of AI: Diversity, Change & the Future of Product with Catherine Wong
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
What does it actually take to become a transformational leader in the age of AI? Catherine Wong, Chief Product Officer at Entrata, joins Toni to share the career philosophy, leadership mindset, and honest hard-won lessons that took her from software engineer to CPO — via architecture, M&A, product, and operations. Catherine built her career on range, not a straight line. She calls it the jungle gym — and she believes it's more relevant now than ever. In this episode she gets real about diversity as a product quality issue (not just a values issue), why AI adoption is the biggest change...
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294: Burnout-Proof Leadership
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
When someone asks you how you're doing, what do you say? If you answered "I'm fine" before you'd even finished reading that question — this episode is for you. Burnout in high-performing women in tech leadership rarely looks like collapse. It looks like going through the motions. Like numbness. Like resentment that arrives out of nowhere and exhaustion that's become so normal you've stopped registering it as a warning sign. In this episode, Toni breaks down why burnout hits women in tech leadership differently, the three patterns she sees most in her coaching work, and...
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293: Women in Tech Leadership: Why You Don’t Need a Perfect Career Plan to Reach the Top (With Sarah Walker, Cisco UKI CEO)
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
You don’t need a perfect career plan to succeed in tech. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, I sit down with Sarah Walker, Chief Executive of Cisco UK & Ireland, to talk about women in tech leadership, non-traditional career paths, AI in the workplace, and why backing yourself matters more than ticking every box. Sarah didn’t follow a traditional route into tech. She didn’t leave school with perfect results. She didn’t move to London (despite being told she should). And she certainly didn’t have a 20-year career plan mapped out. Yet today, she leads one of the most...
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292: From Tactical to Strategic: The Unspoken Rules for Women in Tech Stepping Into Executive Leadership
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
Executive Leadership for Women: From Tactical to Strategic You’ve mastered being a leader. But executive leadership for women is not just the next step up. It’s a completely different game. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, we unpack why tactical excellence alone won’t get you promoted — and what actually signals executive readiness. If you’ve ever been told: “You’re doing great.” “Keep going.” “You’re almost there.” “We just need to see a bit more.” This episode is for you. We explore: Why women not getting promoted in tech is often a positioning issue...
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291: C-Level Leadership for Women in Tech: What It Really Takes to Thrive With Adelina Peltea
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
In this conversation, Adelina Peltea, CMO at USERCENTRICS shares her unique journey to C-level Leadership for women in tech, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's strengths and the realities of leadership roles. She discusses the significance of communication, empowerment, and the impact of presence in leadership. Adelina also introduces her meditation method, Inner Sanctuary, and explores the responsible use of AI in decision-making. The discussion concludes with advice for personal growth and reflection on one's career path. Takeaways ◾ Adelina's journey to CMO was...
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290: The Promotion Gap in Tech: Leading Powerfully When the Culture Pushes Back
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
The women in tech promotion gap is real—but it’s not random. High-performing women in tech are still being overlooked for leadership roles, even as they deliver exceptional results. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, we dive into the gender bias in tech leadership, the shift in workplace culture, and the strategic moves you need to close the gap—without losing yourself. Why are women in tech not getting promoted at the same rate as their male peers? The answer isn’t about competence; it’s about perception, positioning, and politics. We’ll explore: The promotion gap in the...
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289: How Fractional Leaders Actually Get Hired
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
How fractional leaders get hired isn’t random — but it does follow a very different logic than most people expect. If you’ve been having good conversations, receiving positive signals, and still not seeing those conversations turn into paid work, this episode will help you understand what’s really happening on the hiring side. In this episode, we step out of the leader’s perspective and into the mindset of the organisation making the decision — because fractional leadership hiring doesn’t follow a traditional job search or sales process. Instead, hiring happens when recognition,...
info_outlineIf women don’t experiment with AI now, we risk hard-coding today’s leadership gaps into tomorrow’s technology.
In this episode I’m joined by Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, to explore the intersection of women in leadership, AI readiness, representation, and emerging technology.
This conversation goes beyond theory. It tackles the real risks and opportunities facing women leaders as AI, climate tech, and other emerging technologies reshape how leadership works — and who gets to shape the future.
In this episode, we discuss:
◾ Why representation in leadership matters more than ever in emerging tech
◾ How AI adoption in the workplace can either reduce or reinforce gender bias
◾ Why women’s hesitation to experiment with AI is a leadership issue — not a technical one
◾ What it takes to lead confidently in male-dominated industries like tech and ocean innovation
◾ How leadership pipelines for women are shaped early — at work, at home, and through education
◾ The role of experimentation, confidence, and visibility in closing the leadership gap
Kendra shares her own journey — from stepping away from STEM early in life to leading large-scale innovation and commercialisation — and offers practical insight into how women leaders can engage with AI and emerging tech without needing to be technical experts.
If you care about:
✔ women in tech leadership
✔ AI readiness for leaders
✔ gender diversity in leadership
✔ bias in AI algorithms
✔ emerging and sustainable technology
this episode is for you.
If you’re ready for your next level explore how to strengthen your leadership clarity, visibility, and career trajectory by booking a discovery call via the link in the description.
**Useful links**
Connect with today’s guest and sponsor, Kendra MacDonald:
◾ W: kendramacdonald.com
◾ Substack: https://substack.com/@saltwatersignals
This episode was sponsored by our guest, Kendra MacDonald. Thank you Kendra for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!