299: Building a Positive Workplace Culture as a Woman CEO: Ownership, AI and Leading with Joy — with Anusha Iyer
Release Date: 05/05/2026
299: Building a Positive Workplace Culture as a Woman CEO: Ownership, AI and Leading with Joy — with Anusha Iyer
Leading Women in Tech Podcast
Let’s talk about building a positive workplace culture. What does it take to build a workplace where people truly own their work — not just show up for it? Anusha Iyer, Founder and CEO of Corsha, joins Toni to share the unfiltered journey from software engineer to CTO to CEO — and the leadership philosophy that underpins everything she's built along the way. Corsha secures machine-to-machine communications for the operational systems that run our world, from AI agents to robotic controllers in critical infrastructure. It's deep tech solving some of the most important and underprotected...
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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...
info_outlineLet’s talk about building a positive workplace culture. What does it take to build a workplace where people truly own their work — not just show up for it?
Anusha Iyer, Founder and CEO of Corsha, joins Toni to share the unfiltered journey from software engineer to CTO to CEO — and the leadership philosophy that underpins everything she's built along the way. Corsha secures machine-to-machine communications for the operational systems that run our world, from AI agents to robotic controllers in critical infrastructure. It's deep tech solving some of the most important and underprotected problems in cybersecurity today.
But this conversation isn't just about technology. It's about ownership culture, the realities of founding a company as a woman, how to pivot without destroying your team, and why joy at work isn't a soft concept — it's a strategic one.
Anusha also gets into the AI thread that's running through every organisation right now: why diverse voices need to be shaping these tools while the models are still being trained, and why using AI as an assistant rather than a replacement is a leadership decision, not just a preference.
What we cover:
- The real financial and personal cost of starting a startup — and why it's worth it
- How to make strategic pivots without flip-flopping and exhausting your team
- The power of saying no — to customers, to money, to scope creep
- Building a positive workplace culture through ownership: the Joy at Work framework
- The CTO-to-CEO transition: what changes, what doesn't, and the vulnerability that makes it work
- Why the E in CEO stands for evangelist — and what that means for how you lead
- Communication training for the whole team, not just the C-suite
- AI as an assistant, not a replacement — and why women need to be in these tools now
- The 100% job spec problem — and the mindset shift women need to make
- Why diverse voices matter in AI training right now, while it still counts
Connect with Anusha and Corhsa:
Resources mentioned in this episode
- Read the book Joy At Work by Dennis W. Bakke
- Emma Wainer, public speaking coach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmawainer/
- Listen to Emma on the Podcast: Episode 107 - Being a great communicator with Emma Wainer
- Book a strategy call with Toni: tonicollis.com/lets-chat
This episode was sponsored by our guest, Anusha Iyer. Thank you Anusha & Corsha for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!