Leading Women in Tech Podcast

For ambitious women ready to rise, lead, and thrive — without burning out. Are you delivering results… but still waiting to be seen as a true leader? Tired of performance reviews with praise — but no promotion? Hosted by Dr. Toni Collis, executive coach for women in tech, this podcast is your go-to leadership toolkit. Whether you're a rising Director, lone female VP, or overextended operator tired of being overlooked — you're in the right place. Each week, Toni shares real-world leadership strategies, career advancement frameworks, and executive presence tools to help you: ✅ Build strategic visibility ✅ Communicate like a trusted exec ✅ Navigate politics with integrity ✅ Advocate for yourself (without overworking) ✅ Lead with confidence, clarity, and influence You’ll also hear powerful interviews with women who’ve paved the way — and candid conversations on the unspoken challenges women face in male-dominated industries. ✨ If you're ready to go from “she’s great” to “she’s the obvious next Exec” — hit follow.

323: Leadership Coaching Styles: Lead as You, Not as Them 10/20/2026

323: Leadership Coaching Styles: Lead as You, Not as Them Ever felt like this: everyone in that meeting said the right thing, behaved well and seemed to have your back. But you still left wrong-footed. Let’s talk about the situations that hold you up even though on paper, they seem like they shouldn’t. By the end of this you will know what to do in the moment when something is off and nobody has said anything you can point to. Ruth E. Andermatt has been coaching executives for twenty-eight years, since she walked out of a corporate role running a staff of seventy. She says it is harder to be a woman in leadership now than it was when she started, because the language has changed even though behaviors have mostly changed. The attitudes have not changed. So you no longer know what you are dealing with across the table, and an attitude you cannot hear is far harder to lead through than an insult you can. Toni and Ruth also get into what coaching actually is, which is a conversation this show rarely has. Ruth’s definition is that she is invested in the person, not the outcome, which is why a client who arrives certain she needs the VP title sometimes leaves clear that she does not. From there: what Ruth means by wisdom, and why she insists you arrived with it rather than earning it with age. Toni’s zone of genius framing, and the warning that the work you are merely excellent at will burn you out while the work that energizes you will not. WHAT’S COVERED → Why the attitudes did not change when the language did, and what that costs you → Why neutral beats both engaging and retreating when you are undermined → What wisdom actually means, and why waiting to be old enough for it is a mistake → The difference between the work you are excellent at and the work that energizes you → Why there is no such thing as a sacrifice, only an investment → Whether Queen Bee syndrome is still real, or whether you simply do not click → Why introverted leaders are often the most powerful people in the room RELATED EPISODES How coaching makes you a better leader — Using coaching as a leader to elevate your team — Embracing introversion as a leadership strength — CONNECT WITH RUTH E. ANDERMATT LinkedIn — Ready to work out what your own leadership style actually is, rather than borrowing someone else’s? Book a strategy call — /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/43231208

322: How to Build Powerful Advocates (Without Feeling Sleazy) 10/13/2026

322: How to Build Powerful Advocates (Without Feeling Sleazy) Mentors talk to you. Sponsors talk about you. Most senior women have plenty of the first and almost none of the second. By the end of this you’ll know the one sentence your advocates need from you, and why the ask you have been dreading is not the ask you think it is. There is a question I get asked more often than almost any other, usually near the end of a coaching conversation or virtual coffee chat and usually a little embarrassed: how do I get somebody senior to actually back me? If you have been collecting mentors diligently and wondering why nothing is changing, this episode is about the thing you have been missing A mentor talks to you. That relationship happens in a room with two people in it and you are one of them. An advocate talks about you. They say your name in rooms you are not in, they put you forward for the stretch project, and they say “I think she’s ready” when somebody else is not sure. Career sponsorship for women is the piece that almost nobody explains, and it is the piece that actually moves careers. Here is what I see constantly in my coaching practice. The women I work with have been mentored extensively and have had nobody argue for them when it mattered. And when I say the word sponsor out loud, I watch faces close, because what she is thinking is that she does not want to play politics just to get ahead. That objection is not silly and it is not going away on its own. But the sleaze is not in the advocacy. It is in how you have been imagining the ask. You have been picturing yourself going to somebody senior and asking them for a favor, asking them to like you enough to spend their own credibility on you. No wonder it feels awful. Advocacy is not a favor you ask for. It is a handover. Your advocate needs something specific to say and evidence behind it, and your job is not to be liked enough. It is to make yourself advocable. This episode covers the five steps that do that. WHAT’S COVERED → Why you have been collecting the wrong thing, and what a mentor cannot do for you → The reframe that makes the ask stop feeling grubby → Why you almost certainly have more advocates than you think, and how to find them → The one sentence that decides what gets said about you when you are not there → Why advocacy for women skews toward character and what that costs → Why evidence matters more than relationship when somebody puts their name behind yours RELATED EPISODES Why you’re not being seen as the leader you want to be: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/310-why-youre-not-being-seen-as-a-leader-at-work/ Office politics for women who hate office politics: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/296-office-politics-women-hate-office-politics From tactical to strategic, the unspoken rules for women stepping into executive leadership: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/292-executive-leadership-for-women-strategic-shift FREE RESOURCE Seen as Strategic, the checklist for what senior leaders are actually reading when they decide whether you are executive material: https://tonicollis.com/resources/seen-as-strategic/ Book a complimentary strategy call: https://tonicollis.com/lets-chat/ /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/43119168

321: Starting a Startup as a Mom: It Was Never About Timing 10/06/2026

321: Starting a Startup as a Mom: It Was Never About Timing The urge arrives late at night, after the kids have gone to sleep and the laptop is shut: I could do that. And it can feel like that’s impossible because of timing. But today’s conversation shows you that starting a startup as a mom is not a timing problem. Elisa Lu has never asked herself whether she should. She only asks how. She co-founded an AI hardware company with no coding background and no engineering training, as the mother of two young boys, while relocating her family to Germany for her husband’s career, with co-founders spread across three time zones. That is three solid reasons that everyone would understand as a reason to wait. But Elisa didn’t. She treated all of them as logistics to be solved for. Elisa, today’s guest, is co-founder and COO of Memoket, and her career before this was a deliberate walk towards the part of a business where decisions actually get made: supply chain at Procter & Gamble, building manufacturing facilities as a young graduate, then a deliberate move into marketing, because marketing was where the business outcome was decided rather than serviced. In this conversation Elisa makes her journey sound so ordinary, so casual you think ‘yes well, of course’. She makes the hard parts sound easier than I know many of us think they are. There is travel, there are weeks away, there are children who cried the first time and adapted faster than she expected. There is a husband with his own career and no assumption that either of them is the default parent. And there is a clear-eyed answer to the question of whether she ever doubts it, which is yes, at three in the morning, and her response is to keep moving. We also discuss whether luck has anything to do with this, or is it something else? It is worth listening for how often you use the word ‘lucky’ about your own career. This is for anyone weighing a founder move, a side project, or any leap that currently feels badly timed. WHAT’S COVERED → Why “should I?” is the wrong question, and what to ask instead → How to build in an industry you have no technical training in → What the logistics of founding actually look like with two young children and a partner with his own career → Why saying “I’m lucky” quietly erases the choices you made → The 3am doubt that every founder has, and what to do with it → Why “stay stable” is the worst advice she was ever given RELATED EPISODES Is entrepreneurship the right next step for you — The realities of leading as a young mom — Breaking out of your comfort zone and preparing for venture funding — CONNECT WITH ELISA LU & CHECK OUT MEMOKET LinkedIn — Memoket — Ready to stop waiting for the right moment in your own career? Book a strategy call — This episode was sponsored by our guest, Elisa Lu. Thank you Elisa and Memoket for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community. Toni has been testing the Memoket Gem and talks about it in the episode. /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/43017098

320: The Operating System That’s Burning You Out, and How to Redesign It 09/29/2026

320: The Operating System That’s Burning You Out, and How to Redesign It It’s nine at night and you’re answering the email that could have waited. Nobody asked you to. That isn’t a boundaries problem. By the end you’ll know which of the four engines is running hottest in you, and you’ll have one change to make this week that your system can’t talk you out of. Somewhere early in your career, usually for very good reasons, you built yourself an operating system for achievement. Deliver more than asked. Own everything you touch. Never be the reason something drops. Prove yourself in every room, every time. That system worked, and it’s why you’re where you are. Notice what it doesn’t contain. No off switch. No definition of enough. No mechanism at all for protecting the person running it. It was built to produce output, and it will keep producing output until the machine it runs on breaks. Which is why burnout at this level isn’t a workload problem and isn’t a personal failure. One client arrived convinced she’d lost her resilience. When we mapped what she was actually carrying, she was running roughly two and a half jobs on one human, using an operating system she designed in her twenties when the stakes were far lower. Her resilience was extraordinary. Six months later she wasn’t working less hard, because she didn’t want to. She was working on one job, deliberately chosen, with the absorption named and redistributed. Her performance went up. This episode maps the four engines driving ambition burnout in high-achieving women, gives you five changes that rebuild the system rather than layering self-care on top of it, and ends with the argument that moves high achievers when nothing else does: your team inherits your pace, and the women watching you are doing arithmetic on what your job appears to cost. WHAT’S COVERED → Why “just get better at switching off” treats the symptom as the cause → The two stories, denial and shame, that keep capable women stuck → Four engines: proving, over-functioning, the invisible load, and success escalation → Why the fourth engine is only dangerous when it sits alongside another → Five changes that rebuild the system, starting with a written definition of enough → Why your calendar is your team’s curriculum, and where the pipeline actually leaks RELATED EPISODES Part one, why this is so hard to see in yourself: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/318-quiet-burnout-high-achievers What burnout-proof leadership actually requires: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/294-burnout-proof-leadership-women-tech/ Boundaries for women in leadership: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/268-boundaries-for-women-in-leadership-how-to-lead-without-burning-out The invisible load and what leadership shouldn’t cost you: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/254-the-invisible-load-leadership-shouldnt-cost-your-wellbeing Bravery, grit and confidence, the leadership energy model: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/312-bravery-grit-confidence-leadership-energy-model/ Leader as coach, the skill behind delegating capability: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/314-leader-as-coach-coaching-skills-transform-leadership/ RESOURCES The Burnout to Balance Toolkit: https://tonicollis.com/burnout-to-balance Book a complimentary strategy call: https://tonicollis.com/lets-chat/ #WomenInTech #SustainableLeadership #TechLeadership #Leadership #WomenInLeadership /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42949283

319: Women in Tech Careers: The Standard No One Tells You With Sharon Lynch 09/22/2026

319: Women in Tech Careers: The Standard No One Tells You With Sharon Lynch Everyone tells you you're doing great. Nobody tells you the standard you’re actually being held to. Why women in tech careers stall on feedback nobody gives. By the end of this you will know what that unspoken standard usually is, and how to ask for the feedback that names it. Sharon Lynch has been asked more than once to lower the standard for women. Her answer has been no every time, and not because she wants fewer women in senior roles. The moment the bar drops, the whole organisation reads it as proof that women could not clear it, and every woman hired after that carries the diversity hire label whether it fits her or not. She is CEO of Modus Create, and before that she ran Slalom's product engineering organisation across the Americas, a team of more than 1,400 people. What she describes in this conversation is the quieter problem underneath. Managers, often men but women too, are afraid of how developmental feedback will land, so they soften it or skip it altogether. The result is that women are held to a high standard nobody has articulated, evaluated against a bar nobody has described, and passed over for reasons that never get said out loud. When Sharon left her last role, a colleague's first question was not about the org chart. It was who is going to give us the hard feedback now. Women in tech careers rarely stall on capability. They stall in the gap between how well she performs and what anyone is willing to say about it. The rest of the conversation is about what closes that gap. Sharon's route to CEO ran through the business fundamentals: utilisation, expenses, revenue, how money is actually made. She is direct about why this matters. Functional leaders know their own function extremely well. Executives tie everything together, and you cannot do the second without understanding the first. That shift from individual contributor skills to an executive mindset is the one she watches most women stop short of. She also talks about asking her way into rooms she was not invited to, why asking your team to explain the data is not a failure of trust, what leadership legacy looks like when it is not about you, and why a title reveals the leader you had already become rather than creating one. WHAT'S COVERED → Why "you're doing great" is the most expensive feedback you can receive → What happens to every woman in the room the moment the standard is lowered for one → Why understanding utilisation, expenses and revenue changes how executives look at you → How to ask your way into the rooms where the numbers get decided, without signalling that you don't trust your team → Why being right the fastest costs more than it wins → What a title actually changes, and what it only reveals RELATED EPISODES How to give feedback as a leader — The promotion gap for women in tech — The shift from tactical to strategic leadership — CONNECT WITH SHARON LYNCH LinkedIn — Modus Create — Ready to stop guessing at the standard you're being measured against? Book a strategy call — This episode was sponsored by our guest, Sharon Lynch. Thank you Sharon and Modus Create for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community. #WomenInTech #TechLeadership #WomenInLeadership #Leadership #LeadingWomenInTech /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42874935

318: Quiet Burnout: Why the Best Performers Are Never Caught 09/15/2026

318: Quiet Burnout: Why the Best Performers Are Never Caught You’re the one person your boss never worries about. That’s exactly why nobody has spotted your quiet burnout. By the end of this you’ll know the five stages of the spiral, why your own self-check keeps missing it, and the external instruments that break it. Quiet overachievers are the last people anyone worries about, and that is precisely the problem. If you feel burnout at work but you are still delivering clean work on time with no fuss, every system your organisation has for detecting trouble will read you as thriving. The reason this stays invisible to you is the question you use to check. High performers are relentless self-monitors, but the question is always “am I still delivering?”, and delivery is the last thing to fail. Sleep goes first, then patience, then curiosity, then everything outside work, then your interest in the work itself. Delivery holds through all of it, because you make it hold. By the time that check finally fires, you are a long way into something that was visible in other measures months ago. What is workplace burnout when it takes this form? It is a loop rather than an event. Invisible excellence, early depletion, compensation, concealment, isolation, and then back to the start, faster each turn. The accelerant is stage three: you notice yourself slipping, you interpret it as a discipline problem rather than a fuel problem, and you respond by working harder. It works, which is the cruel part, and that guarantees you will use it again next time, harder. This episode maps the shape of corporate burnout in the people best at absorbing it, names the three beliefs that keep women inside the loop, and gives you five exits. Every one of them is external, because the whole argument of the episode is that your internal read is not currently trustworthy. WHAT’S COVERED → Why “am I still delivering?” is the worst diagnostic available to you → The difference between loud and quiet overachieving, and why the quiet version costs more → The five stages of the spiral, and which one turns a hard patch into a loop → Why performing wellness is a second job that nobody hires you for → Why your manager cannot see this, and why waiting to be caught is not a plan → Five external instruments that break the loop, starting with one sentence to one person RELATED EPISODES ⏹ What burnout-proof leadership actually requires: ⏹ The early indicators of burnout high performers are best at overriding: ⏹ The invisible load and what leadership should not cost you: ⏹ Bravery, grit and confidence: the leadership energy model: FREE RESOURCE Signs You’re Leading at an Unsustainable Pace: Book a complimentary strategy call: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42734570

317: Leadership Advice for Career Growth: Owning Your Metrics and AI Transformation with Kimberly Williams 09/08/2026

317: Leadership Advice for Career Growth: Owning Your Metrics and AI Transformation with Kimberly Williams "If I wanted someone who would commute, I could have hired a man from New York." That's what a private equity partner said to Kimberly Williams while offering her first CEO role. She took the job anyway, delivered results he couldn't argue with, and changed how he saw women in leadership. Kimberly is Chairperson and CEO of Absorb Software, and before that grew CST Holdings more than five-fold in seven years, taking it from fifth in its market to first. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech Kimberly shares the career advice that took her from a strategy role at Boston Consulting Group to the CEO seat — including the single piece of guidance she gives every ambitious woman, why asking for help builds supporters rather than doubts, and how she thinks about AI transformation as a sitting CEO. What we cover: Why one small comment from anyone in your life can change a trajectory, positively or negatively Boston Consulting Group as the first true meritocracy she'd worked in The accidental route into running a business: a $4.3 million business case "If I wanted someone who would commute, I could have hired a man from New York" The importance of your support network, and why this may be the most consequential move you make in your career The career advice Kimberly gives every woman: fight for roles that carry numbers Why asking for help creates supporters — the cognitive dissonance effect Humility as a CEO strength: your job isn't to have the answers AI transformation: why AI serves your strategy rather than being your strategy Pick projects that could make your company great, not 1% more profitable Testing agentic outbound sales outside the core business Useful Links Connect with today's guest and sponsor, Kimberly Dolan Williams, on LinkedIn () and find out more about Absorb Software at . This episode was sponsored by Absorb Software. Thank you Kimberly and Absorb for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42587110

316: Coaching as Your Encore Career: Building a Practice Inside or Outside Your Company 09/01/2026

316: Coaching as Your Encore Career: Building a Practice Inside or Outside Your Company There’s a question a surprising number of senior women in tech carry quietly for years: could I actually be a coach? Sometimes it surfaces after the promotion that didn’t feel like you thought it would. Sometimes it’s the realization that the mentoring conversations are the part of the week you actually love. Sometimes it’s simpler: twenty years of hard-won experience, and a growing desire for work that’s more yours. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis takes that question seriously. What a coaching second act really looks like, inside your company, alongside your career, or as the next chapter entirely, what it pays, what it demands, and how to know if it’s for you. What’s covered: ➡️ The quiet question — why so many senior women in tech wonder about coaching, and why the instinct deserves more respect than “maybe someday” ➡️ The three shapes of a coaching practice — the internal coach-leader, the portfolio builder coaching alongside her career, and the full second act, and why you don’t have to choose today ➡️ What you already have — why decades in tech are an asset most career coaches would kill for, and the credibility math nobody tells you about ➡️ What you don’t have yet — the honest gap: mentoring instinct is not coaching skill, and why the leap from “good with people” to professional coaching needs structure, practice, and feedback ➡️ The “can I really do this?” objection — answered properly: no prior coaching experience needed, practice hours built in, mentoring from Master Coaches ➡️ The business reality — what building a paying practice actually involves, and the brand-new How to Build Your Coaching Business / Side-Hustle bonus announced today for the September Ignite Coach Academy cohort ➡️ The timeline — enrollment closes Friday 11 September, cohort starts Monday 14 September, certified and practicing by year end If the question has been sitting quietly in the back of your mind, this is the episode that takes it out and looks at it properly. Useful links Ignite Coach Academy — final enrollment for the September cohort closes Friday 11 September: Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42510810

315: Executive Decision Making and Why Every Leader Needs to Care About Customer Retention with Alisha Esmail 08/25/2026

315: Executive Decision Making and Why Every Leader Needs to Care About Customer Retention with Alisha Esmail When a client goes quiet, most leaders assume everything is fine. Alisha Esmail would tell you silence is the clients exit ramp — because it's far easier to disappear quietly than to tell someone you're leaving. Alisha is the founder of Latch AI, an AI-native client retention engine, and her path to tech was anything but conventional: seven years in international development across Haiti, South Africa, Nepal, Jordan and Panama, followed by building an award-winning coffee company with direct supply chains across three countries and a micro-loan program supporting female-owned farms. In this episode, Alisha and Toni make the case that retention is not customer success's problem — it's a leadership problem that belongs to everyone. They get into what AI is genuinely doing to the retention landscape, why cutting CS teams has backfired badly for some companies, and the practical diagnostics any leader can run this week regardless of function. What we cover: Why every leader — engineering, product, sales, commercial — should care about retention How AI is reshaping the retention landscape, and "the war on clients" Bells and whistles vs boredom: when do customers actually leave a working product? No news is bad news — why silence is an exit ramp, not a sign of satisfaction The four-part retention framework: detect drift, score clients, run the safe play, capture the win Why "expansion ready" is the most missed category in most businesses Usage metrics: the data engineering leaders aren't capturing but should be and how it helps executive decision making Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Alisha Esmail, on LinkedIn at and find out more about Latch AI at . This episode was sponsored by our guest, Alisha Esmail. Thank you Alisha and Latch AI for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42417060

314: Leader as Coach: How Coaching Skills Transform Your Leadership 08/18/2026

314: Leader as Coach: How Coaching Skills Transform Your Leadership You have “coaching conversations” with your team. Career chats, problem-solving sessions, one-to-ones where you share your experience and point people in the right direction. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most of those conversations aren’t coaching. They’re mentoring. Powerful, well-intentioned, and the wrong tool for what you’re trying to build. Because advice creates dependence, and coaching creates capability. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down the difference, why it matters more than almost any other leadership skill gap, and how genuine coaching skill transforms your team, your calendar and your career. What’s covered: ➡️ The mentoring trap — why the conversations you call coaching are almost certainly advice-giving, why that’s made you the bottleneck, and the test that tells you which one you’re doing ➡️ Advice creates dependence, coaching creates capability — the mechanism behind why your team brings you the same problems over and over ➡️ The Ignite Framework: Reverse, Neutral, Forward — the diagnostic at the heart of real coaching: “Reverse is ‘this is happening to me’. Neutral is ‘this is what’s happening’. Forward is ‘here’s what I can do about it’. Same facts, three completely different relationships to them.” ➡️ The two counterfeit states — False Neutral (calm that’s really collapse) and False Forward (a plan laid over an unaddressed feeling), and why missing them is where most well-meaning leadership conversations go wrong ➡️ The 5-minute coaching conversation — you don’t need an hour; you need the diagnosis and three good questions ➡️ What changes when you lead this way — the team that solves its own problems, the calendar that comes back to you, and the leadership reputation that follows ➡️ Where Ignite Coach Academy fits — the September cohort, the certification path, and the Self-Coaching + Coaching in Your 1:1s bonus module built for exactly this If you’re tired of being the answer machine, this is the episode that shows you the way out. Useful links: Ignite Coach Academy — enrolling now for the September cohort (starts Monday 14 September, enrollment closes Friday 11 September): Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42416625

313: Taking radical responsibility for our own wellbeing to prevent ambition burnout with Yana Carstens 08/11/2026

313: Taking radical responsibility for our own wellbeing to prevent ambition burnout with Yana Carstens Burnout is not caused by too much work. That's the argument at the heart of this episode — and Yana Carstens has earned the right to make it. After 12 years in the design and tech space, and her own burnout behind her, Yana shifted into executive coaching, where she now focuses on burnout prevention and authentic leadership for women in tech. In this conversation, Yana and Toni get into what taking radical responsibility for your own wellbeing actually means — and why most of what we call "wellness" is polishing the car while nobody looks under the hood. They dig into hyper-responsibility, the reflex that makes everything your fault; why rest is a prerequisite for success rather than a reward for it; and how leaders who model genuine wellbeing quietly reset the culture of everyone around them. If you're stepping into a new role, carrying everyone around you, or wondering why the vacation didn't fix it — this one is for you. What we cover: ◾ Why tech-native executive coaches are so rare — and why coaching skills spread naturally through teams ◾ The three reasons wellbeing is a leadership issue: modeling, leading from your center, and preventing burnout ◾ Burnout is not caused by too much work — the root causes nobody talks about ◾ The Ferrari analogy: you're built for speed, but without the pit stops you break down ◾ Why unlimited PTO and spa days are polish, not maintenance — and what "under the hood" work looks like ◾ Rest is a prerequisite for success, not a reward for it — and how that belief shapes team culture ◾ Hyper-responsibility: the high-achiever trait that makes everything your fault ◾ Observe, don't absorb — and Toni's version, hold, don't carry ◾ The client story: the boss's bad mood that had nothing to do with her ◾ Moving from hyper-responsible to "response-able": pause, clarify, build the internal boundary system ◾ The honest truth: this pattern comes back under stress — and that's okay ◾ Worst advice Yana ever received (from another coach): "you need to put on an act" ◾ Best advice: if you believe things will work out, you see opportunities — if not, you see obstacles Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Yana Carstens, on LinkedIn () and sign up for her monthly newsletter at . Ready to learn to coach — for your self-coaching, your leadership toolkit, or a business of your own? Ignite Coach Academy is open for enrollment. Doors close September 11: This episode was sponsored by our guest, Yana Carstens. Thank you Yana for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42273025

312: Bravery, Grit, and Confidence: The Leadership Energy Model for High Performance Leadership 08/04/2026

312: Bravery, Grit, and Confidence: The Leadership Energy Model for High Performance Leadership Ever looked at an opportunity, a stretch role, a speaking slot, a bold idea, and thought “I could do that”… and then let it pass? And then been quietly furious with yourself weeks later? It probably wasn’t a courage problem. It was an energy problem. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis introduces the Leadership Energy Model: the relationship between bravery, grit, and confidence, and why understanding it changes how you take on hard things, how you recover from them, and how you lead a team through them. What’s covered: ➡️ The three-stage model — bravery gets you started, grit gets you through, confidence is what you earn on the other side, and each one changes what the next hard thing costs you ➡️ Naive bravery — why not knowing how hard something will be is sometimes the greatest gift, and why the more naive you are, the more grit you’ll need later ➡️ Why bravery and grit are finite — one shared pool across your entire life, which is why a house renovation, a health challenge or a hard season at home leaves you with nothing for the bold move at work (and vice versa) ➡️ The celebrity illusion — why some people seem infinitely brave, and what resources actually do to the price of courage ➡️ Confidence as the exchange rate — every hard thing you complete makes the next one cheaper, and how to build confidence deliberately through structured small wins instead of deep-end plunges ➡️ Self-coaching with the model — how to audit your own bravery and grit spend before you commit to the next hard thing ➡️ Coaching your team through it — especially in AI transformations, where you’re asking everyone to be brave and gritty at once with no confidence to draw on, and what great leaders do about that energetic cost If you’ve been wondering why the version of you who used to leap at challenges has gone quiet, this episode will give you the answer, and the way back. Useful links Ignite Coach Academy — Toni’s coach training program, enrolling now for the September cohort: Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42200765

311: How to be an effective, outcome focused leader with Jessi Szurek 07/28/2026

311: How to be an effective, outcome focused leader with Jessi Szurek What outcome are you actually after? It's one of the most important questions a leader can ask — and one most organizations get wrong. Jessi Szurek, Associate Partner at Synthesis, joins Toni for a conversation about outcome-focused leadership, AI adoption done right, and the career-defining skill of speaking up when you're being overlooked. Jessi's path took her from an architecture degree at Cornell to an MBA at NYU, through 17 years at Ernst & Young working across process automation and AI with global financial institutions, to a smaller consulting firm reinventing what client value really means. This episode is full of practical wisdom for anyone leading change, adopting AI, or trying to get clear on what actually matters — plus one of the best examples of calling out being ignored that we've had on the show. What we covered: The non-linear journey: architecture, an MBA in economics, and 17 years at a global consulting firm Why Jessi left a role she was good at when her objectives and her employer's diverged Outcome-focused thinking: the difference between the actions and the actual outcome Why most companies think they know their outcomes but don't — and how to find real clarity Why sometimes the right move is to stop and reprioritize instead of just doing what you’re told Transparency as a leadership tool — and why short-term discomfort creates long-term value AI adoption is change management, not magic: why AI is just the next tool in the toolbox The AI skepticism problem: what to do when people are being forced to adopt tools they resist Why user buy-in matters more than the perfect solution — the paper Rolodex principle The golf story: how Jessi challenged being overlooked and what it taught everyone in the room What's the worst that can happen? Reframing the fear of speaking up Setting boundaries and choosing your environment over putting your head down Why the most important decision you'll ever make is who you choose as your partner Finding success in discomfort — and being your own biggest cheerleader Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Jessi, on LinkedIn and find out more about Synthesis at . This episode was sponsored by our guest,Jessi Szurek. Thank you Jessi & Synthesis for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42109100

310: Why You’re Not Being Seen as the Leader You Want To Be 07/21/2026

310: Why You’re Not Being Seen as the Leader You Want To Be You’re delivering. You’re the one your team relies on, the one who steps up, the one whose reviews are consistently strong. People call you invaluable, dependable, a safe pair of hands. And yet when the conversations that matter happen, the succession discussions, the stretch assignments, the rooms where the next senior appointment gets decided, you’re not in them. Someone else is being talked about as a future leader while you’re being talked about as a great performer. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down the gap between the leadership you’re delivering and the leadership you’re being credited with, and gives you the practical system for closing it. Not by working harder, and not by becoming someone you’re not, but by changing the signals that build how you’re seen. What’s covered: ➡️ Perception is a system, not a verdict — why the two stories you tell yourself (“the system is broken” or “something is wrong with me”) both keep you stuck, and the third story that actually gives you something to do ➡️ The four perception gaps — the language gap, the visibility gap, the signal gap, and the narrative gap, and how to diagnose which one is costing you most ➡️ Why your best work has no name on it — drama is visible by default, prevention is invisible by default, and what to do about it if your leadership style is prevention ➡️ Helper signals versus leader signals — the behaviors that made you indispensable may be teaching people you’re a support function, and the three-signal swap one client used to change how her VP described her within a quarter ➡️ The one-line leadership narrative — could your boss’s boss finish the sentence “she’s the person you go to when…”? Why choosing your story matters and how to write it ➡️ Is your mindset holding you back? — the three beliefs that stop capable women doing this work, including an honest conversation about the double standard and why contribution signals don’t trigger it the way dominance signals do ➡️ Where to start this week — the diagnosis, the one signal change, and the one conversation that accelerates everything Being seen as a leader isn’t a personality transplant. It’s a set of consistent, honest signals about the leader you already are. You’ve been doing the hard part for years. This is letting it be seen. Useful links Book a complimentary strategy call with Toni: Related episodes ⏹️ Episode 264 — Why You’re Not Getting Promoted (Even When You’re Overperforming): ⏹️ Episode 228 — Mastering Your Value: Strategies to Stop Underselling Yourself: ⏹️ Episode 112 — The Problem With Not Blowing Your Own Trumpet: ⏹️ Episode 276 — Busy ≠ Valuable: How to Prioritize Work That Gets You Promoted: ⏹️ Episode 286 — Executive Presence for Women in Tech: ⏹️ Episode 290 — The Promotion Gap in Tech: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/42031020

309: Diversity of Thought in Product Leadership: Consumer-First AI, Financial Inclusion and the EVP Journey with Debbie Hsu 07/14/2026

309: Diversity of Thought in Product Leadership: Consumer-First AI, Financial Inclusion and the EVP Journey with Debbie Hsu What does it mean to build products that truly work for everyone — including the people most systems were never designed to include? Debbie Hsu, EVP of Product at Experian Consumer Services, joins Toni for a conversation that spans the full arc of her career — from software engineer at Oracle to leading product at one of the world's most significant consumer financial data companies — and gets into some of the most important questions facing product leaders today. Debbie leads the evolution of EVA, Experian's AI-powered virtual assistant, and brings a consumer-first lens to everything she builds. In this episode she shares how AI is changing team structures and role boundaries in product, why over-reliance on AI risks making every product look and sound the same, and what the socioeconomic stakes of AI access mean for product leaders who care about inclusion. She also shares three pieces of advice that I see as foundational to leading: Being humble is not the same as being invisible. Self-advocacy is not the same as bragging. And never let an official meeting be the first time people hear about your idea. What we cover: ⏹ The unplanned path from software engineer to EVP of Product — and what learning by doing really looks like ⏹ Why Debbie went back to business school to pivot into product management — and what actually landed her the job ⏹ How product leadership has evolved over 20 years: from Flash-based seat maps to AI-powered financial assistants ⏹ T-shaped builders and the blurring of roles in the AI era — what this means for product teams right now ⏹ The AI homogeneity risk: why over-reliance on AI makes products look and sound the same — and what differentiates the ones that don't ⏹ EVA: how Experian's AI assistant uses trusted credit data, expert compliance, and lender eligibility to go beyond generic AI responses ⏹ AI access as a socioeconomic equity issue — and why product leaders need to be part of this conversation ⏹ Financial inclusion and credit invisibility: what it means to build products for people the system overlooked ⏹ Being humble is not the same as being invisible ⏹ Self-advocacy is not bragging — and why visibility for meaningful work is a leadership skill ⏹ Never let an official meeting be the first time people hear your idea ⏹ Diverse voices in product: why every product leader has a responsibility to build inclusively Useful Links Connect with today's guest and sponsor, Debbie on LinkedIn at and find out more about Experian at . This episode was sponsored by our guest, Debbie Hsu. Thank you Debbie & Experian for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41947670

308: Becoming a Trusted Advisor to the Board: How to Build Thought Leadership and Credibility at the Next Level 07/07/2026

308: Becoming a Trusted Advisor to the Board: How to Build Thought Leadership and Credibility at the Next Level There's a room you're not yet in. Maybe it's a literal room — the board meeting, the investor briefing, the conversation at the level above yours where decisions get made that shape your organization and your career. Maybe it's more of a concept — the level of credibility where people seek out your perspective rather than just your report. Where you're consulted, not just informed. Becoming a trusted advisor to a board is one of those topics that sounds like it belongs to a specific career stage. But the behaviors, habits, and communication patterns that make someone genuinely valuable at board level are not developed the week before you need them. They're built over years — and the leader who starts now will be genuinely ready when the moment comes. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down exactly what board-level credibility looks like, how it's built, and what you can start doing right now — wherever you are in your career. This is for you if: ➡️ You’re the leader actively working toward the C-suite who knows the board relationship is her frontier ➡️ You’re the woman considering fractional work, NED roles, or an encore career — and who needs to understand how to position herself for board-level advisory work ➡️ You’re the Director or VP who's not thinking about boards yet — and who is going to leave this episode with the most immediately actionable content, because the seeds of board credibility are planted years before the harvest What's covered: ➡️ What being a trusted advisor actually means — and why the conventional picture is wrong. Boards don't want information providers. They want people who help them think. ➡️ What boards actually want from an advisor — the real version, not the official one. Five specific capabilities that make someone genuinely valuable in a board context, including pattern recognition, intellectual honesty under pressure, and executive listening ➡️ The communication shift that changes everything — stop leading with the what and start leading with the so what. The four-part trusted advisor structure that works in any high-stakes senior room ➡️ How to build the relationships that create board-level credibility — including why most people start too late, how to be useful before you make an ask, and why making your thinking visible is one of the most effective career investments available to you ➡️ What you can start doing right now — five specific behaviors for the earlier-career listener that compound into board-level credibility over time. Including reading the rooms above yours, practicing strategic language in every meeting you're already in, and volunteering for board-visible work ➡️ The fractional and encore career dimension — how to translate your experience into board language, how to be findable for the right roles, and how to build the portfolio of evidence that boards and fractional hiring organizations are actually looking for Whether you want the C-suite, a non-executive director role, a fractional career, or you just want to be the kind of leader who gets consulted rather than just informed — this episode gives you the framework. Further listening (related episodes) ⏹️ Episode 286 — Executive Presence for Women in Tech: ⏹️ Episode 292 — From Tactical to Strategic: The Unspoken Rules for Women Stepping Into Executive Leadership: ⏹️ Episode 238 — Thinking Like an Executive: From Firefighter to Strategist: ⏹️ Episode 241 — Thinking Like an Executive: Setting Priorities as an Executive: ⏹️ Episode 236 — Thinking Like an Executive: Cultivating Your Executive Presence: ⏹️ Episode 291 — C-Level Leadership for Women in Tech: What It Really Takes to Thrive: ⏹️ Episode 256 — No More Crickets: The Networking Strategy That Lands Jobs in 2025: ⏹️ Episode 284 — Am I Ready to Be a Fractional Leader?: ⏹️ Episode 288 — How to Position Yourself as a Fractional Leader: ⏹️ Episode 289 — How Fractional Leaders Actually Get Hired: Book a complimentary strategy call: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41686605

307: Leadership Decision Making and the Non-Linear Path to the C-Suite with Michelle Darcy-Clarke 06/30/2026

307: Leadership Decision Making and the Non-Linear Path to the C-Suite with Michelle Darcy-Clarke Michelle Darcy-Clarke didn't have a five-year plan. She took a job by accident, made deliberate lateral moves when everyone expected upward ones, stepped back to be an individual contributor, and eventually became a Chief Experience Officer — without really aiming for it. In this episode, Michelle joins Toni for one of the most honest and energizing conversations about non-linear leadership careers, the VP comfort zone, ambition redefined, and the single mindset shift that separates people who keep growing from the ones who plateau. She also gets into the AI transformation her team is driving right now — and why women leaders need to be the ones at the front of that conversation. What we cover: ⏹ The accidental start to a 27-year career in market research — and what kept it interesting ⏹ Lateral moves as a deliberate growth strategy: why sideways sometimes beats upward ⏹ The VP comfort zone: what safety at that level really means and why it can become a trap ⏹ Doing the C-suite job before getting the title — and knowing when to have that conversation ⏹ Ambition redefined: how wanting to do good rather than be better than your peer actually gets you further ⏹ The red personality: challenge first, commit fully — and why this style gets mistaken for resistance ⏹ Best and worst case scenario decision-making at the executive level ⏹ The team-to-company mindset shift: the single biggest blocker to executive progression ⏹ Women driving AI transformation — and why female leaders need to be at the front of this ⏹ Impostor syndrome, confidence, and learning to own your outcomes rather than calling them luck ⏹ The role of executive coaching across every level of a career ⏹ What Michelle would tell her younger self: trust your decisions and let the negativity go Connect with today’s guest & sponsor Michelle Darcy-Clarke of Cint ⏹ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michelledarcyclarke ⏹ Cint: cint.com This episode was sponsored by our guest, Michelle Darcy-Clarke of Cint. Thank you Michelle & Cint for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41659565

306: How to Fix a Struggling Team: Building a High-Performing Culture When Your Team Is Off Track 06/23/2026

306: How to Fix a Struggling Team: Building a High-Performing Culture When Your Team Is Off Track You know something is wrong with your team. Maybe it's the missed deadlines that have become the norm. The low energy in meetings. The friction nobody's naming. The high performer who's gone quiet. Or just a general flatness — a team that's functional but nowhere near what you know it could be. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis gives you the honest, practical framework for turning a struggling team around — including the part most leadership advice skips: the leader's own role in the system. What's covered: ➡️The four types of team struggle — and why getting the diagnosis right before you act is the most important thing you can do. The wrong solution applied with confidence makes things worse. ➡️The over-functioning trap — why managing around a problem signals to your whole team that the problem is acceptable, and what it's costing your best people right now ➡️Why your team is not where you are — the emotional and informational gap between you and your team, and why moving at your pace without accounting for theirs leaves people behind ➡️The three conversations you've been avoiding — performance, expectations, and recognition — and why the difference between a team that stays stuck and one that turns around is almost always the conversations the leader wasn't having ➡️How to retain your high performers when the team is struggling — because they're always the first to leave, and they always have options ➡️The honest question about your own leadership — and why understanding your role in the system is what makes the rest of this possible ➡️Where to start this week — three specific actions, not twenty Whether you've inherited a struggling team, watched one develop on your watch, or just know things need to change and aren't sure where to start — this episode gives you the framework. Related episodes: ⏹ Episode 152 — How to Give Feedback: ⏹ Episode 174 — What to Do When You Inherit a Poor Performer: ⏹ Episode 172 — When You Need to Let People Go: ⏹ Episode 178 — How to Lead and Retain High Performers: ⏹ Episode 250 — Leading Through Change: ⏹ Episode 158 — Unleashing Team Performance: Simple Coaching Approaches: Book a complimentary strategy call: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41607965

305: High-Performance Leadership Starts With This: Burnout, Self-Care and Small Changes with Sheetal Ajmani 06/16/2026

305: High-Performance Leadership Starts With This: Burnout, Self-Care and Small Changes with Sheetal Ajmani Burnout isn't a personal failure. It's a clinical condition with three specific characteristics — and understanding exactly what it is may be the first step toward actually recovering from it. Sheetal Ajmani, physician turned speaker, coach, and consultant, joins Toni for a conversation that reframes burnout and self-care from the ground up. Sheetal practiced pediatrics for over 16 years and experienced burnout multiple times across her career — the first time in 2006, when nobody was talking about it, and the most recent in 2022, when she made the decision to step away from clinical medicine entirely. This episode goes deep on what burnout actually is, why high-achieving women are so skilled at missing the signs, and what self-care genuinely needs to look like to make a difference — hint: it's not the bubble bath. What we cover: ⏹ The clinical definition of burnout — three characteristics, and why naming them matters ⏹ Eustress vs distress: where helpful stress ends and burnout begins ⏹ Why high-achieving women are the last to see burnout coming in themselves ⏹ Anticipatory burnout — the specific exhaustion that comes from knowing a change is coming but not being able to make it yet ⏹ Self-care redefined: why the most impactful forms take less time than you think ⏹ Micro moments of self-care — what they look like and how to find yours ⏹ The difference between self-care and self-improvement (they are not the same thing) ⏹ The Ayurvedic whole-person lens on well-being — and why your emotions, relationships, and career all affect your health ⏹ The one thing Sheetal wants every woman to start doing today ⏹ Why small changes make a larger impact than grand wellness gestures ⏹ The inner critic that adds layers of judgment on top of an already hard experience ⏹ Why burnout is an individual stress response within a social context — and what that means for systemic change Connect with Sheetal Ajmani ⏹ Website: ⏹ Podcast: Essential Self Care: ⏹ LinkedIn: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41556730

304: How to Shine In A Crisis: The Adaptive Crisis Leadership Toolkit for Staying Grounded When Everything Shifts 06/09/2026

304: How to Shine In A Crisis: The Adaptive Crisis Leadership Toolkit for Staying Grounded When Everything Shifts When everything is shifting — a restructure, a board crisis, a project on the edge of collapse, or just the relentless uncertainty of leading a team through sustained change — the expectation is that you hold it together. You stay steady. You have the answers. But nobody tells you how. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis builds out the adaptive leadership toolkit every senior leader needs for navigating a genuine crisis — not the kind of crisis leadership that sounds good in a conference keynote, but the practical, honest, unglamorous work of staying grounded when everything around you is shifting. This is not about eliminating the pressure. It is about developing the specific capabilities that let you remain clear, present, and effective within it. What's covered: Why crisis leadership is a trainable capability, not a personality trait — and why the unruffled leader you're comparing yourself to is a fiction The team-speed problem: why your team is not where you are emotionally, and what it actually means to meet people where they are Crisis communication as a leadership skill — not just a PR function. The specific language that calms, orients, and aligns your team when they're in crisis mode. And why you need to say it far more times than you think The internal dimension: staying grounded in yourself before you can hold space for anyone else Protecting decision quality when the stakes are highest — the difference between genuine urgency and anxiety-driven urgency The blame game, why a crisis is never the time to play it, and the story from early in Toni's career that has stayed with her ever since The isolation of senior leadership in a crisis — and the structural responses that make it manageable Related episodes: Ready to work through a genuinely difficult period with support? Book a strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41472565

303: How to Become an Industry Leader: Serendipity, Quiet Confidence and the C-Suite with Charli Rogers 06/02/2026

303: How to Become an Industry Leader: Serendipity, Quiet Confidence and the C-Suite with Charli Rogers What does it actually take to become an industry leader when you never planned to be one? Charli Rogers, Chief Customer Officer at Botify, joins Toni for a conversation that covers the full arc of her leadership journey — from an accidental start in tech to leading customer success teams of 150-200 people across multiple continents, to taking her first CCO seat at a company sitting right at the intersection of search, AI discoverability, and the future of how brands get found. This conversation covers all things great leadership from quiet confidence, allyship in executive teams, what holding space for women in a boardroom actually looks like in practice, and the language shift — "and" versus "but" — that Charli teaches every woman she mentors. Charli also gets honest about the biggest challenge she's navigating right now: how do you lead an AI-forward customer experience function while keeping the team delivering, changing everything about how you operate, and nobody really knows what the next two years look like? If you're figuring out what kind of leader you want to be, how to back yourself at the next level, or how to build allies in rooms that weren't always built for you — this is the episode. What we cover: ◾ The serendipitous career path from accidental tech foray to Chief Customer Officer ◾ Why Charli put her hand up for people leadership before she felt ready — and what happened next ◾ Quiet confidence: what it really looks like at the executive level and why it's different from the performative kind ◾ The "and" vs "but" language shift and why words matter more than most leaders realize vAllyship in the exec room — what it looks like when it becomes second nature rather than a conscious act ◾ Holding space for women in a male-dominated executive team: practical, not theoretical ◾ AI in customer experience — leading an AI-forward function while the team keeps delivering today ◾ Building a virtual board of directors and why network investment is a long-term leadership strategy ◾ The worst piece of advice Charli was ever given: "dial it down, Charli" ◾ Confidence plus capacity: why both are non-negotiable and how to know when it's time to speak up **Useful links** ◾ Connect with today’s guest and sponsor, Charli Rogers and Botify: ◾ Charli: ◾ Botify: This episode was sponsored by our guest, Charli Rogers at Botify. Thank you Charli for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41374090

302: Career Pivots: When You're Ready for Something New 05/26/2026

301: Self-Awareness, AI and Leading as a Neurodivergent VP: How Noe Ramos Found Her Zone of Genius 05/19/2026

301: Self-Awareness, AI and Leading as a Neurodivergent VP: How Noe Ramos Found Her Zone of Genius What if the brain that made you feel like you never quite fit — the one that means you always carry 5 jobs even though technically you only have one, the brain that got bored the moment something stopped being challenging, and that saw the whole system when everyone else wanted you to stay in your lane — turned out to be exactly what the AI era needs? That's not a hypothetical. That's Noe Ramos. And it might just be you too. Noe is Vice President of AI Operations at Agiloft, where she leads the kind of AI transformation that actually works — not the kind that chases efficiency and calls it progress, but the kind that asks what humans need to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by these tools. Noe has spent 23 years being, in her own words, excellent at jobs that were never quite designed for her brain. And it wasn't until she found the right environment, understood her neurodivergence, and stopped filtering out the parts of herself that made her different that everything clicked. In this episode we talk self-awareness as a leadership tool, what it means to build a culture of genuine psychological safety, and why AI transformation is only as good as the humans at the center of it. What we cover: ⏹ 23 years being excellent at jobs never designed for her brain — and what changed ⏹ Systems thinking: what it really means, why women are discouraged from doing it, and how to keep doing it anyway ⏹ Finding the right environment — how Noe figured out what she actually needed and how to diagnose it in a company ⏹ Neurodivergence as a leadership superpower in the AI era ⏹ What authentic leadership really looks like when you've spent a career masking ⏹ Psychological safety: how showing up humanly as a leader creates a ripple effect through your whole team ⏹ Agiloft's human-first AI transformation approach — upskilling people existentially, not just technically ⏹ Role-based vs function-based thinking: why the shift matters for AI adoption ⏹ Visibility vs indispensability — and why being essential at the wrong level is a career trap ⏹ The worst piece of advice Noe was ever given — and the subtlety inside it ⏹ AI as a mirror: what are you bringing to the tool? **Useful links** Connect with today’s guest and sponsor, Noe Ramos at Agiloft: ⏹ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/noeramos ⏹ Agiloft: agiloft.com Book a strategy call with Toni: This episode was sponsored by our guest, Noe Ramos. Thank you Noe and Agiloft for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41212990

300: Women in Leadership: 300 Episodes, 1500 Women, and Everything I've Changed My Mind About 05/12/2026

300: Women in Leadership: 300 Episodes, 1500 Women, and Everything I've Changed My Mind About Three hundred episodes. Approaching 1500 women coached across corporate tech, startups, and academia. And a long list of things I used to believe that I no longer do. Episode 300 of Leading Women in Tech is different from any episode I've made before. This is not a tips episode. It is not a framework. It is my honest account of what seven years of conversations and nearly 1500 coaching relationships has actually taught me about women in leadership — including the places where the conventional wisdom is wrong, the advice I've heard given to women again and again that has caused real damage, and what I would say now that I would not have said at Episode 1. In this episode I cover: Why leaning in was the wrong answer — not because the system is unfair, but because it asks women to lean into a male model that was never designed for them Why getting a seat at the table was never the whole answer — and what the goal actually is The real problem with "just speak up more" and "just be more confident" — and why telling women to be more confident before they've had the chance to build it is one of the most common ways we set them up to fail Why "you can have it all, just not at the same time" does so much quiet damage — and what to say instead The zone of genius trap that nobody warns you about — and why staying in it is the goal, but only if you notice when it has changed Why you need a mentor, a coach, and a sponsor — and why most senior men in tech have all three while most women have only one What working harder actually costs women — and what to invest in instead Why we are more individual than society would have us believe, and what happens when women stop performing someone else's model of leadership And why, despite everything, I am genuinely optimistic. This episode is for the women who have been listening since the beginning, and for the women who are finding this podcast for the first time. It is my most honest episode yet. /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/41113810

299: Building a Positive Workplace Culture as a Woman CEO: Ownership, AI and Leading with Joy — with Anusha Iyer 05/05/2026

299: Building a Positive Workplace Culture as a Woman CEO: Ownership, AI and Leading with Joy — with Anusha Iyer 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 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 Emma Wainer, public speaking coach: Listen to Emma on the Podcast: Book a strategy call with Toni: This episode was sponsored by our guest, Anusha Iyer. Thank you Anusha & Corsha for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/40986245

298: How to Communicate With Clarity Under Pressure: Leadership Skills for Women in Tech 04/28/2026

297: AI Leadership Strategy: Your 90-Day Blueprint for Winning with AI — with Charlene Li 04/21/2026

297: AI Leadership Strategy: Your 90-Day Blueprint for Winning with AI — with Charlene Li 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 urgent and more practical than anything most organisations are currently working with. This is a conversation about AI leadership strategy — not as a technology decision, but as a leadership and strategic imperative. And it has particular resonance for women in tech, who face a specific version of this challenge: the deeply conditioned pressure to be certain before acting, and what that costs us when the window for leadership is open right now. What we cover in this episode: ⏹ Why you don't need an AI strategy — you need an AI roadmap that serves your existing business strategy ⏹ The 95% pilot failure rate, and what to do instead of running pilots ⏹ The 18-month rolling AI roadmap: how to write strategy in ink and your roadmap in pencil ⏹ Speed as the new competitive moat — and what that means for leaders who wait for certainty before acting ⏹ The specific challenge women face: perfectionism, scrutiny, and the risk of sitting out the AI transition ⏹ What AI fluency actually looks like — and why becoming fluent publicly is a leadership act, not a vulnerability ⏹ The "how did you use AI to prepare for this meeting?" technique — and why it changes team culture fast ⏹ The superhuman thesis: what happens when uniquely human skills (empathy, judgment, wisdom, intuition) meet AI capability ⏹ Why the good people have to show up — and why women's voices are non-negotiable in shaping how AI is used Connect with Charlene — today’s guest and sponsor: ⏹ Website: charleneli.com ⏹ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charleneli ⏹ Book: winningwithaibook.com Mentioned in this episode: ⏹ Episode 225 — Run To Disruption with Charlene Li: Connect with Toni: ⏹ tonicollis.com ⏹ tonicollis.com/lets-chat This episode was sponsored by our guest, Charlene Li. Thank you Charlene for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/40797875

296: Office Politics for Women Who Hate Office Politics 04/14/2026

296: Office Politics for Women Who Hate Office Politics 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, visibility, and influence — regardless of how good their work is. In this episode, Executive Coach Dr Toni Collis breaks down the critical distinction between the toxic version of office politics (which you should absolutely avoid) and the strategic, integrity-consistent leadership work of building influence, visibility, and advocates — which most high-achieving women have been avoiding along with it. This is not about becoming a different person. It's about leading fully in the organisation you're actually in. What you'll learn in this episode: ⏹ Why we as high-achieving women often resist office politics — and the specific career cost of that resistance ⏹ The two completely different things most women are calling "office politics" — and why separating them changes everything ⏹ Five practical moves for building influence and strategic visibility without compromising your values ⏹ How to build advocates (not just allies) who speak up for you in the rooms you're not in ⏹ The integrity check that tells you whether you're building genuine influence or drifting into game-playing Links and resources mentioned: ⏹ Take the Office Politics Quiz for Women in Tech: ⏹ Book a strategy call: ⏹ Learn more about building your advocates: ⏹ Learn more about communication: If this episode resonated, please leave a review and share it with a woman in tech who needs to hear this conversation. Chapters: 00:00 — The coaching conversation that changed everything 01:15 — What this episode is and isn't about 03:08 — Why high-achieving women avoid office politics — and what it's costing them 09:44 — What navigating office politics with integrity actually looks like: three core reframes 18:49 — Five moves that build influence and strategic visibility without selling out 19:12 — Move 1: Map the landscape before you need it 21:25 — Move 2: Invest in relationships before you need them 24:33 — Move 3: Make your impact visible — strategically, not constantly 27:31 — Move 4: Learn to read the room and the organisation 30:15 — Move 5: Build advocates, not just allies 34:22 — The integrity check: how to know you're building influence, not playing games 37:39 — The Office Politics Playbook for Women in Tech Related episodes: ⏹ ⏹ ⏹ ⏹ ⏹ /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/40706900

295: Authentic Leadership in the Age of AI: Diversity, Change & the Future of Product with Catherine Wong 04/07/2026

295: Authentic Leadership in the Age of AI: Diversity, Change & the Future of Product with Catherine Wong 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 management challenge of our careers, and what authentic leadership actually means when the pressure is on. If you're navigating a non-linear career, trying to lead your team through AI change, or wondering whether you need a perfect plan to reach the C-suite — this one is for you. What we cover: ◾ Why range matters more than specialisation at the executive level ◾How empathy becomes your most powerful leadership tool across functions ◾Why diversity is a product quality issue — and what's at stake as that conversation disappears ◾AI adoption as a change management challenge at unprecedented speed ◾The "hit song" principle: why consistent messaging is the job ◾How to stop minimising yourself — and what to do if you don't have the right mentors ◾Authentic leadership: what it really means to bring the right energy to your team About Catherine Wong Catherine Wong is Chief Product Officer at Entrata, where she leads product and operations. She has held VP of Engineering and product leadership roles across multiple organisations and has spent her career building range across software engineering, architecture, M&A, and product management. She is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech and for leading teams through AI transformation with humanity and clarity. Connect with Catherine Wong ◾LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/catherinewong ◾X: @catherinewong ◾Entrata: entrata.com This episode was sponsored by our guest, Catherine Wong. Thank you Catherine for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community! /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/40650050

294: Burnout-Proof Leadership 03/31/2026

294: Burnout-Proof Leadership 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 what burnout-proof leadership actually means — strategically, not just in a "take more baths" sense. This isn't about slowing down. It's about building leadership that doesn't require you to run on empty to function. What you'll hear in this episode: ◾ Why high-performing women are often the last to identify as burned out — and the specific compounding factors that make burnout in tech leadership different ◾ The three burnout patterns Toni sees most in coaching: the silent spiral, the conflict-avoidant overgiver, and the high-performer in denial ◾ What burnout-proof leadership actually requires — structural protection, a perceptual shift, and leadership identity recalibration ◾ The mistake that keeps women stuck in burnout cycles even when they're actively trying to recover ◾ Four practical first steps you can take this week, even if you're already running on empty For a limited time, the Burnout to Balance Toolkit is completely free — self-paced audio training, workbook, and an optional four-week reset plan, designed for women in tech leadership who need something concrete right now. Available free for two weeks from release, or until the first 200 downloads. Get it at . Links mentioned in this episode: ◾ Burnout to Balance Toolkit (free for limited time): ◾ Episode 216 — Understanding and Overcoming Burnout with Lindsay, Jen, and Allison: /episode/index/show/leadingwomenintech/id/40564415

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