Leading Women in Tech Podcast

Hosted by Toni Collis

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100

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Jul 2026

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About the show

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.

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July 21, 2026Episode 31027 min

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: tonicollis.com/lets-chat Related episodes ⏹️ Episode 264 — Why You're Not Getting Promoted (Even When You're Overperforming): https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/264-why-youre-not-getting-promoted ⏹️ Episode 228 — Mastering Your Value: Strategies to Stop Underselling Yourself: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/228-not-getting-promoted-heres-the-one-thing-you-need-to-stop-doing ⏹️ Episode 112 — The Problem With Not Blowing Your Own Trumpet: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/112-if-you-dont-openly-celebrate-your-achievements-who-will ⏹️ Episode 276 — Busy ≠ Valuable: How to Prioritize Work That Gets You Promoted: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/276-busy-not-valuable-how-to-prioritize-work-that-gets-you-promoted ⏹️ Episode 286 — Executive Presence for Women in Tech: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/286-executive-presence-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 290 — The Promotion Gap in Tech: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/290-women-in-tech-promotion-gap

July 14, 2026Episode 30940 min

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 https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-hsu/ and find out more about Experian at https://www.experian.com. This episode was sponsored by our guest, Debbie Hsu. Thank you Debbie & Experian for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!

July 7, 2026Episode 30832 min

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: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/286-executive-presence-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 292 — From Tactical to Strategic: The Unspoken Rules for Women Stepping Into Executive Leadership: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/291-c-level-leadership-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 238 — Thinking Like an Executive: From Firefighter to Strategist: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/238-thinking-like-an-executive-from-firefighter-to-strategist ⏹️ Episode 241 — Thinking Like an Executive: Setting Priorities as an Executive: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/241-thinking-like-an-executive-setting-priorities ⏹️ Episode 236 — Thinking Like an Executive: Cultivating Your Executive Presence: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/236-thinking-like-an-executive-cultivating-executive-presence ⏹️ Episode 291 — C-Level Leadership for Women in Tech: What It Really Takes to Thrive: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/291-c-level-leadership-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 256 — No More Crickets: The Networking Strategy That Lands Jobs in 2025: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/256-networking-strategy-lands-jobs ⏹️ Episode 284 — Am I Ready to Be a Fractional Leader?: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/am-i-ready-for-fractional/ ⏹️ Episode 288 — How to Position Yourself as a Fractional Leader: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/288-fractional-leadership-positioning/ ⏹️ Episode 289 — How Fractional Leaders Actually Get Hired: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/289-how-fractional-leaders-get-hired/ Book a complimentary strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

June 30, 2026Episode 30744 min

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!

June 23, 2026Episode 30631 min

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: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/152-how-to-give-feedback ⏹ Episode 174 — What to Do When You Inherit a Poor Performer: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/174-what-to-do-when-you-inherit-an-underperformer ⏹ Episode 172 — When You Need to Let People Go: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/172-when-you-need-to-let-people-go ⏹ Episode 178 — How to Lead and Retain High Performers: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/178-how-to-lead-and-retain-high-performers ⏹ Episode 250 — Leading Through Change: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/250-leading-through-change ⏹ Episode 158 — Unleashing Team Performance: Simple Coaching Approaches: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/158-unleashing-team-performance-the-power-of-simple-coaching-approaches Book a complimentary strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat/

June 16, 2026Episode 30538 min

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: radiantlivinginstitute.com ⏹ Podcast: Essential Self Care: https://www.radiantlivinginstitute.com/podcasts/essential-self-care ⏹ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sheetalajmani

June 9, 2026Episode 30253 min

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: Episode 170 - Does it have to be lonely at the top? Drawing the line between being a boss and a friend Episode 243 - Struggling to Be Heard? Master Leadership Communication Strategies and Coach Upwards Episode 248 - Recognizing the Signs: Identifying Early Indicators of Burnout Episode 250 — Leading Through Change Episode 274 - How to Stop Overthinking at Work: Tools for Clear, Confident Leadership Decisions. Episode 278 - When No One Listens — How to Lead When Your Voice Isn't Heard Episode 294 — Burnout-Proof Leadership Episode 298 - When the Stakes Are High, Does Your Voice Go Quiet? How to Communicate With Clarity Under Pressure Ready to work through a genuinely difficult period with support? Book a strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

June 2, 2026Episode 30337 min

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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlirogers/ ◾ Botify: https://www.botify.com/ 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!

May 26, 2026Episode 30244 min

302: Career Pivots: When You're Ready for Something New

Are you brilliant at your job — but starting to wonder if this is really it? One of the most common and least-talked-about challenges facing senior women in tech is the moment when something needs to change, but you don't know exactly what, and the fear of getting it wrong is keeping you exactly where you are. This is not a "how to find a new job" episode. It is an episode about how to think clearly and strategically about career pivots — before you make a reactive decision you spend the next two years recovering from. Whether you're bored and feeling guilty about it, you know you need to leave but can't see where to go, or you're ready to pivot but don't know where to start — this episode is for you. Keep listening to learn more about: Why the restlessness you're feeling is not a character flaw — it's a signal worth taking seriously The four types of "something needs to change" — and why getting the diagnosis right is what separates a strategic pivot from a reactive one The full range of options available to you — including internal pivots, functional moves, smaller organisations, fractional leadership, and entrepreneurship A five-step framework for thinking through a career pivot strategically without making a decision from your most exhausted place What's really underneath the fear — and why the identity question is the thing that keeps most women stuck What a good career pivot actually looks like — and the one first step to take this week Whether you're actively planning a change or just starting to sit with the question, this episode will help you think more clearly about what you actually want next.

May 19, 2026Episode 30144 min

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: tonicollis.com/lets-chat/ 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!