Women Emerging Podcast

Hosted by Women Emerging

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Episodes

238

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Every week, we produce a new episode that explores women and leadership from a different perspective. In a series of lively, wide-ranging discussions, we talk to women all over the world who are dealing with tough leadership challenges in their daily lives. We find out the barriers they face and how they are overcoming them; they share their experiences, insights and advice. (the series also informs and illustrates the expedition while it is underway and gives updates on the members’ progress.) Episodes come out every Wednesday and once a month, we do a live q&a.

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October 14, 202629 min

239. What Does Pressure Reveal About a Team?

What happens to a team when everything suddenly becomes difficult? In the final episode of the Building Teams series, Julia speaks with Liz Bloomfield about teams under pressure and why the most important work often happens before the pressure arrives. Drawing on her experience in the military, disaster response, corporate environments and start-ups, Liz explains that pressure can expose what has already been built within a team. It can lead to burnout, conflict, blame or chaos. But teams with strong foundations can also fall back on habits of trust, clarity and working together that help them move through difficult moments. Transcript Julia and Liz explore what those foundations look like in practice. Trust matters, but so does clarity of intent. Liz argues that in a crisis, telling everyone exactly what to do can make the person leading the centre of every decision. Instead, people need to understand what they are trying to achieve and why, so that they can make decisions themselves when circumstances change. Transcript They also explore what pressure asks of the person leading. Liz distinguishes between absorbing pressure and amplifying it: being honest about uncertainty without simply transferring anxiety back into the team. She also talks about the importance of having other places where the person leading can process what they themselves are carrying. Transcript And pressure does not end when the difficult moment is over. Liz argues that recovery and debriefing need to be deliberately created too: time for the team to recover, understand what happened and decide what it might do differently next time. Transcript Julia ends with five ideas she is taking away from the conversation: Pressure. Trust. Intent. Absorbing. Debriefing. A conversation about what pressure reveals in teams, what needs to be built before it arrives, and what the person leading adds when things become difficult.

October 7, 202627 min

238. Grace, Belonging and Building Teams Where People Can Flourish

What does it take to build a team where people feel safe enough to make mistakes and different enough to remain themselves? Julia speaks with Carla McKenzie about two ideas at the heart of how Carla builds teams: grace and belonging. For Carla, grace does not mean lowering expectations. It means being clear about those expectations in the first place and taking responsibility for what people could reasonably have known. When somebody gets something wrong because an expectation was never communicated, Carla asks what she could have made clearer rather than immediately blaming the person. But grace has boundaries too. Once expectations are understood, accountability still matters. They then explore belonging and Carla’s distinction between belonging and fitting in. Using the idea that we all arrive from different “dinner tables”, Carla explains how differences in culture, communication and personality inevitably enter our teams too. The challenge is not to make everybody behave alike, but to create enough curiosity, communication and mutual adjustment for people to work well together. = Carla also shares the practical behaviours she uses to create belonging across a large team: deliberately spending time with different people, learning something about each of them, noticing who may be quieter and role-modelling the behaviours she wants others to repeat. Their conversation finishes with Energy. Carla describes herself as the team’s “power bank”: taking responsibility for the climate she creates while also finding ways to regenerate her own Energy. A practical conversation about creating teams in which people can make mistakes, be different, feel seen and still be held accountable. About the Guest: Leadership and Culture strategist, communicator, and motivator who helps women find their voice, own their influence and lead with intention. Her Philosophy is simple: leadership is a verb – our behaviours - how we show up daily, not a slogan on a wall.

September 30, 202629 min

237. What Do Healthy Teams Look Like?

What if a team that never disagrees is not as healthy as it appears? Julia speaks with Isabel about what it really takes to build a healthy team, beginning with the kind of trust that allows people to ask for help, admit mistakes and say what they really think. Their conversation moves through healthy conflict, commitment and accountability, but also the importance of difference. What happens when everyone in a team thinks the same way? How do we make room for people who process, communicate and contribute differently? And how can disagreement make a team stronger rather than pull it apart? Isabel shares practical ways to build trust and navigate difficult conversations, while Julia reflects on teams she has encountered through her own work and why apparent harmony has sometimes made her suspicious. Together, they explore a different way of thinking about building teams: not trying to make everybody happy or removing disagreement, but creating the conditions in which people can bring their differences, challenge one another and still move forward together. About the Guest: Isabel Porzecanski brings over 25 years of experience in Operations and Human Resources within the luxury hospitality industry, with a strong track record of driving business results through people. A certified coach through Performance Consultants International, she uses the GROW Model to support leadership, problem-solving, performance, and development. As a Certified EOS Implementer®, Isabel helps leadership teams gain clarity, strengthen execution, and get what they want from their businesses. She has worked across Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

September 23, 202629 min

236. What Leading Expeditions Taught Me About Building Online Teams

What does it take to build virtual teams? In the first episode of our new series on building teams, Julia Middleton, founder of Women Emerging, speaks to Funmi Adeymi who has built and worked with teams across countries and continents, often without ever being physically together. They explore what changes when a team is entirely online, and why so much of the responsibility for creating connection falls on the person leading it. From bringing the right Energy into the room, to paying attention to faces, using people’s names, creating structure without becoming rigid, and knowing when to pull the quieter voices in, this is a practical conversation about making people feel present when they are miles apart. About the Guest: Funmi is a social impact and development specialist passionate about creating opportunities for young people to lead and thrive. She is the founder of EquitED, an award-winning initiative working to shift gender norms in Nigerian school communities. Funmi’s work combines strategic thinking, strong communication, and community building to inspire bold, inclusive change.

September 16, 202621 min

235. Leading the First Women Emerging City Expedition

n this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with Smahane, Expedition Leader of the first Women Emerging city expedition, held in Brussels, to reflect on what it took to lead 20-plus women leaders through months of uncertainty — and what came out the other side. Smahane and Julia trace three threads from the pilot: leadership as the generation of energy, and how very different energies — calm, loud, intellectual, embodied — found their place around one table; the idea that expeditions build bridges, illustrated when two explorers who would likely never have connected in ordinary life ended up building something real together; and the discipline of leading without knowing exactly where you’re going — moving forward, as Smahane puts it, with far less than the “80% of the information” she was once told a leader needs. They also talk about “corporate coats” — the armour that falls away once women stop performing leadership and start doing it — and why, in the end, the biggest lesson of the expedition wasn’t a target or an output, but trusting that the right people, brought together, will always exceed what any single plan could achieve. A candid conversation about energy, trust and the courage to lead into the unknown. About the Guest: Smahane Lamassab is a seasoned human resources professional with extensive experience in employee relations and organisational development. Her career has been dedicated to fostering positive workplace environments and guiding leaders through complex HR processes. Smahane is committed to promoting fair and respectful practices in all aspects of employment.

September 9, 202628 min

234. Taking Space and Creating Space for Others While Leading

In this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with documentary filmmaker Justine to explore how the 4Es helped her find language for questions of existence, confidence and taking space. During the Brussels City Expedition, Justine began looking more closely at her essence and the influence of her maternal ancestors. Having grown up hearing herself described as an “unwanted child”, she had carried a fear of taking up too much space. A filmed conversation with her mother revealed a different story: the fear surrounding her birth was not about her right to exist, but about money—and belonged to a longer, inherited history of scarcity. Together, Julia and Justine explore how understanding this history enabled Justine to move away from seeing herself as a victim and begin recognising her own agency and power. They discuss why taking space sometimes requires disagreement, honesty and accepting that it is impossible to please everyone. Justine also reflects on the “motherness” she brings to filmmaking: creating an environment in which her crew feels safe, seen and able to offer their full selves. For her, leading requires a balance between care and control, and taking space herself enables her to create more space for others. This is a conversation about inherited fear, the right to exist and how the 4Es can give structure and language to emotions that are otherwise difficult to name. About the Guest: Justine Cappelle is a documentary filmmaker who takes her own existence as a “spiral child” as a starting point: conceived despite an IUD, against a very small chance of being here. From this paradox, she questions what it means to exist, why we are here and how we give meaning to the world around us. Her films turn toward people, stories and phenomena that often remain unseen, using documentary as a way to make space for other forms of presence and perspective. At the same time, she questions the documentary image itself: how we show, tell and construct reality, and what happens between what is visible and what remains hidden. Her practice searches for different ways of approaching truth, moving between observation, lived experience and interpretation. Her films have been presented at international festivals including IDFA, FIFA and Kassel Dokfest.

September 2, 202628 min

233. How Women Weave the Fabric of a City

In this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with Lara following the first Women Emerging City Expedition in Brussels to explore what impact did the expedition leave on her. Lara reflects on how the expedition changed her understanding of leading. Having previously assumed that leadership required a title, a certain age or responsibility for a team, she began to recognise it as the work of anchoring people, connecting ideas and restoring direction when priorities become unclear. Together, Julia and Lara explore why leading in Brussels requires flexibility and local understanding, why cities must build from their strengths as well as address their problems, and how empathy needs boundaries if it is to remain a sustainable source of leadership. They also consider whether women build bridges in cities through something quieter and more everyday: weaving people together through conversations, introductions and informal spaces of connection. This is a conversation about leading without a title, stepping beyond familiar bubbles and recognising the often-invisible work that holds communities—and cities—together. About the Guest: Lara Loi is a graduate of Cultural Diplomacy, with a background in Conflict & Development and Political Sciences, and is deeply interested in the intersection of culture, dialogue, and leadership. She is an Explorer with the expedition for women leading in Brussels.

August 26, 202629 min

232. Vulnerability Does Not Require Full Exposure

In this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with Njeri Margaret to explore why vulnerability matters when we lead—and why it must come with boundaries. Together, they begin with what vulnerability makes possible. It allows people to relate to the person behind the title, makes leadership more authentic and can help others feel seen and heard. Njeri reflects on how sharing lived experience can build community, give voice to what others have struggled to express and turn a personal story into a resource for change. But vulnerability can also become exposure. Drawing on her own experience of speaking publicly about mental health and accumulated fatigue, Njeri describes the vulnerability hangover that followed: the fear that she had revealed too much, before she had fully processed it herself. She and Julia explore how preparation, purpose and the emotional maturity of the room can help a leader decide what to share, what to hold back and when a story is ready to be told. This is a conversation about vulnerability, strength and the discipline of sharing with intention. It asks whether a leader is revealing something to create connection and change—or simply revealing for the sake of attention. The conclusion is not to become less vulnerable, but to become more conscious: vulnerability is essential to leading, but it does not require full exposure.

August 19, 202626 min

231. Are You Ever Too Young To Lead?

In this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with Ema to look back at a leading journey that began when she was just 12 years old. Together, they explore what Ema now knows about leading across generations, staying true to herself and beginning before she felt entirely ready. Ema reflects on what it was like to lead adults while still being seen as a child. She shares how she once believed that being respected meant appearing older and more experienced, before recognising that her creativity, passion and willingness to see things differently were not weaknesses she needed to outgrow. They were an important part of what she brought to leading. The conversation also explores what the ocean has taught Ema: how to remain calm through storms, respond to forces beyond her control and look beneath the surface to recognise what may be hidden within other people. She and Julia discuss why leading sometimes asks us to move beyond shyness, build connections and create spaces where people of different ages and experiences can contribute to a shared purpose. This is a conversation about cross-generational leading, self-doubt, finding your voice and resisting the pressure to become someone else before you begin. As Ema reminds her 12-year-old self, the timing will never be perfect and you may never feel completely ready. Sometimes, you simply have to throw yourself into it.

August 12, 202634 min

230. Unpacking The Hidden Risk of Empathetic Leadership

In this episode of the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton sits down with Janice to explore one of the questions many women face as they begin leading others: can empathy ever become too much? Together, they begin by affirming something fundamental: empathy is essential. We are leading people, not robots, and understanding the human impact of our decisions is at the heart of good leading. But then the conversation turns to a more difficult question. What happens when empathy has no boundaries? What happens when understanding becomes enabling, when kindness is mistaken for weakness, or when one person's needs begin to overshadow the needs of the wider team? Drawing on her own experience, Janice reflects on recognising manipulation, setting boundaries for the first time, and discovering that protecting a team sometimes means making decisions that feel deeply uncomfortable. Julia explores how empathy can become self-sabotage without clear limits, why motherness includes both nurturing and fierceness, and how empathy must extend not only to individuals, but also to the purpose, the team and yourself. This is a thoughtful conversation about empathetic leadership, boundaries, difficult decisions and learning that compassion and accountability are not opposites. As Julia concludes, perhaps one of the most enduring lessons for anyone leading is simply this: be loving, but firm.

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