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Leading Women in Tech Podcast

Leading Women in Tech Podcast

By: Toni Collis
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 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.Copyright 2025 Collis-Holmes Innovations Career Success Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • 298: How to Communicate With Clarity Under Pressure: Leadership Skills for Women in Tech

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

    Do you communicate with clarity when the stakes are high — or does your voice go quiet at exactly the moment it matters most?

    In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, I break down one of the most underrated leadership skills for women in tech: communicating with clarity under pressure. Not when things are calm and you've had time to prepare — but when someone challenges you in front of the leadership team, when an executive asks a question you weren't expecting, or when you can feel the room watching to see how you respond.

    This is not about confidence. It's not about personality. It's about a conditioned nervous system response — and a set of practical, trainable tools to work with it.

    In this episode:

    ⏹ Why communication breaks down under pressure — the real physiology behind the freeze, the ramble, the hedge spiral, and the shutdown

    ⏹ Why this shows up differently for women in tech — and why "just be more confident" is both wrong and unhelpful

    ⏹ The reframe that changes everything: clarity under pressure is a trained skill, not a personality trait

    ⏹ Five practical tools you can start building this week, including the one-sentence anchor, the strategic pause, the pressure-proof redirect, and the high-stakes pre-mortem

    ⏹ Where to start — a sequenced action plan so you build the skill without overwhelming yourself

    If you've ever walked out of a meeting thinking "why didn't I just say X?", this episode will tell you exactly why — and exactly what to do about it.

    Learn more about communication: Episode 243 — Struggling to Be Heard? Master Leadership Communication Strategies and Coach Upwards

    Ready to work on this in the context of your specific leadership challenges? Book a strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat/

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    36 mins
  • 297: AI Leadership Strategy: Your 90-Day Blueprint for Winning with AI — with Charlene Li

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

    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 Episode 225 (Run To Disruption), 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: tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/225-run-to-disruption-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!
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    41 mins
  • 296: Office Politics for Women Who Hate Office Politics

    296: Office Politics for Women Who Hate Office Politics
    Apr 14 2026
    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: tonicollis.com/resources/office-politics-quiz ⏹ Book a strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat/ ⏹ Learn more about building your advocates: Episode 292 — From Tactical to Strategic: The Unspoken Rules for Women in Tech Stepping Into Executive Leadership ⏹ Learn more about communication: Episode 243 — Struggling to Be Heard? Master Leadership Communication Strategies and Coach Upwards 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 112 — If You Don't Openly Celebrate Your Achievements, Who Will? ⏹ Episode 228 — Mastering Your Value: Strategies to Stop Underselling Yourself ⏹ Episode 243 — Struggling to Be Heard? Master Leadership Communication Strategies and Coach Upwards ⏹ Episode 256 — No More Crickets: The Networking Strategy That Lands Jobs in 2025 ⏹ Episode 276 — Busy Does Not Equal Valuable: How to Prioritise Work That Gets You Promoted
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    42 mins
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