The Broad Experience

Lauren Tucker is a longtime advertising executive and, as a Black female, she's rather unusual in that industry The last time we spoke she was finding it tough to land a job in her field in a new city. Today she runs her own successful inclusion management business, where she grapples with everything from cultural blind spots to terrible job descriptions.Still, Lauren is itching to find out what's around the corner. Looking back, she sees a career that despite her ambitions was largely controlled by others. Her job's demands influenced what she did with her life. Today, she wants her job to be in service of her life - and her perspective on life has changed quite a bit in the last few turbulent years. She still has a lot to do. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nearly all our workplace communication is digital. Gone are the days when faxing seemed like efficient new technology (believe me, it did at one point). Emails, team communication programs like Slack, texting, instant messaging - they’re all convenient and speedy. They can also cause a lot of angst.In this show I sit down with Erica Dhawan, author of the book Digital Body Language, to talk about why digital communication can be so fraught with frustration and anxiety. Is that terse email simply direct, or does a more sinister meaning lurk in those short sentences? Are emojis OK at the office and if so, for whom? I’m also joined by Liz Zelnick, whose experience in a past job made her think again about her use of exclamation points. And we look at the advantages of virtual meetings, where stereotypes can fade into the background. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scan the business section of any bookstore and you'll see reams of books written by men, far fewer by women. In this show, which originally aired in 2018, we talk about women as writers and readers of business books. Is it imposter syndrome, fear, or lack of time that stops women from putting fingers to keyboard? Is Lean In a business book or a self-help book? And why are female authors less likely to embrace a publicity blitz when their book is published? My guest is Alison Jones, owner of Practical Inspiration Publishing, host of the Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast and author of This Book Means Business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the last couple of episodes we talked about the transitions working couples go through. In this show we re-meet a former guest, one half of one such couple. Heather McGregor embraced a big career change at 55, going from entrepreneur to academic dean, continuing a period in her life where she's switched from supportive partner to family breadwinner. Heather has always had an eye on the future, planning for what might come next. She believes it's never too late for a career change - if you prepare ahead of time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a quick follow-up episode to the last show with INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri, author of Couples that Work. We tackle a few of your questions, covering everything from 'how do we split the invisible home and parenting tasks?' to couples with different working styles to couples living apart for work.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Books and articles offer career advice or relationship advice. They rarely consider the link between the two. Yet dual-career couples are everywhere, and anyone who's part of one knows your careers can only run in parallel for so long At some point, life is going to get complicated - and not only if you have kids. So how do you make it work?INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri, author of Couples That Work, has spent years researching working couples and learning from their experiences. In this episode we talk about the three transitions couples go through over the decades, and what her research (and her own career and home life) have taught her about the roadblocks couples face, and how to navigate them.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This show is all about working with neurodiversity - having a condition such as ADHD, or Asperger’s or anything else that means your brain functions a bit differently from a lot of your colleagues'.Emma Case had always wanted to work in fashion, and she loved it - but at the same time she had trouble with things that seemed totally straightforward to others. It took years to work out why. Emma now runs Women Beyond the Box, a platform that celebrates the successes of neurodiverse women. Michelle Jones and Paige Jeffrey are in this category too. Paige often found the office a confusing environment but didn’t know why until last year. Michelle’s world was rocked when, in her late thirties, she received some shocking news about her brain.All three women have struggled at times, but they’ve all learned use their particular brains to fuel their success. And each of them wants workplaces to open up, to be more inclusive - to recognize that neurodiversity can be a benefit to a project or a team rather than a hindran

In this show we consider the idea that resilience is overrated. When Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo attended medical school she learned to be stoic and to power through. But during her career as a pediatrician and professor, she powered through so much that her body turned on her. She says too many Black women are supporting their workplaces - and everyone else - to the detriment of their health. She wants to change that.Therapist Camesha Jones was a student when she experienced a mental health crisis. Today she's bringing mental healthcare to women in Chicago whose needs have too often not been met. Mental health, she says, "is the gateway to having the life that you want."  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A lot of workplaces use alcohol as social glue. When Lisa Smith started out as a lawyer in the '90s she spent multiple late nights out drinking with colleagues. But the pressures of work had her drinking at home too, and by the time she was in her thirties she was an alcoholic. In this show we look at women's relationship with alcohol as it intersects with the workplace. By being at the bar Lisa got career opportunities she wouldn't have if she'd stayed at her desk. Today she works with law firms on changing their cultures so that alcohol plays less of a central role in people's careers, and to end the stigma around addiction in the legal profession. We also meet Dawn Nickel of She Recovers to talk about the issues women face in seeking treatment for substance use, and how the pandemic has affected women in recovery.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The income gap between women is widening fast as well paid, educated women outsource traditionally female tasks to women who earn far less, with little job security. In this episode we meet Alison Wolf, a professor and labor market expert and author of The XX Factor. Then we hear from Jennifer Bernard, a Trinidad-born, New York-based nanny. She describes the unequal work environment that is the home, how she began to gain confidence on the job, and what makes her feel successful. Since this episode was first released life has become harder for domestic workers of all kinds. Many lost their jobs during the early days of the pandemic, and some remain unemployed.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode takes a step back in time to look at the history of women as public speakers, and how the past relates to the present. If you look at history books or speech anthologies, you might assume women didn't say very much in public until the 20th century. But that's far from the case. My guest, speechwriter and coach Dana Rubin, has compiled a speech bank of women's speeches going back hundreds of years. Women were speaking up...it's just that HIStory wasn't interested. And that legacy, Dana argues, affects the way women see themselves as speakers today.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Erica Heilman is the host of the podcast Rumblestrip. The Atlantic recently named her series ‘Our Show’ the best podcast of 2020. But before she was a brilliant podcaster, Erica was a lot of other things. She was a seller of muffins, she was a theater performer, she milked cows, she worked on a TV news show, then in documentaries, then for a healthcare website…and that’s not all.It took Erica a while to get where she wanted to be. And she’ll be the first to admit she had no idea where that was.She is not the only person who’s struggled to work out, what am I doing? What am I good at? How best do I use the skills I actually have? Some of us take longer to get there. We wish it were different, but it’s not. This is a show about the messiness of the unconventional career path.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dara Kass had always known emergency medicine was for her. She loved the excitement of the ER, the fact that she always had too much to do. It was only when she had a baby that she realized the emergency room, like so many other workplaces, wasn’t going to fit in with her - she was expected to fit in with it. She set out to change that for her and everyone else.But when Covid-19 hit New York last spring, Dara was presented with challenges she could never have imagined - catching the virus herself, protecting her family, working through a relentless pandemic, and the loss of a colleague to suicide. She still wants to bring gender equity to emergency medicine. But she says workers’ mental health has to take priority now and as we emerge from this pandemic.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2021, a year so many of us have been hoping will turn a global page for the better, has got off to a rocky start. There is so much we can’t control at the moment, so in this show we’re going to concentrate on what we can do - that is, take the reins of our own careers, albeit from behind our computers. My guest is Lisa Unwin, co-founder of London-based Reignite Academy and author of She’s Back. I wanted to talk to Lisa because she’s now optimistic about the future, when a few months ago she felt quite differently. Among other things we discuss the underrated business phone call, how men and women have used social media differently during lockdown (which may be hurting women’s careers), and what happens when women don’t charge for their work.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Being single is a lifestyle choice for some women and an unwelcome reality for others. In this episode we meet three women, each with different perspectives on living and working alone, especially during a pandemic. Retired professor Joan DelFattore has been happily single for decades. Susie, a consultant, is mourning the lack of a husband and children. Her isolation during Covid just makes everything feel worse - particularly when HR seems fixated on families. And psychotherapist Magali Rozenfeld says being by yourself can provide unexpected opportunities for growth.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we revisit the theme of body language in the workplace: hunching, spread legs, eye contact, and kissing - all in a business setting. We meet Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance, who discusses how men and women play up their power, or lack of it, through non-verbal communication. And Financial Times journalist Elaine Moore talks about how she deals with unwanted male kisses at business meetings.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Working from home is the new normal for a lot of us. But that doesn't mean we like it. Or that we're good at it. In this episode I sit down with Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and, most recently, The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work from Home. Working from your house or apartment has taken on new meaning - and stress - in the pandemic. But Laura says there are ways to gain focus, force yourself to stop at the end of the day, and make the rhythm of the whole thing work for you. WFH won't go away when the pandemic does, but doing it well is a skill that most of us need a little help mastering.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Now may not seem like the best time to ask for what you want at work, whether that's more money, a new title, or more time off. Everyone's under stress and putting in extra hours, right? But this situation isn't ending any time soon. And you may be about to burn out. So why NOT ask for what you want and need?In this episode we meet negotiation coach Fotini Iconomopoulos. We talk about her background as a child of Greek immigrants and what that taught her about advocating for herself. And we discuss how women in particular can stop their empathy getting in the way of reaching their goals. Because you can improve your situation, even during tough times.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show we meet a small business owner, Rachel Garrett who specializes in boosting women's careers - only to find that during Covid, her own was flagging. She is far from alone. We now know that in September, four times as many women than men left the US workforce thanks to the pressures of the pandemic. Rachel and I discuss the difficult conversations she started at home about whose career was getting priority, and why it's important - even now - that women don't put themselves on the sidelines.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're still in a pandemic and we know women's careers are suffering. So many of us are managing working from home and family at the same time. But what if you don't have kids, or your children are grown up? In this show we meet two child-free women with different experiences of work during Covid. One feels her career is thriving. The other wonders what ambition means anymore when she just wants to get offline before midnight.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.