The Broad Experience

'Authenticity' is a buzzword that crops up a lot in articles about the workplace. We're all meant to be in an era where we can 'be ourselves' at work. But how realistic a goal is that for women really? In this show I speak to author and speaker Sylvia Ann Hewlett, whose most recent book is Executive Presence. Sylvia says women have to find the right balance of being themselves and having the perfect combination of gravitas, communication skills and appearance to be considered for leadership positions. She talks about how to pull that off. Lauren Tucker leads her own division at an ad agency, but she says meshing her forthright personality with the workplace is no picnic, even at her level. And why should she even have to try?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A lot of women run up against communication problems at work - everything from failure to be heard in meetings to giving orders to having male colleagues misread something they said. In this show we look at how differently men and women use language in the workplace. And we find out what each sex can do to better understand the other's style, from interrupting to taking...a while... to get to the point.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show we look at how much women are still trying to live up to the stereotype of the ideal woman - and how that may be hurting our careers. You know her: she's does everything (at home and at work), she looks fabulous, and, of course, she's nice. My interviewee, management professor and author Jodi Detjen, says women's efforts to tick all the right female boxes are consuming our waking thoughts, and our careers are suffering as a result.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For years, motherhood was considered our only job. Today, many women head back to work full-time not long after becoming parents. For some, everything goes smoothly, but for others, the return to work is challenging and confusing: they may not want the same things from their job that they did before, they crave flexibility (and can’t seem to get it), or their employer’s perception of them as a worker has changed – and not for the better. In this show we look at the transition from worker to worker-parent, find out what companies are doing to accommodate employees, and discuss how overburdened parents can make the pitch for a saner existence.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What happens when you're a woman at work who doesn't look traditionally feminine? We meet a couple of young women who know what it’s like to look for a job when you don’t appear the way society expects. And when you’ve had experience working as both genders, you have a unique perspective on the workplace. We meet Lisa Scheps, who had great success when she presented as a male entrepreneur, but as a woman in the workplace, her career has stalled.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show, we hear about transgender men's experiences of the workplace. What does that have to do with women and work? A lot, it turns out. These guys began their working lives presenting themselves as female, then transitioned, and suddenly, work was a whole different place. Despite having the same abilities, a lot of the trans men suddenly had more authority. They were assumed to be more competent. Sometimes they even landed jobs they couldn't get before.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this show my guest says it's not women who need to lean in, it's companies. At a time when women are 60% of university graduates, 51% of the population and make 80% of purchasing decisions, why, she asks, do most companies still expect women to change their behavior if they're going to excel in the workplace? She says it's corporations that need to adapt to the new reality. But how long will it take?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ask a group of women how much they enjoy networking and most will shudder. They see it as fake, transactional, not something they want to spend time on. Research backs this up: women do not connect with other people in their industries or even within their companies as much as men do, and it's hurting their careers. In this show three guests talk about how to get over the dread of networking, why it's worth engaging with strangers on a regular basis, and why it's never too late to follow up.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Traditionally it was always men who followed their fathers into the family business. But in the last 15 years or so, the number of women joining family firms has almost quintupled. More and more daughters are choosing to go where once only their brothers did - and some are taking over the reins. But even today, women face different challenges than men when they enter family companies.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show, sexuality counselor and author Evelyn Resh says many busy professional women are putting their sex lives to one side as work and kids swallow their time and energy. She wants to change that. This show is about much more than women's sexuality, though - it focuses on our ability, or lack of it, to switch out of work mode and focus on life's pleasures, whatever they happen to be.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A year ago, the first rumblings were heard in the press about a business book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. No one could have predicted then that 'leaning in' would become a catchphrase, and Sandberg's book a cultural phenomenon. In this show, produced last April, I sat down in a Greenwich Village apartment with 5 women from generations X and Y to discuss Sandberg's blockbuster, 'Lean In'. At the time the book had only been out a few weeks. It's now been on the New York Times Bestseller List for 51 weeks. Six women, wine, Middle Eastern food, and lots of opinions. Tune in.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How OK is it to show your emotions at work? Traditionally, not very. Some of my guests say that's changing. Others say we still work in male-dominated companies where crying or getting angry will damage your reputation - if you're female. Tune in for some good meltdown stories, a few facts on the science of tears, and some sage advice on not letting workplace eruptions get you down.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The ad industry draws plenty of women, but hardly any of them end up making the creative decisions that influence the marketing messages we see every day. In this episode of the show we ask why so few women end up in top creative roles at ad agencies, and talk to Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, about what she's doing to try to change the status quo.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You've heard it before: women aren't funny. Or at least not as funny as men. Well it turns out if you're a senior woman in a corporation, perception is reality. Always a devotee of the self-deprecating joke, I was surprised to learn from my guest, professor of linguistics Judith Baxter, that these self-directed barbs don't go down well when women deploy them in board meetings. Tune into the show to find out what happens when senior men and women use banter or otherwise joke around at work. Ponder why this form of office communication works for men, but not their female counterparts. And laugh. Or grit your teeth, depending on your level of frustration.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Success - we all want it. But what, exactly, does it mean? Career coach Kathy Caprino and mindful leadership coach Emily Bennington are my guests on this show. Both women are authors, and both have corporate careers behind them. Kathy and I discuss why some of us seem to expect success to come almost instantly when we launch a new project or entrepreneurial venture - and what the reality of such a launch entails. Emily talks about her entry into the work world as a wildly ambitious twenty-something set on corporate domination. She wanted the title, the promotion, the money. What she hadn't bargained on was just how stressful she would find her ascent. After years of striving she had a change of heart, and changed her definition of success.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Liz O'Donnell, author of Mogul, Mom & Maid, tackles some of the ground Sheryl Sandberg didn't touch on in her women-in-the-workplace bestseller, Lean In: the home front. O'Donnell says it's difficult to lean in to your career when you're the one with most of the responsibilities at home. Things seem to be a bit easier in Europe. Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper says everyone he knows, male and female, expects both halves of a couple to work and to share childcare. What that means is that pretty much no one is 'leaning in'.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the second show in the Tips for Success series, we're sticking to a creative theme. A lot of women dream of starting their own business. My guest actually did it. She's Alexandra Ferguson, CEO of the company of the same name, prolific maker of pillows and makeup cases with cheeky sayings that sell in the US and around the world. She started sewing in her living room five years ago. These days she works out of a small factory space in Brooklyn and has more then ten employees - and growing. But getting to where she is now has involved plenty of ups and downs. She offers some great tips and caveats in this episode about business, creativity, and working with your mother.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To an outsider, being a professor can look like a great job (I'm thinking vigorous intellectual engagment, flexibility, and long vacations). Often it is, and not just for those reasons. But just because you work in a center of higher learning doesn't mean everything that goes on there lives up to humanity's highest ideals. From maternity leave to work/life balance to getting promotions, life in the ivory tower is often tougher for women. We look at the statistics, talk about why women are still lagging men on the employment front, and get into a sobering discussion about sexual harassment in the scientific community, which, like other STEM fields, is trying to attract more women. 15 minutes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show I explore women's attitude to money, something I've reported on quite a bit over the years and still find fascinating. Many women still have an ambivalent relationship with money - it's tied up with their feelings about themselves and how they do, or don't value themselves. I interview Natalia Oberti Noguera, CEO of the Pipeline Fellowship, and financial behaviorist (yes, that's a thing) Jacquette Timmons.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this show we look at world of women lawyers. Big Law, as it's known in the US, is well known for having few women at the top. And when they do gain partnership, women are paid less: female partners at law firms are paid just under $500,000 a year on average, as opposed to $734,000 for men. Neither sex is on the breadline, clearly, but a lot of female lawyers today never thought they'd be contending with some of the persistent gender issues they are. Still, lawyers are like many other women in the workplace - many have the same tendency to assume their hard work should simply be recognized and rewarded accordingly. It rarely is. We talk about: Why female lawyers flee large firms after relatively little time on the job. Why working hard is never enough. How some lawyers are claiming authority and pushing to increase the number of women in leadership. The job/family balancing act, and what it's like growing up with a lawyer for a mom.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.