Lead to Soar

Feminist Awakening: How to Turn Anger at Work Into a Career Strategy

A young lawyer has just been pulled aside about her billable hours. Her male partner at the same firm, same credentials, has not had that conversation. He also hasn't been asked to mentor the grads, organise anything, or carry any of the work that holds a team together, but shows up nowhere in the performance data. She has been asked to do all of it. The gap in their billable hours did not happen by accident. In this episode, Mel and Michelle walk through the four phases of feminist consciousness, from oblivion to awareness to outrage to advocacy. They break down the office housework problem, look at a feedback conversation that didn't register the way it was intended, and lay out what leaders must actually do when non-promotable work keeps piling up on women's plates. Recommended reading: The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead End Work [https://www.thenoclub.com] by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe [https://leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Why Your Boss's Brand Is Now Your Problem Too

Your boss's brand doesn't stay contained to your boss. If they're seen as an order-taker, someone who receives agendas rather than shaping them, that lens gets applied to your team. Your work gets filtered through their credibility before it reaches anyone with real decision-making power. In Episode 221, Mel and Michelle break down what to do when the people around you don't have the influence you need them to have. They cover how to read the warning signs early, how to coach upward strategically, and why business acumen is the gate-opener for influence that actually sticks. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe [https://leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

How to Lead High Performers in a Dysfunctional Organization

What happens when your team is genuinely excellent but the organisation around it is a mess? In this episode, Michelle and Mel unpack a real coaching scenario: a high-performing project management team that had convinced itself the problem was its own communication skills. It wasn't. The problem was accomplishment amnesia, structural invisibility, and a leadership layer that hadn't yet connected delivery to business outcomes. Michelle shares the frameworks she used in that room, why middle managers need to be both a bulldozer and a barrier, how to articulate your team's value in the language of outcomes, and what it takes to know when the ledger has tipped too far and it's time to pass the baton. This one is for every leader who's ever been the best-kept secret in their own organisation. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe [https://leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Is the Beauty Industry Keeping Women Broke and Busy?

Business Insider launched a series called "Hot at Work." Susan Colantuono called it what it is: a content delivery system dressed as journalism, selling women an invoice and calling it empowerment. Mel and Michelle got involved. This episode takes the glam tax apart. That is the additional cost women pay just to participate in professional life. It covers the money (one woman spends $12,000 a year on Botox, hair, nails, and fitness), the math (invest that at average market returns over 20 years and you're looking at close to $780,000), and the newest entry on the list: lifting weights to prove you belong in the executive suite. Who taught you to feel not good enough? And who profits from it? No judgment. Just information. Make an informed choice. Mel and Michelle are on Substack. Subscribe to Lead to Soar for every episode, editorial, and truth bomb. If you want direct access to Mel, Michelle, and a community of women asking the same questions, the Lead to Soar Network is where that conversation happens. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe [https://leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

What Is Patriarchy Chicken? How Women Stop Giving Way at Work

Patriarchy Chicken is a game women have been playing for decades. British historian Professor Charlotte Riley gave it a name. Michelle gave it a T-shirt moment on the streets of Melbourne. In this episode, Mel and Michelle take the concept straight into the workplace: who gets interrupted, whose ideas get claimed, which jobs get handed to men before any woman has a chance to apply. They break down the moves that actually work in the room, and why holding your ground alone is much harder than building a deliberate, collective strategy to do it together. Want more? Every episode and editorial goes to all subscribers. To get direct access to Mel, Michelle, and the Lead to Soar Network community, join as a monthly or annual subscriber. Find out more at the link below. https://bit.ly/4rmjqiW [https://bit.ly/4rmjqiW] Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe [https://leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]