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.

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.

What does it actually take to become a transformational leader in the age of AI? Catherine Wong, Chief Product Officer at Entrata, joins Toni to share the career philosophy, leadership mindset, and honest hard-won lessons that took her from software engineer to CPO — via architecture, M&A, product, and operations. Catherine built her career on range, not a straight line. She calls it the jungle gym — and she believes it's more relevant now than ever. In this episode she gets real about diversity as a product quality issue (not just a values issue), why AI adoption is the biggest change management challenge of our careers, and what authentic leadership actually means when the pressure is on. If you're navigating a non-linear career, trying to lead your team through AI change, or wondering whether you need a perfect plan to reach the C-suite — this one is for you.

When someone asks you how you're doing, what do you say? If you answered "I'm fine" before you'd even finished reading that question — this episode is for you. Burnout in high-performing women in tech leadership rarely looks like collapse. It looks like going through the motions. Like numbness. Like resentment that arrives out of nowhere and exhaustion that's become so normal you've stopped registering it as a warning sign. In this episode, Toni breaks down why burnout hits women in tech leadership differently, the three patterns she sees most in her coaching work, and what burnout-proof leadership actually means — strategically, not just in a "take more baths" sense. This isn't about slowing down. It's about building leadership that doesn't require you to run on empty to function.

You don’t need a perfect career plan to succeed in tech. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, I sit down with Sarah Walker, Chief Executive of Cisco UK & Ireland, to talk about women in tech leadership, non-traditional career paths, AI in the workplace, and why backing yourself matters more than ticking every box. Sarah didn’t follow a traditional route into tech. She didn’t leave school with perfect results. She didn’t move to London (despite being told she should). And she certainly didn’t have a 20-year career plan mapped out. Yet today, she leads one of the most influential tech organisations in the UK and Ireland.

Executive Leadership for Women: From Tactical to Strategic You’ve mastered being a leader. But executive leadership for women is not just the next step up. It’s a completely different game. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, we unpack why tactical excellence alone won’t get you promoted — and what actually signals executive readiness.