Allyship in Action

Get ready for your annual "Christmas morning" with this deep dive into the 2025 Lean In Women in the Workplace Report. In this candid conversation with Rachel Thomas, Co-founder and CEO of LeanIn.org, we discuss the key findings from the largest study on the state of women in Corporate America. The discussion highlights alarming signals in the data, including a potential rollback in the company's commitment to women's advancement and its effect on women's ambition. Rachel highlights the importance of the often underutilized role of sponsorship and issues a powerful call to action for companies and, critically, for middle managers. Tune in to learn about the fragility of the progress made over the last decade and discover specific, actionable strategies—including the innovative use of manager scripts and accountability measures—to unlock consistent career support and move toward a truly equitable and inclusive workplace. Key Takeaways: Declining Commitment and Ambition: Only half of companies report being highly committed to women's career advancement, and this lack of commitment is mirrored by a decline in women's ambition, as they are now less interested in getting promoted to the next level for the first time. The Sponsorship Gap is Widening: Men are getting sponsors much earlier in their careers than women, and this gap is even more pronounced for entry-level women who work remotely. Sponsorship, or advocacy-style actions like being introduced to influential people or getting stretch opportunities, is a key lever that is consistently underutilized. Managers are the Key to Unlocking Progress: While managers generally have the right intent, they often lack the time and tools to offer consistent, high-quality, and equitable career support. Companies must treat manager support for career development as a priority by building it into performance reviews and leveraging tools like AI to free up manager time for critical tasks. Get the full report at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace

Jon Rosemberg is the author of the new book, A Guide to Thriving. He was a successful leader in Corporate America and made a pivot to executive coaching. This conversation with Jon was truly insightful, reminding us that workplace culture and retention aren't just HR buzzwords, but are fundamentally linked to our ability to shift from surviving to thriving. My takeaways were: Prioritize Employee Agency to Foster a Thriving Workplace Culture: The shift from "survival mode" to thriving starts when individuals courageously reclaim their agency—the capacity to make intentional choices based on the belief that those choices matter and have an impact. In a workplace culture context, leaders must create an environment where employees feel their decisions are valued and that they have control over their work and well-being. This sense of agency is key to reducing burnout and fostering a motivated, engaged team, directly improving retention. Move Beyond Resilience to Cultivate Sustainable Health and Retention: While resilience is valuable, it's a "low bar"; it focuses on bouncing back from adversity without addressing the underlying causes of stress. A thriving workplace culture must focus on reducing "demands" and increasing "resources." For retention, this means leaders must actively help employees set boundaries and provide the necessary resources—like time for mental health practices (movement, rest, social connection)—so they don't constantly operate in an exhaustive, reactive "survival mode." Small, Incremental Practices are the Engine of Long-Term Transformation: The move from survival to thriving is not a sudden life-breakthrough, but a disciplined practice of small, incremental changes. Utilizing the AIR method (Awareness, Inquiry, Reframing) to challenge limiting beliefs and reframe situations allows individuals to gain context and move forward. In terms of workplace culture and retention, this translates to establishing sustainable, supported daily practices—not just one-off wellness programs—that compound over time, making it easier for employees to manage stress and stay engaged long-term. The biggest lesson is that the most powerful kind of thriving is when we help other people thrive, which should be the ultimate goal for any organization looking to build a successful workplace culture that supports retention. Follow Jon at https://www.jonrosemberg.com/.

In my new interview with Melissa Loble, Chief Academic Officer at Instructure, we discussed the evolving educational landscape. She made a few key predictions for the future of education in an AI-driven world: 1. The Blended Curriculum: Academic Content Merges with Human and Career Skills The traditional focus on purely academic content will radically shift. The future curriculum will be a blend that incorporates three critical components: Academic Content: The core disciplinary knowledge. Human Skills (Soft Skills): Due to AI handling entry-level technical tasks, there will be an increased emphasis on human skills like critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, confidence, and courage. Educators will need to explicitly teach and build these skills, moving beyond simply teaching the application of theories. Workforce/Life Skills: Education will be directly connected to career and life trajectories, driven by learners (especially younger generations) seeking a clear return on investment (ROI) from their education and questioning the value of high debt. 2. Contextual and Experiential Learning Replaces Rote Memorization The age of simple memorization and regurgitation will end. The new focus will be on creating contextual, personalized, and experiential learning environments. Focus on Context: Educators must shift from solely valuing content (like in research/peer-review) to emphasizing context—the "why" and "how" the content is applied in the real world. Simulation and Application: There will be a greater use of simulations, case-based learning, and hands-on scenarios to help learners practice and apply human skills and technical knowledge, allowing them to fail fast and build competence. AI can assist in creating these complex, customized case studies and learning environments. Practitioner-Academic Collaboration: Higher education will increasingly benefit from practitioners joining the faculty to bring real-world context, working alongside traditional academics to enrich the learning experience. 3. Corporate and Higher Education Learning Forge a Strategic Partnership The line between corporate learning and higher education will blur as both seek to adapt to the needs of the modern workforce. Corporate Learning Shifts: Corporate training will move away from being purely compliance-driven toward a focus on developing human and career-track skills. Employees, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, actively seek employers who commit to developing them as future leaders. Continuous Development: The "one-and-done" training model will be replaced by a commitment to lifelong learning and continuous development. This will include meeting people where they are and using retrieval practice and open coaching to reinforce skills and build resistance to change. Joint Reinvention: Higher education and the corporate world have a significant opportunity to partner and reinvent themselves together to effectively address the blend of technical and human skill development needed for an AI-enabled future. Follow Melissa at https://www.instructure.com/

This week, I interviewed Claude Silver, the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX. Her new book, Be Yourself at Work, offers key insights into the role of authenticity in the workplace culture and its impact on retention. Here are my three key takeaways: 1. Authenticity as a Business Superpower for Workplace Culture The core message is to "be yourself at work," which Silver argues is today's greatest business superpower. This speaks directly to workplace culture, suggesting that genuine self-expression, rather than hiding or "code-switching," is crucial for both individual and organizational success. Silver makes the case that true authenticity is a proactive, offensive message that drives success, contrasting it with the "lazy" or "shrinking" tendency to hide emotions or true selves out of fear. A culture that embraces the "complexity of being human at work" fosters a space where people not only fit in but truly belong. 2. Prioritizing Emotional Health and Agency to Improve Retention Silver shares a powerful anecdote about an employee who was struggling with depression but felt safe enough to approach her, which led to a profound, empathetic exchange. This highlights the importance of addressing the emotional well-being of employees, a critical factor for retention. The takeaway is that leaders must be: Receptive: Willing to step away from traditional, transactional HR responses to meet employees where they are. Empathetic: Approaching conversations with non-judgmental sincerity and compassion. Furthermore, Silver emphasizes that employees always have agency and choice. For individuals, the first step is to get comfortable with themselves—to address shame, fear, and insecurity—to become the "CEO of you". This focus on personal agency and psychological safety is vital for building trust and creating a culture where employees feel valued enough to stay. 3. Cultivating a Human-Centered Leadership Approach for Retention and Culture Silver's role as Chief Heart Officer and her work embody a human-centered approach to leadership. For an organization to successfully promote an authentic workplace culture and improve retention, it needs to: Identify and Utilize Culture Champions: Even without a "Chief Heart Officer," companies have highly empathetic, service-oriented people they can utilize to facilitate growth and change. Lead with the Heart: The effective leader, or "coach," is one who is willing to show up for their team, shine a light on both their roadblocks and their triumphs, and operate from a place of trust and non-judgment. Model Self-Awareness: Leaders must be committed to their own journey of self-awareness and emotional regulation to create a safe, supportive environment for their teams. This "give and take" approach, where both leadership and employees agree on a set of expectations and supportive behaviors, is what ultimately helps a company grow into an organization that is "whole for themselves." Follow Claude at https://www.claudesilver.com/.

Kristen Kavanaugh is the author of Courage Over Fear and the founder of The Agency Initiative, working to connect people's work with meaning in alignment with their values. Previously, she was the vice chair of the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity & Inclusion and the senior director of inclusion, talent & learning at Tesla. Here are my key takeaways: Values Dissonance Drives Talent Away: The conflict between personal values and the actions or culture of a company—especially at the leadership level—causes significant personal distress and ultimately leads to attrition. Kavanaugh described experiencing anxiety and physical symptoms, including panic attacks, that her body was trying to communicate to her before she left her role at Tesla. She emphasized that listening to those internal signals is crucial and that her health immediately improved once she made the decision to leave the toxic environment. For organizations, this highlights that failing to align with and uphold core values will physically and mentally harm employees, particularly those with less privilege, leading to the loss of valuable talent. Courageous Leadership and Psychological Safety are Key to DEI Success: DEI work thrives when leadership models courage and takes a clear stand on inclusion. Kavanaugh, who led the DEI team, noted that when the CEO began making public statements that were antithetical to the work they were doing, it caused deep pain and was the "start of the unravelling" of DEI at the company. This demonstrated that leadership's visible choice of "courage over fear"—especially by those with power and privilege (the "decision calculus" factor)—is necessary to foster a culture where all employees, particularly underrepresented groups, feel safe and valued enough to stay. Retention and Growth is Built on Small, Consistent Acts of Agency (The 5% Approach): The concept of the "Agency Loop" highlights that a healthy professional life is a cycle of authenticity, intentional decision-making, and growth. The key to starting and sustaining this cycle is the "5% more courageous approach," which breaks down intimidating acts of courage into small, manageable steps. For workplace retention, this means that cultural change and a sense of agency aren't just about massive, high-risk confrontations; they are built through everyday choices, such as a manager creating space for honest dialogue or an employee simply dressing in a way that feels authentic to them. These small, consistent actions compound over time to build resilience and a stronger, more authentic leader and employee. Follow Kristen at https://www.courageoverfearbook.com/.

This week, I welcome Shanna Hocking to the podcast to talk about her new research in higher education and what's holding women back in university advancement. You might be surprised that the answer is disturbingly simple. Here are my favorite takeaways: The Crisis in Higher Education Leadership: A shift is needed from a scarcity mindset focused only on fundraising to a focus on leadership and culture as the key to success. The profession is at a crossroads, needing to re-evaluate what has historically worked versus what is needed for the future, especially post-pandemic. Structural Barriers for Women Leaders: Despite being the majority of the advancement profession, women hold fewer than 35% of Chief Advancement Executive roles at top universities. The biggest barrier to success for women in these roles isn't personal inadequacy but organizational structures and systems that weren't built for their success. The Critical Gap in Onboarding and Inclusion: Over 70% of women Chief Advancement Executives report no formal onboarding support (coaching, training, professional development). This lack of intentionality contributes to lasting stress and negatively affects their view of the organization. Furthermore, unconscious biases manifest in subtle ways, such as being excluded from informal, powerful "in-group" conversations. The solution isn't to "blow up" the system but to focus on small, intentional, and consistent acts of inclusion and systems change. Connect with Shanna at hockingleadership.com.

I have to admit, I was nervous to do this interview. I met Ruchika Malhotra by chance years ago, and have been in awe of her work ever since. She is the visionary author behind the new book, Uncompete. Building on her viral conversation about imposter syndrome, Ruchika delves into the core thesis of her latest work: the necessity of rejecting a destructive culture of competition to unlock true, sustainable success. She challenges the ingrained notion that scarcity and cutthroat individualism are the only paths to achievement, arguing instead that collaboration, abundance, radical generosity, inclusion, and solidarity are the keys to professional and personal fulfillment. Ruchika shares powerful insights on how modern, profit-driven systems push us toward fear-based competition—a behavior that fundamentally runs counter to our human need for community and connection. The conversation explores how this cultural "default" impacts everything from the workplace to personal health and even major life decisions like starting a family. Here are my favorite takeaways: Competition is a Short-Term Fix, Collaboration is the Long-Term Strategy: The current societal and corporate default toward competition often stems from a fear-based, scarcity mindset, but this approach only yields short-term gains. True, sustained success comes from moving away from a "winner-take-all" mentality and intentionally fostering environments built on collaboration, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Micro-validations matter: Genuine allyship is not a passive title but an active, conscious effort to uplift others, especially those who have been historically overlooked. Ruchika emphasizes that simple "micro-validations" of support, such as personally advocating for someone or giving credit where it's due, can significantly change the trajectory of a person's life and foster meaningful connections. Redefine Success: It's About Connection, Not Capital: When asked to look back on their lives, people's measures of success overwhelmingly center on the time they spent with people they love and the strength of their community, not their financial accumulation. The practice of Uncompete challenges listeners to redefine what success means to them, prioritizing community and well-being over the pressure to constantly compete for money or status. Celebrate Ruchika's new book Uncompete at uncompetebook.com.

Kae Williams is a global software marketing executive on a mission to empower women in their careers through her work and her forthcoming book, Not Made For You. Kae works diligently to raise awareness about bias and hostile work cultures so that every woman will feel supported, respected, and enabled to achieve her full potential. Here are three key takeaways from the conversation about measuring organizational culture: Culture Needs Tangible Metrics, Not Just Talk: Organizations must treat culture like a business outcome, measuring it with the same rigor they apply to revenue and profit. This means looking at metrics such as retention rate and understanding that the main drivers of people leaving are burnout, not feeling supported, and lack of career growth. Focus on the "How," Not Just the "What": Performance reviews and rewards must balance the results an employee achieves with how they achieve them. A high performer who creates a toxic work environment will ultimately cost the company more in lost talent than the revenue they generate. Companies should actively reward behaviors like leading with empathy and being a "culture maker". Support and Train Your Managers: Middle managers are essential to the employee experience, but are often stuck without the right tools. Equipping them with skills like giving constructive, behavior-based feedback and knowing how to coach their teams is vital. Furthermore, organizations must audit workloads to prevent burnout and shift non-promotable tasks to avoid over-burdening women and marginalized employees. Follow Kae at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaekronthalerwilliams/

This episode features Landon Ashworth, an actor, director, and filmmaker with a background as a pilot and a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He discusses his personal journey as an autistic individual and the inspiration behind his award-winning new film, Go On. Here are three key takeaways from the discussion: A Journey of Resilience and Reinvention. Landon Ashworth shared that as a child, he was a bullied autistic kid who was advised to try acting classes to mask his autism and learn to fit in. This led to a lifelong background in the arts, even as he pursued his primary dream of becoming an astronaut, which involved flight school, becoming a test pilot, and earning advanced degrees in astrophysics and filmmaking. After repeatedly facing setbacks in his astronaut career due to changing NASA requirements and budget cuts, he turned back to filmmaking. Creating One's Own Opportunities. A casting director advised Ashworth that every A-list celebrity has their own production company, encouraging him to create his own work instead of waiting for opportunities. Initially, his black-and-white interpretation of this advice led him to write, direct, and edit nearly a thousand comedy sketches completely by himself, as he struggled with the social dynamics and unreliability of collaboration. However, his career plateaued until he began to seek advice from showrunners, ultimately leading him on a path of scriptwriting and short filmmaking, culminating in the creation of his feature film. The Power and Purpose of Go On. Ashworth's feature film, Go On, was written in a single 36-hour period as he processed the loss of his young autistic cousin to suicide. The film is his attempt to pay tribute to his cousin and is a story about a person in purgatory wrestling with past trauma and unable to process it, ultimately exploring themes of grief, healing, and the resilience of the human mind. He shared that his ultimate hope is that the film gives people hope, and he has already received messages from three individuals stating that watching the film helped prevent them from taking their own lives. Ashworth is committed to answering every message he receives, seeing his platform as a space for the "underdog".

Chantelle Lewis and Jason Arday, co-authors of the book We See Things They'll Never See, join the show to discuss their work. Arday, a professor of sociology of education at the University of Cambridge, and Lewis, an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Black British Studies at Pembroke College, the University of Oxford, delve into how their experiences as Black, neurodivergent academics influenced their book. Together, they share the motivation behind their work, highlighting the importance of challenging societal infringements and advocating for marginalized communities. Here are my favorite takeaways: We discuss the importance of showing compassion and empathy, especially to those who seem to deserve it the least. As Arday states, "sometimes when people least deserve it, that's when they deserve the most compassion". Lewis explains the book's critical look at the workplace, where neurodivergent individuals are sometimes seen as "superhumans" who can produce more for a capitalist system. This creates a system in which their marginalization is used to uphold a system of oppression. "The way we are marginalized can also be used as a way to keep this system in place," Lewis says. Arday and Lewis propose that to improve society, there must be a move away from the current educational model. This includes the abolition of exams, as they are not necessarily correlated with future success or positive academic outcomes. Lewis argues that "we need to stop measuring education outcomes by just test scores." Follow Dr Chantelle Jessica Lewis' research at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, podcast Surviving Society