Lead to Soar

Michelle Redfern & Mel Butcher
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Lead to Soar is the podcast where ambitious women get strategic, evidence-based guidance to reach their full potential and reshape the systems that hold them back. Each episode delivers practical leadership insights grounded in Business, Emotional and Social Intelligence so women can lead with impact and advance their careers on their own terms. leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    The Leadership Double Bind: Why Executive Women Still Can’t Win

    Executive women are still judged against a narrow idea of what credible leadership looks and sounds like. Warmth can be mistaken for a lack of commercial acumen, authority can be interpreted as aggression, and likeability can become part of an assessment that should be about capability and results. In this episode of Lead to Soar, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher explore what happens when women refuse to assimilate into workplace cultures built around hard-coded gender stereotypes. They discuss why warm, energetic and relational women are so often underestimated, how BQ, EQ and SQ shape leadership credibility, and how women can read the room and make their value unmistakable while staying connected to who they are. Truth Bomb: organisations keep mistaking warmth for a lack of business acumen, then lose commercially capable women to competitors with better judgment. Michelle and Mel also share practical language women can use when feedback starts sounding more like a style preference than a serious assessment of leadership. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Jul 26

    Clean Up on Aisle Seven: How Executive Women Get Assigned Other Peoples Work

    The conversation about non-promotable tasks does not end when women reach the executive table. It just gets more expensive. In Episode 229, Mel and Michelle take the office housework conversation somewhere it rarely goes: into the C-suite and executive tier, where the stakes are higher, the patterns are harder to see, and the costs show up in titles, salary bands, and what you actually spend your days doing. Michelle shares her own experience of being the only woman on an executive team of eight, holding a lesser title than all seven of her male peers, and becoming the unofficial coaching hub for the entire organisation because her male colleagues sent her their problems and kept the interesting (aka promotable) work for themselves. The episode covers two layers of this problem: women being structurally channelled into enabling roles with no P&L responsibility, and the informal offloading of people management and emotional labour onto the woman who said yes once and never quite stopped. It also delivers a practical BQ gap analysis to help you name what is happening and have a fact-based conversation with someone who can do something about it. And there is a direct word for decision-makers. If you are tolerating senior leaders who abdicate their people responsibilities onto the nearest woman, this one is also for you. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jul 19

    Women of Consequence: What Women Leaders Who Are Respected Do Differently

    There's a question Michelle puts to every group of women she works with on leadership reputation: what would your boss say about you? The answers are almost always the same. Helpful. Dependable. Reliable. Great team player. And then silence where strategic, consequential, and trusted with outcomes should be. This episode is about that silence and what breaks it. Mel and Michelle dig into three things women leaders need to get right to change how they're seen at work: knowing your no, delegation as a financial and strategic skill rather than a management preference, and understanding your positional purpose what do they actually pay you to do around here? The gap between being liked and being a woman of consequence is not a confidence problem. It's a clarity problem. This episode addresses it directly. Self-assessment link below.https://www.research.net/r/WhatsYourRep Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 12

    Should I Stay or Should I Go? Neither. Here's a Third Option.

    The answer most women get when they've outgrown their role is one of two things: be patient, or go find something better. Mel and Michelle don't buy either as a default response. In this episode they work through the third option. Using the real story of a CFO-ready executive who's been blocked by an incumbent boss for two years, they break down three practical moves: closing your readiness gap through targeted professional development, lifting your team so you can operate above your current level, and extending your influence well beyond your immediate lane. This is a career strategy conversation for women who are delivering, have capacity, and are ready for the role above. The actual moves to make while the door above you stays closed. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Jul 5

    Radical Transparency: Why It Can Be a Winner for Women at Work

    Radical transparency is not just a leadership style. For women at work, it is a structural advantage. When leaders commit to genuine transparency, the conditions that have historically worked against women start to shift. Pay gaps narrow when salaries are visible. Promotion processes become fair when the criteria are clear. Information networks open up when knowledge is shared, not hoarded. In Episode 226, Mel and Michelle explore what radical transparency actually looks like in practice, what it produces for teams and organisations, and why women are among its greatest beneficiaries regardless of the gender of the leader practising it. This one came directly from the Lead to Soar community. A member shared her CEO's approach to radical transparency in Hour of Power, and the conversation was too good to stay in the room. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Jun 28

    Tired of Being Tired? What Mel and Michelle Actually Do

    This one is a little different. No frameworks. No research papers. Just Mel and Michelle getting real about what actually sustains them when life is heavy, and the load is relentless. They cover sleep as serious infrastructure, not a lifestyle indulgence. The quiet shift away from alcohol and what that has actually changed. Movement that brings genuine joy rather than punishing obligation. And the particular exhaustion of being a woman who was raised to cope and never to ask. Honest, warm, and genuinely useful. Sometimes the most feminist thing you can do is take care of yourself so you can keep showing up. Books referenced: The Future of Sleep by Catherine Ball, Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker, The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Jun 21

    7 Job Hunting Tips for Ambitious Women to Use

    Job hunting hell is real. Submitting applications into the void, waiting, hearing nothing, wondering what is going wrong. Mel and Michelle are here with the tough love answer. A significant chunk of advertised roles are not real openings. AI-assisted applications are not the edge anyone thinks they are. And online applications are the career equivalent of throwing your CV into the wind. This episode covers the 7 job hunting tips that actually work, including how to crack the hidden job market, make courageous asks, leverage your network with intent, and pick up the damn phone. Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jun 14

    Leaders Are Measuring the Wrong Things and Women Are Paying for It.

    Leaders are measuring the wrong things. The work that holds organisations together, the mentoring, the client salvage, the culture-building, the covering, the onboarding, does not fit neatly into a KPI. So it goes uncounted. And the people doing it are, consistently and disproportionately, women. In episode 223, Mel and Michelle make the leadership case for fixing this. Leaders who expect this work from their teams must measure it, compensate it, and distribute it equitably. The Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report is unambiguous: women are more engaged than men in every region in the world. They are also reporting significantly higher rates of daily stress and sadness. That data tells you exactly what this imbalance is costing. This episode covers what leaders must audit, what metrics apply to work that feels nebulous, and what role design looks like when a leader gets it right. If you are a woman navigating this and want people in your corner, the Lead to Soar Network is where you bring it. Gallup Report Join Lead to Soar Get full access to Lead to Soar Podcast at leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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About

Lead to Soar is the podcast where ambitious women get strategic, evidence-based guidance to reach their full potential and reshape the systems that hold them back. Each episode delivers practical leadership insights grounded in Business, Emotional and Social Intelligence so women can lead with impact and advance their careers on their own terms. leadtosoarpodcast.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Michelle Redfern & Mel Butcher
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    213
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Michelle Redfern
  • Show Website
    Lead to Soar

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