PODCAST · business
Lead to Soar
by Michelle Redfern & Mel Butcher
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
Episodes
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Nothing Left to Lose: When It’s Safe to Speak Up
A colleague decides to act on a workplace bully everyone else has been too afraid to challenge, after management’s own attempt to fix things made the problem worse. Michelle and Mel use the story to ask a harder question: how do you work out whether you’re actually safe enough to speak up, and…
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Who Gets to Speak Their Mind at Work, and Who Gets Called Abrasive?
Years ago, Michelle Redfern told her manager at one of Australia's big banks that the team had a politeness problem. He told her to keep speaking up. A couple of years later she had a reputation, and one of the words attached to it was "abrasive." Mel Butcher and Michelle look at who gets to…
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No One Should Care About Your Career As Much As You Do
Career pathing is rarely as linear as it looks, and in Michelle's organisational diagnostic work, the single biggest gap women report is that their manager isn't giving them useful career advice. In this episode, Mel and Michelle pull apart why the traditional career ladder is a scarcity game…
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You Read the Book. Nothing Happened
A listener wrote in with a question anyone with a shelf of half-read leadership books will recognise. She reads good books. She underlines the useful parts. Nothing changes. Mel and Michelle did not script an answer. They worked it out in real time, and the diagnosis arrives fast. If your life is...
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Women Are Cleaning Up AI's Mess For Free, with Kara Bombell
Somebody has to clean up after a technology moving faster than the people responsible for it can manage, and that job keeps landing on women, unpaid and uncredentialed. Kara Bombell, co-founder of Ethic AI and a former chief operations officer, joins Michelle and Mel to unpack the difference...
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What Would Happen if a World-Class CEO Took Over Your Life?
This episode takes the "world-class CEO" conversation personal: what does it look like if a CEO with that calibre of judgement took over your life the way they'd take over a business? Mel puts herself forward as the test case, and Michelle runs the exercise live, on air. Mel's life gets mapped…
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What Makes a CEO World Class?
Are we actually looking at CEOs the right way? No, we're not. We're doing it inside a patriarchal context, inside a capitalist system, and calling the result "world-class." Mel and Michelle went looking for a definition that holds up outside that frame and couldn't find one, so this episode…
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The Good Girl Tax
Being praised as a good team player feels rewarding. Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher call out what it actually costs this episode: a tax on women who’ve been socialised to say yes, one that rarely shows up in your pay or your title. Two women in engineering consulting were asked to take on more...
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Your AI Has a Default Setting, and It Isn't You
Michelle ran an experiment. She asked Gemini and Claude the same question, at the same time: how do I ask my manager for a pay rise? Gemini's answer was generic and gendered: just be bold, ask for what you want. No mention of the barriers women navigate to be heard as credible in the first place....
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Your Employer Is the Second Most Significant Relationship You Have
Mel sits down with English and rhetoric professor Dr Jenny Young, whose Burn the Haystack method teaches women to read the language men use on dating apps for what it actually reveals. This conversation goes well past dating: toxic rhetorical patterns, the "test and apologise" tactic, and why a...
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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....
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Sponsors Over Mentors: What Ambitious Women Leaders Must Know
Women leaders are over-mentored and under-promoted. The mechanism that actually closes that gap is sponsorship, and there is a significant difference between the two. In Episode 217, Mel and Michelle break down what sponsorship is, how it works in practice, what ambitious women need to do to earn...
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WTF Do I Actually Do? How Women Can Navigate a Broken System of Work
Last week Mel and Michelle called out the problem. This week they talk about what women can actually do about it. Six strategies for navigating a workplace that was never designed for women. From getting clear on where you actually stand, to building the business acumen that makes you harder to...
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5 More Ways Women Are Absolutely Not the Problem.
Mel and Michelle have been saying "fix the system, not the women" for years. In this episode, they make it concrete. Five signs your workplace is the problem: from merit myths and meaningless confidence feedback, to the global DEI rollback and cultures built on silence. No Pollyanna. No…
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Stop Throwing Women in a Room and Calling It Networking
Most networking events for women are lazy. Not malicious. Lazy. Someone books a venue, lines up a speaker, fills the room with wine and canapés, and expects the magic to happen. It doesn't. And the women in the room get blamed for not working the crowd hard enough. In this episode, Mel Butcher…
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The Busy Trap: How Effective Women Leaders Actually Manage Their Time
"I don't have time" is one of the most common things Michelle hears from leaders across every level, every sector, every cohort. In this episode, Michelle and Mel get into what high BQ leaders actually do differently with their time and why "too busy" is often less about workload and more about...
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How Ambitious Women Tackle Ageism and Identity Bias
In this solo episode, Mel Butcher responds to two questions she has been asked by women in her network: one about whether to hide years of experience to avoid being judged as too young, and one about whether to anglicise a name on a resume to improve the odds of getting an interview. Both…
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Moral Ambition: Why Prestige Is Not the Same as Impact
In this episode of Lead to Soar, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher discuss Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman. The conversation centres on Bregman’s critique of so-called “b******t jobs” — roles that are well-paid, high-status, and socially approved, yet exist largely to protect power, manage...
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Why Women's Leadership Ambition Matters More than Ever Right Now
Ambition has acquired a negative connotation for women. Openly ambitious women are (too) often seen as selfish, excessive, or dangerous. At the same time, women are encouraged to be patient, resilient, and grateful, even as they navigate systems that are inherently resistant to change and unfair....
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International Women’s Day 2026: Who Made You Free?
Let’s cut through the noise. International Women’s Day comes around. Brands share purple graphics. Panels discuss “empowerment.” Meanwhile, women’s rights are being eroded worldwide. So Mel Butcher asked the only question that matters: Who made you free? Michelle Redfern talks about her Nana and...
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Goal Setting for Managers: How to Set Annual Objectives With Your Team
If you’re about to run annual objectives with your team, you are holding a leadership moment in your hands. You can make it clear and useful, or you can end up with a set of goals that might look “nice” but not create the outcomes you want this year. In this episode, Mel and Michelle discuss the...
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Delegation Is Not Optional: The Leadership Skill That Separates Experts from Executives
Delegation is not about doing less. Delegation means leading at the level you want to be recognised for. In this episode, Mel and Michelle analyse a pattern we see over and over again in women’s careers. Talented, committed leaders become indispensable by excelling at execution, only to find that...
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The Life Audit: A Simple Way for Ambitious Women Leaders to Reset
We’re told (too often in our opinion) that the new year is about resolutions. Do more. Be better. Fix yourself. In this episode, we challenge that narrative and talk about what genuinely supports change over time. Reflective practice sits at the heart of effective leadership, yet many women are...
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What Smart People Do When Life Gets Messy and Work Gets Complicated
Subscribe now “Be authentic at work” is some of the most commonly given career advice, and some of the most dangerous, especially for women and others without structural power. In this episode Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher call b******t on the idea that honesty and openness are always safe or...
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How to Steer Your Review to Be About Results, Not Personality
Performance reviews are meant to assess contribution, results, and business impact. Yet for many women, they become subjective conversations about tone, confidence, or how they “come across.” In Episode 204, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher discuss why women are disproportionately judged on...
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Unlocking Your Voice: The Strategic Visibility Every Woman Leader Needs
Visibility does not equal influence. In this episode of the Lead to Soar Podcast, Michelle Redfern explains why many women leaders are seen and heard, yet still overlooked when it comes to power, promotion, and decision-making. Drawing on The Leadership Compass, she outlines how strategic...
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Who Are You Called to Become as a Leader?
This isn’t your average leadership pep talk. In this episode, Michelle Redfern invites you into a quiet, reflective, and deeply practical session designed to help you pause, breathe, and think intentionally about the leader and the woman you are called to become. Drawing on her personal…
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The Glass Cliff: What It Is and How Women Get Set Up
Being asked to “fix” an underperforming team or leader can be a genuine opportunity ... or a glass cliff. Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher break down how to assess high-stakes roles, identify red flags, and determine whether you’re being set up to succeed or to take the fall. Essential guidance…
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Why LinkedIn Is No Longer Enough — Our Revised Career Advice for Ambitious Women
Women are heading into the end of 2025 more stretched, more visible, and more scrutinised than ever. At the same time, the platforms we once relied on to build our reputations have shifted under our feet. This 200th episode names what’s changed, what no longer works, and what ambitious women...
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Professional Jealousy: What Is It & How Does it Show Up?
In this episode, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher tackle a workplace issue most people experience but rarely discuss openly: professional jealousy. They walk through how jealousy shows up, how it can be weaponised through policy or gossip, and why it can have serious consequences for someone’s...
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Women’s Courage Will Define Leadership in the Age of AI
Technology is racing ahead — but courage and conscience must lead the way. In this episode, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher explore how women leaders can be the dissenting voices that keep ethics, empathy, and humanity at the centre of progress. If this episode resonated, I invite you to join…
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How to Play the Long Game in Your Career
Your future self is counting on you. In this episode, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher explore how ambitious women can play the long game — building strategy, visibility, and momentum that leads to real career success.They explore how to show up for your future self by thinking and acting...
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Credibility and Visibility: Why You Need Both to Progress
Competence alone doesn’t create credibility. Michelle and Mel reveal why visibility and credibility must work together if you want to be chosen for high-value work. They share how to talk about your achievements without the cringe, use language that lands with decision-makers, and demonstrate...
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From Hope to Strategy: Turning Ambition into Outcomes
Hope is not a strategy. Michelle and Mel show you how to define your full potential, state your ambition with a business lens, and build a roadmap that aligns your moves to real business outcomes. Practical prompts and language you can use this week.In this episode• Why “waiting to be noticed”...
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Too Nice to Lead? Managing Up to an Ineffective Boss
We’ve all met this leader: pleasant, agreeable, and conflict-avoidant—the kind of manager everyone likes but few respect. In this Lead to Soar episode, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher dissect the “too nice to lead” phenomenon and offer practical strategies for ambitious professionals who report…
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Why Being Busy and Obedient Is a Losing Career Strategy
This episode asks the big career question: What happens when you stay busy, wait patiently, and hope to be noticed? Michelle and Mel dismantle the “good girl” model of leadership and explain why obedience, helpfulness, and non-promotable tasks (NPTs) won’t get you where you want to go. Instead,...
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Why Loyalty Is for Labradors, Not Women Leaders
Loyalty is still one of the most praised traits in women at work. Loyal to a leader. Loyal to a team. Loyal to an organisation that no longer has your back. In 2025, that expectation hasn’t softened. If anything, it has hardened. In this episode of Lead to Soar, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher...
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Inside the Lead to Soar Network
In this episode of the Lead to Soar podcast, co-founder Michelle Redfern takes listeners inside the Lead to Soar Network. She explains what actually happens inside: weekly Hour of Power group coaching, monthly themes and challenges, and a highly curated leadership library she calls the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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
HOSTED BY
Michelle Redfern & Mel Butcher
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Lead to Soar have?
Lead to Soar currently has 222 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Lead to Soar 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...
How often does Lead to Soar release new episodes?
Lead to Soar publishes regularly with 222 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Lead to Soar?
You can listen to Lead to Soar on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Lead to Soar?
Lead to Soar is created and hosted by Michelle Redfern & Mel Butcher.
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