I'm a writer, communicator and former journalist. I'm also a former executive and leader of a large global team in a software company. This experience gave me a ringside seat around boardroom tables where I saw men of a certain background being shuffled to the top roles, other men failing upwards to take and retain their places at those tables, while women and others from diverse backgrounds or with diverse identities start well in their leadership careers and then fall right off the glass cliff once they reach the highest level.
I'm seeing the same in politics where competence is overruled by a tired leadership archetype of power, control and command. He who shouts the loudest seems to win. I once worked with an exec who faced with a crucial presentation declared, don't worry, I'll just go in there and talk really loudly.
As his team, we had a good laugh and admired his chutzpah. But on reflection, I wasn't sure that the career of a woman or a person of color could survive such a strategy. In addition to old models of leadership, work is failing us.
We have a burnout epidemic, an ongoing battle between executives and employees about return to office policies, an obsession with short-termism in the form of quarterly results and a consistent failure to get enough people of different identities around the boardroom table, not to mention companies reneging on their diversity, equity and inclusion promises.
I came away with a conviction that we need new leaders. Having worked as a communicator, I started to wonder, like Carrie Bradshaw, could the tools of reputation management help emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds and of diverse identities, land, keep, and create their dream jobs and so increase the number of new leaders in the workplace?
My name is Charlotte Otter and this is Speech Bubbles, a podcast that has conversations about reputation, diversity, and leadership with leaders from diverse backgrounds and of diverse identities so that we can normalize their success, accept new models of leadership, take back power, and start to change the leadership status quo once and for all.
Since communication is a vital part of reputation building, we'll also hear from communicators. In this podcast I answer your FAQs and do 'Ask Me Anything' sessions. I also do deep dive interviews and one-on-ones as well as short snappy episodes with communications tips and advice from my career in writing, journalism, and corporate communications.
Speech Bubbles is the place where we start to reverse the power structures, change stale leadership archetypes, and forge new ones in order to make work and the world a better place for us all. · Website · LinkedIn · Substack
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Feb 20 20253 min