What I'm Listening to: Women at Work (podcast)
What’s a word for that feeling where you’re listening to someone talk on a podcast and it resonates so much with your personal experience you find yourself yelling, “YES! THIS!” at your phone?
My friend, Leslie, and I were chatting over drinks in Cleveland a couple months ago, discussing work - but not the day-to-day part of our jobs. We were digging into our overall experiences: our strengths, blind spots, goals, obstacles. While we were chatting, she recommended that I check out HBR’s “Women at Work” podcast. I immediately subscribed, but it took me a solid month+ to actually listen. Now, I’m hooked.
In the show, hosts Amy Bernstein, Amy Gallo and Nicole Torres (and Sarah Green Carmichael in the first two seasons) thoughtfully discuss big topics that affect, well, women (and everyone) at work: perfectionism, making yourself heard, leading with authenticity. How do you decide how much of your “full self” to disclose at work? How does perfectionism fuel your imposter syndrome? What does it mean to have a sponsor at work? At the time, I was feeling overwhelmed by one stressful project at work, while also working on a presentation I was really excited about — about employee health and work stress. When I began organizing my thoughts for the presentation, I scrolled through the backlog of episodes and downloaded the one on burnout. I have now listened to that episode three times.
What makes it special is their honesty and candor. Plus the fact that they clearly like and respect each other outside of the studio. Their conversations with experts dig into these well-worn (and sometimes tired feeling) topics in more pointed ways. They ask for specific advice on how to handle tricky situations, and give examples of things they’ve dealt with in their own professional lives. conversations Every time I listen to a new episode, I think of someone I want to share it with.
I’m still catching up (and doing so uncharacteristically out of order!), but my favorite episodes and top recommendations so far are:
S1 E3: Lead with Authenticity
S2 E5: Perfect Is the Enemy
S2 E11: Self-Disclosure at Work (and Behind the Mic)
S3 E1: Managing Burnout
S4 E3: Sponsorship: Defining the Relationship
S4 E5: How We Take Care of Ourselves
(Which, hey! I wrote about at my job!)
So yeah, I wasn’t expecting to fall in love a podcast that talks about workplace issues, but here we are!