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Speech Bubbles with Charlotte Otter

Speech Bubbles with Charlotte Otter

Auteur(s): Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard
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 Be seen and heard as the leader you are. A podcast that has conversations about reputation, diversity, and leadership with leaders from diverse backgrounds and diverse identities so that we can normalise their success, accept new models of leadership, take back power, and start to change the leadership status quo once and for all.Solid Gold Podcasts and Audiobooks Économie
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  • Your Difference is an Asset with Barbara Salopek

    Your Difference is an Asset with Barbara Salopek
    Feb 2 2026
    Diversity delivers value.

    In this episode of Speech Bubbles, Charlotte Otter talks to Barbara Salopek - Founder & CEO of Vinco Innovation, TEDx speaker, lecturer at BI Norwegian Business School, board member, and author of Future Fit Innovation - to unpack a powerful leadership truth: the very things that make you different can become your biggest advantage.

    Barbara, Croatian-born and Norway-based, challenges the modern obsession with innovation shortcuts. She argues that real, sustainable innovation isn’t delivered by a single workshop or the latest fashionable framework. It’s built by doing the deeper work: understanding individuals, how they form teams, and how teams operate inside organisations shaped by technology, markets, and society. Her three-level lens makes innovation feel less like hype and more like a capability leaders can intentionally grow.

    A standout theme is the link between diversity and psychological safety. Barbara makes the case that diversity can’t deliver value if people don’t feel safe enough to speak. When the loudest voices dominate and everyone else goes quiet, organisations end up with echo chambers, weak decisions, and missed customer insight. Her memorable analogy lands the point: we don’t expect everyone to wear the same shoe size - so why would we design one-size-fits-all products, solutions, or cultures?

    The conversation also explores Barbara’s leadership journey: learning under pressure early in her career, developing a practical, action-oriented style, and navigating cultural differences between direct Croatian communication and more conflict-avoidant Norwegian norms. Barbara shares what it took to write Future Fit Innovation alongside full-time work - including reviewing 50–60 scientific articles - and why she ultimately enjoyed the process more than she expected. Follow Barbara on LinkedIn · Buy Barbara's book · Barbara and her work · · Follow Charlotte on LinkedIn · Subscribe to Speech Bubbles the newsletter · Link to buy We Need New Leaders
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    34 min
  • Neuroscience and Leadership with Susan Ní Chríodáin

    Neuroscience and Leadership with Susan Ní Chríodáin
    Jan 19 2026
    Just because I feel it, doesn't make it true.

    In this episode of Speech Bubbles, host Charlotte Otter talks to Susan Ní Chríodáin - facilitator, leadership coach, podcaster, and award-winning author of Leading Beyond the Numbers: How Accounting for Emotions Tips the Balance at Work - to unpack what happens when we stop pretending work is purely rational.

    Susan shares a deceptively simple idea with massive consequences: our brains predict what’s about to happen next, and we often treat those predictions (and the emotions that follow) as facts. But just because my brain thinks it, it doesn’t make it true - and the same goes for feelings. Charlotte and Susan explore how workplace assumptions harden into permanent impressions, why personal responsibility is the antidote to reactive leadership, and how a shift from empathy-as-assumption to compassion-as-curiosity can transform relationships, performance, and trust.

    They talk body budgeting (sleep, movement, hydration), the grind of book marketing, the danger of outsourcing self-worth to external validation, and the leadership liberation that comes from three words: “I don’t know.”

    This is one of those episodes that lands in both head and heart — neuroscience with warmth, strategy with humanity, and a clear call to build leadership cultures where every voice counts.

    What you’ll learn:
    * Why your brain’s predictions can sabotage workplace relationships (and how to change them)
    * The “accounting for emotions” model: a balance sheet for energy, identity, and sustainability
    * Why Susan prefers compassion over empathy — and the question that changes everything
    * How body budgeting (sleep, movement, breaks) impacts performance and decision-making
    * The leadership power move hiding in plain sight: admitting you don’t know Follow Susan on LinkedIn · Learn more about Susan's work · Buy Susan's book · · Follow Charlotte on LinkedIn · Subscribe to Speech Bubbles the newsletter · Link to buy We Need New Leaders
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    46 min
  • Employee Ownership and Leadership with Eithne Devine-Hynes

    Employee Ownership and Leadership with Eithne Devine-Hynes
    Jan 6 2026
    What happens when a company becomes employee-owned?

    In this episode of Speech Bubbles, Charlotte Otter sits down with Eithne Devine-Hynes, CEO of DeltaXignia, to unpack the leadership and cultural shift that comes with becoming an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

    Eithne explains why becoming an EOT is not a switch you flip, but a story you have to bring to life through governance, education, transparency, and culture. She explains the practical structure behind EOTs, including trustees and quarterly governance rhythms.

    On leadership: Eithne’s most formative training came from leading large projects without authority, learning how to win buy-in through clarity, metrics, and mission rather than hierarchy. She also offers a powerful reframing of diversity as diversity of thought and argues that employee ownership could play a role in tackling long-term wealth imbalance by keeping value inside communities.

    Eithne’s advice for emerging leaders is clear and energising: be yourself, stay authentic, and don’t dim your light for anyone.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:
    * What an Employee Ownership Trust is and how it works in practice
    * Why culture is the heartbeat of employee-owned companies
    * How financial transparency helps employees think and act like owners
    * The underrated leadership superpower of leading without authority
    * How to challenge outdated leadership archetypes with authenticity

    This is a thoughtful exploration with an insightful leader of how employee ownership, culture, and authentic leadership come together to create businesses where people don’t just work for success, they collectively own it. Follow Eithne on LinkedIn · Read Eithne's story · · Follow Charlotte on LinkedIn · Subscribe to Speech Bubbles the newsletter · Link to buy We Need New Leaders
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    43 min
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