Leadership Variations: Unfiltered
Season 1: Cracking the Code – From Underestimated to Undeniable spotlights senior women in STEM who’ve broken barriers and redefined success. If you’re a woman in science, tech, engineering, or math—or you lead teams in these fields—this series offers real stories, bold leadership, and hard-won insight you won’t hear anywhere else. These candid conversations go beyond inspiration—they offer career insight, leadership lessons, and visibility strategies for STEM women leaders navigating executive paths.
Each episode features unfiltered stories from women who’ve risen to executive roles in industries that weren’t built for them. We unpack how they navigated bias, burnout, reinvention, and visibility—without apology and without a playbook.
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered is a limited-series podcast exposing the messier side of leadership—the parts no one talks about, but every leader lives. Each series explores a different high-stakes topic: rising without apology as a woman in STEM, redefining success after burnout or reinvention, busting leadership myths that don’t hold up in the real world, making bold talent decisions without a clear playbook, and leading when the politics are real—but the guidance is vague.
If you’re leading through complexity, developing leaders others overlook, or navigating visibility at the top—this podcast is for you.
Hosted by Dr. Amy Bladen Shatto—a leadership strategist and executive coach with 25+ years of experience advising senior leaders and developing talent in high-growth and Fortune 100 companies
Learn more at www.leadershipvariations.com
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Pilar Baltar, Perplexity AI & Various Top Tech Firms
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In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto sits down with Pilar Baltar, Business Fellow at Perplexity AI and former senior executive across global Microsoft partner organizations, to explore what it truly takes to lead at the intersection of AI, revenue, and executive power.
With over 20 years leading large-scale tech transformations across EMEA and the U.S., Pilar shares her journey from computational linguistics to AI strategy, and what women in technology must understand to rise — and stay — at the senior table.
This episode dives into:
- How AI is disrupting hiring, resumes, and executive recruitment
- Why companies are flipping interviews in the age of generative AI
- The shift from technical expert to leader-of-leaders
- Navigating executive power as a woman in male-dominated tech
- Why “likability vs. gravitas” is a false binary
- The commercial truth women must understand to reach the C-suite
If you're a woman in STEM, AI, tech consulting, or executive leadership — this is a must-listen.
🎧 Listen now and subscribe for science-based leadership insights that drive real business value.
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Chapters:
02:50 – From English Major to AI Leader
04:00 – The AI Resume Disruption
08:30 – Will Resumes Survive AI?
10:20 – AI Maturity in Organizations
14:20 – The Shift to Leader of Leaders
16:50 – Delivering Through Others
19:00 – Gender & Executive Perception
21:00 – Gravitas vs. Likability
24:00 – Feedback Deficit for Women in Tech
25:35 – The Undeniable Take
Watch & Subscribe
🎥 Watch this conversation and explore more Unfiltered leadership content: www.youtube.com/@leadershipvariations
Work with Dr. Amy Bladen Shatto
📈 Tired of being underestimated? Partner with a coach who specializes in helping leaders in STEM break barriers and accelerate impact. Book a consultation → https://calendly.com/abladenshatto/30min
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About the Host
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered is hosted by Dr. Amy Bladen Shatto, PhD, PCC, BCC — an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 25 years of experience helping organizations make faster, smarter leadership decisions. She specializes in science-based assessment, executive coaching, and leadership development strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes.