Speak Your Mind Unapologetically Podcast

She Asked Her CIO for a New Challenge at Lunch. Got a "Poison Chalice" Role. Flew to Japan in December 2019. Beat COVID by Three Weeks. PVH VP Shatabdi on Small Acts of Courage With Big Consequences.
At a lunch with her CIO, she asked a simple question: "Is there a specific role where you need help? I'm ready to take a new challenge, even change my domain completely." The answer was an invitation to lead PVH's global SAP/ERP transformation across Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and North America. She had no team in Asia Pacific. She had less than two months to build one remotely from the United States. People in the room called it a poison chalice. She flew to Japan in December 2019, got the team in place, flew home in January 2020. COVID hit weeks later. She had made it by the skin of her teeth.
That is one story. But Shatabdi, VP of Global Application Engineering Services at PVH Corp — home of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein — believes the more important stories are the small ones. The under-60-second moments. The ones that most senior leaders stay quiet through.
In this episode, she shares both kinds.
You'll learn:
A woman in a meeting quietly mentioned her son kept missing his classes because someone kept scheduling meetings after 5 PM. Shatabdi backed her up in under a minute. That intervention spread into a best practice across PVH's global time zones including Hong Kong and Bangalore.
Why she credits a single direct ask at a CIO lunch for the entire trajectory of her VP career, and what she said that made the difference between getting an opportunity and being overlooked.
How she heard people call her new role a "poison chalice" and responded by using their doubt as fuel: "If my leaders believe in me, I should believe in myself."
What happened when a co-op intern named Christopher walked into her office and told her the access request process could be simplified to save significant man hours — and added that an AI solution could auto-fill the whole thing. She was amazed. She calls it reverse mentorship.
The moment her longtime colleague Brian McGrath introduced her in a room by saying "if she's in the meeting, I know it's going to go positive" — and why that kind of public acknowledgment primes an entire room to actually listen to you.
The "we vs. I" leadership model she uses: collaborative "we" language for collective goals, firm "I" language for deadlines and deliverables. And why learning when to use which one took her longer than developing either.
How she structures team communication across three levels — broad town halls, staff meetings that start with "how's your family?", and one-on-ones where she opens up first about her own week — to build the kind of trust that makes honest feedback land well in both directions.
About Shatabdi: Vice President of Global Application Engineering Services at PVH Corp, the fashion company behind Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Shatabdi leads a global team across North America, Europe, Hong Kong, and Bangalore. She previously led e-commerce at Hitachi Consulting and at PVH before pivoting into global ERP transformation leadership.

He Interrupted Her Mid-Sentence and Said "I Don't Agree." She Asked: "How Many Recruitment Drives Have You Led?" CHRO Deepashri on Standing Your Ground
It was her first day in a new role. The leadership team was deep into planning the launch of a major production system. She raised her hand and asked: "What about the people strategy?" Everyone looked at her like she was speaking a different language. "What does people have to do with this? It's a manufacturing system." She asked again. Still dismissed. Still polite. Still ignored.
She could have let it go. Instead, she spent six months building an irrefutable business case. She spoke to the consultants. She researched the ROI. She calculated exactly what would be lost if people failed to adopt the system. She pre-worked the stakeholders she already had relationships with, one by one, so she would not be the only voice in the room when the moment came. Then she walked into a meeting with the global head of manufacturing, the global head of HR, and the other senior sponsors. She was the only woman in the room. She was a nervous wreck. She had her game face on.
She got the budget. She got the resources. She built a people pillar that outlasted her, survived an acquisition, and is still running today.
Deepashri is Chief Human Resources Officer at 8th Ave Food and Provisions. In this episode, she shares two very different stories of standing her ground at work — one strategic and six months in the making, one instinctive and decided in seconds — and what she learned from both.
You'll learn:
Why she refused to use HR buzzwords like "empathy" or "doing the right thing" when pitching to hard-nosed manufacturing executives, and what she said instead to make her idea impossible to ignore.
The pre-meeting strategy she uses before any high-stakes pitch: influence the people you already have relationships with one-on-one first, so you are never the only advocate in the room.
How she walked into the biggest pitch of her career feeling like a nervous wreck, knowing that if she failed, she would be "just another person on the leadership team with no voice."
The investment banker who interrupted her mid-sentence and said "I don't agree." What she said back, why she still calls him a friend today, and what happened when she pulled it off.
Why she thought she was being assertive in a conversation that completely failed to land, what her coach told her, and the three-part technique she developed to deliver the most difficult messages in a way that registered clearly without feeling disrespectful.
Why assertiveness looks and sounds different across cultures, and how she learned to calibrate between India's indirect communication style and the blunt directness expected in U.S. corporate environments.
Her best career compliment: "Deeps will tell you the most difficult things in the nicest possible way."
About Deepashri: Chief Human Resources Officer at 8th Ave Food and Provisions, Deepashri has built her career across global HR, change management, and organizational transformation roles in India and the United States. She is a coach, storyteller, and advocate for assertive communication across cultures.

Disrupt Yourself Before Someone Else Does: How Thomson Reuters CTO Anuradha Turned Fear, Bias, and Discomfort Into Career Fuel
She grew up in a small town in India, first daughter in a middle-class family, educated in her mother tongue through 10th grade. She was culturally trained to listen more and speak less. Then she accepted a role as an assistant professor straight out of university, in front of 60 students, because she needed a job and couldn't say no to an opportunity. She showed up for her first class and trembled for the entire 60 minutes.
She didn't quit. She went back. She sat in her colleagues' classes to watch how they taught. She asked hard questions. She sought feedback from the students whose faces told her everything. Eventually, students started telling her: "No one ever taught this subject the way you do."
Anuradha is Head of Engineering and CTO of the Corporate Tax and Trade Technology Group at Thomson Reuters. She has since moved internationally alone, changed industries multiple times, and built a leadership philosophy around one core principle: disrupt yourself before someone else does it for you.
In this episode, she breaks down how.
You'll learn:
She asked for a Senior Director role and was told not only no, but "even if you applied, they wouldn't hire you." What she said next, why she didn't confront him, and how she used that conversation to get clarity about whether the problem was her or the environment around her.
The mental model she uses every time she gets a no: is this about me not having the skills, or is this about the climate in this organization not being ready for someone like me? Both are valid answers, but you have to know which one before you decide what to do next.
Why she deliberately paced herself after that conversation, asked for names of other people to speak to, and processed it over days rather than trying to resolve it all in one go.
Why running away from fear doesn't make fear disappear. It just means you'll face it later, under higher stakes, with fewer second chances.
How she built confidence and humility simultaneously by changing industries repeatedly: retail, financial services, banking, payments, tax and trade. The more she learned, the more she understood how much more there was to learn, and why she sees that as a leadership asset, not a liability.
What she means by "disrupt yourself before someone else does" and why it applies equally to personal growth, career management, and technology leadership at scale.
Her model for leading through failure: look forward first, understand what went wrong second. And why leaders who impose their own stress on a team under pressure take everyone down with them.
About Anuradha: Head of Engineering and CTO of the Corporate Tax and Trade Technology Group at Thomson Reuters, Anu is a recognized tech executive and speaker at women's leadership and technology conferences. She has built her career across multiple industries and continents.

Getting a "no" at work isn't the problem. Not knowing what to do with it is. In this episode, you'll get a proven 8-step framework to turn workplace resistance into genuine cooperation — without pressure, without losing your composure, and without damaging the relationship.
Whether you're asking for a raise, requesting flexibility, pitching an idea, advocating for resources, or handling a performance review objection, these steps give you a repeatable approach for any high-stakes conversation where the stakes feel too high to get it wrong.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How to recognize workplace resistance — even when it's subtle, indirect, or disguised as agreement
The most common mistakes that kill your credibility and close the conversation down
How to ask the questions that surface the real concern, not just the surface objection
How to address objections confidently without being aggressive, passive, or overly apologetic
The exact 8-step framework to move someone from "no" to "yes" while keeping the relationship intact
If you've ever left a workplace conversation feeling like you gave up too easily — or pushed too hard — this episode is for you.

A Recruiter She Never Asked for Advice from Told Her to Lower Her Ambitions. It Derailed Her for Months. What Geetanjali Learned About Who Gets to Define Your Ceiling.
She was doing great work, getting strong reviews, and waiting for someone to recognize she was ready for the next level. Nobody came. Finally, she went and asked. They said: "Yeah, we think you're ready." She walked away with one permanent lesson: no one knows where you want to go unless you tell them. Your manager cannot promote you toward a goal they don't know you have.
Geetanjali is SVP of Financial Planning and Analysis at Ceridian, and she has built her career across multiple industries, companies, and cities, often following her spouse's career moves and rebuilding her network from scratch each time. She has been told she had no career path because of a commute. She has had a recruiter give her unsolicited opinions about her ceiling — someone who had never worked with her and didn't even have a position for her. Both times, she fact-checked herself, pushed back, and moved forward.
In this episode, she gets specific about how.
You'll learn:
Why she walked out of her first promotion conversation wondering why her manager didn't just offer it, and the mantra she built from that moment: "I own my career."
How she separates "I can't do this" from "I don't want to do this" — a distinction her husband called her out on, and one that completely changes how you diagnose self-doubt.
The worst-case scenario mindset she uses every time asking feels too risky: maximum they say no, and then at least you know exactly what you need to work on.
The recruiter who told her to stay put and aim lower, without her asking for any of that advice, and how she spiraled — until she realized: this person has never worked with me, doesn't know what I do, and has no position for me. Why am I listening?
The manager who told her she had no career because she was commuting. How she found a better position, and what she said in her exit interview when the CFO asked why she was leaving.
How she negotiated leaving at 5 PM sharp with a male manager who was more supportive than she expected — and why building trust first is the prerequisite for every other ask.
Her salary negotiation rule, applied to every job offer she has ever received: never accept in one go, always go back at least once, and negotiate the full package not just the base number.
How she leads her team by modeling openness about her own mistakes first, which makes it safe for her team to take risks and tell her when she is wrong.
Her networking approach: stay in touch with mentors even after years of silence, get involved in community organizations when you move cities, and commit to one lunch a month with someone new.
About Geetanjali: SVP of Financial Planning and Analysis at Ceridian, Geetanjali has built a finance leadership career across multiple industries and cities. She is a dual-career couple partner, working mom, woman of color from India, and active member of the Association of Financial Professionals.