Podcast
Psychology at Work | Career Success, Leadership, Communication Skills
Hosted by Melody Wilding, LMSW · EN
How do you nail that sweet spot of career success where confidence in yourself meets influence with others? That's what best-selling author, therapist, and executive coach Melody Wilding explores in every episode of Psychology at Work.
If you're a driven professional who's great at your job but knows that talent alone isn't enough to get ahead, this show is for you. Subscribe for insightful, practical advice on topics ranging from office politics, communication and executive presence, managing up, emotional intelligence, self-advocacy, and more.
Advance your career, strengthen your leadership, and feel calmer, clearer, and more in control while doing it.
44episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
114. How to Turn a High-Stakes Stretch Into a Promotion Accelerator
3w ago00:32:26Tap to summarize🚨CLOSING: Apply for the final Lead from Within cohort of 2026 by Sunday July 26th 11:59pm ET: https://melodywilding.com/lfwCertain stretches of your career are compressed. The reputation you'd normally build over 18 months of steady work gets decided in a matter of weeks. Handle it well and you accelerate onto the shortlist for the next role. In this episode, engineering manager Alejandro walks through how he used a high-stakes product launch to accelerate his own path to the next level. https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →113. Are You Executive-Ready? Here's the Real Test [MINI MASTERCLASS]
4w ago00:39:00Tap to summarize🚨APPLICATIONS CLOSING 🚨Apply for the final Lead from Within of 2026 by Sunday July 26th 11:59pm ET: https://melodywilding.com/lfwThis is a mini masterclass on the four pillars of executive readiness. These are the things no business school will teach you, no performance review captures, no leadership book breaks down with this level of specificity. Melody walks you through all four, with a clear diagnostic as to where you stand and what’s holding you back before year-end opportunities get decided without you. What You’ll Discover: ▪️Three levels of visibility every stakeholder sits on – and why only ONE gets you championed for bigger roles ▪️ One script that took a field marketing function from "the booth people" to a recognized business driver within 90 days▪️ A subtle psychology trick an incoming executive used to keep her predecessor from undermining her▪️The two-week team management test 90% of leaders fail (and what to do ASAP) https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →112. Top of Mind & Tapped for More [FULL TRAINING]
Jul 1502:00:02Tap to summarize📢 NOW OPEN: Apply for the final Lead from Within cohort of 2026: https://melodywilding.com/lfwWhether you want to position yourself for a promotion, step into a bigger scope or go from tactician to enterprise-level leader, the next six months will make or break your shot at what's next. Leverage Q3 & Q4 to rise into the role, projects, and pay that match your caliber. You'll discover how to: Get handed high-visibility opportunities (no groveling, pitching, or proving necessary) by escaping the dreaded "next level loop"Walk out of your annual review with a 140% bonus (yes really!) because you turned the busiest, most chaotic months of the year into a total perception resetUncover exactly who decides your future, who's a hidden blocker, and who you've been wasting energy trying to impress (it's rarely what's on the org chart)Reclaim 10-20 hours per week for work that proves you're ready for bigger things -- shaping direction, building executive-level relationships, and developing a rockstar teamhttps://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →111. Escape “Hero Mode”: The Overfunctioning Leader’s Guide to Letting Go
Jul 800:32:04Tap to summarizeAt a certain level, being the one everyone depends on can stop feeling like proof of your value and start feeling like a ceiling. The same pattern that makes you trusted can also keep you buried in execution and trapped making decisions your team should make independently. In this episode, you’ll learn how to recognize what Melody calls “hero mode” in real time, neutralize the hidden emotional driver behind it, and take steps to scale your team while positioning yourself for greater career growth. You’ll Discover: 8 behaviors that look like "great leadership" but are torpedoing your next promotionWhat your boss REALLY means when she keeps saying you're "so close" to VP year after yearThe “seesaw” dynamic keeping your team permanently junior (and getting worse the more you help)The 3 things you HAVE to let go of before ANY delegation tactic will actually stickThe specific tool I give Lead from Within clients to recalibrate productivity at senior levelshttps://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →110. The #1 Career Insurance Policy Most High Performers Never Build
Jul 100:27:46Tap to summarizeOne look at the headlines and it’s clear: experienced professionals don't feel free or at ease at work right now. Middle layers are being flattened, the path upwards is narrowing, and even the most accomplished leaders are carrying worry about what's next. How do you escape it? Drawing on everything from finance theory to real stories of Lead from Within clients who've used this to land top-of-band offers, generous retention packages, and the leverage to turn down "great opportunities" without a second thought, Melody unpacks what real career freedom is and how you can engineer it for yourself. You’ll Discover: The #1 thing that lets you say "no" to a bad offer without panickingHow one client turned "relocate or get fired" into a deal that worked entirely in her favor4 aspects of executive readiness that make opportunities come to you (instead of you chasing them)https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →109. Senior Leaders: Your Next Promotion Depends on What You Do This Summer (Here’s Why)
Jun 2400:27:42Tap to summarize📌 NEW CLASS 7/15 – Top of Mind & Tapped for More: Leverage Q3 & Q4 to Rise Into the Role, Projects, and Pay That Match Your Caliber: https://melodywilding.com/trainingMost mid-to-senior professionals treat summer as career downtime and then every fall, they're blindsided when the promotions, projects, and budgets get handed to someone else. The truth is that your next 12-18 months are being decided right NOW, while the clay is still soft and almost no one is paying attention. In this episode, Melody reveals why summer is the single highest-leverage season for your advancement, and exactly how to use it (without sacrificing a minute of your pool time).You’ll Discover: Why July is secretly the easiest month all year to get in front of powerThe off-script summer moments where leaders decide if you're executive material (usually when you least expect it)Why covering for a colleague on PTO is not a burden, but an audition for the next levelhttps://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →108. Endurance Beats Brilliance: What 700+ Interviews with the World's Brightest Leaders Taught Me (with Ryan Hawk)
Jun 1700:45:07Tap to summarizeEarly in your career, the metrics are clear and your effort translates into direct results. But what happens when that stops being true? When you have to reinvent yourself constantly, and when it seems - no matter how hard you work - success is slow to come? Ryan Hawk – host of The Learning Leader Show has spent years having over 700 conversations with the world's brightest authors, scholars, and researchers. In this episode he breaks down insights from his new book The Price of Becoming. What You’ll Discover: The #1 skill that predicts long-term career success more reliably than talent, credentials, or work ethicUse the "advantage us" mindset to stop being derailed by every situation that feels unfair, unpredictable, or outside your controlThe flywheel that separates people who consume content from people who are changed by itAbout Ryan HawkRyan is the host of The Learning Leader Show with 680+ episodes over the past 11 years and ranked a top 5 business podcast on Apple. He is the author of The Price of Becoming, The Score That Matters, The Pursuit of Excellence, and Welcome to Management. https://learningleader.com/ https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →107. Stop Talking Yourself Out of Opportunities You've Earned: The #1 Secret from Behavior Change Expert Nir Eyal
Jun 1000:40:34Tap to summarizeWhat really drives your executive presence, career decisions, and ability to influence the people around you? No, it’s not talent, effort, or strategy. It's your beliefs. In this episode, Melody talks with Nir Eyal, a globally recognized authority on behavior change and human potential, about his new book, Beyond Belief. You’ll Discover:The critical difference between a fact, a belief, and faith Beware: positive thinking and manifestation can make you less likely to achieve your goals – here’s whyEngineer your own luck and draw promotions, plum projects, and more TO youOne question Nir asks himself that stops a limiting belief in its tracks About Nir EyalNir Eyal is a globally recognized authority on behavior change and human potential. He is the New York Times bestselling author of the international bestsellers Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, which have sold over one million copies in more than 30 languages. His third book, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results, became an instant New York Times best-seller and reveals how to identify and replace the hidden beliefs that define our limits. https://www.nirandfar.com/ https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →106. The Niceness Trap: How Being a Good Girl Is Still Capping Your Career with Dr. Lois Frankel
Jun 300:38:29Tap to summarizeTwenty years after Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office changed the conversation about women in the workplace, the mistakes it exposes are still happening, but now in new settings, with higher stakes, and sometimes in subtler forms than ever before.In this episode, Melody sits down with Dr. Lois Frankel, the bestselling author behind the Nice Girls series, to talk about what has (and hasn't) changed for ambitious women navigating today's corporate landscape. You’ll Discover: The specific seating choice most women make in meetings that suggests they don't belong at the table before they've even said a wordWhat to say when someone takes your idea and presents it as their own A two-step approach for shutting down gaslighting colleagues About Dr. Lois FrankelShe is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business bible for women, Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office. Other books in the "nice girls" series include Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich, Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It and an audiobook, Nice Girls Don’t Speak Up or Stand Out. She has appeared on the Today Show and Larry King Live and has been interviewed in the Wall Street Journal, People magazine, Cosmopolitan, and other print media. Her client list includes Amgen, ARCO, BP, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin, McKinsey & Co., Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and The Walt Disney Company. https://drloisfrankel.com/ https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →105. Hope is the Strategy with Deloitte’s First Chief Wellbeing Officer, Jen Fisher
May 2700:35:51Tap to summarizeWhat if the thing standing between you and the career and leadership impact you want isn't strategy, skill, or hustle…but hope? In this episode, Melody sits down with Jen Fisher, former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte and author of Hope is The Strategy. Jen shares the science of hope as a performance skill – one that the research shows directly predicts goal achievement, drives higher performance, builds stronger teams, and creates the kind of leadership presence that people genuinely want to follow.You’ll Discover: The sneaky ways hopelessness creeps into high-performing teams (and why most leaders miss it until it's too late)What Jen did with her team during a major corporate restructuring that kept them connected, motivated, and growing with almost no resourcesThe one question that trains your brain to find possibility instead of defaulting to threat and catastropheThe three most powerful words you as a leader can say right now to instantly build and disarm skepticsAbout Jen FisherJen Fisher is a global authority on workplace wellbeing, the bestselling author of Work Better Together, and the founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Team. As Deloitte US's first chief wellbeing officer, she pioneered a groundbreaking, human-centered approach to work that gained international recognition and reshaped how organizations view wellbeing. https://www.jen-fisher.com/ https://melodywilding.com/trainingConnect with Melody:FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work WeeklyGet on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™Get on the Waitlist for Lead from WithinGet Melody's new book, Managing Up
Transcribe →