What if the most important parts of leadership never show up on a résumé?

In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Blaydon sits down with Tara Hernandez, Vice President of Developer Productivity at MongoDB, for a candid conversation about what leadership in STEM actually demands—beyond credentials, titles, and technical brilliance.

With a career spanning Netscape, Mozilla, Pixar, Google, and MongoDB, Tara reflects on why leadership success is less about solving technical problems and more about navigating people, alignment, credibility, and influence at scale.

This conversation explores the invisible work of leadership:
• Developing others as your true legacy
• Transitioning from expert to people leader
• Navigating credibility and bias in senior roles
• Why sponsorship—not confidence—is the real accelerator
• What senior leaders should optimize for as scope and complexity grow

If you lead in STEM, manage senior talent, or are building leadership pipelines, this episode offers grounded insight into what actually moves organizations forward.

🎧 Available on YouTube and all major podcast platforms
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Highlights

00:10 – About Tara

02:10 – From Technical Expert to People Leader

04:19 – Leadership Is a People Problem

08:41 – Aligning Smart, Opinionated Teams

10:57 – Credibility and Perception in STEM Leadership

15:29 – Mentorship vs. Sponsorship

18:07 – The Readiness Trap

20:11 – What Senior Leaders Should Optimize For

20:59 - Are You Ready Enough For The Role?

23:33 – The Leadership Legacy That Matters Most

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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.