Women have aspirations and dreams too. I have often wondered in the course of my work-How best to get that extra wind beneath the sails of women leaders. To equip them more strongly, to make them have far more faith in themselves than they believe they have. To have them grab at the corporate positions they deserve rather than be ‘found’! To have them raise their voice on anything that they feel deserves attention without the fear of being seen to be screeching! To make counter arguments which are logical, rationale, et al without the fear of being singled out! To take bold decisions without being told ‘hey here’s a man amongst us…no ‘She is a woman amongst us and can be equally decisive, and rational, and leader-like in her abilities, to command a team, steer the business and sit perched at the top. She will be a woman everyone will look up to.
My abiding desire is to craft a holistic program that aligns with their thinking, helps them discover and deal with any ‘barriers or fears or obstacles’ within themselves and assess themselves if they are real or unfounded. Broadly, help them to unshackle their thinking towards achieving more, as they may have the Potential – undiscovered Potential, unleased Potential. World over there are winds of change and unshackling their thinking is what needs to be done to get them ahead of the pack!
Corporate India can benefit by an increasing number of women leaders especially at senior levels, women who give it up partially or totally and though they had the potential, they never went back to the corporate world…women who proved to themselves that they can be functional or even business heads, gave up…and now is the time when corporates are reaching out to women to come back on track. Additionally, there are so many of them, living from month to month just about surviving not able to take that final decision of whether they would survive in the long term.
In Asian societies, set customs want women to play one role. “She my daughter in law and she is doing a wonderful job of bringing up my grandchildren”, said Chairman of a large FMCG when asked his views on women emerging stronger, in organizations, and the sector at large. Despite these mindsets, and this line of thinking, can women combat these rigidities and realize their dreams.
Year 2001 onwards, I have been working in the space of leadership-discovering leaders, building and equipping leaders with the right set of skills and competencies, building leadership pipelines and doing succession planning for leadership teams. Whilst you find some women in mid management, the numbers begin to dwindle at senior hierarchy. Self-made, well qualified, focused women seem to either subdue their career aspirations midway or find alternative easier options that hopefully provides them the intellectual stimulus that they were used to up until now. They are my focus.
Can they be inspired to not give up-can they hang in there and let their true potential speak up!
There are many new socio-economic and political trends which are impacting Businesses the World over, and some of the Leadership behaviours that are effective in addressing these future trends, women possess. And its proven that diversity does have an impact on hard financial results and the impact is quantifiable. How do the diversity numbers pan out? The broad question is whether India Inc. is losing out on a competitive differentiator.
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