QUARTERLY MAGAZINE August 2024 Vol 16
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE August 2024 Vol 16
Spotlight 
Imposter syndrome, lack of confidence, hesitation to take the initiative while having limited domain knowledge, these are some of the experiences women professionals often share when it comes to rising the career ladder. It’s important, therefore, to see more women in leadership position, who can act as role models and act as inspirations for women to overcome these internal challenges.
At RPG, we speak to some of the women leaders, who are paving the way for others, about their journey in overcoming the challenges that enabled them to become better leaders. They also talk about RPG’s supportive work culture, and their advice to fellow colleagues and other organisations.
Director, RPG Foundation
One of the important things for Radha, as a leader, is to help instil confidence in not only her team but also in her work with women at large. At the workplace, she achieves this by fostering a safe space for diverse perspectives to thrive. It infuses a sense of ownership among her colleagues while making decisions. This approach is inspired by Pehley Akshar, the Foundation’s education initiative, where teachers are trained about the “Safe Spaces” concept. “It’s an environment, where they (students) learn and enjoy themselves. We, too, actively work on building these safe spaces in our office. We have established a flat culture where everyone’s voice matters and they feel involved in the decision-making process,” says Radha.
Enjoying the work one does is another way of boosting confidence. Since we spend a major chunk of our time at work, finding what one loves doing is essential for a project to succeed, Radha opines. “I try to cultivate this mindset within my team and encourage them to discover what truly excites them. We drive this philosophy within the organisation that emphasises the need to be agile, continually evolving, and adapting with time,” she says.
Radha speaks from her personal experience. When she started off in the philanthropy sector, Radha lacked confidence. However, focusing on doing what she knew well and working hard helped her build confidence in herself. “Over time, the small and big wins gave me confidence in my abilities and led me to gain respect from my peers and superiors,” she says.
“To truly shift towards gender equality, we need to increase the number of women in senior-level positions and break the cycle of having the same few women occupying multiple board seats.”
In fact, the biggest challenge that women face is internal; it’s confidence in themselves, Radha observes. She has witnessed this in her work with women as well. For instance, under The Heritage Project, the Foundation created ‘Chefs of Koliwada’ programme to help the women in the 800-year-old Worli Koliwada fishing community to find newer ways to earn money. “Over time, we have seen these women gain confidence in themselves and respect from their families and peers,” she says.
Besides personal challenges, representation of women in leadership roles needs to increase across the globe, Radha believes. “Simply meeting quotas isn't enough to create meaningful change. To truly shift towards gender equality, we need to increase the number of women in senior-level positions and break the cycle of having the same few women occupying multiple board seats. This broader representation is essential for driving a cultural shift within organisations and to create an environment where women can excel and lead with confidence,” she says.
Chief Executive Officer - Taabi
Fresh out of campus, Pali’s career began with workplace affirmations of viewing herself as a leader graduating to a CEO. As a young business leadership trainee with Unilever, Pali says, “I felt like I was a leader from day one.” Having a leader's attitude along with a rich experience of varied roles from human resources to sales to strategy, gave her clarity on different aspects of business. This, in turn, catapulted her growth to be able to run the reins of an organisation now. “Each role gave me a new toolkit to solve for a business,” she says.
Like other women leaders, Pali also overcame the internal challenge of doubting her ability to lead when she didn’t have the domain knowledge. “As women leaders, you believe you have to be perfect when you take your role. The point though is that everybody takes on a role having 60%-70% of knowledge of the new role. And that’s alright because there is no way of learning about a new role prior to taking it up,” she says.
She illustrates this with her journey at Taabi. “When I started getting into Taabi’s business I didn't know the field. I asked my team to demonstrate what it is that we are talking about. This requires zero ego, you need to constantly say ‘I don't know. Please tell me how to do it’. As a leader, you need to remind yourself of this,” she says.
Pali also sought out certain people, whom she respected, to act as her mentors. “Especially as a woman, it’s important to have the right sponsors looking out for you in your career,” she says. To get the right sponsor, you have to build credibility, which comes from one’s current work. “There is no ticket to success more effective than your current role,” she says.
“As a woman, it’s important to have the right sponsors looking out for you in your career.”
Pali recalls an advice she received from a mentor years ago. “If there is something that scares you or makes you feel inadequate from a career perspective, go ahead and do it,” she says.
One of the things Pali admires about RPG is the organisation being open to people trying out cross-functional roles. “There are people from HR going to business, from strategy role going into something else. It’s amazing because, you're not just limited to an X role. It allows you to play to your capability. I have done various roles – strategy, sales development, and now I am building this service for efficient fleet management. A lot of organisations have to structure and process things around this but here, at RPG, it’s culturally ingrained,” she says.
Sr. Vice President, Zensar
Pushpall owes her professional success to her mentors. In fact, she attributes her capscity to take risks to these mentors, who believed in her abilities and boosted her confidence in taking on challenging leadership roles. “I was not confident about what I could do. They (the mentors) were sure that I could do it, and that’s how they pushed me into that journey. They would pose ‘What if’ questions to me; and knew I would come up with the solutions by myself,” recalls Pushpall, who has been with Zensar for 15 years.
This has also shaped her leadership style. Besides being authentic while interacting with people, she acts as an enabler to unlock the potential of her team members. “You can't do everything. So, unleash the talent that you have in your teams. They can do wonders,” she states.
Besides actively identifying role models to emulate, Pushpall believes organisations too need to assign mentors and create a community of women, where they can discuss their challenges. This is something that Zensar already does. “I got mentors, who believed in throwing me in the sea and getting the best out of me. Sometimes, women need that because we always have our own mindsets, which we are not able to break through,” she says.
As for encouraging women to continue with their career, she believes there are a few things Zensar has done right. For instance, setting up a daycare centre at the Pune Campus, institutionalising flexi-work option and lastly, extending the maternity leave to two years from the Government mandated six-months leave. “While it will be unpaid leave after the government mandated six months, you still have the comfort and the assurance that you are on the rolls of a company in that period.” All these have gone a long way in maintaining the talent supply chain of women.
“You can't do everything. So, unleash the talent that you have in your teams. They can do wonders.”
Some advice she picked up from her mentors includes to act like a leader. This mindset, Pushpall says, helped her become an organisational leader rather than a unit head. She also suggests actively networking to find the right mentor. “You can’t assume people will notice you. You need to have your champions, which must be developed,” she says. It’s important to stay relevant in the tech industry by staying abreast with the industry trends along with client centricity. And lastly, take care of your team. “They will take care of your clients,” she says.
Vice President – HR, CEAT
For Riya, leadership is not a destination but a journey on which one constantly unlearns and relearns. One such mindset shift she had was that transformational ideas can come from anyone, not just the leader. In other words, expertise and experience are no longer synonymous, she states.
Riya started her career in the manufacturing industry at a time when it was largely male-dominated and “had barely one female washroom on the shop floor”. “You had to look at the West for women role models,” says Riya, adding that she would often find herself as the only woman leader in the conference room.
According to her, there is a need to continuously work on assumptions towards women such as they cannot stretch or be analytical and empathetic at the same time or can’t make tough decisions or that their career advancement was because of gender and not competence.
“Actions speak louder than words. It’s best to prove through consistently delivering better than your best. Slowly but surely the perspective changes,” she says.
In addition to the HR function, Riya dons multiple other roles like being the chairperson of DEI council, heading CoEs like Talent, Total Rewards, Engagement & Employer Branding & Digital. All these have enabled her to make a difference and spread happiness at CEAT.
“Actions speak louder than words. It’s best to prove through consistently delivering better than your best. Slowly but surely the perspective changes.”
One of the key differentiators of a progressive organisation is when business processes are inclusive of all kinds of diversity in spirit. “Diversity breeds innovation. Let diversity be your strategy, not another social initiative,” she says.
Riya’s advice to fellow women professionals is to be kind to oneself. “You can't be perfect at everything all the time. There are times in the four quadrants—self, career, family and social of your life something or the other is going amiss...be kind to yourself first before you expect kindness from others,” she says.
Vice President – Head: ESG, ERM and Admin, Zensar
A key advice Shubha received early in her career was to choose opportunities based on what you will learn from it rather than where it might lead you. It held her in good stead as she traversed through various roles giving her a diverse set of experiences that led her to where she is.
It has influenced how she manages her team – by helping them identify and appreciate their role in the larger context.
The other key learning was not to be afraid of failure. Having worked with RPG for over two decades, the flexibility to change course when she needed to, and having encouragement to take calculated risks has been crucial in her leadership journey.
“Failure is an inevitable part of success, and until we fail, we do not learn to deal with failure and build resilience. It’s an essential life skill,” says Shubha. It also means embracing the unknown and accepting the fact that good enough is often better than perfect. “The concept of 'minimum viable product' is there for a reason; lean into that,” she says.
This perhaps helped her in overcoming a common challenge faced by women - recognising one’s own capabilities and actively seeking out opportunities. Shubha believes that women tend to hesitate in raising their hand in leading things. "We believe someone else is better equipped for the job. We wait to be 100% sure before we raise our hand and find it challenging to ask for a role because we believe we may not be ready,” she says. One of the ways to overcome this is to seek out guidance, support and wisdom of women leaders within the orgnaisation at an early stage of one’s career.
“The Group has constantly evolved in terms of providing an inclusive culture not only to women but also where everyone feels valued and respected. The fact that we measure happiness says it all!”
“Women mentors can help boost the confidence of their mentees, especially since a lot of women do struggle with the imposter syndrome. Some ways to go about identifying women mentors would be by joining professional organisations, women's networking groups, attending conferences/ seminars, meeting experienced women willing to mentor and guide other women,” she says.
From an organisational level, it’s important to foster an environment that empowers women employees by holding leaders accountable, having pay parity, talent management and sponsorship programmes for women and work flexibility. These are initiatives RPG has consistently worked on. “The Group has constantly evolved in terms of providing an inclusive culture not only to women but where everyone feels valued and respected. The fact that we measure happiness says it all!” she says.
Vice President, Zensar
Are leadership traits only limited to professional work? According to Ishita, it’s something one should practice in all aspects of one’s life. “Ensure that you play a decision-making role in your family, plan your trips, participate in all decisions of life and practise and hone this skill both at home and in the professional phase; becoming a leader is just a natural progression,” says Ishita.
Having said that, she also believes it’s important for organisations to foster a listening culture, especially for women, as women often tend to feel unheard. Ishita was fortunate to have been exposed to various multi-cultural and multi-regional roles that shaped her into the leader she’s now. “At each stage, the enablement, support and help from management, team and clients created a right ecosystem of growth,” says Ishita, who has been with Zensar for 15 years.
What’s also important is to have clarity and be continuously learning. “It’s important to understand the end goal - the objective of any work that we are supposed to deliver. If we and our teams understand this, the job is half done. I put a lot of stress in understanding business goals and then steer the technology requirements to meet the objectives,” she says, adding, “We should also continue to learn new skills, commit to our goals and stay focussed,” she says.
Ishita, who has recently achieved her mentorship certification from AIC (American Institute of Coaching Inc), is looking forward to mentoring a greater number of talents other than those assigned to her.
“At each stage, the enablement, support and help from management, team and clients created a right ecosystem of growth.”
Organisations should create forums wherein women across organisations can network and learn from each other. Sometimes, it’s important to create smaller initiatives under the umbrella initiative of the organisation. “I formed a group called Eunoia, a unique initiative binding women in leadership within the Group. This was part of ZenWEN. We had speakers, customers and our own leaders, covering important topics in technology and social issues like breast cancer, plastic clean-up drive, an art initiative, etc. Such micro initiatives help foster bonds,” she believes.
Ishita’s advice to women seeking leadership roles is to be resilient. “Don’t leave your career because you don’t like your boss, or customer or someone who thinks you are not good enough. No one else should tell you what to do with the skills which you have. It’s for each of us to decide and put that into action,” she says.
