Women empowerment @work taking charge of your life

Women Empowerment@WorkTaking Charge of Your Life

W@W – A VentureBean Initiative

Anjana Vivek: [email protected]

VentureBean Consulting Private Limited

Background: Quick snapshot

Self empowerment

Networking

Summary

Agenda

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Women and careers

• Yes, many times there are differences in career paths of women as compared to men– Linked to phase in life– Social and culturally influenced– Security and risk related

• However, women can try to– Leverage on strengths– Minimize constraints and address concerns– Be proactive not reactive– Think differently– Etc….

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Women and careers

“To trigger thinking”

• What is required from you today, can change a few years from now

• What holds good today or is a constraint today, may be irrelevant a few years from now…

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Women and careers

Your perspective as a woman

• Starting point:

– What do you want to do at this point in life? – What would you like to do in the long term?– What is your personal vision and goals?

– Can you take ownership of this?

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Women and careers• The world itself is getting reset; You can

decide your place• You can decide for yourself, what is

meaningful now, in some years and in the longer term

• You can be connected to your skills and strengths

• You can define your boundaries• Choices can be made:

– Career, leadership roles /flexi, output driven etc…– Linked to stage in lifecycle: single / part of family /

children/ other responsibilities etc..

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Background: Quick Snapshot

Self empowerment

Networking

Summary

Agenda

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Barriers: Illustrative• Internal

– Self confidence– After break in career– Speaking up for self/decision making– Lack of role models leading women to believe this

is a tough path to take and whether it is worth it

• External– Not seen as serious– Not in visible radar– Cultural expectations– Lack of role models leading persons to believe

that many women are not committed or may drop out due to clash with other commitments

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Barriers• Addressing barriers

– Empowering self– Continuous learning– Hard work– Networking– Connecting with those who believe

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VentureBean Consulting Private Limited 10

Taking Charge of Your Life

Self Empowerment


There are certain patterns we observe in working/ professional/ entrepreneurial

women;

……..these often impact our careers, our lives.

Background


Here are a few samples of such traits:

Illustrative Only

- through examples/cases including real life examples

and then some possible action points as a take away

Background


• Empower oneself• Empower organisations• Empower society

of what one can to:

WomenKey

Human resources

Background


Decision making

Allowing someone elseto decide

on your behalf


“There is a job which came up …I knew you would not want this… so… I told them you would not be interested”

Decision making: some examples


“Your child is small, you will not be able to put in the required late hours to deliver on time… so…we have given this work to XYZ take this up”



“Since your husband has been transferred, we assume you are leaving and… so… have not included you in this project”

THESE ARE TRUE CASES – NAMES WITHELD



If something like this had happened to you, what would you have done?

Would you stand up to this (assuming of course that you wanted that job or project referred to… )

… or…

Would you keep quiet?



What do you think these women did . . .


They went back, asked for the job/assignment/order … and…got it and …have moved into leadership positions.

What these women did


Lack of faith in ones ability:

Tendency to put oneself down


SELF – CONFIDENCE (Lack of it!)

• Studies have shown that many women focus on what they do not know as compared to their male counterparts and often put themselves down.

• If you put yourself down, how can you expect someone else to value you?


SELF – CONFIDENCE (Lack of it!)

• Lack of confidence, particularly when one returns from a long absence

• While there is some genuine lack of updation of skills/knowledge, this is to be addressed and time and effort is to be spent on this


SELF EMPOWERMENT

No short cuts

• Work hard, take time to update yourself and do not give in to inertia

• Think of small incremental changes, one step at a time


SELF EMPOWERMENT

No short cuts• Plan long term, not short• Have patience… life is a long term play; not a

one day match … or a 20/20 match


SELF EMPOWERMENT

• “Do not compare yourself with others for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourselves”

• Be gentle on yourself


SELF EMPOWERMENT

• Many people have setbacks, we are not aware of them

• Understand that life is about change, things are not always going to be the same


SELF EMPOWERMENT

• Think of doing things differently• Create opportunity, take control of your life


SELF EMPOWERMENT

• Challenge assumptions and traditional ways of doing things

• Existing rules at work have been set based on how things used to work in the past, in traditional asset based businesses, run by men

• Have a strategy and plan and then…Act!



Self empowerment

Networking

Summary

Agenda

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Women: Off Radar

often not visible; stay in background

Tendency to focus only on work, networking is seen as a waste of

time


NETWORKING

• Take steps you can – look at different ways of networking– Online– Offline– In groups– One-on-one meetings

• Include networking as a must do in your list of things to do


NETWORKS

Formal, informal, different … you may choose to be a part of

• Professional networks: Engineers, lawyers, CAs, doctors, physicists, designers,… etc

• School, college, other educational programme alumni

• Friends and Family • Online and Offline• Other interest groups…


NETWORKING

• You can learn from the successes and failures of others in dealing with similar issues

• Gives you a sounding board• Networking helps – getting seen• Networking gives you a better

perspective



Self empowerment

Networking

Summary

Agenda

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KEY FOCUS: Four dimensions • Take charge of decision making, try to do

your own thinking • Keep things in proper perspective, work towards

developing self confidence and self esteem• Network, in a variety of ways….it could be over

lunch meetings, or phone conversations, or through email…

• Take time out … to listen to your inner voice, to think…. to dream big dreams


Thank You!

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Leadership & Management

Women empowerment @work taking charge of your life