Q:What does "Femme Forte" mean to you?
A:“Femme Forte” to me embodies the Hindi word “Shakti” which celebrates the divine feminine energy that permeates the Universe. The strength that each woman carries is unique and so deep rooted and multifaceted – from mental resilience to fierce loyalty, its embracing vulnerability to showing up with complete determination, its unending compassion and empathy coupled with resolve to accomplish. Much like the divine energy, the “Femme Forte” woman creates an impact in her world by simply being her true authentic self.
Q:Two most pressing challenges women face in the business world today ?
A:The contribution of women in shaping society and the workplace have been manifold. From being astute politicians to influential leaders, from courageous activists to gentle talented artists, they have played a vital role. Despite that there continue to be challenges and its interesting that the challenges are rooted in paradox. In the business world, women are required to be both tough or authoritative and caring – you veer to closely to one side of the spectrum and are immediately labelled as either a tough cookie or a pushover. The key challenge that women leaders face is understanding and building their own personal brand and living that with authenticity and courage. This includes building your executive presence – how you show up and adapting to the situation and always cheering for yourself and other women around you.
Q:How will you craft initiatives to empower women with skills and confidence to overcome challenges?
A:It takes a village to raise a child, and to build successful women leaders who will move the world forward it takes several initiatives to create an ecosystem around them. This can include and not be limited to contextualized learning interventions coupled with mentorship opportunities to build the required skills and capabilities, relationships, and intentional building of strategic networks to create opportunities for growth. In addition, a relook at system and processes in organizations to ensure fair and transparent performance management, pay parity, women friendly policies and HR practices that recognize the multifaceted responsibilities of a woman and above all sponsors within the organization who provide the exposure and platform for women to shine.
Q:One advice to individuals struggling to achieve a healthy work-life balance in today's fast-paced world?
A:A key lesson I have learnt in an endeavor to create work life balance and in turn enhance focus, performance and overall joy is recognizing that managing energy is more effective than managing time. If one is to continue to work at a high pace to meet the ever-evolving needs of a fast-paced world, we need to recognize that energy renewal for ourselves is equally important as energy expenditure. As you think about energy renewal, think about it as rituals you do for yourself to refuel your tank – not only physically through rest, exercise or sleep but also mentally and emotionally. Emotional renewal comes from connecting with our loved ones, for me it's the 4 PM phone call to my daughter in the middle of a cognitively demanding day. Mental renewal is meditation, deep breathing, listening to music – whatever works for you. So, normalize the idea that renewal is something that, when it's done intentionally, when it's done effectively, serves performance productivity and gives us that burst of energy to get even more done.
Q:How far in the journey do you think organizations have been able to promote inclusivity in its true essence, would love to have an example.
A:It is well researched that a diverse and inclusive culture allows for people to bring their best and most authentic selves to work, it's the condition in which organizations thrive as they strive to achieve their strategic goals. World class organizations recognize that an inclusive culture is a differentiator for talent acquisition and retention. In addition, there is even a strong business case where inclusive organizations are better are innovation, decision making and even financial performance. While all organizations are in this pursuit to build an inclusive workplace achieving the metric of diversity as a percentage is far easier than creating the culture and mindset shift towards inclusion. Inclusion requires a persistent active process to ask the tough questions, call out the change required to shift long standing behaviour and biases often enough when people don't even realize they are practicing exclusionary behaviours. One of the simplest ways to understand the journey is to think of diversity as being invited to a party, and inclusion is feeling welcome at the party… are we as leaders ensuring that everyone is welcome and not merely there.
Q:Share an instance which has shaped your journey as a strong and confident woman.
A:Crucible moments and inspirational relationships shape who we are. More than a single moment it's the sum of the parts that is so much greater than the part itself.
It’s one's parents showing up for every single time you went on stage as a child no matter how small your role, its your husband tearing up with pride when you are recognized for your accomplishments, it's your in laws who step in as parents knowing how important work is for you to feel like you , it's your tribe of women who without knowing send you meaningful words of encouragement when you need to hear them the most. I have been incredibly lucky to have an army of cheerleaders and each one of us has them – the list may look different, but they are there, rooting for you to win. Find them and appreciate them, and as you do pass it along – never give up the chance to cheer for another woman, amplify her voice and share her story – she is very much like you.
Interview