Breaking Biases, Breaking Barriers

It’s always a pleasure to work on events like breaking biases and breaking barriers with the Thought Leadership team at CII-IWN. Truly women supporting women.

The key note speakers and panelists were a diverse group with hugely interesting perspectives-the high commissioner of Rwanda, Deputy country rep United Nations India…

A panel of women from completely different walks of lives…what they have in common…breaking the glass ceiling in male dominated environments

And a group of individuals-performers, filmmaker’s, journalists that had shattered stereotypes and broken the mould.

My take away’s

The positives:

  1. India has a very progressive constitution with respect to gender equality and a robust legal framework to support.
  2. 4,200 women directors in over 3200 companies. A lot of these numbers have come about in the last 10 years
  3. Women shattering the glass ceiling and moving into domains where they were  never present before – the Armed Forces, on assembly lines in heavy manufacturing, as heads of multinational organizations and agencies

Work still to be done:

  1. 13% of the world’s land is owned by women
  2. In India, only 24% of women participate in the workforce
  3. 40% women in IT at the entry level, moves to 3% at top management levels

Above all, if women support women…we can create magic. I see it everyday, at Shradha HRD, where we are 90% women dominated and at platforms like CII-IWN where women truly support women!!!!!!!

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Is your Heart at Peace or at War?

Is your Heart at Peace or at War? Resolving the Heart of the Conflict

During a recent Webinar that I co-facilitated, a participant asked me a question most of us have grappled with at some point in our careers:

How do I deal with a stakeholder that is nasty and argumentative?

My mind immediately went to: “Is your heart at Peace or at War”?

This is the foundational principle of the Anatomy of Peace, a book which is the story of Yusuf al-Falah, an Arab, and Avi Rozen, a Jew, each lost his father in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

When we approach a conflict, most often we do it with a heart that is full of anger and a mind that says “I am right”. This comes in the way of us being able to see the other person’s perspective, leading to a far deeper conflict.

The solution is really simple, when you walk into a conflict situation, you need to ask yourself, “do I really want to find a solution or do I want to be proven right”?

When you approach a conflict situation, ask yourself the following questions:
1.    What is it that I really want from this situation? What is my best case scenario?
2.    What could the other person be thinking, feeling, seeing, hearing?
3.    What can I do that could move the situations towards a resolution?

The next time you walk into a conflict, just ask yourself “Is my heart at peace or is at war”?

Read on & Try it…the results may surprise you !!!!!!!!!!!!

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An Intervention on Strategic Thinking and Looking at the Big Picture for a Real Estate Asset Management Company

The Landscape:
Our client is one of the largest real estate asset management companies in the world. They are set to double their Assets under Management (AUM) in the next 3 years. This program was for middle managers from across functions, in the organization.

There was a clear need identified, for managers to be able to move away from a transactional approach to a more strategic approach. Step away from everyday execution and look at the Bigger Picture.

The Challenge:
The organization was growing very fast, in an ever-changing landscape. This required managers to be able to look at the bigger picture and then take their decisions. There was a tendency with managers, to remain bogged down
at the execution stage and not be able to move to step back and look at the situation holistically.

The Solution:
The focus of the program was to give participants the necessary tools to look at the situation strategically, view the big picture and not get stuck in the fine print, the details. Using these tools, apply them to everyday situations at the workplace. We worked not just at the concept level but at the execution too.

The Impact:
Participants were able to apply “Big Picture Thinking” tools to challenging situations at their work. It allowed them to step back, reflect and map out a clear action plan for implementation. The program gave participants a safe space to review mindsets and strategize on how to implement the actual change on thinking strategically and looking at the big picture before taking decisions.