Mind of The Woman

                                                                                                                                            

                                                                Mind of a Woman

“I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” – Estee Lauder

Since old times, women were not expected to run states, or countries as a default head. However, time and again, due to some factors like war or sudden absentee of a male head, she is promoted in a position that she is not exposed before—to lead and be the bread winner. History have been made and fables have been retold to popularize such powerful women, such as Rani Laxmibai, Ahilyabai Holkar, to name a few.

Today, in most modern societies, women choose to be in the forefront and push their limits to be where they want to be and do not let the society determine her fate and life. The playground is huge, and choices are plenty. They may choose to be a rock steady partner anchoring their spouse, defend the boundaries of a nation, be a successful entrepreneur, and leading a Fortune 500 company, amongst other accomplishments. Women have come a long way in past few decades, especially with the Internet age—where remote working and technology have empowered them—opening doors for such talent that would have given up during the peak of their career contribution.

Having said that, being a woman does not come easy, even as a head of an organization, she is still considered responsible for other social commitments that traditionally were carved out for her. Most of these successful women at some point of their career and life had to choose between two things that may be extremely important to them, for instance, choice between work and raising a family, between, higher studies and marriage and so on.

These decisions on a hindsight seems easy or obvious, but at that point of time in the past, it must have wrecked her brains and ruined many nights. Many of these women chose to tread between the two trying to postpone the decision or let nature take its course. This is a very uneasy space to be in, since, the women are torn between two of her favorite worlds and she puts all her effort into amalgamating both. Staying in that middle but not making those obvious choices, for long enough almost till there are no more choices to be made.

Michael Moritz mentioned in his book Leading, ‘That successful leaders need to make few decisions correctly rather than spending a lot of time being involved in many things.’. I am intrigued, how this applies to the women who more than common are involved in leading a lot of areas, ranging from bringing in the next big product to the market to planning on what goes on the dinner table tonight.

Here’re some of the insights I have gathered from meeting women leaders in all these years.

Risk Management

Risk mitigation and management is innate to women, right from pre-historic times, to choose a right partner and choosing to stay in as oppose to hunting to ensure the survival of young ones. In the absence of the male she can still rear the young gene and ensure the survival of our species. According to few women, they took risks with no back up plan, it was all about playing it with all in because, for them failure is not an option, they look it at as a choice, between sulking over it, or learn and quickly pivot experimenting with a different approach or set a new target. They take calculated risks to seize the opportunities. The tag of a failure is too huge to bear because it comes right down to gender differentiation, and that barrier is still huge to cross. 

Delegate and Prioritize 

Work-Life balance, is not a choice here for most who decide to get married and/or have children, it usually the amalgamation of both. Few women, leave their successful corporate career often to become an entrepreneur to work at her own pace and flexibility. But in any case, they have to use the support of their family and friends to take care of the routine chores. They learn to be more resourceful and delegate and outsource, non-strategic decisions and tasks to others, to allocate time where it was needed the most. Multi-tasking comes but naturally, as she has to balance, different businesses, people and family

Lead by Example

The patriarchal mindset and gender differentiation between the two is fading, but at a very slow pace. The boys club still exist and so does the glass ceiling. The only way, she can get her foot in or break the barrier is by changing the perception, and lead by example. Women have to work extra hard to prove her capabilities at every stage of career step, that she is climbing. Rather than fighting the stereotype tags, these women ignored the talks and adopted their own style of leading, showcasing their capabilities to get the results.

Besides, the qualities above, they also show the unique ability to hire and manage diverse teams. The partnerships they forge, tend to strengthen their Achilles heel, that helps them with their foresight and see through their blind spots. Enabling them to navigate to their vision and make pre-emptive decisions to make changes accordingly.

Her environment and upbringing makes a huge impact on how she shapes her future. Most of these women credit their parents, with the father being a force that helped them identify their strengths and mother being a role model and inspiration to persevere and stay determined.        

While I sail in a similar boat and navigate the same path, I plan to share more such insights as and when I get to meet and learn from these wonderful leaders.