Footprints scaling to a phenomenal career growth
I have always been
driven towards Purpose. While earlier this purpose was oriented towards achieving
financial stability for myself and family, over the years this has evolved to
creating an impact on the wider community and a desire to leave the world
better than I found it.
The top three values
that allow me to pursue my purpose are:
Accountability - In
many ways there wasn’t much expected of me as a “girl child” and yet I always
knew I wanted to do more. Whether it was teaching school kids in the early
years or door-to-door marketing to collate college fees, accountability has
been a core value on which I have built my career.
Resilience – Committing
to making it happen and helping it happen for others. I think resilience is
about dealing with the low points in your life when things are not going right
and ensuring that when you are at a high point, you look out for folks who need
your help. Resilience is a muscle, much like gratitude; it grows stronger each
time you use it. My life has had its fair share of curve balls, and looking
past those with hope for the future has been fundamental to my ability to
thrive.
Support – Support
systems are a huge factor. Being a mother at the peak of my career meant
needing to balance and having support in my personal space made it possible.
Having a mentor or finding a guide can be a huge boost both for confidence and
competence. I look for people around me who can coach me on my journey to
pursue my purpose.
At Accenture for
example, I met Venkatraghavan CA (our HR Lead for Accenture Operations in India
& Sri Lanka, an out and proud leader) during one of Accenture’s’ ‘Hues of
the Rainbow’ sessions, a safe space for the LGBTIQ+ community and allies to engage
in open dialogue on issues that matter. I was very clear on wanting to create
positive impact to the marginalized groups and asked him to be my coach.
Venkat encouraged me to
lead the India Pride Employee resources group in India two years ago. And it
has been one of the most fulfilling and humbling experiences. I am now the
Pride Sponsor for Accenture in India and work with our teams to strengthen the
Ally network within Accenture, drive workplace sensitization and sharpen our
existing focus on developing safe spaces for our people too so they can bring
their unique authentic selves to work. This work fuels my purpose.
A warrior - against all odds
Stereotyping has far -
reaching effects on the confidence, morale and mental wellbeing of an
individual. Gender stereotyping is possibly the first bias that I have experienced
from a very early age.
Sexual orientation
& weight-based stereotyping are other biases that I have experienced. I am
a bisexual person, who identifies as a female and is obese. The common negative
stereotypes that have been thrown at me include being promiscuous, lacking
discipline, being lazy, not being decisive. And let me add a failed
relationship to the mix.
The threat of
stereotypes is real, and I would be lying if I said I have been able to leave
behind the constant pressure of proving that I am good enough first to myself
and then to those around me. It is a journey that I continue to walk.
Three of the most
essential hacks that have worked for me are:
1. Don’t fall victim to stereotyping which
include the stereotyping of what success looks like.
2. Work hard, move fast and be better than you
were yesterday.
3. When unsure, take a small step forward – I am
biased towards movement even if it is the smallest one.
A driving force for Inclusion at work
Over the years there
have been significant changes at the workplace when we think from the lens of
diversity.
From diverse groups
being represented in boards and management levels to external collaboration on
recruiting diverse talent, companies have moved the meter on diversity sharply.
I personally think the
essential work that needs to happen is around inclusion and belonging, and both
in separate ways. So let me start with Inclusion.
The element of
inclusion is related to how the organization encourages participation,
engagement and avoids exclusion of groups of people from career advancement,
and professional development. One of the most basic methods to drive inclusion
is through education and sensitization. Cognitive awareness on the LGBTQI+
training allows for the larger groups to recognize the existence of biases, how
these biases drive negative stereotyping and drive practices of Inclusion.
At Accenture,
sensitization training, and sharing stories have been powerful ways of building
our culture of Inclusion.
Belonging is
fundamentally an individual choice which is influenced both by experiences of
self and observations of experiences of others.
It took me two decades
of working in the corporate world to finally experience inclusion the way I did
at Accenture. It helped me make the
choice to belong to this Accenture family fully as I am.
For me, the turning
point came during a sensitization session where we had speakers share their
stories of struggles for acceptance. I had spent a few years already at that
point with Accenture, and it is then that I finally found in me both the
courage and the acceptance in the group to openly share my own struggles of
discrimination.
Accenture takes an
intentional approach to inclusion & diversity with focused recruitment
efforts, workplace sensitization, mentorship, Ally network, safe spaces for
open dialogue and the pride community resources groups.
Accenture in India is
among the first few organizations that have translated the spirit of inclusion
into people policies - with gender neutral parental policies, medical cover for
gender reassignment surgery, mental health consultation (for gender dysphoria
and beyond). In 2021, Accenture in India modified its parental leave policies,
such as maternal, paternal, adoption and surrogacy leave, to focus on the
importance of caregiving versus gender binaries to support our LGBTIQ+ people
in their parenting journey. Accenture’s medical insurance and life insurance
benefits cover the partners of its people who identify themselves as LGBTIQ+.
I think there is
significant work we have accomplished within Accenture and yet humbly
acknowledge that we have more to accomplish. I think one of the first steps
that organizations need to take is to recognize that coming out unfortunately
is not a one and done process and thus there needs to be the conscious effort
to build belonging in every group and subgroup within firms. Strategies of
belonging within the smallest groups of teams the firm itself is critical task
companies will need to take to ensure belonging in the workplace for all.
I will Quote my coach
Venkat as he says, we shouldn’t just be inclusive when we are amidst a diverse
group. Instead, we should always be inclusive because there are invisible
people around us who have blended into the crowds and are waiting to be
welcomed fully as they are.
It took me 20 years of
corporate life to muster courage to speak up. Hence, let’s create workplaces
that welcome diversity and give them a voice so they can stand loud and proud
because they made a choice to belong!
Ambitioning the Woman of substance
It is a known fact that
professional women, especially of color, make up only a small fraction of
senior leadership in organizations across the world. Having said that I am at
one such workplace that has several women leaders in C-suite roles including
our CEO, Julie Sweet.
In recent times there
has been a lot of focus on gender parity goals that organizations set for
themselves to help drive women into leadership roles because they see value in
doing so. Research has time and again shown having diversity in leadership not
only helps Innovation & Risk Management but also boosts revenue streams.
I think of three
categories of barriers that need to be removed to boost the number of women in
leadership roles:
- Social Barriers –
Sexism and Stereotyping are some of the most common things that come to mind.
The workplace has more women now, but the stereotypes are tied to traditional
gender roles and thus an assertive man is a good boss, but an assertive woman
is perceived as being pushy and aggressive.
- Structural Barriers -
Access to resources and networks. The social networks that also form coaching
grounds for aspirational men often don’t exist for female leaders. The onus of
caregiving typically falls on women adding to the impact on flexibility and
balance.
- A Lack of role models
can impact the ability of women leaders to recognize and see themselves as
leaders.
Organizations need to
recognize these barriers and focus on female leadership programs, mentorship
& sponsorship programs and continually drive the momentum on identifying
unconscious bias and how this impacts advancement opportunities for women. The barriers to women in Leadership need to
be owned by women working on skilling themselves in many facets including
social and professional self-promotion. . I have found tremendous power in
practising the skills I learned in an ‘IamRemarkable’ workshop.
The last five years at Accenture I have been a part of several sponsored external training programs and have had the privilege of benefiting from the tremendous learning resources we have available within our workplace.
Not only do we need more women at corporate workplaces but in all spheres of life – be it entrepreneurship, politics, policy making, academia. We need more role models in this space, and we need to invest in creating them right now in the schools and universities so our future generations can live the change.