Sunday, March 22, 2009

U Me Aur Hum :: Age 25 - 35

Age 25-35, the thought was discussed exactly for 2 minutes at the Empowerment Workshop I attended on March 7, 2009 - previous to International Woman’s Day. I was in process of completing learning notes from this workshop from different speakers, SIMBA came to me “Draw a Chada Mama for me MA!”

The reflection…

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Women Prowess at Workplace: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

March 7, 2009 - a day full of thoughtfulness and reflection. I set a theme for myself for the day – ‘Listen Listen Listen’ :-)

CII structured a seminar on “Women Prowess: Breaking the Glass Ceiling at Workplace” at The Park, Kolkata previous to International Woman’s Day. To be honest I hate these concepts of Woman’s Day, I hate any such Women only concepts. We born as a human being and I love to be treated as human being only. Generally I skip such gathering and prefer to spend quality time @ home with my HERO. But the title attracted me ‘Breaking the Glass Ceiling

The term glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination, most commonly sexism
or racism. This situation is referred to as a "ceiling" as there is a limitation blocking upward advancement, and "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately apparent and is normally an unwritten and unofficial policy. This invisible barrier continues to exist beneath the surface tends to cripple working women the most.
My mind was booming with thoughts
- Will they really provide some tips on breaking the ceiling of stereotyping both @home and work places?
- Will they supply some norms for objective/subjective measure to judge self performance compared to a colleague performing at same level?
- How things are working for social awareness?



The PROGRAMME broke down in 4 sessions with a number of Speakers - Beth, Rachna Nath, Shweta Pillai, Dr. Indrani Sen, Prof. Ashish Banerjee are few of them who left well-built mark for myself with their resolves.

Inaugural Session :
Mr. Sandipan Chakrovortty, Chairman CII ER, inaugurate the Session with welcome notes(!) discriminating women capabilities & troubles he experienced and leave the session on hands of Ms. Raji Ramaswamy, Senior VP & GM, JWT.

Dil meain hain chupi.. jaaduyee roshmi..
mansilo ke nisaan…
Appne armano ko… kulke to urne do..

Raji came up with her colorful presentation of different commercial adds which do do do have a strong effect in our daily life. InspirationAspirationDirectionDetermination all mingle up so nicely in her presentation.

The stage was set for Beth – Beth A Payne, Consulate General, USA. The more I see this lady the more I fall in love with her – her way of taking, her nice way of reacting, her way of resolve – what a perfect tune!!!
She talks straight from heart about her childhood, about her family, about her surrounding - how it was filled with stereotyping and how they all come out so bright. True Beth, it’s only we who transform a newborn to a man or woman instead of a human being. Only we can drive India from a developing country to a developed nation and for that if we have to start somewhere for human empowerment, it is our home only. Mutual respect at home environment creates the possibility to evolve a healthy next generation both in terms of mind and body. Beth, I wish if we can have you as a mentor in some Human Empowerment workshop.

The session concluded by Mr. RK Agrawal, Chairman EAS CII ER, with vote of thanks.


Session#1 : Changing Context of Leadership
Mr P K Sen, Senior Advisor CII, kickoff the session which leaded by Ms. Meera Harish, Head-Strategy & Business Development, Titan Industries. Meera portrait her journey of success – both at work & home. She set the theme from Bhagavada Geeta:

Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachna
Karmaphalehtur bhurma te sangostvakarmani.
Don’t set success as your goal, just do your work well & everything will come to you with time.
Set your personal discipline, be a trust maker.

Dr. Rupali Basu, CEO, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, drives the session for personal & profession leadership. She points out inherited capabilities a woman possesses
- Feeling for others
- Remarkable quality of observation
- Balance
- Organizing skills
- Skill of recognizing
She stresses to hone the skills we as a women do possess and bring it up to the level of excellence. Be the leader where you are & what ever you are doing - create the era of small leadership.

Ms Bharati Singh, Associate Director & Head HSBC insists converting adversity to advantage. Women are emotional, accept that gracefully and convert it to a strength exactly the way SITA, SABITRI, PADMABATI, LAXMIBAI did. She referred Centered Leadership Model which emphasizes the role of positive emotions. I found this to be a real good pointer for me.


Economist Mr. Sumanta Chawdhuri emphasize on education for developing confidence in his closure note for this session.


Session#2 : Journey to an equal opportunity organization
Mr Aloke Mookherjee, Chairman Skill development CII, starts this session on skill development and bridging the wage gap.

Ms Rachna Nath, Executive Director PWC, sets the pitch for human empowerment.
Neither like a man nor like women - emerge like a professional. Help and understand your colleague – don’t criticize a man if he wants to go out at 6:30 to take care of his babies – similarly if a woman want to stay back and continue work don’t spread/entertain gossip against her – make the place where you want to be. Come out of stereotyping – knowledge is sex less. Behind every successful Woman there is a Man – this is equally true as the reverse is. True :-)

Ms Ajapa Ghosh, Assistant VP HRD, patton India Ltd delivered a speech on harnessing potential of women Leaders. I failed to make much out of her speech as smell of foods started appealing more ;-)


Session#3 : Women at Work – Fighting Challenges
Prof. Ashish Banerjee, IIMC coordinate post lunch break session. Mr Ranjan Sarkar, VP Acclaris, was the first speaker who depicts the employability scenario at BPO sector.
~~~

Ms Sweta Pillai


~~~
Ms Sharbari Dutta, the leading fashion designer weaves her magic in thread for next couple of minutes. She recalls starting days with Colored Dhoti – Do you think a man is going to wear this sari maam? – Startup remarks!! And now!!! Colored dhoti is rocking as most wanted traditional menswear. She sustained with her passion and created a new era of traditional clothes for men. Spread your passion, offer people a reason to climb your strategic mountaintops & shine. Recalling Colored Dhoti? ;-)

Dr. Indrani Sen was next to recite her own success story for balancing Work, Home & Passion. She is an eminent singer & HOD Economics, Calcutta Women’s college. While most of us striving hard to reach work life balance, she is living up her successful life & her duel profession. ‘The car sees all transformation – a teacher to a home maker to a singer’ - Life is a successful adjustment of an on-off switch, the more you practice the more you achieve, she drags us back to reality.

And the PROGRAMME concluded with a perfect tone set by Prof. Ashish Banerjee, IIMC. He commits a promise to himself & to the society to cover all inputs he received will be put together as a special subject for MBA students. Yes professor you are the one on whom we can count to lead the society in right direction of Human Empowerment. If people at top are tuned, it is definitely going to get flow – take a Lead to form Leads.



Apne rang gabaye bin ~ mere rang mein dhal jao..
Apne dhup bujhaye bin ~ mere chayon mein aa jao...
Chalo asisa kare...
Tum.. Tum hi raho..
Mein.. Mein hi rahu..
Hum.. Hum vi rahe…

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Seven Habits Workshop (23rd & 24th Feb, 2009)

Today is 1st March, 2009 Sunday - I absolutely lost my 36 hr, Friday night to Sunday morning, even though I was carrying my own mission statement for myself and both work & home. I am blissful as the coz that put me in blues pulls me out with a sparking annotation ‘We have lots of interesting things to do – absolutely no time to drain!!!’...
I jumped to my Q1 activities which just coved by evening. The words reiterate once again ‘We have lots of interesting things to do - absolutely no time to drain’ - though I don’t possess great balance in each field of my life but I do carry the lust for betterment.

A Workshop arranged by my organization on Winning Habits. I decided to evaluate & then reevaluate my standing after receiving so called life changing workshop.
BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP:
I was carrying 3 mission statements – 1 for myself 1 for my home 1 for my work
I will spend 1 hr each day studying/writing something to increase my self-awareness
I will spend 1 hr each day for home decoration/maintenance
I will spend 4 hr per week for developing plan/usability doc for Q2 activities @work

I knew exactly what I needed to do when I step out from SWABHUMI on 24th Feb, 2009. I have even got off to an honest start but today realize that my intended goal appears to be bit out of sight. Reaffirm myself that negative habits (my reactive nature) transpire in our lives so can we introduce positive one.

Learning HABIT# 1: Be Proactive
‘Take a study of your own behaviors, you will find there are only few instances when you really need to react immediately’
– I exactly remember words during a counseling session & I am still working actively to be proactive.

> Referring Netiquette Guidelines for email communication
> Resuming conflict though smoothing
> Being R&I

All working well @work - for life? I am still not able to increase the space much between stimulus & response. I still caught myself wasting by reacting to or worrying about conditions over which I have little/no control. The ‘Circle of Concern’ demands strong mental/emotional involvement.

The strategy for HABIT# 1 formation suggests, take a deep look at ‘Circle of Concern’ – it clearly reveals two classes:
> Concerns we have no real control
> Concerns we can do something about - separate out these as ‘Circle of Influence’
Key is to recognize our limitation but focus on our strength. It’s better to focus energy & effort in the ‘Circle of Influence’ where I can do something about. And really there are lots of lots of things to do under ‘Circle of Influence’ – so absolutely no time to drain :-)


No control concerns involve taking responsibility, gracefully accepting these problems and learn to live with them, even though we don’t like them. Key is we should not empower these problems to control us.


Most things are accomplished when we are able to form habits around them. How do we form Habits? – Keys are Attitude - Strategy - Knowledge. The thing to remember is that habits are formed by practicing repetition of them (either subconsciously or not). ‘A person is a product of his choice – neither 100% of nature nor 100% of nurture’

Read Stephen covey on HABIT#1 @
http://www.stephencovey.com/blog/?p=28