I had the huge fortune of moderating a panel discussion with four phenomenal women leaders of corporate life today. In those 40 minutes (of which I unfortunately spoke for 4-5 mins at the beginning), there were at least 40 quotable quotes and lessons which flew from all directions. Am capturing some of them that I could recall :

• Learn to ask for help
• Learn to ask
• Do not get flustered
• Keep aspiring to be better…each day
• Keep an eye out for opportunities, grasp them when they come
• Do not be apologetic about your success
• Go through the rungs…makes you stronger in the long run
• Seek out mentors
• Have youthful energy around you – keep energy levels high
• Have oodles of self-respect and self-esteem
• Trade off or pivot, but don’t give up
• Do not get carried away with super-monikers ascribed to women leaders and to women in general; we deserve those 😊, and have earned our spurs
• Be demanding of what you deserve – opportunities…and compensation
• Do not be over-whelmed. Break problems into small projects, small activities and get them executed
• Teach your children the importance of gender diversity and role of each gender – in society, in corporate life and in life in general – be the change you want to see.
• And so, so many more….

I had contributed at the beginning of the discussion with some insightful facts and figures on status of women leaders and women in general in corporate life :

I shall share 3 separate instances / statistics :

1. Found an interesting HBR article (where else? 😊) – 2 researchers who had done a comparative study of women leaders and male leaders in 2019 (pre-Covid). They spoke with 60,000 leaders globally, and rated the leaders on a set of 19 competencies. The weighted average 19-competency index for male leaders came out as 49.8 and those for women leaders came out as 53.1, a full 3 points more than male leaders. They repeated this study on a smaller base in early 2021. The index for male leaders increased from 49.8 to 51.5. However, women leaders’ effectiveness had increased to 57.2, a whopping 6 points ahead of men. Fantastic study and fantastic stats!!!
2. In ANAROCK Residential business, we have a rich D,E&I index with 30% people in the Sales team being women. However, among the top 30-member leadership team, there only 3 women leaders, which is 10%. But then the final twist, the positive one – in FY21, these 3 women leaders accounted for 25% of total revenue.
3. And the final piece of stat is the damning stat…after all these Competency Index and clear-cut business case built for women leaders and employees in general, the fact of the matter is that of the Fortune 500 Companies, , there are only 40 women CEOs in that List!!! Similar stats for Fortune 100 companies in India – has 4 women CEOs…SAIL, Indian Bank, Lupin, StanChart.

Enough learnings to write a book on this topic…at some point of time :).