Gender Inclusivity – Alignment with Corporate Goals by Rakhee Nagpal
Loading ...It is not every day, that one is privy to witness a meeting, where the number of women far outweigh the men. Truth at times can be stranger than fiction, they say, as we were wont to witness a case of “gender imbalance” during Ms Rakhee Nagpal’s session on Friday. Perhaps, this was also the reason which shocked even a seasoned campaigner like Avinash to lapse into momentary amnesia, as he stumbled for half a second while doing the speaker introduction. Talking purely from the male perspective, I can say, it is quite a daunting task, to be part of the minority tribe, and facing the other gender. Many a Hercules’ in his time would have quaked, even at the mere thought. Ms Nagpal, gracious lady that she is, jocularly remarked, that she would deduct some marks for the minor faux pas but finally all due credit must go to Avinash for charming the ladies, with his sheepish grin.
Ms Nagpal started by giving a brief outline on her organization – Dynamic Verticals and how they were the first in India to obtain the distributing rights of Navision. She also briefly touched upon her business model, as well as her operations from the other locations in US and Dubai. She said, perception, plays a very important role in anything that we do and most of the time, a huge effort really goes in either creating or changing it. Monopolistic arrogance is passé, as consumers now have a choice to go with you or without. It was all about quality and “quality companies are only built by quality people”, irrespective of the gender. She also opined, that such workshops conducted by NASSCOM were very important but should not only be about women participating, but also include more men to sensitize the whole issue. Moreover, “gender inclusivity”, is a term, which gives an impression of excluding something perhaps, so it could be more apt, if we coined the phrase gender empowerment. At the same time, one has to be discreet in approach and not go overboard in creating a hoopla and hype, so much so, that it becomes an issue. She brought in another dimension to the discussion – is it not a wee bit late in the hour, to discuss gender inclusivity? Should we now take it as given. After all, women world over, have been contributing to the workplace and constitute a significant part of the workforce.
Ms Nagpal also shared an interesting insight about “ the second in command” in her organisation, who incidentally was a man. She added, that the professional relationship with him, was always on an even keel without any trace of ego coming in the way. Interestingly enough, this particular gentleman, in his earlier jobs also, had always reported to women in the organizational hierarchy. Very successfully too. So, was this a behavioral aspect? Were only a certain type of men conditioned to partake in such a professional relationship, or was it just a mere coincidence. She said, that in most companies, the number of men at the level of decision making were significantly higher and as a community we now need to look at ways of inducting more women at leadership positions. Internally, every individual was a sum composite of personal and professional maps and to eke out desired results, both these aspects need to be addressed simultaneously. Again, we go back to creating or changing perceptions. An interesting thought came about during the discussion – “the opt out revolution”. Many women voluntarily opt out of work, to look after their home, as they feel this way they will find a greater meaning to their lives, than undertake some mundane 9 to 5 jobs. This is precisely the leakage that we are talking about. What is it about workplace behavior that makes women happy or unhappy which triggers the decision of stay on or leave.
Ms Nagpal also talked about her behavioral dynamics with Ms Neelam Dhawan, the ex Managing Director of Microsoft India and the current MD Mr Rajan. In her opinion, both were leaders of a very superior magnitude but the dynamics were completely different. The way she would communicate with a man at the helm was quite different from what she did with a woman. The difference lay more in the subtlety, which is what exactly defines a man-woman equation at the workplace. She also opined that maintaining a gender balance was a strategic decision and could be undertaken only if there is a uniform buy in of senior management, without which, it was meaningless and akin to fighting a losing battle. This is where the involvement of HR is critical – to understand the culture and play the role of a change agent. To understand something as basic, as the importance of junior level executives to the decision making process. To make them feel that their contribution also count, and only then, can change be brought about.
Interestingly, someone brought up that there are some women who only feel the need to be “accepted” and what can possibly be done to inject some confidence into them to beat the complex. So far, we were only talking about how to include women and Ms Nagpal, very intelligently veered the discussion towards the importance of men to the whole discussion, lest it be misconstrued as a “women centric” issue. She reiterated that gender inclusivity was not just about making women aware but also sensitizing men, and equally so. It was only possible through an open communication where both the genders had an equal role to play. Ms Nagpal, shared an interesting anecdote of how companies were different in the thought process. “Crèche”, as support system was possibly every working mothers dream come true – or so we thought; strangely enough, at Dynamic Verticals, there wasn’t much of a response and the idea simply collapsed, even before implementation. Solutions to problems are not uniform and must always be addressed with reference to the specific context. She went on to address on the importance of flexi-timing and how the world was changing and reinventing itself, around this.
Having covered every aspect in considerable detail, Ms Nagpal finally went on to add the importance of what a woman should communicate to the world at large. That really would be the defining clause. Employ women for their talent and not gender alone. Finally, it was really up to women to decide how inclusive they would like to be in the growth trajectory of every organization. There’s a price to pay for everything and it was purely up to individuals to decide. Yet another forum on gender inclusivity came to an end with a round of applause and the participants were clearly happy that NASSCOM would drive this initiative in the NCR region.
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