Habits that Create Patterns of Success
What habits are particularly recommended for women….Our experts recommend habits for aspiring women:
Lalitha Bhatia: Time management - managing your urgent and important work in both your personal and professional life. Also work on mental and social quotient. It is important to balance personal and social life and to learn the art of time management. You also need to work towards your physical and spiritual strength.
Nilufer Mullanfiroze: Women tend to be far more cautious before applying for a job or raising their hand in a meeting. They take fewer risks compared to men. This would be advantageous in a constant world. But in a world that is constantly
changing, by the time you are perfect, the world has changed. Not speaking up gives the impression that women can’t think on their feet. So, in a project that needs quick decision making, women tend to get locked off. So, you have to take more risks if you want to be at the frontline, if you want to be in sales, if you want to speak at a public forum. So, my style is that if I am 80% sure, I will voice my opinion.
Men have an advantage that they network and socialize after office hours, whereas most women are back home. So, I recommend women use the lunch time to network with everyone, not just women. I recommend a KPI such as meeting one person outside the department every week over lunch.
Shalini Rajani: I don’ t want any women to be in the comfort zone. I don’t want any woman to think that because she is a woman, she should be looked at differently. I also do not want men to think differently that because she is a woman, she cannot do a particular task or that she may like to go early or things like that. I would like women to be very strong, very confident about themselves and self-reliant. She should make out that she is self-confident and independent.
Shoma Narayanan: Taking out time for yourself is important. It is something that the average human does not do, especially Indians. I am very happy to see that young people who are still in college or have just started working are much better at this than people of my generation. Part of it may be because later on in your career you get married, you will have kids, you are always putting either families or jobs or someone else’s priority ahead of yours. So, take out X amount of time for doing something dear to you or for learning or for relaxing…whatever.
Sumanlatha Sanghi: Constantly be ready to learn and reinvent yourself. Also, create more time for yourself to avoid the guilt of not having personal work life balance. Engage in your hobby or sport that you like.
Communication - be open in sharing thoughts and ideas and not bother about what others will think.
Networking - move out of your comfort zone and meet new like-minded people.
Rajashree Nambiar: Women are still a minority in corporates. Most of the times when I reach out and discuss, women could have self-doubts, concerns and may need help. Women should reach out and form informal networks with each other where they can lean on each other. Women should do this very consciously and actively.
Also, women should informally have fun at the workplace and bond with each other. We bond through food and days like sari day. Women should invest some of their time and mind in forging relationships. With doing so much of work at home and office, women become transactional – this they should avoid.
Maul Bodiwala: Working women should focus on inculcating the habit of taking care of self. Women should have good habits of eating healthy food and exercising. If you are healthy you can succeed in your professional life and personal life.
Babitha B P: CISO role is an extremely challenging and interesting role. In security field, we have to take care of multiple things at a time also under pressure. God has gifted women with multi-tasking skills and they are able to withstand pressure. I have always felt women can have a wonderful career in the security field, if they have passion to learn new things.
Monu Jain: A woman ends up managing a lot of things with a lot of responsibilities and with a lot of care. Because of the high EQ that women have, they are able to be very efficient at work.
Planning and organizing become the key in managing the house, the children and shaping the future. It is a very critical habit to ensure that you have good time management. And that you make your day expand and elongate. With focus on preparedness and planning you can make sure that every meeting is crisp, chaos is minimized and the day is more productive. This is one very important habit.
Nitu Samra: Usually, women think about being perfect. I would like to say women need to be brave rather than perfect. It’s ok to go wrong in some places it’s ok if something is cluttered, it’s ok to let certain things go, but I think it’s more important you live a better life, a more daring life rather than go after perfection. It’s not a habit but it’s something I am trying to inculcate even in my daughters. It is difficult to be perfect with so many things going on and that feeling of not being perfect makes you feel let down.
Pur vi Bhavsar: Women should inculcate the habit of balancing personal and professional life – being successful in one at the cost of other is no good!
‘I can do it’ – develop a habit of being self-confident and self-motivated.
One habit that I would strongly recommend for women is to be finance savvy - understand the basics and don’t be overly dependent on others!
Ashima Bhat: For married women, the focus often shifts to family. And often the time that you have for yourself gets very limited. Senior women like me have high pressure jobs and we need to make a conscious effort to keep time for ourselves. We must inculcate this habit and focus on own physical well-being and health.
L Chiranthi Cooray: A strong work ethic. Being better organized and having the presence of mind and a certain high level of consciousness.