Wednesday, August 14, 2024 | Virtual

We’re excited to wrap up the second session of this year’s SAWIE Mentorship Series.
Key Takeaways from the session:

Leading with Empathy in a Hierarchical and Toxic Environment: Communicate Effectively: Present your arguments clearly and back them with data and statistics. Authenticity and logical reasoning are crucial, especially for women facing unconscious bias. Balance Emotions and Logic: While empathy is important, a logical approach often prevails in hierarchical settings. Understand that you have limited control over outcomes and focus on presenting your case effectively.

Objectivity vs. Empathy: Build Relationships: Foster strong, honest relationships with peers. Transition from a transactional approach to one that adds value beyond immediate business interests. Add Value: Aim to make a meaningful impact rather than focusing solely on business transactions. This approach encourages long-term collaboration and trust. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: Interrelation and Leadership: Understanding Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence involves making tough decisions and managing personal biases. Recognize when to distance yourself from familiar work dynamics to maintain objectivity. Handling Difficult Decisions: Understand that making difficult decisions is part of leadership. Sometimes, it’s necessary to cut ties gradually while being polite and maintaining boundaries. Navigating Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: Recognize Emotional Abuse: Acknowledge that emotional abuse affects you, but focus on what you can control – your reactions and effective strategies. Strategies for Management: Consider speaking directly to the person involved, consulting HR, or evaluating your own behavior and reactions. Maintain professionalism, minimize unnecessary interactions, and focus on objective work. Enhancing Emotional Intelligence (EI): Self-Awareness: Regularly assess your strengths and weaknesses to improve self-awareness. This practice is essential for building better relationships and managing workplace toxicity. Feedback Handling: Approach feedback constructively rather than defensively. Use it as a tool for personal and professional growth. This can happen only if you are self-aware. Behavioral Indicators of Emotionally Intelligent Leaders: Managing Conflict: Emotionally intelligent leaders recognize when to de-escalate a conversation to avoid conflict. They address issues when emotions have settled, allowing for more rational discussions. Self-Awareness and Control: They are aware of their own behavior, including knowing when to refrain from raising their voice and how to manage interactions effectively. Growth Mindset and Emotional Intelligence: Forward-Looking Perspective: A growth mindset focuses on learning from failures and moving forward constructively. This mindset aligns with emotional intelligence, which emphasizes learning and adaptability over dwelling on past setbacks. Developing Personal and Professional Skills: Time Management and Delegation: Enhance time management skills, especially in the digital age. Learn to delegate tasks effectively to focus on higher-priority responsibilities. Continuous Learning: Re-skill and upskill to stay relevant in your career. Observe role models and learn from their experiences to navigate the corporate environment more effectively. Building Your Personal Brand: Develop strong communication skills and manage your online presence to build a professional reputation. Dealing with Stress and New Challenges: Acceptance and Vulnerability: It’s okay to feel stressed and overwhelmed, especially when new to a system. Accepting vulnerability and seeking support is part of personal growth. Resilience: Understand that falling, failing, and faltering are part of the process. Persistence and resilience are key to overcoming challenges and achieving growth. We extend our gratitude to our incredible mentor, Shruti Swaroop, and all the mentees for their openness and participation. Meet the Mentees: Nitisha Agarwal at Smokeless Cookstove Foundation, Ina Bansal at Lockheed Martin, Nidhi Prabha, Ph.D from USAID at South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP) at RTI International, Nusrat Jahan Chowdhury at H&M, Poonam Doshi at Reliance Industries Limited, Musharrat Bidita and Baishakhi Barua from USAID Bangladesh Advancing Development and Growth through Energy (BADGE) Project at Tetra Tech, and Preety Sannyashi at USAID India Interested in learning more and engaging with@SouthAsiaWomen1? Reach out to @ripubhanjan at rsingh@staging-builder2.usispf.org