Financial expert Pria Masson Tanwar gives us a monthly dose of workplace wisdom.
A couple of days ago I was watching an interesting TED talk by Angela Lee Duckworth on predictors of success. She uses the concept of Grit, i.e. passion combined with perseverance. And it makes sense – if you love what you do, have passion and work hard or have perseverance, the probability of success clearly multiplies.
But the question then is, how does one develop this grit? To my mind, it’s the personal journey that each person undertakes as well as life experiences that give birth to and nurture this grit. And any woman who is a part of the current workforce knows this grit well.
In my view, from an organisation’s standpoint, this grit boils down to a two very tangible traits.
First, the ability to be bold. Gender-based wage gaps, gender stereotypes and differences in the standards set for men and women are just the tip of the iceberg. Despite this being common knowledge, women continue to strive to break these boundaries. They do that with small steps like applying for a job or taking a course in business and by asserting their right to be in leadership roles.
Whatever the step, the fact that there is a woman who wants to be a part of your business or start one of her own, despite knowing the pit-falls – there is no doubt that, despite a possibly softer demeanour, this is an individual bold enough to dream and strong enough to move forward.
Second, the ability to be resilient. If you have ever walked into a room, whether large or small, and felt all eyes on you – that feeling, is what it means to be a woman.
Add to that the idea that the majority of those in the room are either waiting for you to fail or to prove that you are good enough to be there, and you now know how it means to be a woman in a leadership role.
Resilience is a part of almost all women’s journeys and if channelled, this resilience can be a force to reckon with.
Whether it is Indira Nooyi, Sheryl Sandberg or Dr Maliha Hashmi, the stories have a common thread of being bold enough to believe in themselves, of being resilient enough to move forward and, of course, of being able to constantly choose, prioritise and reset the various life-choices they make. Their stories are of a strength of character that often comes from being able to deal with obstacles. And their journey of life-choices, is part of who they have become and what they’ve achieved.
Across cultures, women are conditioned to have certain traits and indulge in certain interests more than others. Out of this, there will be some who take a different path, who choose to or are taught to nurture bold dreams.
Even for these women, despite support, if any, at home, society is almost never kind. Women must push harder, work harder and speak stronger just to be considered as a voice. That’s the foundation of grit. The willingness to fight the battles that need to be fought to achieve what they want to achieve. They must be “more” just to be the same – and that same more is the “grit” that makes for successful leaders.
You can follow Pria on Instagram at money_cues or visit http://www.i2d-consulting.com to know more about her professional experience.
