On Leading Like a Girl

What you’re going to read next is not only my journey as a fellow in the “Lead like a girl” fellowship but also my narrative on how I took a chance to indulge myself into a very unfamiliar area and how it turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences I have had till date.

One day when I was wrapping up my day, I received an e-mail from Lean InWomen in Tech India that Shenomics is launching their first edition of a fellowship program called “Lead Like a Girl”. They would select 20 fellows across India who will go through a mentorship program of 6-months guided by erudite personalities across the globe — founders, CEOs, authors, IPS officers, social entrepreneurs and many more. The most exciting part of the fellowship was the Impact Project, where I get to start an initiative to impact 100 other women in any sector, thus creating a ripple effect. The part that was completely new to me was “mindful leadership” (I shall come onto that soon).

Without thinking about the outcome, I started filling out the application and believe me, the questions made me ponder about my idea of impacting the world. I didn’t know whether I will be selected or would even pursue the fellowship, but I certainly enjoyed filling the form. After an interview, I got selected and the schedule for the next 6-months was provided.

Cohort diversity

We were 20 girls from different backgrounds comprising of engineers, doctors, environmentalists, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, government officers, and so on.

Let me break down the program into sections to make it more modular and informative:

3-day workshop thrice in 6 months:

– We had day-long sessions comprising of talks and one-on-one interactions with experts. The best part was that the mentors who came to interact with us were chosen in a way that each one of us had a chance to connect to stalwarts of our sectors. It’s not every day that you get to network with people so experienced and accomplished that easily.

– More than professional, it was a spiritual journey. We had sessions to embrace our bodies, thoughts, conflicts, and surroundings so structurally, that for once I was startled. We had nature silent walks in Cubbon park in the dawn and meditation sessions to feel more connected to our bodies.

-All this was very new to me — it had been a while that I had stopped, analyzed my thoughts and feelings so calmly. This led me to understand the value of mindful leadership — it was mindfully listening to my own thoughts and to that of others, mindfully speaking my words and at the end, leading myself from within. It was about finding my ikigai at the end of the day!

Buddy System:

I was paired with one other fellow for checking in with updates on my impact project, the personal goals I had set in the previous sessions or even discussing where I might be lagging behind.

Wisdom Circles:

This was a beautiful concept completely new for me, where everyone in a group of 4/5 would narrate their feelings/issues/challenges they encountered in the previous days. Other members could enlighten the conversation by discussing a similar incident or experience but were not allowed to suggest a solution or give advice for the given problem. This exercise was done so that the person facing the issue could tap into her own wisdom.

Professional Coaches:

This was a part which seemed too realistic to be true but worked most effectively for me. I was being mentored by Mr. Arvind, an ICF-PCC Certified Coach. You’d wonder — who is a professional coach? Will he be a person from a coding background like mine? or maybe a psychologist?

Well, coaches don’t help you find the solution to the problem directly, rather they help you enlighten yourself to be able to find a solution. The very first example my coach gave me was — “Imagine, Toshi! you were a scientist at NASA, and something in the engine you had built went wrong during the flight and you’re now panicking to fix it. Do you think, I would be able to coach you in this process?” My immediate response was — “I don’t think so!”. I was definitely wrong, his skill to help me figure out my own solutions to a problem abstract to him, was astonishing. In my opinion, all of us should go through some kind of professional life coaching from time to time.

Impact Project:

Here comes the most interesting part of this fellowship where we chose an area to bring about a change. The team supervised us to invest in appreciating the problem thoroughly and then approach it in a scalable way. In terms of networking and meeting the right people, Shenomics knew it all. I am currently working on my project “Girls and Keys” which aims at increasing women participation in technology via mentoring college girls. I would be soon coming up with the website for the same to raise support from you all! (it’s a whole new blog that I am writing :)).

I can only elucidate from the projects’ pitch on felicitation day where I witnessed our visions flowering into impactful projects. Bhavna Toor, Founder & CEO of Shenomics, once told me, the first brick has been installed, make sure you keep building up!

The journey was more than I can possibly articulate. There are many aspects of it which I only experienced and felt deeply about. There were times of contemplation (happy as well as sad) after the sessions, shared notions as women which perplexed me at times and overthinking which led to confusion and also conclusions. Trust me, I feel more confident after experiencing this journey and evaluating my ideas. I made great friends for life (my fellow fellows) and amazing mentors (Bhavna, Divya, Manisha and Veena) whom I can resort to for advice, anywhere and anytime.

At the end of the day, let’s give trials to the unknown opportunities that come our way without over analyzing the outcomes — you never know what’s exactly in store for you :). Here is a glimpse of my journey in the program.

As a proud alumnus of the fellowship, I would encourage all you girls out there to apply for the 2019 cohort of “Lead like a girl” fellowship which is now available on https://shenomics.com/fellowship/.

Remembering all the good memories, the friends and the great mentors via this video which Shenomics posted recently.