EmpowerHERFridays with Anupma Raj

Dear Anupma Raj ,

Thank you for joining the #EmpowerHERFridays series! Let’s get started:

1. How would you describe your current role & responsibilities?

I’m a Customer Success leader at Microsoft Germany with a focus on Data & AI technologies. My responsibilities are a blend of team leadership, innovating with our largest customers and owning a part of the business.?

While working with our customers, my team and I support their innovation journeys so they can be cutting edge in their fields and do this while meeting their business goals.

While working with my team, I provide clarity on our mission and try to take away the noise so my team can focus on doing what they’re best at - technically winning. I also work heavily towards creating a psychologically safe culture where each person can be themselves and fearlessly grow.

And of course, I’m also responsible for?contributing to the overall success of Microsoft business. This includes working to overachieve my sales targets, aligning with my stakeholders and taking a joint Go-To-Market approach.?

2. What skills or qualities have been crucial for your success so far?

So many skills, qualities and a dash of luck have all contributed. But three things come to mind:

• Developing an understanding of what success for my current and desired future roles looks like and then chasing it in a structured way. This requires understanding core competencies and soft skills required and developing a strong command over them. Topics could range from technical know-how to improving conflict resolution skills to developing a better network.?
• It also helps to have the right mindset while doing this - always practicing growth mindset and?eagerly stepping out of your comfort zone because that’s where the magic happens.
• Having a solution oriented approach.

3. You have lived in 9 countries, have learned about so many cultures & languages. What is your advice for adopting an open and flexible mindset that also translates into business?

In my experience, an open and flexible mindset stems from curiosity, an openness to adapt and respect for differences.

All of these are very helpful in the business world as well - staying curious about new developments and perspectives is very important to stay cutting edge. Being open to adapt requires not holding on too strongly to your own ideas and leaving space to adapt when you identify a better approach. And respect for differences allows for productive collaboration and empathy in the workplace.???

4. As AI is the new hot topic, what would you advise anyone who wants to get started on educating herself?

It’s definitely an exciting time in the world of technology and recent AI developments will touch all of us to some extent, independent of industries and roles. It’s a great idea to understand a little about how the technology works and think about how you could apply it in your role and field to increase efficiency & productivity. There are many publications about common use cases and examples relevant to different businesses and industries and that could be a great starting point.

I think the next step is to really get your hands dirty by trying out Gen AI capabilities - practice prompt engineering to develop the critical skill on how to ask AI the right questions and critically assess the outputs as well.

And finally I’d also stay abreast on all the latest governance and legal developments in this field - the EU AI Act that got approved in December, the concept of Responsible AI. There are lots of starter videos and Microsoft Learn resources available online.?

5. Which woman would you like to nominate to share her story and why?

I would love to nominate Emily J. Ryan . She was the first female manager I ever had and set the bar very high on what successful & empathetic?leadership looks like. She also made me revisit a lot of notions of what strong leadership is.

Next week we continue with another fantastic woman who's career turned out very different than she expected.

Stay tuned!

#empowerHERFridays #femaleempowerment #careerinspiration?