Make The Change Today: Women In Leadership

Blog by Tarunjeet Rattan (National Vice President - WICCI Public Relations & Digital Marketing Council and Managing Partner - Nucleus PR)

The freedom we enjoy today, we owe to all the amazing women before us who fought to join the workforce, speak up and get equal pay. We owe to our peers and the future generation to continue the fight and raise the bar. The workplace gives us an opportunity to level the playing field.? And while there are numerous issues that we can focus on, I would like to draw your attention to a few pertinent ones in the communication field that we need to keep adding our voices too. Even though it is supposed to be a field dominated by women, our numbers thin out as we move towards the top. We can start making a change by addressing the three major challenges to ensure more women move to the top leadership positions:????

Asserting influence in the board room: Speak up. There are generations behind you who fought to get you that seat in the boardroom. Do not waste a single moment of it. Remember that you are the most qualified person in the room to speak on the subject. To fight back the nervous mumbles in my head or the nonchalant looks in the board room I usually read up and research the topics on the agenda so that I am well versed with the subject. When I speak up, I speak from experience.?

Accepting Praise: Own it. It is yours. I am sure you would want to thank your team for it and that is perfectly fine. While you do that do not take away from your own success. First accept and then include others in your success. This is a crucial step. When you claim the success, you are telling the world out there that you can are capable of handling success and a leading a team towards it. The moment you negate your success and hand it completely over to a team you devalue your credibility. Both have an equal role to play. Give each one due credit for it. You included.???

Equal pay (at an agency and individual level): There are various ways in which this is prevalent in our industry at various levels ranging from employee, corporate and agency owner. First start by asking for that raise. Do not shy away from negotiating an amount. Not talking about money not seen as polite and ladylike. Are you really going to stick with this learned behaviour in the 21st century? Damn the habit. Start the change. We owe it to ourselves to make this an acceptable behaviour in our own lifetimes.?

Start. Today. Now.