Employee Development is important to us at Reflektive. We stand by this philosophy in terms of our product design and our organizational design. Our values of Endless Curiosity and Own It further supports this philosophy as well.
Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to work with great managers who invested in me, pushed me to think strategically and encouraged me to take on challenging roles and responsibilities. I’m excited to pay it forward by launching Reflektive’s Powerful Women Community – a community to develop Women Leaders at Reflektive India. With this community, we conducted group coaching sessions, workshops and 1:1 sessions. Looking for ways to develop your team? Below are the five programs we took to grow our women leaders:
1. Setting powerful and inspiring goals with a well-defined action plan
The focus of the goal setting process is to raise the level of awareness of what is possible, what is important and what actions we need to take to move towards our goals. A simple but impactful question ‘What is important for you in your life’ led to an insightful discussion. We set goals that were:
- Positive
- Specific
- Measurable
- Time Specified
- Inspiring
2. Imposter syndrome
According to the New York Times, women often underestimate their abilities. Women often judge their performance more harshly than their male counterparts. Not only does this mindset make it more challenging to take on the full capacity of their role, but it can lead to career stagnation.
The intent of conducting an “Imposter Syndrome” session was to raise awareness participants may be holding themselves back by feeling like an imposter. We coached our employees on overcoming that feeling by:
- Reminding themselves of what they have accomplished
- Seeking out a mentor
- Focusing on improving rather than proving
- Being fair to themselves
3. Effective self-expression in relationships
The lines are fading between home and office, especially for women. To encourage well-being and effective communication, we hosted a discussion with Psychologist and Creative Art Therapist Hemalatha Swaminathan on:
- Techniques to release bottled-up emotions
- Learning to stop saying “I’m fine” when they are not
- Reframing narrative/thoughts and feelings
- Practicing responses in hypothetical situations
4. Power of beliefs
If people maintain the belief systems that empower them, they will come back with enough resourcefulness to succeed eventually – Tony Robbins
In this workshop, we covered creating awareness about beliefs, identifying limiting beliefs, suggesting techniques to challenge beliefs and creating empowering beliefs that will help employees change the course of their life.
5. Knowledge sharing
Reflektive’s Powerful Women Community also offered space for discussion and knowledge sharing. We hosted a book discussion on “‘How Women Rise” by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, watched TED Talks, and hosted a discussion on “The Importance of Self-Love.”
Reflektive’s Powerful Women Community has been the most satisfying initiative in my career. This community has proven that women working together and supporting each other empowers the next generation of female leaders. In fact, I’d like to close with what my colleagues are saying:
- This program quickly showed us the strength of “Women Supporting Women,” with each one of us discovering value and exhibiting behaviours we had previously defined as questionable or unlikely. This community successfully replaced the question “ Can I?” into a resounding “ WE CAN!” – Monica Chivatee (Customer Success Manager)
- Powerful catch ups are a booster for me. The session helped me to be aware of my strengths. Now I am able to balance my house chores, job and my wonderful angel (my daughter) at home. – Malini Gowda (Software Development Testing team)
- The sessions have been an extremely valuable experience. I was able to look back and overcome some of the obstructing beliefs that I’ve carried with me for years. I’ve learned how important it is to believe in self, positive thinking, and to set personal goals and work towards achieving them. – Mercy Joseph (Customer Success team)
Post by Namrata Seetharam, Head of HR India, Reflektive