Conversations with the Career Doctor
In today’s fast-changing tech landscape, tenacity is a value that must be poured into more deeply. This candid conversation between Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President, Avtar Group, and Sheenam Ohrie, Managing Director, Broadridge India, illuminates the importance of passion while navigating the career landscape as a woman, and how she approaches the vagaries of personality, challenges and gender dynamics that one confronts when navigating their career.
Sheenam, a strong advocate of gender inclusion in the workplace and a powerful leader, has, through her career influenced the lives and career paths of 5400 individuals, and nurtured their growth. To her, leadership is not just a title, but an attitude one brings to work every day.
Passion, Opportunities and Women’s Career Navigation
Ohrie emphasizes the importance of allowing one’s passions and interests to lead them toward their career path. To her, her love for math led her to make a natural choice to work in tech. She finds that women require patience, resilience and persistence when navigating the career landscape that can be gendered. She believes that there might come a time wherein women may need to allow their career to take a backseat, due to family or child-related responsibilities. However, she highlights the difference between women allowing their careers to take a backseat, and allowing their careers to end. In allowing their careers to end, she believes women might be taking away a very potent source of happiness from themselves.
The Importance of Self- Congruence, Disconnection and Rest for Leadership
In today’s fast-paced world, Sheenam underlines the power of disconnecting and taking a step away from the limelight. She believes there is power in stepping away, not succumbing to the pressure of always needed to be visible, and to some quiet internal work to achieve self-congruence. An occasional self-audit and assessment of where one stands career-wise, based on deep introspection, she believes is a powerful method to employ in order to be an effective leader.
Navigating Organizational Dynamics
Ohrie believes that organizational dynamics need to be understood in order to be navigated. They could be deep rooted, or very small. She often finds that a simple tactic is to be direct, put the elephant on the table, and speak to the person concerned about what bothered them. She finds that people mostly want to be good, and if there are any unconscious biases, they dissolve then and there. If organizational dynamics are deeper-rooted, she finds that talking to a mentor, someone you trust, even a spouse, can be a very powerful way to navigate it.
The Influence of AI on the Career Landscape
Ohrie believes that the career landscape will become more value-oriented due to the advent of AI. Empathy, a value present in abundance in women, will become necessary in order for professionals to understand needs, translate them into prompts and get the most from AI systems. Furthermore, women returning from career breaks will be coming back to a fast-paced world. While she believes there is and will be ample demand for women in professional roles, what women do during their career breaks to upskill, learn and stay relevant could be a great boosting factor in the shape their career takes after return.
From coding roots to CXO roles, Sheenam Ohrie’s journey is one you need to hear. Click Here
