Women give more importance to family than personal growth

For centuries, women have struggled to make a mark in the society. Their career or personal growth was never an option. Even till date, women grapple to seize the right opportunities, which is why they are neophytes in many professional sectors.

Though being a novice, women don’t lack the talent and attitude required to climb-up the ladder of success.

Thus let me introduce to you, a woman, who broke the glass ceiling; Savvy Dilip, Co-Founder and COO, VideoTap. Savvy never failed to see the silver lining behind the dark clouds.

VideoTap is a cloud-based interactive smart video platform that delivers personalised interactive videos on-demand to consumers.

In a conversation with DQ Channels, Dilip shares about her role of being a leader and the journey to attain that role.

The challenges of being a woman executive in a top role

As there is a lesser number of women in leadership roles because of which is more curiosity and scrutiny. This sometimes adds to the pressure. I feel it is important to tune out the surround sound and focus on the objectives and deliver on them. In general, women leaders should be encouraged to be less risk-averse. We should create an environment where failure is respected and not blown out of proportion. When we are talking about leadership, I think we need to know the difference between being a leader who is a woman, as against a leader of women.

Educational Background

I am a post graduate in Management from IIM Bangalore and I have completed the advanced management programme at Harvard Business School, Boston. I believe, the real education comes from the experience of working in real life environments, where we learn to make decisions and learn from the mistakes we make.

Family Background

Came from a lower-middle-class, conservative Telugu family. Faced many financial challenges and had to overcome many insecurities.

Working in the Male-dominated field of IT

I think women have already broken through and had access to domain expertise in technology. I think it now boils down to the individual to have the ambition and match it with the effort to succeed in the tech domain. For instance, organizations are having more females in teams to promote productivity and creativity. What you need to succeed in technology is logic, and I believe women are good at it.

Does a Glass ceiling exist?

It is a YES and NO both, while it looks like males dominate most of the top positions, the scenario is definitely changing and women are increasingly hired for the top roles. At times, I wonder whether we are creating the glass ceiling for ourselves. I have seen, we give ve a lot of importance to the family than personal growth. There are definitely certain barriers to be able to work for a career.

Progression, but I guess, they are being broken. Let’s put it this way, women are late entrants to leadership, and have already started making their mark, and will soon catch up.

Hobbies

Cooking and exploring spirituality, and watching movies.

Future plan

Make our start-up a successful venture, and eventually give back to the society as much as possible. Especially want to dedicate a lot of my time to animal shelters, old age homes and children with special abilities.

High-Five:

Your Fitness Mantra:
Daily yoga and weight training exercises. Also, eating consciously and have a healthy diet.
Your De-stressing Mantra:
Playing with My pets.
Where you like to shop?
Any outlet with multiple brands that suit me.
Your favourite holiday destination:
In India, it is Kerala and internationally it is definitely Switzerland.
5 things you cannot live without:
My pets, my family, work, Puja (prayer) and my time.

@Workday
Wake up at: 6.45 am
Morning activities: 1.30 hours of workout
Leaving Office at 9.45 am
Ist half in office: Team meetings and planning for the day
Lunch: 3 PM
Post Lunch: Good Adrak Chai
How you spend your evenings: Planning for the next day and taking stock of the days work, catching up on social media, watch videos
Sleep time: 1.30 am