“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”—Michelle Obama
What better path to take up to be successful than shattering the glass ceiling of all the prejudice?
Many columns have been written and papers have been published acknowledging this issue, as it goes without saying that women leaders bring a lot to the table may it be excelling at soft skills and emotional intelligence that prove to be a key competitive advantage. Women being in a leadership position in a firm brings in a diverse perspective to organize a potential team that brings in results.
An analysis conducted in a global survey that included 21,980 firms from 91 countries suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve the performance of the firm. The existence of women in institutes has not only played an important role in the shaping of every progressive organization’s character but also has contributed to maintaining gender balance among corporates.
The gender pay gap is an aggravating phenomenon that despite the progressive corporate continues to remain unchanged in many organizations. Nonetheless, the huge gap in wages in almost every line of profession is an illusion of impartiality that continues in this man dominated civilization and the gender gap in the workplace remains a big business problem.
Though a constructive change can be seen emerging as a number of countries, including France, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Spain, have taken a constructive step to mandate female representation on corporate boards, and other countries are considering following it.
Women potentially are more driven to achieve and deal with today’s business problems that require leaders with diverse skill sets, perspectives, and experiences. It’s high time now that more women take the front seat and emerge as a leader that they are.
Such a symbol of soaring leadership is the praiseworthy entrepreneur Shriya Kolte. As the saying goes, “Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not just power”, the leader and face of this prestigious design studio is Shriya Kolte, an interior designer herself. She is not just the founder of Imagination Inc. but also a navigator who continues to flourish the team and their goals towards new successful heights. She studied Interior Designing from Institute Callegari Milano and Central Saint Martins, London. With an educational background that speaks for itself, she associated her passion for art to gain further expertise in the field.
Shriya goes on to set Shepreneurs goals with her enthusiastic leadership trait at Imagination Inc. Be it residences, offices or any commercial space, Imagination Inc. doesn’t miss out on crafting expressions through art, originality and Finesse. Her accomplishments include over 100 projects in Pune that are known for its innovative designs, astute sense of style and grace.
As the corporate community strives to advance women in the workplace by securing an equal pay scale or by getting more women in board seats, there is one major key in influencing and creating a corporate culture that makes gender equity a priority that is to keep the desire to win and start out stronger with equal determination to succeed and enter leadership, after all as Helen Keller, American Author, Political Activist says ‘Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement’.
We have identified the 3 S’s to strengthen and empower our Shepreneurs:
- Speak up: A major mistake many women make is being modest; they sit back and let others do the talking. Self-Branding may come handy to women leaders who often appear to be silent about their own accomplishments. It is necessary that women leaders learn how to brand themselves by sharing their achievements and skills with others and also to make sure they voice their opinions. If you have a strong point make sure that it is known, make people notice what you are capable of, as they cannot recognize your leadership qualities if they can’t hear you.
- Stand out: More than half of the women agree that, “as women,” they are more cautious in taking steps towards leadership roles, they spend more time in Planning and none in executing. Almost six in ten find it hard to see themselves as a leader. If you want to get noticed, you have to stand out so ladies quit playing it safe, try to blend in and make waves.
- Shine bright: Now that you have the S’s in your purse it’s time to take up the initiative and shine bright like a star. This does not involve obnoxious bragging about every job completed or milestone reached or letting your boss and others in the company know when you’ve made an important contribution, its more about developing the leadership qualities within.
Leadership has always been a deep-seated character in a woman and it’s yours for taking if you have the courage for it.
About the Author
Shriya Kolte has been in the field of interior designing for over two years. She is the Founder of Imagination Inc., a company addicted to design, providing comprehensive solutions to finer things.
Shriya always believes in promoting art and design in every form and through this vision the company offers design consultancy along with providing services for turnkey projects. She set foot into her first venture by taking on a premium project at Hinjewadi, Pune. In such a short span of time, she has actively delivered over 85 projects PAN India. As the founder, she is responsible for formulation the of creative concepts, strategizing and planning, overall execution and management that concentrates on the growth.
Shriya Kolte is a BBA graduate from NMIMS, Mumbai. In order to enhance her design and creativity skills, she went to study further at Instituto Calligraphy Milano in 2012-2013 and then she conceptualized Imagination Inc. in 2015 in Pune.
