Success In Leadership Will Bring More Acceptance To Women Leaders: Savvy Dilip, COO and Co-founder, Video Tap
Savvy Dilip has been in leadership role for a long time. She is the COO and co-founder of VideoTap, a video serving startup. She has also worked as the Group CMO of the ITVNetwork and previously worked at Network18 as the VP, Marketing.
Talking to BW Businessworld, Savvy talks about her journey as a leader, challenges for a woman as a leader and work-life balance issues. Edited Excerpts:
What are the biggest challenges for women in leadership roles in media?
As there is lesser number of women in leadership roles, I guess there 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, and we should create an environment where failure is respected and not blown out of proportion. When you 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.
What progress have women made in terms of being perceived as a leader and what more can be done?
Access to quality education and career opportunities have helped many women progress to leadership roles. I think it is important to have equal opportunity as against any preferred opportunities, as it will weaken the candidature of women, and bring in a sense of entitlement. As more and more women succeed in leadership roles, it will be easier for women to be considered and accepted in leadership roles.
What are the work-life balance issues for the women in corporate world. How can they find the perfect balance?
Work-life balance issues are gender less, and my approach has been always to give equal priority to both. As a committed professional and a homemaker, depending on the priority and the importance of the situation, I find time for getting both professional and personal things done, and don’t classify time as personal or professional, as literally there is only one person, me, and we all have the same time constraints.
Women are perceived to have a better EQ while men with better IQ. Do you think women leaders are better suited for some particular areas like HR?
I think the approach should be that the better candidate, regardless of which sex, EQ or IQ, should be given the specific roles, unless the organization specifically needs women to be involved in certain roles.
How can a woman achieve domain expertise in the technology sector to equalise gender diversity?
I think women have already broken through and have 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, organisations are having more females in teams to promote productivity and creativity. What you need to succeed in technology is logic, and I feel women are good at it.
How has leadership shaped you as a person?
Leadership has helped me deal better with complex situations, where there is no pre-defined path. I would say, that I have learned to filter what people say, and this has helped me take better decisions. I have also learned to weigh options and take decisions which fit into the larger picture, even if it is inconvenient in the near term. I am less judgmental, more considerate and listen to others more, while taking decisions, where the framework of decision making is transparent and consistent.
