Recently I saw a TED talk by Sheryl Sandberg (It's amazing how everything else other than studies become so interesting just before an exam. You have time to watch TED videos, write a blog and what not. No, I am not the smart guy who aces exams without studying. No, I don't have any backlogs either. It's just that tomorrow's exam is open book & open notes :P. Also, it helps that I am in my 8th semester now).
If you don't know who Sheryl Sandberg is, well, she is the chief operating officer of facebook. Use your own judgement before you decide to watch the video at the end. For example, find out if your exam tomorrow is open book or not. I guess I don't need to tell you to understand the significance of what sem you're in.
In any case, she talks about women in leadership positions and the stereotypes associated with them. While listening to her I realized, I have seen a woman in leadership up close in Techniche 2013 itself. She was our Events' Management head (name withheld for not so obvious reasons). It has been more than a year since we were inducted as Techniche heads. Some of us held apprehensions (names withheld for obvious reasons) and argued at some point (very briefly - I'll add) that wouldn't be it far more convenient to have another head for events' management who would be a "man". Why ? Because, there was no precedence. Luckily, we decided against it.
When I look back, it was the very first decision that we made as a team of heads and I am glad that we did so. I am glad not because she turned out to be an excellent leader(her competence was never in doubt) but what she came to symbolize. Everyone nowadays talks of "women empowerment" (even Rahul Gandhi does ), but get this, the year following our tenure i.e this year, TWO out of SEVEN heads are women (a staggering increase of 100 % :-) ). And it is a testament to the diligence and dexterity of our (former) events head that this time around no one was apprehensive. I wish the new team members success. I also wish that you learn the most out of your leadership tenure. It is very unlikely that you'll go onto change the world in a year, but bring a change in every small way you can.
P.S: Views expressed are the author's own and will be retracted(or edited) at the first hint of criticism. Just kidding ! .. free speech is my birthright.
If you don't know who Sheryl Sandberg is, well, she is the chief operating officer of facebook. Use your own judgement before you decide to watch the video at the end. For example, find out if your exam tomorrow is open book or not. I guess I don't need to tell you to understand the significance of what sem you're in.
In any case, she talks about women in leadership positions and the stereotypes associated with them. While listening to her I realized, I have seen a woman in leadership up close in Techniche 2013 itself. She was our Events' Management head (name withheld for not so obvious reasons). It has been more than a year since we were inducted as Techniche heads. Some of us held apprehensions (names withheld for obvious reasons) and argued at some point (very briefly - I'll add) that wouldn't be it far more convenient to have another head for events' management who would be a "man". Why ? Because, there was no precedence. Luckily, we decided against it.
When I look back, it was the very first decision that we made as a team of heads and I am glad that we did so. I am glad not because she turned out to be an excellent leader(her competence was never in doubt) but what she came to symbolize. Everyone nowadays talks of "women empowerment" (even Rahul Gandhi does ), but get this, the year following our tenure i.e this year, TWO out of SEVEN heads are women (a staggering increase of 100 % :-) ). And it is a testament to the diligence and dexterity of our (former) events head that this time around no one was apprehensive. I wish the new team members success. I also wish that you learn the most out of your leadership tenure. It is very unlikely that you'll go onto change the world in a year, but bring a change in every small way you can.
P.S: Views expressed are the author's own and will be retracted(or edited) at the first hint of criticism. Just kidding ! .. free speech is my birthright.
