Unveiling the Impact of Women in Leadership Roles

By: Geetha Ramamoorthi, Managing Director, KBR, Inc.

Geetha Ramamoorthi is a finance professional turned technology leader with a growth mindset who believes in continuous learning. She is responsible for KBR's entire India operations with a total people count of 2200. Geetha started her career at Ashok Leyland and, over the years, has handled roles spanning finance, operations, engineering, business change, and digital. She believes in advancing the strategic direction of the business through innovation, inclusion diversity, and organizational leadership.

Having gender-focused recruitment drives and interview panels with broader gender representation will help negate the hiring bias.

Culture is demonstrated through behaviors, enabled by processes, and supported by systems and it needs to be nurtured to make people open-minded and supportive.

In a conversation with Women Entrepreneur Magazine, Geetha Ramamoorthi, Managing Director at KBR, Inc., shared her views and thoughts on what strategies should be implemented to encourage women to take on leadership roles within an organization, as well as how a supportive organizational culture can contribute to the growth of women in leadership positions.

In your opinion, how does empowering women contribute to the growth and success of organizations?

For a long, the workplace has been skewed in favor of men. Companies that realized this earlier and took concrete steps to provide equitable opportunities for women have been hugely successful. They have not only scored high on financial performance but have also ranked high on the innovation index.

From a business imperative standpoint, Empowering women and building a diverse workforce fuels innovation, and robust performance companies with a diverse workforce provide an attractive work environment.

Having more women in the workplace promotes diverse idea exchange allowing people to express themselves freely without fear, though this must be coupled with psychological safety. A diverse workforce signals competent management for the investing community. Having more women in the workplace and ensuring the workforce is gender-balanced will help organizations deliver strong ESG performance. Globally, reports suggest that companies with higher diversity have outperformed their peers on profits and share prices.

What strategies or initiatives should be implemented to encourage women to take on leadership roles within an organization?

To encourage women to take up leadership roles, I would recommend a few measures. Fundamentally this is not about just empowering, coaching, mentoring, and developing women leaders. Underpinning this is a dire need to ensure we provide a work environment that fosters gender equity.

Tackling the ‘Bias’

We must ensure the inclusion of females in training programs, new initiatives, projects, and external engagements such as conferences. We must provide unconscious bias training to employees, and use gender-neutral language in policies and procedures, for eg. ‘work hours’ instead of man hours and person days instead of man-days.

Providing a level playing field

Having gender-focused recruitment drives and interview panels with broader gender representation will help negate the hiring bias. This apart, offering benefits such as maternity leave, Creche facility, and Work from home/flexible working will help women to balance work and home.

Collective power and influence

Having Employee Resource Groups that bring women together on a platform to share ideas and concerns, where they learn from and support each other can inspire and motivate women to go out of their comfort zone, seek support, and succeed.

Training Interventions

Companies can run Leadership development programs to not only develop our emerging women leaders but also coach men to become allies for gender equity/ diversity.

Apart from this, having mentorship programs for women to support them in carving out career paths, identifying their gaps, and supporting them with the resources they need to realize their goals, will be quite powerful in building a strong pipeline of women leaders for the future.

In your opinion, what are the primary obstacles that women face in their pursuit of leadership roles?

The first obstacle that most women face is the lack of clarity about their career goals. In India, the archetypal household has the male as the primary breadwinner with the woman playing second fiddle and being saddled with the responsibility of managing the home. In many cases, women think they are fortunate if their family ‘allows’ them to work, and only a few aspire for leadership roles. This lack of drive and confidence can also be partially attributed to the lack of role models that women can look up to, get inspired by, learn from, and emulate.

This apart, statistics indicate that only 20% of the workforce in the corporate sector are women. Female ownership of enterprises is only 10%. All of this tells stark stories of how male-dominated our workplaces are. Such workplaces being designed for men by men, tend to be less conducive for women to bring their true selves, and find space to learn, grow, and succeed.

Also, men have preconceived notions about women’s capabilities, and deny them opportunities to assume additional or new responsibilities that may involve travel and extended hours. These are some of the obstacles to women’s growth and development.

How can a supportive organizational culture contribute to the growth of women in leadership positions?

Culture is demonstrated through behaviors, enabled by processes, and supported by systems and it needs to be nurtured to make people open-minded and supportive. Coaching, influencing, and sensitizing the workforce to holistically embrace Diversity and Inclusion will be key. Organizations need to tailor their processes and systems to align with the culture. We need to celebrate our male allies of Diversity, so they inspire others to follow suit.

It is imperative that leadership buys into the priority and sets the tone for the rest of the team to follow. Transformational leadership is the need of the hour. This is particularly true of industries that have been slow to assume the DEI agenda e.g., Manufacturing and engineering. Leaders need to provide opportunities for women to participate in various forums, turn the spotlight on them to celebrate their achievements and give them equitable opportunities to evolve and accelerate their career progression.

It is time for organizations to be invested, innovative, and intrepid to pave the way for women to rise to leadership positions.