Last weekend marked International Women’s Day (IWD), usually the 8^th of March. This is a day set aside to celebrate the achievements of women socially, economically, culturally and politically. Further, it is a period we call for accelerated action in support of women. Indeed, there has been a paradigm shift as women take over management and leadership roles ranging from Fortune 100 companies to governance of sovereign states. The shift is tremendous.

To celebrate this year’s IWD, I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with alumnae and students at my former high school. During my commute a little earlier on that day, I wondered what I would say to this next generation of leaders. The organizers had structured a set of thematic areas so each alumna could select her most comfortable subject topic. I remember thinking to myself, ‘you know what, I should be comfortable fitting anywhere.’ With that mindset I set out ready to tackle anything to the best of my knowledge. As I reflect a week later – I like to think that having such an open mind is the best possible shoe we can wear.

The event shared a lot of wisdom. The information was too powerful that I cannot keep it all to myself. Thank you, women, for sharing —we couldn’t have asked for a better IWD celebration!

Key take-aways and nuggets of wisdom:

1. Learn from your mistakes and do better – we are always going to face obstacles in life. How we rise from it is what matters. We should not let our shortfalls hold us back or define the rest of our life.
2. If you don’t take care of yourself, you end up hurting those around you. That’s right. There can be a tendency to want to give it all up and simply live for the sake of living. End of day, the decisions we make affect other people directly or indirectly, so we ought to take care of our wellbeing as individuals.
3. If you do not try something, you wouldn’t know the outcome. We must embrace failure as a risk that must be faced. This very much resonates with the saying that the only way to find out if you are good at something is to try it.
4. Learn to find a work-life balance. Set priorities. We must learn how to ‘work from rest and not rest from work’. Well, that’s a twist, right? It means self-care is as important, do not wait to be tired so you can take a rest. Create time for rest without feeling guilty about it. We all need to re-energize to keep going.
5. Learn to speak for yourself and to be visible. This is a problem that often faces more women than men. By nature, women are scared to speak for themselves especially when it comes to opportunities. We need to learn to make ourselves visible – because you are your own brand and so you must stand tall and make your skills and abilities known. Sitting back in the hope that somebody somewhere will notice it will not always work. This is especially important in a workspace, learn to advocate for yourself and know your value.
6. Indulge in development-oriented conversations. Ever had the saying that women can converge somewhere and spend hours on peptalk. Men on the other hand will probably spend a shorter period on chit-chat and switch to business. Of course, not all men talk about investments – but the advice here also touches on the old saying that your network is your net-worth. If you spend time around people who are not visionary and growth minded – chances are you will not be challenged enough to invest in development.
7. Friendships should cut across board. I think in the past I have posted something about this. You never know the value that whoever is around you brings to the table. Just because you are older, and a top manager somewhere doesn’t mean you cannot learn from a 10-year-old or that street-side vendor you rarely notice. Of course, the issue here is not to go overboard trying to strike friendships everywhere – it will not work. The moral is that we should learn to treat people with dignity and respect because you never know who will come through at what point.
8. Walk into a room without shame and knock doors without shame. Be confident when stepping out into opportunities or when seeking them. There is no room for second guessing yourself.
9. Men are ready and willing to support women, all we need to do is ask. I think this is one of the most powerful messages we can pass on especially to the younger generation. We need to stop painting a world where feminism clouds us to champion for women only while forgetting that men too have a role to play in our overall success. Men have been strong support systems in the ascent of woman and these stories need to be shared. It starts right at the family level moving outward to the society.
10. When we walk and work together, we achieve more than doing it alone. I am a strong believer too that when we walk and work together as women and men, we can achieve a whole lot more.

Until the next post, let’s keep inspiring each other to achieve better!