"From IT Powerhouse to Gender Diversity Champion: The Transformative Journey of Neeraja Ganesh"

Neeraja Ganesh's career in the Information Technology industry was nothing short of exemplary. For 25 years, she managed large teams, ensured operational excellence, and delivered IT projects with precision, delighting customers across the globe. However, her passion for creating a more inclusive world led her to a bold decision: to transition from a successful IT career to championing gender diversity. Today, as a Leadership Trainer and Coach in Bangalore, Neeraja is on a mission to empower women and drive meaningful change in workplaces across India. Read her inspiring journey of transformation and leadership from the conversation with She Business Time

1. What inspired you to pursue a leadership role?

Neeraja Ganesh : The impact and the influence that I could create by being in a leadership role

2.What inspired you to become an advocate for gender equality in your field?

Neeraja Ganesh : My career growth journey happened because of an incident, not intentionally. I was a very meek, timid, shy girl who was happy doing her 9 - 6 job and managing family. When I was asked to lead a team, and in the challenging situations that presented themselves, I had to speak up and saw the impact (positive impact) it created for my team, I realised I should do more of this. And I thought to myself, if this incident had not happened, I would have stayed a meek, timid, shy girl doing what I was asked to do and not necessarily, looking at the potential that I had. And how many women get such opportunities or trigger incidents to start challenging themselves and their potential. Hence, I started looking for opportunities to mentor girls and women and bridge the gender gap in the ecosystem.

3.Can you share an experience where you faced gender bias and how you dealt with it?

Neeraja Ganesh : There was a situation in my team where my team member had not followed the required protocol before a software release is made into the production site. This was after she having confirmed in meeting after meeting that she had followed all the protocols. Her manager, who was my reportee(a male manager), was also aware of this. Finally, when the release when to production, there was a severity 1 error and it impacted the business significantly. I tried calling this girl and the manager to a meeting room to discuss the issue on hand, while the others in the team had started working on ways to restore the business to working as normal. The girl refused to come to the meeting room and her manager was also discouraging her to have this meeting with me. After a while, I decided to take matters seriously and since she was not wanting to come into the meeting room, I raised my voice in the open floor to ask the questions that I had in mind. I did it intentionally to pass a message that I knew my job and they needed to cooperate. The girl was not happy since I raised my voice and went away home. Her manager(my direct report who was always uncooperative with me), raised this as an issue with a senior person in the management saying Neeraja does not know how to handle her team members. That senior person(again a man), called me to a meeting and said " Do you know why we hired you? Because you are a woman. And as a woman, we thought you would be motherly. But today, you raised your voice against this girl and she does not want to come back to work". I told him - "Given that the business has been impacted by a deliverable made by my team, during the next Steering committee meeting where I will be asked to present the reasons for this, and you would be on the other side of the table asking me the tough questions, would you be fatherly and pardon me for the business impact created". Well, he could not answer and I worked in that team for 3 years, and not once, did he repeat anything that was pointing a finger at the gender or creating a gender bias

4.As a leader, what steps have you taken to promote gender equality within your organization?

Neeraja Ganesh : I believe in equity more than equality. So what is the difference? Equity means providing a level playing ground. If we need an equal number of women in the organisation as there are men, we need to get equal number of resumes to the interview table. And, if we are unable to find that many number of resumes, we keep at it. And if we still do not find, then we go to the educational institutions and women centric platforms to talk about the organisation, and roles that they can start considering to apply. And if it is a skills shortage because we do not find that many number of skilled women, then we take it upon ourselves to skill those women. When I started my first contract assignment along with the course at NIIT, I could not work in shifts because I needed to go to the institute to practice during the day and that depended on when there would be spare computers available because of student or faculty absenteeism. Since that could not be predicted, I needed to hang around in the institute to get those additional practice hours. And that clashed with my shift timings at work. The management made an exception for me which was to give me a dedicated computer so that I could come in and go whenever I had to. As long as I completed the work deliverables for the week by the Sunday and maintained the required quality standards. This is an example of equity. Others who they had hired for that role did not have that requirement and could work in shifts. So, the organisation made it a level playing ground for me to be able to complete my course as well as do my work effectively. If they had insisted that I work in shifts, either I would have not performed well at the institute or at my work place or quit one of the two. I have learnt from this and ensured I look at equitable practices in everything that I do.

5.What specific policies or initiatives has your organization implemented to support gender equality?

Neeraja Ganesh : I will keep referring to equality as equity. And to enable equity, we need to ensure there are gender neutral policies. Instead of maternity leave, let it be parental leave so that even a man can avail that for his child. In this way, there won't be a bias during hiring or promotions because anyone can avail it and no one will think that the woman will go away on long leave and hence, let us keep her out of the team. Similarly, all genders need to be part of any disccussions that happen to bring about diversity, equity and inclusion. Unless the men understand and appreciate why women have a particular need, it will always be considered as discriminating.

6.How do you measure the success of gender equality initiatives in your workplace?

Neeraja Ganesh: Well, the regular metrics are - Ratio of men and women at every grade in the organisation, Percentage of women promoted against men, and so on. But I think the bigger ones are more in terms of the culture of the organisation. Is the culture open enough to embrace diversity and listen to all voices.

7.What are some of the biggest challenges you have encountered while advocating for gender equality, and how have you overcome them?

Neeraja Ganesh: There are 2. One is in the minds of the women. The mindsets which limit : them like the impostor syndrome, the perfectionist syndrome, Being Guilty etc. These have to be dealt with by mentoring, coaching and training them. The second one is where the organisation has to move to gender neutral policies like the Parental leave etc. This needs a bigger systemic change and we need to build champions within the organisation to enable this level of change to happen.

8.How important is mentorship in advancing gender equality, and what role do you play in mentoring women in your industry?

Neeraja Ganesh: Mentorship is extremely important because it helps the other person learn from someone else's experience, someone else who has already traversed that path and found ways to navigate the situation positively. I am part of many mentoring platforms like HerKey, Aspire For Her and women reach out to me via social platforms like Linkedin too. In my work which includes speaking at conferences, being featured on podcasts and magazines like this, a lot of what I say is like mentoring the readers. Many people( not only women) have come back to me saying it has had a profound impact on them as they have been able to take actions which has helped them move ahead in their career and life. In fact, at a recent conference, where I was an attendee(and not a speaker), one young man(maybe less than 25 years of age), came to me and asked me if I am Neeraja Ganesh and said that he follows me on Linkedin and what I post there has been helpful to him in terms of how he looks at situations at home and at work

9. How do you believe achieving gender equality impacts overall business performance and workplace culture?

Neeraja Ganesh: If you look at any business, 50% of the users/customers are women. And hence, if you want to have them as your user base/customer base, you need to provide them with what they want. And what they want(starting from the idea to the design to the implementation, sale and service) is best understood by women. Hence, it's imperative that we have women in all roles to ensure your business grows.To enable a safe and open culture,  unless you hear all voices, you will not know what works for them. Hence, it's important to have ERGs(employee resource groups) for women, and all other diverse populations in the organisation so that we hear all voices and build a culture and organisation which serves all

10.What is your vision for the future of gender equality in your industry, and what steps do you think are necessary to achieve it?

Neeraja Ganesh: Look at Equity, It has to be holistic approach not only a top down or bottom-up approach. Which means embedding champions across the organization, with stakeholders, with customers. If the customer champions gender equality and equity, it will flow into the services/products that you create. All the more important for you as a leader and an organisation to champion this cause by working with customers who believe in the same.

11.What advice would you give to young women who aspire to reach leadership positions in their careers?

Neeraja Ganesh:

1. Be clear about your ambition and aspirations (it has to be yours and not someone else's).

2. Prioritise and stick to your priorities, everything else can wait or be discarded.

3. Network well and Position your Brand well

Shared by Neeraja Ganesh, Leadership Trainer and Coach

Published By She Business Time