The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Kiran Bedi on success of women in management

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 26, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Kiran Bedi on success of women in management

Staff Reporter

“Women have humanity, healing touch and heart”

— PHOTO: K.V. SRINIVASAN

LEADERS IN PROGRESS: Director-General of Bureau of Police Research and Development Kiran Bedi; Great Lakes Institute of Management founder Bala V. Balachandran; and Tractors and Farm Equipment director Mallika Srinivasan at a workshop in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: What attributes bring success to women in management? Leaders in their respective field have different answers but their goal is the same – an empowered India, it is imperative for both men and women to be empowered, earn respect and understand each other.

Kiran Bedi, the highly decorated woman police officer, said women and men should learn from each other about the positive qualities that make them what they are. If men have the three Ms – money, mobility and muscle, then women have three Hs – humanity, healing touch and heart.

At the day-long programme titled, ‘Successful Women in Management’ (SWIM), organised in Tidel Park by Great Lakes Institute of Management in the city on Saturday, Ms. Bedi said her experiences as a child and as a police officer had shaped her into a successful professional.

“Corporate houses are talking about soft skills and social responsibility” but they are qualities always present in women. Their compassion and ability to nurture are today being promoted as ‘must have’ skills for managers in companies, she observed. Now women who have received education, are “climbing the corporate ladder” and should be wealth creators.

She called for “partnership of performance through empowered people.” Women should remain mobile and stay networked. “It is good to own and give rather than surrender and ask,” she told the students, exhorting them to take pride in joint ownership of a property.

Mallika Srinivasan, director, Tractors and Farm Equipment, spoke about leadership. “It is about walking with people. A leader should walk the talk and have the ability to take success and failure with equanimity. A good listener is a good communicator.”

Her suggestion to the students: “Do only what you are good at doing; make a choice as an individual; do a periodic check on the progress to find out if you enjoy what you do.”

Bala V. Balachandran, founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management, was present at the programme.

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