Leading with Legacy: How Samridhi Is Channeling Female Wisdom into Leadership
“Even though the world is stopping, you cannot stop. Just start somewhere and you’ll figure it out.” Samridhi remembers her dadi’s words as she discusses her experience during the COVID lockdowns. “College is supposed to be the most fun journey of your life. You figure out things there. But I did most of my undergraduate degree online. I felt so devastated.”
After a Bachelor’s in human resource management, Samridhi worked as a consultant with WIPRO. But she felt a strong gap in her learning and wanted to upskill. She couldn’t figure out what to do next. Here too, intergenerational wisdom came to Samridhi’s rescue. Her mother found out about Vedica through youtube and encouraged her to apply.
At Vedica, Samridhi continued to find perspectives that demonstrated female resilience: Women had emotional intelligence and contrary to popular belief, actually turned up for each other. A course on Women, Society and Changing India — taught by one of India’s pioneering feminist voices, Urvashi Butalia — helped her truly understand her dadi’s experience of Partition. “At that time, her family lived in Pakistan. She managed to escape violence by hiding in fields. She was a young woman at the time and everything she knew was lost.”
Understanding the need to focus on the positive, Samridhi took every opportunity to build knowledge and sharpen her skillset. The Shadow Mentorship program — the chance to shadow a female leader for five weeks — turned out to be extremely fruitful. Besides being mentored by Audrey Clegg, the Chief Talent Officer of Sanofi, a global health company, Samridhi got a chance to network with other senior women leaders in the company.
“I learnt such important lessons from those interactions. One person said that the more you learn from others, the more you learn about yourself. Perhaps my biggest learning came from the Communications Lead at Sanofi. She said: In every decision you make, be kind and have courage. That lesson has stayed with me.”
Embarking on her professional journey with Positive Moves, an HR consulting firm that helps build leadership capacity and capabilities, Samridhi reflects on the lessons she’s learnt from women. “Like the women I have had the opportunity to witness, I want to find resilience from inside myself. I don’t want anything to be impossible for me.”
