“You’re in Charge?” Women’s Leadership in Difficult Circumstances

Presented by Kasturi Shah and Vaasvi Goyal, Co-Founders of Hello, Seekho
Sponsored by Girls Thinking Global

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Vaasvi Goyal and Kasturi Shah grew up in India and recently graduated from Princeton University where they took on multiple leadership roles including the co-founding of the startup Hello, Seekho. In this webinar, they shared their experiences leading in difficult situations and the techniques that they used, or wished they had used, to overcome challenges they faced including:

Breaching the glass ceiling: leading when gender equality or bias creates an impasse
What is the glass ceiling? To what extent does it still exist? Tactics for overcoming gender bias: being assertive, firmly and politely remaining in charge, strategic delegation or deputization.

Leading with a lack of infrastructure
Creating your own infrastructure and processes that you can trust and rely on, gathering the resources to do so, building a network of like-minded people, forming meaningful beneficial partnerships.

When organizational hierarchy does not obey the ascension of age
Mentorship can help to build a good support network. Why has women’s mentorship increased in recent years? Value of formal specific mentorship: experience, skills, deeper understanding of the situation.

Dealing with personality clashes and the role of informal mentorship
Almost everyone experiences at least one difficult circumstance when acting as a leader in some capacity, particularly a clash of personality. A final goal of this webinar is to realize that we are not alone. Seeking advice from or opening up to close friends and family is often a very fruitful experience. This type of informal mentorship is one that is so constant that it is often overlooked.

Vaasvi and Kasturi included their leadership experiences with organizations including Engineering without Borders, Business Today, and the co-founding of Hello, Seekho.

This webinar will benefit young professionals and/or students, teachers or professionals who act as mentors or instructors for these young professionals and students, educators who may have specific experiences leading in difficult circumstances.

 
 Kasturi Shah is from Mumbai and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Physics. She co-founded PiCreate, which provides affordable computers with offline educational content to students in underprivileged circumstances. She was co-Project Manager of Princeton’s Engineers without Borders Peru Program, building two potable water systems in the Peruvian Andes. She was President of Princeton women’s rugby, House Manager of the Cap and Gown Club and sits on the boards of both organizations. Kasturi is a co-founder of Hello, Seekho, a free mobile app that helps young people in India learn English.

Vaasvi Goyal graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Economics. She was the first female President of Business Today in 8 years, serves on its Board of Trustees and was co-President of Princeton Business Volunteers. From New Delhi India, Vaasvi spent her gap year before Princeton developing curriculum to teach English and Vedic Mathematics at the Arpana Trust. Vaasvi has developed a keen interest in social entrepreneurship and she hopes to create sustainable change through equal, engaging access to education. Vaasvi is a co-founder of Hello, Seekho, a free mobile app that helps young people in India learn English.

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 Girls Thinking Global (GTG), a global community of organizations serving girls and young women by leveraging technology to create a collaborative space that connects best practices, knowledge, and expertise.