Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
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By Britney Thalpawila
Sampath Bank recently honoured the accomplishments of four women leaders through an open forum titled ‘Wonder Women Initiative’ to coincide with International Women’s Day 2022 at the Imperial Monarch, at Thalawathugoda.
The four leaders were Sampath Bank PLC former Deputy Chairperson Dara Wijayatilake, Dialog Axiata Plc Group Chief Customer Officer Sandra De Zoysa, McLarens Group Managing Director Shehara De Silva and Uber Sri Lanka General Manager Bhavna Dadlani Jayawardena.
The moderator leadership coach, and freelance journalist Ashinshanie Weerasinghe led the fireside discussion with the four.
They shared their personal experiences on exploring success in their corporate path, in line with the objectives of International Women’s Day 2022, to establish a society free of gender bias. They spoke about how they operate their businesses and industries while running their homes and taking care of their loved ones.
Women are engaged in dual and triple roles, juggling responsibilities as a mother, wife, and daughter, as well as work or career responsibilities. This situation has a major impact on their work-life balance.
When they were posed with the question of work-life balance, Bhavna mentioned her first learning was that balance does not exist, moreover the four women leaders agreed that there is nothing as such but rather it’s how you prioritise things.
Shehara added to it that there is no right or one way to do it. Sandra spoke about how thankful she was to her husband as he manages whenever she gets stuck with her work. Dhara said she took her job as a mother very seriously and wanted to make sure she was emotionally and physically available for her children.
Sandra also pointed out that women try to achieve 110% of everything, but it’s alright if sometimes what we have done is 80% because everything cannot be 110%.
Wonder Women Initiative via the forum and insights shared was successful in addressing leadership roles and prejudice that exist in today’s society for women leaders. The highly influential female leaders also inspired the next generation of female leaders.
Sampath Bank Managing Director Nanda Fernando said: “Sampath Bank is embarking on an initiative that focuses on women who exemplify balance and achievement in their dual role with family and corporate.”
“Sampath Bank believes in inspiring the younger generation by exposing the success stories and the dual roles of the wonderful women leaders in the panel as they shared their careers thus far, as well as the necessity of celebrating women’s achievements while raising awareness on how to tackle in their day-to-day lives. We believe this has to be a continuous effort of appreciating the women leaders’ dual role that is most often under-appreciated,” Fernando added.
Pix by Ruwan Walpola
