Labels are for clothes, not for people

“Hello, How are you? Tell me more about what Jombay does!” After shaking hands, a fellow entrepreneur asked me at a conference. The guy started talking to me largely ignoring  my co-founder, who was standing beside me. She then proactively introduced herself, “Hi! I’m also a co-founder of Jombay”.

This was not a one-off incidence. In the early days, a lot of people would ignore the lady who actually started Jombay, built the founding team and the product, and took it to a certain level before I actually joined in. They would assume that I must be running the business and my co-founder must be doing some side role. She had a bit of tough time in the those days dealing with these people, but eventually, she figured out a way to speak up and make the conversation equal.

There were also times when her suggestions or opinions got ignored or belittled by some, not because she was a woman! I remember trying to hire a smart guy in 2015. He was consulting with us for a brief period. He would easily dismiss an idea or suggestion that came from her. But if the same idea came from me at a later point, he would find it more credible. And eventually the reason behind that rationale we realized was not the gender, thankfully, but it was the fact that I went to Stanford University. There was a subconscious bias in his mind. (although my co-founder went to University of Southern California in Los Angeles which is also one of the top 10 US Schools.)

Over the years, she had to overcome barriers that needn’t have existed in the first place. In fact, she, also shares many such instances in the Women leadership and Inclusive leadership development journeys that we run for our customers.

To discover our talent assessment & development solutions email us at hello@jombay.com or call us on +91 96733 10011