Women naturally have the attributes to create strong ecosystem with compassion

The second edition of e4m’s Women Achievers Summit celebrated the spirit of womanhood and its relentless contribution in the field of public relations and corporate communications. This is exchange4media’s one-of-a-kind initiative to salute the women leaders in the communication industry.

At the second edition of the Summit, a power-packed panel shared insights on the topic – ‘Women Power in PR and purview on affluent Leadership skills’. The panellists for the session were Shivani Gupta, Chief Happiness Officer, SPAG Asia; Pooja Pathak, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Media Mantra; Archana Jain, Managing Director, PR Pundit; Manisha Chaudhary, Founder and Director, Value 360; and Lovina Gujral, COO, Candour Communications, The session was moderated by Tarunjeet Rattan, Founder, PRPOI.

Archana Jain commenced the session by commenting why it's the right time for women to shine in PR and marketing. They have the driving force for taking on leadership positions, she pointed out, not only in PR and advertising but across industries. 

"There’s nothing that is more inspiring than seeing women in the industry that are willing to take risks, and who are projecting more innovative ways to reach and influence the right audiences. We are also seeing some inspirational role models for us to go on, who inspire a lot of young people to come in and join our profession. I think that is what makes the profession quite appealing," she maintained.

 

She also spoke about the need to include female influence at the organizational level. "Unless we are able to navigate and convince people of the value of PR and communication in general, we're not going to get that seat on the table. But I think, to be able to influence the conversation is more important than having superior skills,” Jain noted.

Lovina Gujral chimed in about being constant learns with a collaborative approach towards work., especially since everyone from the leadership to the newest kid is struggling with the changing paradigm. "At this point, we need to look for newer traits in ourselves also, to be able to do better," she noted.

“I believe that women naturally have the attribute to create a strong ecosystem with compassion. Women are able to carry forward and courageously multitask things whilst maintaining a work-life balance. And, of course, all of us know the kind of empathy when we are talking about, the kind of connection a woman can make, whether it's with your peers, your clients, or through the campaigns,” added Shivani Gupta.

Pooja Pathak noted that confidence is key for women in PR and also noted that they should learn to delegate work if they can't do it themselves. "But if you have a strong career that you want to foster for yourself, yes, you have to yourself get out of that hindrance block and do it yourself," she added.

Speaking about the top skills that women in PR should adapt, Manisha Chaudhary said, “I think there are three skills which a woman should definitely have in this fast-evolving industry. The media landscape and the way we are consuming content is changing. We need to adapt quickly to use these mediums and also the constant need for upskilling. These are the only skills required here.” 

“Constant upskilling and learning is very very important. We have seen a kind of paradigm shift in the PR industry. Innovation and technology have taken a centre stage and now it is no more about just telling a story; it is also about driving a conversation across multiple mediums that are available to consume more contents”, Chaudhary added.

“When we are talking about policies, and we're talking about the workplace practices, I think it's important to have policies and balanced workplace practices. When we talk about maternal leaves, etc. It should be a balanced policy. It starts from having a balance between the genders, when you're talking about, maternal and paternal. That's where I think we start building in the sense of equality, where everybody is in the same ecosystem and everybody's equally responsible,” noted Gupta.