I completed something today but it feels like the beginning of a journey that will define my future, future of our company and future of workplace as a whole. Last year was about discovering the heart of our work experience, defining authenticity at workplace, allowing your emotions to define who you are and above all what true leadership is about, Ignite is that journey.
February 2018 Dow Jones kickedoff their first ever leadership program with 25 trailblazer women from all areas of the company with a goal to increase diversity in senior leadership. But what we achieved was beyond gender issues, we discovered that we are humans who are driven by love, care and emotions and it’s high time we put all this into our businesses.
I still remember completing my application process from the hospital bed after giving birth to my second daughter and later figuring out how to attend the kickoff week during my maternity leave once I made it into the program. But I made it not just through that week commuting everyday between NY and CT, taking frequent mothers room break, traveling with kids for midweek between CT, NY and NJ and multiple international trips with kids all through the year being in the program.
The most spectacular part of the program was the bond our group share, this is the group we now reach out to when we have to deliver a tough presentation, when we have those crazy work ideas that eventually lands as the brilliant business plan, when you are exploring new revenue streams and clients and need more insights into another department, when we need help with our fears, when we need someone to listen to about our success and failures, share our adventures and craziness and above all just being there without any expectations and judgements.
Our kick off week included sessions about true leadership, discovering our own leadership traits and styles, a MBA in a day session, deep dive into our finance structure and numerous conversations with our executive team to get insights into their leadership strategy and how we can build together the future of Dow Jones. During midweek we focused on innovation and ideas to diversify our readership. It was a learning and discovering experience with all of us pitching our unique ideas and then ultimately produced three brilliant ideas which we shared with the whole company and are being now incorporated into our business plans for coming years. Today as we wrapped the final week we looked back into the year, what we have achieved and went through decision making session which was very aptly placed. As we all start this journey after Ignite we are making well informed conscious decisions to drive and define our careers and growth at Dow Jones.
Beyond these three weeks all through our Ignite journey we met in our monthly meetups to share what we do in our roles, what is going on in our business, get updates about various initiatives and building our over all understanding about the company. We also met our coaches on a monthly basis to talk about our bold goals, our indelible marks and the most interesting one was when we wrote letters to our present self from our 80 year old self. Which seemed like a daunting task but was enlightening experience for our mind and spirit.
The most unique and important aspect of this program which sets it apart is the executive sponsorship. Its easy to build a leadership program and run it in a conference room but it’s brought to live when there is a true human investment in the experience and thats what sponsorship is to this program. Each Igniter was paired with one of our executive members and we worked with our sponsors through the year on various initiatives including job shadowing, special projects, real life experiences and one on one mentoring. I am forever indebted to my sponsor for the opportunities she gave me, real life experiences she shared with me and above all being a role model in so many aspects of her life.
Today as we went through our commencement luncheon it was a heartfelt experience that not just touched our souls but gave us immense strengths to continue this journey of authenticity and bringing our true selves to every aspect of our personal and professional lives.
Today I am proud of my decision and journey of working at Dow Jones as I give myself permission and power to be genuine and true to myself and people around me.
Forever Igniter.
