Women have soft power, empathy, collaboration and emotional intelligence

At the 6th edition of the exchange4media PR & Corp Comm Women Achievers Summit 2025, Sangeeta Kaushik, Former Executive Director (Corporate Planning, Business Development & Consultancy), NTPC Limited delivered a deeply personal and practical special address titled “Mid Career to Leadership – Pathways and Pitfalls,” drawing from her four-decade-long journey at NTPC Limited.

Opening her address with humility and honesty, Kaushik said, “I’m not a media person, but I’m an engineer by profession. I worked in NTPC for 40 years, from 1986 to 2026. I have done it all.” She recalled her rising from an engineering executive trainee to the position of executive director, while balancing motherhood, a joint family, and leadership responsibilities.

Kaushik said her presentation was built on habits and lessons she had learned through lived experience. “How can women go from mid-career to leadership roles? There is a disparity. There is no doubt about it. So how do we cover that disparity?” she asked.

She also made a heartfelt appeal to men in the audience. “Behind every successful man is a woman, but behind every successful woman is also a man,” she said, adding that support from fathers, brothers, husbands and male colleagues plays a critical role in helping women rise.

Backing her observations with industry data, Kaushik pointed out the steep drop in women representation as leadership levels rise. “At the entry level, 70% of workflows in PR and communications are constituted by women. But at leadership level, only about 30% occupy C-suite positions,” she said. Drawing parallels with the energy and STEM sectors, she underlined that while women account for nearly 50% at entry levels, representation falls to just 20-30% at senior leadership positions over time.

Moving ahead, she quoted the “broken rung” concept from a McKinsey and LeanIn report. Further, she highlighted how the disparity begins much earlier than the glass ceiling. “At the first promotion itself, for every 100 men promoted, only 71 to 80 women are promoted,” she said, attributing it to caregiving roles, self-doubt and structural biases.

However, Kaushik also emphasized that organizations are evolving. “Businesses are diversifying, and that is creating opportunities for women leaders,” she said, citing NTPC’s own transformation from a single entity into 30 subsidiaries and joint ventures. According to her, the rise of collaborative business models and smaller leadership units is opening new leadership pathways for women professionals.

The core of her session revolved around six habits women need to overcome in order to move from mid-career to leadership roles.

One of the strongest points she made was around self-advocacy. “We always believe that my work should speak for itself. It will not. You have to talk about it. You have to pitch about your work,” she said. Kaushik urged women to stop downplaying their contributions and instead learn how to confidently claim their achievements while still acknowledging their teams.

She also spoke extensively about visibility and networking. “Those opportunities will not land at your door on their own,” she said, encouraging women to actively seek opportunities, express ambition and build digital visibility through platforms like LinkedIn and WhatsApp. “The person may not respond there, but it registers in the mind and your name gets registered,” she mentioned while explaining how even small gestures of professional engagement matter.

Kaushik also addressed the issue of self-doubt and comfort zones. “Women overvalue expertise,” she said. “Even if we fulfill eight out of ten requirements, we think we are not ready. Men will apply even if they fulfill four.” Recalling a major turning point in her own career, she shared how she initially hesitated to take up the role of Managing Director of an NTPC-Bangladesh joint venture because she felt unprepared. “Then I thought, if my boss has faith in me, why am I doubting myself?” she said confidently.

She repeatedly emphasized the importance of taking stretch assignments. “Nothing will happen until or unless you get out of your comfort zone and take those assignments,” she said.

Another powerful takeaway from the session was her advice against perfectionism. Calling it the “perfection trap,” Kaushik explained how striving for perfection in every detail often leads to stress and inefficiency. “Sometimes good enough is enough,” she said.

On work-life balance, Kaushik rejected the simplistic idea of separating work and family into fixed time slots. “Work-life balance is not that 9 to 5 is my work life and then I go back to my family life,” she explained. Instead, she stressed the need for support systems both at work and at home. One of the most memorable lines from her address came while discussing domestic support. “If you give peanuts, you will get only monkeys,” she said candidly, urging women professionals to invest properly in reliable support systems and household help.

She also strongly advocated for networking, calling it one of the biggest gaps for women professionals. “The net worth of a person is their network and hard work. Women have no issues with hard work. The only problem is they fall short on the network,” she underscored.

According to Kaushik, references and sponsors matter more than résumés in leadership growth. “Women need sponsors now, not only mentors,” she said, differentiating between guidance and active advocacy in leadership circles.

Towards the end of the session, she encouraged women to play to their natural strengths. “Women have soft power, empathy, collaboration and emotional intelligence,” she cited, urging them to take on cross-functional assignments where these strengths become leadership assets.

She closed the session with perhaps the most comforting message of the afternoon. She gave a reminder for women who feel delayed because of caregiving responsibilities or career pauses.  “Careers are very, very long. This one year or six months or two years will just not matter. Be patient and hang in there,” she reminded the audience.

Leaving the audience with a final call to action, Kaushik said, “Even if you commit to one habit and adopt that positive change, it will make a lot of difference.”