International women’s day – interview with Amrita Chopra, Unilever

Frazer Jones is proud to be supporting International Women’s Day 2017. We have interviewed a series of our female clients asking them how they have been bold for change #BeBoldForChange

Frazer Jones interviewed Amrita Chopra, HR Manager at Unilever

What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?
Women themselves are the most significant barriers to their success. Women in leadership roles sometimes feel they need to over compensate for the tough decisions they have to take in their roles. They feel they need to stand strong and compete with their male counterparts by being ‘tough’. Women need to accept that we are not men, we don’t need to ‘act tough’ to be seen as strong leaders. We are different to men and we don’t need to change ourselves to be like a man to be seen as a good leader.

What would your advice be to women who are trying to achieve their career ambitions?
It is obvious advice to say, be clear in knowing what you want in your career, but I think it’s even more important to Know and be very clear about what you “don’t” want in your career. Women change roles in their personal lives through marriage, motherhood at different times in their careers. When coming back into working life after those changes, women sometimes feel forced to take ‘whichever roles come their way’. It is as that point you need to be very clear on what is it that you don’t want in your career. Identifying that will intern give you control over which path your career takes, and not become a result of decisions that you have had to take due to the stage in your personal life.

How do you achieve work life balance?
Put yourself first, draw a boundary that clearly gives you time to do activities for yourself outside of work. Don’t skew your work life to the extreme where it takes away time for yourself in order to prove that you are keen on your building your career. It is very easy to slip into the convenience of missing that time you have set aside for yourself, but be conscious of those slips and correct yourself when you see it happening. Forcing yourself and not feeling guilty about it is the most important part of maintaining work life balance.