Gargee Banerjee

I attribute my success to having a growth mindset - when we are solving a problem and we know that we have some growth opportunities, it's better not to deny it and take it head on. Having that growth mindset is equally applicable to men and women both, and unless we have that, it's very difficult to be ahead of the game. The second thing is addressing the imposter syndrome. I think it's a huge problem, especially with women, because we're juggling so many things. That psychological experience, that persistent internalized self-doubt and the fear of being exposed, is sometimes very overwhelming, and having coping mechanisms to deal with it is critical. No one is a superwoman here, and we have to understand what it takes to overcome this. We are not born with all knowledge - there are so many tools coming every week, and it's impossible to keep up with all these new things. When you're in a room where everyone is talking about all the new things coming up, that anxiety or neuroticism just kicks in, and we can fall into that trap. Reframing your thoughts really helps - people may also be going through it, but they may not show it. So having that growth mindset and understanding why you are going through that syndrome and addressing it up front really, really helps. I've also been extremely lucky to have very supportive leadership throughout my career who could recognize and nurture talent.

The best advice I ever received was to never give up. And the second part the same person told me was, if you fail once, it's fine, but just don't repeat the same mistake. That means that failure is just an opportunity for growth.

I would say 100% that having a growth mindset and understanding the imposter syndrome is critical. This imposter syndrome equally applies to everyone, but I feel for women it's a little more intense. If we have the right coping mechanism, it really, really helps people to stay in this industry, because I have seen so many girls give up their career just because they were not feeling enough. You need to have the persistence and the tenacity to keep pressing forward. If you look at all these 20, 22 years, we have seen the industry evolve - if there are new technologies or things we don't know, it's fine. Have the confidence in yourself that if you give me an opportunity, I can learn. I learned in the last 20 years, why not now? And with more experience, I feel like, why shouldn't we? The same advice goes to anyone fresh out of college - if you feel like you're not good enough, see why you feel not good enough, and address it. Today there are so many open source resources and so many educational opportunities around. Knowledge is not centered to a lucky few. What I would say is having the tenacity and the courage to face it, accept it, and then having the right coping mechanism makes it very easy for anyone to succeed.

One of the most important values to me is to be a learner and be curious. As long as you are curious and you keep learning, because learning is a continuous process, I think once we have that mindset, it really helps. Having good mentors also helps - while I mentor a lot of junior members, I think you also have to be conscious of whom you are getting mentored with. I usually do a SWOT analysis at a given point of time based on what situation I am in, identifying what are the weaknesses that I have to address. Then I try to find mentors - I have long-standing mentors, and based on my growth opportunities, I find mentors who can help me and guide me. Sometimes my managers help me find them, sometimes I go out to find someone based on my network who can help me learn something which I don't feel very comfortable about, or give me generic advice. Sometimes mentors give you such enlightening advice that really shapes up how you think about stuff. Mentoring and supporting others is also critical to me - I believe in women for women, and having a woman in your professional life who you see around is extremely important. The way a woman understands other women's challenges is unique. Most of the women leaders I've seen have been extremely supportive, and any inspiration in the women world really inspires not only the next generation, but many other generations to come.