Her Story
About Sahana
Sahana Dinesh is a professional in the consulting field, where she engages in client-facing work. She emphasizes the importance of setting clear expectations and managing fast deadlines while recognizing the need for patience in collaborative processes. Among the opportunities she sees in her field are the chances to expand her network by meeting new people, forming connections, and exchanging ideas with individuals outside her organization. Dinesh credits her achievements to her family's unwavering support and her personal self-belief that enables her to take calculated risks. She prioritizes structured approaches to work, such as creating action plans, taking notes, following through on tasks, and maintaining a feedback loop. Transparency and clear communication are core values she upholds in setting expectations and addressing both challenges and successes. For young women entering consulting, she advises being willing to take leaps while establishing boundaries, communicating with managers or mentors when overwhelmed, and seeking guidance from a neutral mentor outside one's organization.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sahana
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say it's probably my family, like having such a good support system around me. I know that no matter where life takes me, that I always have their support. They've got my back. Also, I think self-belief that I'll land on my two feet, so I'm not afraid of taking risks. I can take that leap and I'll be okay.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be willing to sort of take that leap, but also know when to say no. If there's too many things going on, communicate back with your manager or a mentor. Have boundaries. Finding a mentor is also something that's important in any field, somebody who can you talk to for career advice, preferably outside of your organization so they have more of a neutral stance.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges: setting expectations with client-facing work, lots of fast deadlines, managing expectations, patience is lacking as people need to realize things can only go so fast. Opportunities: talking to a lot of people and growing your network, constant rotate to new people outside the organization, meeting people, forming connections, broadening your network, new ideas.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Prioritizing work with an action plan, taking down notes from the previous day, making sure you're on top of things, following through on tasks, not losing track of what needs to be done, figuring out what's most important and getting that done first, having a feedback loop. Transparency and clear communication about setting expectations, what's lacking, what's going well.
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