Thursday 1.4.2021

14:00-15:30h

I am Brazilian and started my career in Brazil 20 years ago. I moved within Brazil with my job but my life change move was in 2006 to Czech Republic to make something completely new from what I did before. Completely out of my comfortable Zone but I dared to take the risk! What supposed to be an assignment for 3 months became bridge for the whole new live I made, as there I met my husband. The Period in Prague was also a 2 years bridge to move to the country where I live now for 13 years, which is Belgium, where I had my daughter.

Topic:  Have the confidence to dare!

I want to share from my experience that we should keep daring on putting on the table our ideas and wishes, that we should keep raising our hands, we should sit at the table and not stop before we actually stop. I had those moments on thinking to stop before I actually stopped, moments of doubt is I should seat at the table and several times it was proven that daring was worth it either to succeed or to learn.

My sources of inspiration:

Books: Lean In, Women, Work, and the Will to Lead Sheryl Sandberg; Daring Greatly – Brene Brown; The Cultural Map – Erin Meyer. There are also some TED Talks that I would really recommend:
1. I’ve lived as a man & a woman — here’s what I learned | Paula Stone Williams
2. Why we have too few women leaders | Sheryl Sandberg
3. Anne Hathaway on International Women’s Day
4. Implicit Bias – How We Hold Women Back | Maureen Fitzgerald (because the responsibility of the change is not only on women)
5. The Missing Link to Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion | Maria Morukian

What would help to make women’s VOICE in society to be moreheard?

For me there are two things we need to work on: the awareness of the issue, as most of the men are even not aware that there is an issue or inequality as they don’t live that. I confess that even I, until certain age or professional stage, did not feel that as well. The second point is, with the consciousness of the issue, guarantee that we put the right tools in place to help to break those barriers/bias to decrease and have effectively more presence of women in leadership positions.

Main thought for mentees:

Each of us should embrace the dream that is possible. We all have fears and there is nothing wrong with that, but we should take the chance to try and remove those limits from our minds and focus on what we are capable of. Another thing I always share with my team is for us to truly adopt the mindset of growth which helps in coping with expressions of bias and fears.

What triggered me the most last year?:

The resilience on keep going and be part of the solution. As well as the gratitude sentiment on having myself and my family safe and health.

Which woman i would like to meet:

There are a lot of great women, but one that comes immediately into my mind when I read the question, was to be able to fly back in time and meet the young Amara, my grandma. She worked, which was not common for woman at that time, she barely knew how to read and write, she had children with a man that she loved until when she died and never married, which again was not something acceptable in the society. I just wanted to ask her which fears she had at those times not knowing what was coming yet on her future. Just to realize once again that fears we all have, but the future we hold in our hands. It is not an easy road, but we all can make it.

What I would like to read about myself:

Great Leadership, driven by the alliance of People Development and Delivery of Results. Embracing diversity and making an environment where inclusion and understanding of differences are accepted and that will help to make a more productive, innovative and a better environment for growth, and, as a consequence, a better and more attractive place to work.