Leading Women: The fight against uneven expectations

As part of our Leading Women series, we want to highlight the professional challenges and career aspirations of the women we work with here in Asia.  

In this story, Neha Arur, Senior Director of Human Resources India at Midland Credit Management (an Encore Group Company), shares the two greatest career decisions of her life, as well as how today’s women leaders have to battle uneven expectations at work, at home and within the society at large.   

Q: Have you ever had moments of self doubt in the course of your career? How did you manage it?  

My biggest self doubt came when I wanted to start a family. I was at the top of my game, I was doing very well, and I was holding a global role. I was skeptical to start a family at the time because I didn’t know if I could manage both work and family. I had a lot of self doubt with regard to creating that balance and remaining relevant after my maternity break. I feared that, as I was taking care of my child, the entire world would change and I’d not even know how to work on a laptop. I was also afraid that I would be judged for the life choices I made. Some of these were unfounded fears, but fears nonetheless. The way I managed it was to take baby steps, one day at a time. It was just a matter of days or weeks before I was back to being my normal self. 

This is an abridged version of the full interview with Neha Arur. For the full version of the interview, click here.