Shownotes:

As a podcast host one of my biggest joys is celebrating incredible people making a difference. People who I know through my work or because of my podcast or from my networks who have raised the bar either in their personal or professional life.

My guest on the 129th episode of The Elephant in the Room podcast is Ashima Tyagi, our lives intersected briefly in the late 2000s when we worked in different divisions of one of India’s largest PR and PA agency. At the time Ashima was a rookie, getting to grips with operating in male dominated and patriarchal metals and mining industry in India. Fast forward to 2024 when I bumped into her on LinkedIn. I was chuffed to see Ashima Tyagi was Economics Associate Director, at S&P Global Market Intelligence unit in Singapore.

I had a lot of questions for her – about the move from Delhi to Singapore, her experience of living and working in a new country and culture away from her family. I was curious to understand how she was navigating work-life balance and what it meant to her, especially considering that we have it drilled into us, that hard work (long hours) and sacrifice is the route to success. 

We also spoke about her leadership style has evolved over the years, the impact of imposter syndrome, how organizational culture can drag women down or enable them to thrive, her role in WINS S&P Global, networks and networking, her advice to young women joining the industry today, what motivates her and ambition……

While Ashima’s may not recognize it her move to Singapore was a brave decision at many levels a) She had never moved cities before b) She was leaving behind her husband and one year old son c) Her motivation was personal growth. Not many young women in this part of the world are able to priorities their personal and professional ambitious and it continues to stymie and disadvantage them. So, kudos @Ashima Tyagi, every little step counts……

To hear more about Ashima’s personal and professional growth head to the podcast (link in comments) 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Episode Transcript:

Sudha: Good morning, Ashima. Wonderful to have you finally as a guest on The Elephant in the Room podcast. We've been like talking about this for some time, but it wasn't quite working out until now.

Ashima: Thanks Sudha. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Sudha: So, for the benefit of our listeners, I know you from our time together at Vaishnavi, where we interacted briefly. let's start with a quick introduction to who you are and what you do.

Ashima: I've spent nearly, I think, 16 years plus in the commodities world and currently I share my expertise, insights as an economist, primarily in the metals and mining sector. In my current role, of course, we're helping clients navigate the volatility that we see in the supply chains. And we do this by embedding all of that in our pricing forecast and buying strategies and that helps our clients also achieve cost savings, on all the things that they source.

Sudha:

Not everybody understands the commodities market, so you've explained it very well in layperson terms. So Ashima, you moved a couple of years back to Singapore. What has been your experience of living and working in a new country and culture?

And of course, Singapore has a huge expat community.

Ashima: Yeah, I relocated to Singapore around six years ago, but because of the pandemic, it just seems even smaller. And I've experienced remarkable personal and professional growth, I think this time. And the context to that is that I literally never even moved cities within India during the first three decades of my life, let alone moving countries.

I was born in New Delhi, brought up in NCR, which is the National Capital Region, always stayed with my parents, and then after marriage, in my husband's home with my in laws. So, it was a very protected and sheltered life. Primarily worked in Connaught Place also where we worked together, and everything was largely in my comfort zone.

Moving to Singapore was a big step, was a huge step, but I wanted to take it for my professional growth. I had been working in India for a decade and was feeling very stagnated. But the challenge initially was more on the fact that I was leaving my one-year-old son behind. So emotionally, it was very wrecking.

The work that I was also doing was completely different from what I was doing in India, though I was within the steel industry, but the work profile was totally different. So again, it was a huge learning curve.

Plus, when I moved, it seemed the work experience of 10 years in India just didn't matter because you have to prove yourself all over again and It was very difficult. I realized that we sometimes tend to be in a small bubble of our own and when you move countries you realize that the world is much larger. I think back in India, I considered myself one of the really smarter ones, I always had that confidence, but when I moved here and was surrounded by talented people from like all over the world in my company, I just was a little unsure of my own talent for a while. And I also realized how rigid I was, how set in my own ways I was. And being a vegetarian also didn't help much, I think. So in the first couple of months, it was quite difficult. There was a little bit of crying. There's a little bit of helplessness. I thought I made a mistake by moving because your life was comfortable back in India.

I contemplated returning but a friend in Singapore that time told me, just hang on for a year, experience things, and she was of the view that Singapore is going to spoil you because it's so comfortable and easy to live in, and you will never want to return. And her words came out to be true.

So here I am, for the past six years and not wanting to go anywhere.

Sudha: Oh, how interesting you’ve spoken about how the experience was, moving to a new country and how it made you question yourself. As women, we tend to question ourselves constantly. We suffer from the imposter, we have self-doubt, with the best of qualifications, you can still be very worried about whether you will fit in or whether you're capable enough. So how do you as a senior woman professional, how do you find the balance between your personal and professional?

Especially since you're in a new country you have to prove yourself again. That experience, like you said, that decade long experience just doesn't count because people don't know you and you have to start all over again. You also mentioned you left a one-year-old back home and that's a very difficult thing to do. So how did you manage to create that balance where, you are able to focus on your priorities both personal and professional?

Ashima: Yeah, I, to be honest, never been thinking about this too much until recently.

And I'm glad we're recording the podcast right now where I'm having a little bit more clarity rather than a year back. I'm not proud to say this, but I think this year is really the first time in my life that I'm focusing on my health and focusing on the time I'm spending with my two kids now, which are seven and three, instead of just hustling away and trying to achieve more and more professionally.

Obviously, the thinking that time was that you are achieving professionally so that you can provide your kids with the best of education. But now I'm realizing that the kids need your time and attention as well. So, I'm hearing a lot of stories on how, teenagers sometimes are not connecting with parents. And that has primarily to do with the fact that parents didn't have conversations since the beginning. You don't speak to the teens when they grow up, you speak to them when they are young, when they are toddlers. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think you cannot have a perfect balance for sure.

It's always tilting on one or the other side and still you have to actively plan, and you have to constantly try to balance things out. And you could do it by, sometimes setting boundaries, sometimes prioritizing self-care or utilizing your support networks. So, in my case now, there are trips that I've taken, with a group of friends so leaving my kids, spouse, everyone behind, so which means that it really allows me time to myself.

So I do that once in a while also, but at the same time I have to manage the kids as well. So it's a constant, everyday a balancing act, but it's never in a perfect state of balance for sure.

Sudha: Yeah, definitely there's no such thing as a perfect balance, your priorities keep changing I think day to day, week on week, month on month, year on year as children go through various stages. And yeah, there is no right way to do things. You just have to wing it. And like you said, you just have to set some boundaries at some point to give yourself also the space to be able to do everything justice, everything that you have on yo