Out & About
With Vanessa Katte, Director, Antony
Consulting
I met Vanessa at a Special Interest
Group (SIG) meeting one evening at the
Singapore
Institute of Management, and when I started
chatting with her, I was struck by some of her views
on life in Singapore looking from the eyes of an
expatriate.
So I invited her to share some of her interesting
views on the status of professional women in
Singapore.
Vanessa hails from Munich, Bavaria, and she
spent
her formative teen years working with her parents in
the restaurant industry. That seemed to be her
entire world at that time, and she was deeply
immersed into the lifestyle of the industry, although
she often thought that deep below in her heart, she
needed an independence to follow her own dreams.
When she turned 18, she confronted her parents
and
spent many weeks discussing with them, her
deep
inner needs, and that she needed her independance
away from them so that she could begin to bloom
into her own womanhood. She was indeed,
successful, and she made a complete break from the
family restaurant business by leaving the business to
attend university.
So what's so different about what she did? I
think its
the way that she saw it as completely natural
(and
so do a lot of Europeans) that it's important to
speak up with your voice to share with your parents
what is it that's important in your life. She stresses
that in Germany, "...nothing is swept away under the
carpet", and that
no one has to feel that they have to compromise just
to keep the family happy.
Her observations on Singapore professional
women? She said they are of strong characters,
and those that have children can still keep up with a
gruelling job/career. They are serious, talented and
committed. Although they have strong emotions and
intuition, they don't seem to be able or even want to
influence others. In other words, they don't
speak up for themselves.
Interestingly, she pointed out that there are
some great women models in Singapore for example,
Olivia Lum, Janine Tay and a brace of others,
who have climbed to the very pinnacles of of
business and who are quite vocal in their viewspoints
as women.
She said that in Germany, she would be hard
pressed to think of some powerful business women in
that who could compare with these women. Of
course, on the other hand, since
there's so much of stress and workaholism generated
by the women in Singapore, they might need to
learn 'how to let go' from a very planned and
structured socio-economic environment. Most things
are very well "engineered" in Singapore, and what
often seems to be missing is the human element of
the heart.
Women need to be more adaptable and
flexible, and one of the most
important points is to cultivate the ability to speak
up with their inner voice to let the world know
their opinions and thoughts.
I asked Vanessa what 3 points she'd like to leave
behind for our readers to ponder upon. These
are the
points:
1. Speak up and let the world know who you are,
say
what you think, and allow yourself to speak up and
out! Naturally,
say it within the context of whichever relationships
you are in, but it's important to let the other party
know how you feel abou the situation.
2. Know who you are. Spend time in reflection.
Create a personal development path for yourself. You
don't have to be perfect, and neither are things
just 'black' and 'white', as there are shades of grey.
People are complex, and its not so easy as one way
or the other. Refrain from judging others - don't just
shut one eye.
3.Communicate! There is a store of malicious
gossip
in company corridors, why not try open
communications? Learn how to share dialogue, and
ask for and give feedback to each other so that
better relationships are created. Vanessa commented
on the number of contact hours that maids in
Singapore spend with the children.
The maids
education of the children is, however, extremely
limited, while
it's a 2 parent working at stressful corporate jobs.
When the parents get home after a hard day's work,
it's late, and most times, the children have gone to
bed. How much deep communication takes place
between parents and children in such situations?
When children don't have the opportunity to spend
their evenings with parents, how much
communication is taking place?
Vanessa's raised some pertinent points here,
and I think we should reflect seriously on whether
our families are as intact and communicating and
reaching each other as deeply as we'd like to be.
I shudder at the alternative.
For more details on Vanessa's company,
please
click on this link.
