98: Benevolent leadership, purpose and fitting in with Sanjani Shah, the Global Head of PR, Body Shop

Shownotes: The angst associated with the imposter syndrome is something that a lot of us have felt or continue to feel at various points of our life. This angst is different to the fear that comes with not being a ‘culture fit’. For decades organisations have weaponised ‘culture fit’ to exclude those who do not conform to the dominant cultural norms in a workplace. The global majority, the neurodiverse, people with disabilities or those on the margins tend to be punished for being different. So much of the challenge across the world is because we like people to fit neatly into boxes. That we expect people to fit in with the our stereotypes, to conform to the dominant culture or workplace norms. Who is or can be Indian/American or British; or who is the ideal team member? Do they comply with our expectation of how they should look, dress, behave….? The good thing is that increasingly people resist being boxed. But, this is not an easy road to take….I recently spoke with Sanjani Shah, the Global Head of PR at The Body Shop about identity, fitting in, her learnings from her career journey and personal purpose. In her own words, she spent her early career trying to fit in and was called a ‘coconut’ (brown on the outside and white on the inside) by friends and family. Accepting who she is and that she is good(great) has taken some unlearning. In the episode we also spoke about what ‘Purpose’ means at the Body shop and how it translates and is embedded in how the organisation communicates. We also spoke about…👉🏾 Speaking up, having a personal purpose, benevolent leadership, collaboration as the new paradigm 👉🏾 How The Body Shop continues to build on the legacy of Dame Anita Roddick👉🏾 Authentic communications, greenwashing/sustainability washing? 👉🏾 The role of networks, mentors, sponsors for women and other disadvantaged groups? 👉🏾 Role models and reading listsWe ended talking about hindsight and doing things differently…… If you would like to listen more, head to the podcast….Memorable Passages from the podcast👉🏾 Yeah, good morning or good afternoon in India. Such a pleasure to be on the podcast. 👉🏾 So I'm Kenyan Indian, living in London. I'm one half of a dink, that's a "double income no kids" and one quarter of a pack of siblings. And I think, you know, if I just talk, if I say where I am now, I used to be FOMO and Covid has changed me to JOMO. So in my earlier years, always out very social.And now I think since Covid, I've just become a lot more happy to be in my own company and don't feel like I have to be everywhere doing everything. So it's a little bit about me and because this podcast is about leadership, I wanted to talk a little bit about my career and some of the roles that I've done and some of my highlights.👉🏾I would say that my first actual job was with the International Red Cross in Kenya and it was helping reunite families that were separated by the genocide in Rwanda. It was the most fulfilling role I've ever had. And it's the role that stays in my heart and, and that was a role I did before I even went to university, it was in my gap year and it was just amazing. I actually learned a lot about leadership then. Another highlight I would...