Krittika Patil tells us how women can find power in the workplace by speaking up
As we celebrate Women’s History Month worldwide, we’re focused on a theme that means a lot to us: your voice is your power. Lucky for us, we work alongside an army of women with powerful voices at Dropbox. Product Analyst Krittika Patil spoke up on who she sees practicing this mantra, and why balancing strength and vulnerability as a woman in the workplace really matters.
How do you think Womens@ plays a part in increasing inclusion at Dropbox?
There’s so much widespread involvement across all offices that it’s created a lot of visibility for the ERG, both for our own teams and for the leadership chains. Just by sheer participation and the passion everyone has for the ERG itself, it’s become so embedded in the Dropbox culture that it’s never too far from someone’s mind.
What experiences are you most looking forward to during Women’s History Month at Dropbox?
As one of the co-leads for the Women@ ERG in the NYC office, I helped organize a workshop for negotiation in the New York office focusing on the theme of voice is power. It’s not purely around how to negotiate, but includes how to show up, how to present yourself, and how to make sure you’re holistically the best self you can be coming into a negotiation on either side of things. Personally, I am terrified of that phase of any sort of negotiation process, so getting the tools and techniques that would help empower me excites me.
What are some of your favorite representations of women in your personal life, media, history, fiction, etc.?
I truly believe you can find ladies that inspire you at any age of their lives! Mo’ne Davis really is an inspiration for me — she’s a former Little League World Series baseball player in 2014. She made history as the first African American girl in the LLWS, and the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shutout, and throws a mean 70mph fastball. Watching and going to MLB games with my parents as a kid, I wanted to play pro baseball growing up, and I still love the sport.
Mo’ne inspires me because she’s been using her voice and platform as an inspiration to both younger girls, and older girls like me! She’s stronger and more dedicated to the game than I ever could be — not to mention so talented! She faced plenty of haters of all ages — which by the way is ridiculous — but she has such a maturity and humility about her, even as such a trailblazer in baseball. Gender in baseball has always been a difficult fight, and she’s moved the sport forward immensely. I love that she has continued to use her legacy to help advance equality for the next generation of girls in sports. It takes so much grit, power, and a lot of self-reflection to take that stage.
Who is a woman in your life that has been an example for using their voice as their power?
Early on in my career, I worked for a startup with an amazing CEO and she had a big conference talk coming up where she was going to tell the story about how the company got started. It’s a super personal story about her fellow founders — she cried and had to take breaks while practicing with us. It was such a poignant moment when she finished — our whole team was in tears after seeing her be so brave. Her honesty and willingness to share made me realize how important it is to stay true to yourself and allow yourself to be vulnerable, and not make yourself feel buttoned up. It’s okay to show emotion, and it always brought so much strength and power to her as a leader. I thanked her personally afterwards for sharing her story — I was so nervous going straight to my CEO being a month new to the company — but seeing her inspired me to do the same! I haven’t had many moments like that since, and looking back I realize how empowering that day was for me to start to embrace being genuine and brave in moments that mean something to me. I think it’s so important to watch someone at that level display different emotions and styles of leadership.
I have learned so much from women like my CEO who have also used their voice to pass on professional or personal advice. That helped me to get where I am, and now I’m trying to pay that forward. To be a mentor to younger girls in high school and college is something that drives me, and I hope that I can inspire other folks to partake in that. You should always know that sharing your voice and story can help another.
