In this episode of Unstoppable Together Podcast, Jennie Brooks talks to Vasanti Rosado, a lead associate in Booz Allen's legal department, an author, a mom, and a co-chair of the firm's Women's Business Resource Group. In honor of Women’s History Month, Vasanti shares how she’s seeing women shape a new model of leadership that acknowledges the multifaceted nature of the modern workforce. She also shares how she thinks male allies can ensure women's equality and equity continue to progress.
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together Podcast, a series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with a diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable. Hello everyone and welcome to the Unstoppable Together Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks and today I'm excited to be joined by Vasanti Rosado. Lead associate in Booz Allen's legal department, an author, a mom, and a co-chair of Booz Allen's Women's Business Resource Group, or BRG. Vasanti, welcome to the podcast.
Vasanti Rosado:
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Jennie Brooks:
I'm so excited to speak with you today. So as I mentioned in your intro, you wear a lot of hats like many women do, and as we enter Women's History Month. I just wanted to start by asking you what this month long tribute to women means to you and why do you think it's important that we acknowledge it?
Vasanti Rosado:
That's a good question. For me, Women's History Month is really a time to pause and celebrate where we are in this moment and really think about how far we've come and what we want for our future. When I talk about the future state, it's acknowledging that we're not there yet. So I think about equality and what it drills down to, which for me is pay and opportunities and also having a place at the table where you're not having to push your way through barriers all the time. So when we celebrate Women's History Month, it's really taking that time to embrace the collective group that we belong to as women and blaze those new trails. Add them to our history, and then think about again what can we do for equality for the future generation.
Jennie Brooks:
So what are some of the personal things that you think about when you talk about advancing the future generation? What comes to mind?
Vasanti Rosado:
For me, it's really being present and making sure that the path that I took is not the same path that someone else has to take. So when I see things and I recognize there's something that triggers a memory that I've had or is something that I feel like I've seen another woman walk in that path. I think about what I can do, and sometimes it's just taking that person aside and talking to them or just asking them. Do you want advice? Do you want me to listen? Do you want to vent? And just being there.
Jennie Brooks:
Yeah. I think we have to have the courage to give one another to your point insights or perspectives from our own paths and journeys. But also to receive it, right?
Vasanti Rosado:
Yes, absolutely.
Jennie Brooks:
Tell me a little bit about your role as a co-chair of the Business Resource group. What does that look like in terms of Women's History Month, but also beyond Women's History Month?
Vasanti Rosado:
So it is layered onto our daily roles here, which is really a show of commitment that we all have and that really eagerness to take part in something that's bigger than ourselves by coming together. It is something that we've thought a lot about. Yes, it's a role. Yes, we're here to connect the business back to the women but we started thinking about what really impacts the women here. We stuck with this idea of meaningful connections, especially coming out of Covid and people acknowledging that we are more than just a person at work. So we took that idea of meaningful connections and we thought about how we want people to feel empowered to continue making connections, and it's going to be different. Right? Whether you're regional or in the DC Metro area. We want that feeling of support and understanding to flow through everything that we do. So if you attend one of our events, you reach back to people and you connect with them you feel like the door really is open.
Whether it's a coffee chat or a 15-minute meeting to make sure you make that connection and let people know who you are, we want the Women's BRG to be able to facilitate that. So one of the things that I wanted to make sure that I did point out though is that this is our tribute month. When it's March Women's History month, but the Women's BRG is here year round. So we're always going to be putting on monthly programming. We want to make sure that the underlying focus is on continuing to connect and build those lasting relationships and really help women to feel like they are supported and that they can grow here. That we're a safe space to have discussions talking about things that affect women or things that occur in the workplace.
Jennie Brooks:
I think also you're your point about connection is really beneficial because in my own experience pre-pandemic. We enjoyed a lot of conversation together in an office setting, increased proximity, and we enabled conversations around return to work after having a baby. Or how do you navigate a flex work schedule, managing caregiving or going back to school along with the career path. Now perhaps there's some distance just in naturally making those connections and therefore having these conversations about topics that really impact women and other caregivers. If we're not together how do you reach out to someone that you might not be as close to, or it's a new relationship or it's a new colleague relationship in the workplace and sort of enable that, keep those connections going. I think it's fantastic that the BRG can help play a role in that.
Vasanti Rosado:
If you attend any of the events you can see everyone just... It's that energy that we share.
Jennie Brooks:
Something we've also talked a lot about on this podcast are intersectional identities and intersectional lived experiences. Why is that important for an employee resource group to acknowledge and address? What's been your experience?
Vasanti Rosado:
So the women's BRG went into this really long path of how do we define women and acknowledge how we fall into all of these different categories. When we did that exercise, it became a really complex map because you have women existing in all of the affinity groups at the firm. So all the other BRGs were in the technology sectors, were in leadership or client facing, were internal. Basically any path that you can say employee beside it, there's a woman there and the thing that we wanted to make sure also that we talk about is that we make an impact in all of those areas too and how to highlight that, and how to connect people. So when we talk about really understanding and helping the workplace to understand that critical set of intersections that we have. We wanted to make sure that we bring up this idea of pausing and truly listening. So we tell everyone to bring your authentic selves to work.
The other half of that though for the workplace is to make sure that as you do that, that you're taking time, you're listening, but then you're absorbing before you take action. So that has been a really big focus as we're going through the discussions on what is our programming going to be, what is that lead in story that we want as we go into the event and then what do we want those connections to be after? I feel like me as a co-chair just acknowledging... I think I saw you've been here for a while too, Jennie. I've been here for 16 years, so-
Jennie Brooks:
I've been here for 100 years.
Vasanti Rosado:
I am going to steal that, I love that. I feel like when I came here it was like this idea of you'll only be here for two years and then you flip over to the next thing, and here I am 16 years later. Right? So what I admire is that I really do feel like we're at this point, and this is of course coming from again Covid but we understand how to ask the right questions and then listen. So we have the listening sessions, we have our own wind down sessions with the BRG and at the end of the day it's just this really powerful way of connecting with people. When we think about it, we always talk in terms of this is a big ship to move when you talk about 30,000 people being here and then making sure that we're all authentic and we know that each person intersects the business in a different way. They respond and react to current events in different ways and when we bring that over to our clients, it helps us to emulate that same thing and so we're compassionate with them.
We listen to their needs, we understand that they are also people beyond their business roles. So I feel like it's one of those things where when we do it in our workplace we continue to model those behaviors and it just makes us a better connecting point with our clients, our mission, and everywhere that we want to go in the future.
Jennie Brooks:
Agreed, that's great. Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on how our male colleagues can support us in allyship through this work in terms of progress first, sex and gender equity?
Vasanti Rosado:
Yes. So we have an upcoming allyship discussion that I'm really excited to have been a part of building that out. So I want to acknowledge first, again since I've been here for 16 years. Right? I do feel like we have men here at the firm who have been supporters. But one of the things that I do want to call out is that we need more tools to highlight the women. So finding ways to teach men how to sponsor someone who doesn't look like them or have the same challenges, but also going back to one of the basic things. Which is understanding that gender bias does exist and if you see it, you have to be there and be a voice to respond to it. So just understanding that it's not always really blatant, it's not like something obvious happened in a meeting. But knowing that it can be nuanced and knowing that it can be really crushing for the recipient, I think is a really big step. Just being aware, but then after you're aware making sure that you take action. So what are you going to do about it?
Are you going to initiate discussion with that employee? Are you going to talk to the person who maybe made the statement? How can you be an active ally and not an observer of what just happened? Understanding those paths and the options that you have at the firm to make sure that those are addressed, it is an extra step. I do want to say being an ally is not a passive thing, right? You have to be able to say I'm devoting time, I'm devoting effort, learning time, whatever it is. But you're taking that step to really understand someone else's perspective and being an active participant. So I have a sponsor and he's got all the connections, he's got the seat at the table and when we come together he listens. He understands my role, he thinks about, he reviews the material that I give him. He gives true thought to what it is that I'm doing, and then when we come together he tells me how to elevate my thoughts so that I'm not always thinking in this silo of my role and what I think it could be built to.
It's more of a connection to the strategy that the team has and how I can think on a broader scale so that I can be looked at for different opportunities. So I try to emulate that behavior now that I've seen how it's done and I have a mentee. I have other people that I talk to throughout the BRG and I share, share with all of the other proteges that are a part of this group all of the things that I've learned. Because I think that's the way that we can continue this path of being growing leaders who are also listeners and then who also try to take action to help the other person. So we're not a sounding board, we're actually a place where they can come get advice and act upon it.
Jennie Brooks:
Yeah. I would also add to that allies in my own career experience have enabled opportunity for me. So as they see an area of need in the business they've said, "Look, why don't we bring you in to this opportunity?" In many respects, a lot of those opportunities end up becoming sort of throwing me into the deep end where I'm learning a lot. So it's really about knowing the person that you're working with and as you see that opportunity positioning them to potentially take that opportunity or to step into a learning moment or stretch into new areas of work for them. So as they get to know you and really kind of position you for continued mobility and development and growth. That's been my own experience with male allyship in particular.
Vasanti Rosado:
Yeah. It's taking that active step, really listening out and making sure that you understand I don't have that same seat at the table. I'm not attending the same meetings, but you and your position are able to tell my story for me. That really does come from true understanding and taking that time to understand my history, what I'm working on, what I aspire to. So yes, very important.
Jennie Brooks:
As I'm listening to you what comes to mind particularly as we're pulling through the pandemic. I think we are in this model and this state in the business that is fairly dynamic and in some ways unpredictable, quite variable with meeting people where they are. Right? We talked a little bit earlier about the proximity to one another is a little bit different depending on the work. What strikes me is that what we're really talking about also along these lines is possibly a new model emerging around leadership, women in leadership roles or this conversation around allyship. Right? What are some of the things that you've learned through the Women's BRG? What are you seeing in the conversation that says, hey this is different than it was before and therefore we need to show up in different ways?
Vasanti Rosado:
What we focused on a lot is the understanding how multifaceted people are. That it was the layer that you brought to work previously, and then this idea started to form the authentic. Because we can see your background, we see your kids running there, we see your dog just jumped in, all of these things and we stepped back and we got to laugh a little bit. Despite all of the things that were going on, it was that true like building of camaraderie because you got to see I also have X, Y, Z, I can relate to you on a different level. It's not the same as when you come into the office and you leave everything in the car, your cultural taste of anything. Whether it's your food, your music, what you would typically wear, all of those things were hidden for some people and we started to be a little bit more vulnerable. In ways when we started to connect I think that allowed people to understand there are different types of leaders. There are technical leaders who give you the ideas and you move forward, and then there are compassionate ones.
But then there's this whole new world of different type of leadership that we see. Because people have found these other ways of connecting and appealing to people, and also assuring them that when you attempt to take on more we understand that you come with all of these other obligations. So moving up doesn't mean letting go of those types of things because I'm acknowledging now that you have all these other parts of you that could be affected by doing this type of work. So then the conversation shifts to, as a leader being willing and open to talk to someone about how can we do this work better? How can we bring efficiency to what we're doing? I mean, it was I think a big thing for people to even shift to the idea of working from home. So that for some of us was a limiter because as a remote employee which I am, it became I think a bigger acknowledgement for people to say you can do work at home. You can do things that make an impact to the firm at home.
Jennie Brooks:
That's right.
Vasanti Rosado:
Yeah. I think that all of those leadership styles started to be a little bit more, instead of I read a book and I'm going to emulate this type of leadership behavior. I think people found those natural points to connect to the other people and to lead them in a way that allowed the team to progress and thrive with the situations that we were faced with.
Jennie Brooks:
Agreed. Vasanti, at the end of every podcast we give our guests some free space to share their final thoughts with those listening. What would you like to leave with our audience today?
Vasanti Rosado:
I think the same thing I say at the end of every Global Women's BRG event. It's that I really am so grateful for all of the relationships I built. It's why it's part of what we do, because that is the unanimous thing that everyone says. It's all about that connection, but also it's the energy that when we come together it's like it's infectious. We build and thrive off of each other, and then we carry that into our day jobs and it's very heartwarming to be an active participant that's connecting other women. That made my year. So thank you for everything.
Jennie Brooks:
Awesome.
Vasanti Rosado:
Thank you.
Jennie Brooks:
Enjoy Women's History Month everyone. Thanks for listening. Visit careers dot booz allen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.