Meet our Associate Director Of Marketing — Wenwen Zhao on our #choosetochallenge series. Getting to know her will be as insightful and enjoyable for you as much as it was for us.
Q. Tell me something fun about yourself!
A. I travelled across India from south to north in 3 weeks driving an auto-rickshaw, and Nicholas Hoult was stuck in this 2-hour traffic with me. That was the best traffic jam for me.
Q. What does leadership mean to you?
A. Take the team to win! Like a football team coach, you are not the player who’s playing in the field but you will do whatever it takes to lead the team to victory.
Q. What is your leadership style like, how did you come to identify it and how did Cialfo support you on your journey?
A. I lean towards a democratic or participative style of leadership. I tend to set the parameters for the work and actively involve my team members in the process. Everyone in Cialfo has a different set of skills and experiences, and listening to other team members’ perspectives and opinions have widened my own thinking as well.
Q. Your most memorable moment at Cialfo in your position as a leader?
A. When my intern wrote me a thank you message after I reprimanded him.
Q. Cialfo has a stupendous gender ratio of 1:1 highlighting our commitment to supporting and hiring women in tech and in general — what are the qualities and values of the company that you relate and identify with?
A. Our diversity is not a result of it being a trending topic and us wanting to score more points with the public. We didn’t purposely look for candidates that fulfil our diversity quota. Our diversity is genuine and it’s a result of us truly believing in seeing an individual as an individual, regardless of race, gender, religion, etc. The fact that I didn’t feel there’s any difficulty in my work or having my opportunities limited because of my gender.
Q. What are the strategies that you learned which can make women achieve more prominent roles in their organizations?
A. Understand that men and women can inherently process information very differently. Therefore, whether it’s to a man or a woman, find the most suitable way to communicate so that you can get your exact point across clearly.
Q. Can you share with us a particularly vulnerable moment as a leader and how you transcended that?
A. That has to be from the time when my team member didn’t find the work meaningful. You need to guide the team member to see the meaning in the work and also try to understand what they like. Then genuinely look for ways to change the situation to maybe have a mixture of things that are enjoyable and not so enjoyable but important for this member.
Q. How is Cialfo inspiring women to take up more leadership roles?
A. Recognising the effort without her need to shout for herself and getting her voice heard easily. Cialfo gives enough opportunities to lead a project or task force and always hears our opinions.
Q. Biggest takeaways from your association with Cialfo?
A. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Q. You have recently been promoted — how do you define ‘growth’ and ‘success’?
A. Growth — an uncomfortable phase that you have to go through in order to become stronger and better than before. Success — doing meaningful and impactful work, and enjoying the process while at it.
Q. How has Cialfo supported you in the growth and success of your career?
A. Providing me with the resources and guidance I need in my area of work.
Q. Your most memorable moment at Cialfo?
A. When our product team turned my vision for the very first online university fair into a reality. Originally I was just thinking of building it myself from a template website, but Hitendra took it over and made it into something 100 times better than I had imagined. That’s the page which was later visited by 18,000 students, counselors and parents to access our first virtual event. That’s when I realised that we have a team which can really make a difference to the community we serve.
Q. Describe your team members in 3 words.
A. Hardworking, trustworthy, fun.
Q. What is the best part about working for Cialfo?
A. It’s a bunch of capable people working towards a common goal, and everyone is crazy and passionate enough to make things happen! Our emotions are validated, our frustrations are validated and there’s no need to hide the challenges that we are facing because we are not facing it alone and I have a close support system to rant, to reflect, to celebrate!
Q. Do you remember your first day at Cialfo?
A. Yes! It was a Friday (pre-covid days) and everyone was gathering in the boardroom for a team lunch. I was late but Rohan and Jessie kept the food for me — for every dish, they kept a portion for me. Aww.
Q. Biggest takeaways from your association with Cialfo?
A. You are more capable than you think. In the past one year I went from “No, this is NOT possible” to “Ok, let me see what I need to make it happen”.
#cialfo #cialfowomen #womenleaders
