In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, along with Nell Scovell published a book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. As the name suggests, the book is a comprehensive guide on how a woman can escalate the career ladder by taking help of the people that surround her.

Later, Sandberg also founded the Leanin.org, a nonprofit organization, to offer educational resources and programming that encourages female leadership in the world.

She inspired women to start Lean In Circles, where small groups of women can meet regularly to learn and grow together.

With the mission to empower women to achieve their ambitions, the organization has reached over 33k Lean In Circles in over 150 countries.

India, too, has its own Lean In Circles which is headed by its Regional Leader, Sanya Khurana.

On July 22, i.e. tomorrow, Lean In India Summit is being held in New Delhi which will see esteemed speakers and panelists from the corporate world who will share their insights on finding the motivation to work towards changing the world for good, on customized feminism in India, and much more.

Before the big day, IWB got in touch with Lean In Circles India founder and Regional Leader, Sanya, to know more about the event and her work for Lean In.

What’s the exclusive mission of Lean In India?

In India, our main focus is on changing the mindset of people towards gender. Also, we want to encourage people to share their stories, opinions, thoughts, and to make it possible we have designed Content Writer Volunteer program. You don’t have to be a writer to join this program. It’s designed to give you a platform where you can voice your thoughts.

What inspired you to initiate Lean In Circles in India?

It was in 2014, that I started a Lean In Circle on my campus with 12 of my friends. As it is, between friends, we tend to discuss our lives, our aspirations, struggles, etc. But through Lean In, we could learn and grow together. At the same time, I also met Rashmeet Kaur, who’s now the co-founder of Lean In Circles India, who had started another Circle on the same campus. Having seen the benefits and the positive changes of these Lean In Circles, we decided to do it in an organized way, thus, came in Lean In Circle India.

Few stories of women in Lean In Circles that motivated and inspired you.

So, initially, most girls in the Circle had the mindset that women are only meant for certain roles. They believed that women can’t make good entrepreneurs, can’t drive well, etc. They also had this redundant opinion that in the end, women have to leave their jobs and career for their husbands and their families.

But, with the activities and conversations that happened during the Lean In Circle meetings, slowly their mindset had changed. One of the girls who agreed with the discussed stereotypes went to work with the giant like CISCO. One friend who was hesitant to apply outside Delhi is now placed at a prestigious company, and another one is now a successful entrepreneur.

How do you Lean In at your workplace?

Earlier, I was very reluctant to ask for help, but, now I ‘Lean In’ by seeking help and asking for feedback in a positive stride.

So, what can we expect from the Lean In India Summit that’s happening tomorrow, July 22^nd?

There’ll be speaker sessions followed by panel discussions on women leadership, need for feminism, etc. Then, there’ll be networking game sessions where we’ll divide the audience into small groups of 8-10 people to give them a glimpse of how Lean In Circle meetings look like. After lunch, there’ll be a two-hour networking session where people can engage in one-on-one interaction with our esteemed speakers and panelists.

Wow, IWB team is very excited to attend the summit. So, what are your hopes for the Summit?

Well, I hope that we deliver what we intend to deliver and motivate people to start leaning in to grow to their full potential. We want to inspire them to start their own Lean In Circles and empower each other in more than one way.

Lean In India Summit will be held at 91, Springboard, Gurgaon, on July 22, 2017. The sessions will begin at 11:00 am and the Registration will start at 10:00 am.

See you there!

P.S. Know more about the Lean In India Summit, here.