As soon as you put a woman on an equal footing with a man, she begins to outshine him. It’s not very likely that the girls who became winners of the program “The First Step to Success,” organized by the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, gave any thought to this philosophical maxim penned by Sophocles. They are learning the ropes by doing something concrete for themselves and their communities. The group of 16 to 20-year-old civic activists in Kyiv handed over the entire philosophical aspect of women’s leadership to more than 20 prominent women representing such spheres as the theater, television, politics, business, and public life. These young females came to Ukraine’s capital to meet a few successful women at a gathering that was part of another important event in the women’s movement — a world summit of female leaders organized by the women’s organization Voices of Life.
This is the second time that the competition “The First Step to Success” was held in Ukraine. Last year the participants only had to submit an essay on the topic “I Am a Future Leader.” This time around the girls had to present a full- fledged project. Thirty of the submitted 88 projects were declared winners and their designers came to Kyiv to talk with successful women and become inspired by their example.
“Ninety successful women who supported us last year also took part in this event,” said Natalia Karbovska, head of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund. “This is great moral support for the girls, who are eager to learn how these women became famous. Some of the partners of our competition are now talking about giving the girls training opportunities in their institutions and organizations, while others are talking about financing the girls’ projects. We always direct successful women’s attention to the fact that we need all kinds of support.”
Besides inspiration, the winners of the competition will also receive financial support for their projects, which address a variety of problems: HIV/AIDS prevention, cleaning up yards, European integration, setting up women’s clubs, helping invalids, etc.
“These are not ordinary girls. They are thinking about their communities and doing something to help. Believe me, you can’t spin a project out of thin air: you need to know your community and its problems,” explained Karbovska. “We allow girls to show initiative, especially those who live in remote raions, schoolgirls from depressed areas, and orphans. I would like to mention Karina Lalabekova, a winner from Zaporizhia oblast, whose project proposal involves training young people in European integration. She was a trainee in the European Commission and soon she will be sharing her knowledge with her peers. Snizhana Kolodii, who comes from a small village in the Transcarpathian region, won a grant to equip a children’s playground in her village. Polina Shkoliarenko from Poltava oblast wants to open a museum dedicated to her village and a civic center. We have also given our support to an interesting project from Uzhhorod: Evelina Hurnytska offered to rally the community to clean up the city.”
SOCIAL SENSITIVITY IS THE MAIN THING
Will these girls’ active civic life be limited to the funds provided for their community-oriented projects? Each winner of the competition will need to answer this question on her own. The goal of the competition is to create momentum and help make the first step, after which everything will hinge on the girls’ persistence and leadership qualities-this is what the “stars” were most often asked.
“These girls are socially sensitive. I think that this is more important than wondering whether you are a leader, who you are going to be, and what the best way is to realize your professional potential. So if a person cannot be “great” on the inside and care about her community, rather than be anxious about income, each one of them will undoubtedly realize her potential,” reasons Liudmyla Rasputna, the head of Kredytprombank’s board of directors. “They are filled with love for people-that’s the main thing because the philosophy of any business has to be people-centered. I would like for them to want to try and improve themselves and never say that they are sacrificing anything. Nobody needs sacrifices, neither your boss nor your family. If you like doing something, just do it. And the whole team will not have to sacrifice anything-then people will work creatively. But if you go to work as though you’re going to your execution, there will be no progress.”
Rasputna, one of the 100 most influential women in Ukraine according to Focus Magazine, has promised financial support to several projects for the first stage of their implementation. It is not been decided which ones will be chosen, but preference will be given to those “that are close to our philosophy.” She is convinced that if social activity is not a one-shot deal for these girls, there will be no end to this project.
Her views are supported by Nina Nemazana, Proctor&Gamble’s external affairs manager. Her company is also planning to give grants to 10 projects. After supporting this competition, the company has decided to launch a similar one next year.
“We have been supporting this event because we have a great desire for girls to be “filled” with leadership experience. We would like them to see how women are working at the top and realize that a leader is not someone who suddenly decided to become one. I am sure that a leader is a person who says “I will do it,” is the first one to meet a challenge when no one else dares to tackle it, gives a helping hand when the burden is heavy, and will not back down in the face of failure. A leader has one more task: when she has a goal, she needs to convey it to others and convince them that it is a worthwhile cause, and then to rally the team to make it work as one mechanism,” says Nemazana.
PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS
The participants of the Kyiv event will receive more advice and hear enough stories from famous and successful women than in the entire coming year — until the next meeting. Especially popular among the winners of “The First Step” were Olha Herasymiuk, a TV host and MP, and Olena Skachko, the chief editor of the magazine Edinstvennaia. Winners Inna Spektor and Oleksandra Shevchenko asked them about how to work your way up in life.
“You need to sit in the front rows because it is hard to hear and see from the back,” Herasymiuk said half-jokingly. “And there is no need to ‘trample the flowers around you’ because you fear competitors. I would say that you need to search for them because they will keep you on your toes and make you stay in good form. Another very important thing is that you need to choose your own path. I may be mistaken, but I think that the criterion here is the joy you receive from your work and the inspiration that it gives you and which you, in turn, share with other people. Unfortunately, I know many people who after making a rocket-like start cracked under pressure because they chose the wrong path.”
Skachko emphasized the importance of team work (“A leader without a team is not a leader”) and compared a work team to a soccer team: “No matter how talented the forward is, she will not score a single goal without cooperation from her team.”
Several hours in the company of powerful women offered the girls a real master class on how to achieve success. Kolodii, the winner from Transcarpathia, confessed that in the course of several hours she heard so many success stories and received so much advice (even though some said there is no recipe for success), that it was hard to retain all the information. She especially liked what Ms. Skachko said when she assured the girls that a person who achieves success in life is not the one who is more naturally gifted or better off, but the one who has squeezed the maximum out of what she has by finding the best things in herself and then developing them.
Even more important than the information retained by the girls is the new meaning — very individual and personal meaning — with which they left the conclave. If they found it, all is good.
