“Take action, even if it means moving one small step every day.”
“Take action, even if it means moving one small step every day.”
That’s the belief Neeraja Ganesh lives by, and it’s how a shy girl with no career plans became a TEDx speaker and a champion for other women.
Neeraja describes her younger self as meek, timid, and shy, a girl with no friends in her all-girls convent school, average at studies, and unnoticed in a class of 60. She came from a conservative family where a career was never part of the conversation. The plan was simple: graduate, then marry. And she was fine with that, because she believed her parents knew best.
Her turning point came from a setback. She followed the herd into Science in 11th and 12th grade, because that’s what “good” students did, and she did badly in her boards. That failure made her stop and ask what she really wanted. Since she loved Mathematics, she studied Maths, Economics, and Statistics, and topped her college.
As her parents began searching for a groom, she felt a small itch to earn some money of her own, so she joined a computer course at NIIT. That’s where she discovered she was good at programming. She landed a job at Sonata, and there was no looking back.
With over 25 years in IT, she led large teams and banking delivery, growing into an assertive, empathetic leader. Being selected for Capgemini’s global women’s leadership programme taught her that value shines brighter than visibility.
At ANZ, despite months of being overlooked by a new leader, she focused on results, raising her team’s engagement score from 38% to 65% and transforming the conversation.
In 2017, she moved out of corporate life to do what she cared about most: helping women like her, who came from conservative backgrounds with no plans for an illustrious career. She began mentoring, leading training programmes, and coaching leaders, and launched TrailBlazHERs, a six month programme for women leaders.
Her TEDx talk, “Be Yourself,” brings together stories from her own life. Her signature sessions, Networking for Results and How to Tell Your Story, have taken her to forums around the world. She also founded "Neerspires", a community of professionals supporting each other’s growth.
Her parents taught her to be herself, by living simple, purposeful lives. Her mother gave her a savings mindset and a drive for financial independence, and her father showed her how to help others, even with limited resources. A few mentors along the way helped her see she had it in her to lead, to tell stories, and to shift mindsets.
Her message to every woman who feels small or unseen: you don’t have to be loud to be powerful. Start where you are, and keep moving.
For Neeraja, there’s no such thing as balance. She calls it integration: one priority list covering work, home, interests, yourself, and community, built on your priorities and not someone else’s.
That’s the belief Neeraja Ganesh lives by, and it’s how a shy girl with no career plans became a TEDx speaker and a champion for other women.
Neeraja describes her younger self as meek, timid, and shy, a girl with no friends in her all-girls convent school, average at studies, and unnoticed in a class of 60. She came from a conservative family where a career was never part of the conversation. The plan was simple: graduate, then marry. And she was fine with that, because she believed her parents knew best.
Her turning point came from a setback. She followed the herd into Science in 11th and 12th grade, because that’s what “good” students did, and she did badly in her boards. That failure made her stop and ask what she really wanted. Since she loved Mathematics, she studied Maths, Economics, and Statistics, and topped her college.
As her parents began searching for a groom, she felt a small itch to earn some money of her own, so she joined a computer course at NIIT. That’s where she discovered she was good at programming. She landed a job at Sonata, and there was no looking back.
With over 25 years in IT, she led large teams and banking delivery, growing into an assertive, empathetic leader. Being selected for Capgemini’s global women’s leadership programme taught her that value shines brighter than visibility.
At ANZ, despite months of being overlooked by a new leader, she focused on results, raising her team’s engagement score from 38% to 65% and transforming the conversation.
In 2017, she moved out of corporate life to do what she cared about most: helping women like her, who came from conservative backgrounds with no plans for an illustrious career. She began mentoring, leading training programmes, and coaching leaders, and launched TrailBlazHERs, a six month programme for women leaders.
Her TEDx talk, “Be Yourself,” brings together stories from her own life. Her signature sessions, Networking for Results and How to Tell Your Story, have taken her to forums around the world. She also founded "Neerspires", a community of professionals supporting each other’s growth.
Her parents taught her to be herself, by living simple, purposeful lives. Her mother gave her a savings mindset and a drive for financial independence, and her father showed her how to help others, even with limited resources. A few mentors along the way helped her see she had it in her to lead, to tell stories, and to shift mindsets.
Her message to every woman who feels small or unseen: you don’t have to be loud to be powerful. Start where you are, and keep moving.
For Neeraja, there’s no such thing as balance. She calls it integration: one priority list covering work, home, interests, yourself, and community, built on your priorities and not someone else’s.
This story was told by Neeraja Ganesh and published with their permission by the What's Your Story editorial team.
