Behind this successful woman there is a story of grit”–This is what Prasanna Moses thinks every time she meets a successful woman-compatriot. 14 years in the tech-industry, with a stint in marketing and data management, Moses was chaperoned to be the Director of Quality Assurance at Unisys India by sheer destiny.

While she looks at other inspirational women, Moses has fortitude of her own. “I don’t believe in women claiming for special benefits,” she vindicates. Women have the natural ability to multitask but they must communicate back to the family, she emphasizes with a bang on the table. “Communication must run down to children as well, be it your ambition or even reasons for returning home late from work. It’ll take time for the family to adjust but they’ll understand, tone down and cooperate.”

Fostering the art of communication to her leadership style, Moses adheres to transparent two-way communication. “A leader has to communicate to team members about what is happening in the higher echelons. You can’t keep your team guessing about supposed happenings in an organization.”

Recalling her early days, Moses reveals that she never desired to be a career woman. Following her marriage to a theologian, she settled as a homemaker after her graduation. But she felt a lack of direction in life. “I knew I was capable of more and decided to do something for the society that had nurtured me.” In 1986, she earned a one-year scholarship at the U.S. and planned to do a course in counseling. But with no basic degree in psychology or arts, Moses was recommended to do Computer Science. And she realized her aptitude for it. At the end of one year, she returned to India and joined a course in Systems Management from NIIT.

That Post-graduate diploma from NIIT found her a placement at Sonata Software as a marketing executive. “I was inexperienced to debate if a technical or marketing role would suit me. I’m glad I took up marketing then. It has taught me to showcase my strengths while underplaying my weaknesses,” says Moses. For a long time she lived under a glass ceiling that she built for herself, believing that she neither had the educational qualification nor the leadership in her to create a difference. “It took some time and imagination for me to realize how wrong I was. I realized I needed to break the glass ceiling to rise up in life,” she fathoms.