This year’s theme for international Women’s Day is #GiveToGain and today, as I reflect on my career, I realise – this isn’t just a theme. It’s the philosophy that shaped me and I wish to share that story – What I gave. What I gained.

In the year, 2020, when the world sunk into chaos, I chose to #give myself the gift of radical investment – leaning hard into my strengths, confronting my gaps, and choosing growth over comfort when it would have been easier to simply survive the year. I poured myself into building a stronger learning culture across the organization – not because it was in my job description, but because I believed, deeply, that investing in people is the highest-return decision possible. I gave time, energy, ideas and heart to that mission.

What did I #gain? The irreplaceable experience of watching myself and people around me grow – discovering that building others is also, quietly, how you build yourself. It led to an unshakeable belief of my own capability – the kind that no external validation can give you and none can take away.

This is the other side of #GivetoGain that we don’t talk about enough.

It takes an organisation with genuine heart – one that sees potential before it’s fully proven, that trusts before it’s entirely risk-free and that invests in people the way it asks people to invest in it.

Years ago, #HSBC did exactly that for me.

• It gave me trust
• It gave me a platform.
• It gave me the space to lead at the level, I always believed I was capable of – an opportunity I had worked toward, dreamt about and quietly prepared for across every role before it

In the spirit of #GivetoGain – that act of organisational generosity multiplied – in the programs that were built, the leaders who were transformed, the culture that got strengthened because the organisation chose to put faith in me.

Grateful for an organisation that chose to see me and champion my growth. Grateful to every #mentor, #colleague and #leader who gave me their time, their wisdom and their belief.

IWD 2026 #GivetoGain campaign encourages a mindset of generosity and collaboration. Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it’s intentional multiplication.

For me personally, #GivetoGain is a two-way street – it moves in both directions. When both sides give selflessly – magic happens. Real power of #GivetoGain is reciprocal – it asks organisations to match our courage with opportunity, our investment with trust, and our ambition with access.

On this International Women’s Day – I wish to give this #energy forward.

To every woman still in her giving season, wondering when the gaining begins – keep giving. Give to yourself first. Give to your craft. Give to the people around you. Find and build organisations that understand that the greatest investment they will ever make is in #you.

Your season is coming 💛

#InternationalWomensDay2026 #GiveToGain #IWD2026 #HSBC #WomenInLeadership #WomenWhoLead #Gratitude #HappyMomMakesHappyFamily #KreativeKyroo

My daughter captured this journey in her sketchbook (one of my linkedin posts captured the sentiments) and reminds me that the life we build with #courage becomes the story our children believe is possible for themselves. That, for me, is the greatest gain of all #KreativeKyroo