Dimple Dhabalia illuminates the power of 'Widening Your Window’ at Lancaster Speaker Series event

With passion, compassion and profound insight, Dimple Dhabalia, author of “Tell Me My Story,” and founder of Roots in the Clouds, captivated her audience at the fourth annual Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Speaker Series.

The event, hosted by the Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership, offered students a unique opportunity to engage with a remarkable leader who has dedicated her career to understanding humanity in all its complexities.

Dhabalia began her session by inviting the audience to center themselves through a grounding breathing exercise, encouraging everyone to take a moment to simply “be.” This simple yet powerful gesture set the tone for the deeply reflective journey she would take them on — one rooted in personal growth, resilience, and authentic leadership.

She shared her professional journey, recounting her experiences as a lawyer working with refugees around the globe. Though she felt privileged to tell their stories, the emotional toll was immense.

Dhabalia opened up about the nightmares and stress that followed, revealing the internal struggle she faced trying to balance her professional responsibilities with the compassion she felt for those whose stories she carried. Her determination to navigate this challenge led her to explore how to maintain both resilience and kindness to herself.

At the heart of her message was the concept of the “window of tolerance”—the emotional bandwidth each person has to handle stress and trauma. Dhabalia explained that every individual’s window is unique and shaped by personal experiences. She emphasized the crucial importance of learning to recognize what triggers our stress responses, especially as leaders who need to remain compassionate, empathetic, and curious.

“If we want to thrive as leaders, we need to start by understanding ways to thrive as a human,” Dhabalia shared, underscoring the inseparable link between personal well-being and effective leadership.

Throughout her presentation and book, Dhabalia outlines a five-step process for “widening your window” to better navigate life’s challenges: shaping, surviving, seeing, shifting and sharing.

• Shaping: Understanding the experiences that have molded who we are, including the "big T" (major trauma) and "little t" (small, cumulative stresses) events that impact our emotional responses.
• Surviving: Recognizing our default stress responses, whether fight, flight, freeze, fix or fake.
• Seeing: Becoming aware of the moments that pull us out of autopilot and into the present. “Years of living in survival mode without long-term coping strategies narrowed my window,” she admitted, explaining how mindfulness helped her begin to break free from those patterns.
• Shifting: Creating the space to make new choices instead of defaulting to our habitual reactions. Dhabalia encouraged attendees to ask themselves, "How do I create space between my default reactions and making new choices?”
• Sharing: As leaders, we must share our stories and lessons learned, helping others along their journey.

Dhabalia’s transparency about her own experiences resonated deeply with the audience. She encouraged future leaders to embrace mindfulness and self-compassion, reminding them that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed and to take a step back when needed.

Through her work, she’s learned to become more adaptable, and her message was clear: We can all learn to expand our capacity for compassion—for ourselves and others.

Her insights left a lasting impact on her own life and the many students and aspiring leaders in attendance. Dimple’s message was a powerful reminder that leadership starts from within in a world that demands resilience and empathy.

Jhasmine Glass, a student in the Wandell Fellow program, shared that her biggest takeaway was "the importance of leading without losing yourself in the process. We often focus on being servant leaders, but discussions about self-care, mental health, and prioritizing yourself are rare in business. I appreciated Dimple’s perspective on that.”

Tate Scarborough, a sophomore majoring in analytics MIS and marketing, shared that he “gained a wealth of valuable insights on broadening [his] perspective and how [he] can apply them in [his] everyday life.”

Dhabalia’s visit to Ohio University will be remembered for the wisdom she shared and the hope, humanity and empowerment she instilled in the next generation of leaders.

“I've visited many places, organizations, schools and universities, but this is the first time I’ve spoken to a group where everyone is genuinely happy to be there,” Dhabalia shared. “It’s truly wonderful, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be part of this community.”

Attendees were given a copy of Dhabalia’s book and a chance to speak with her after her presentation.

If you are interested in participating in the Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Speaker Series, please contact Jen Traxler, executive director of the Walter Center, at traxlerj@ohio.edu.