"There Is Only One Reliable Advocate You Will Always Have — Yourself." How Harley-Davidson's Head of Motorcycle Strategy Ashwini Built Her Career Without a Long-Term Sponsor

She Told Her Director "Your Actions Don't Support That Opinion." He Apologized. Harley-Davidson's Ashwini on Self-Advocacy, Disrespect, and Owning Your Career

She had a new director who made every interaction feel disrespectful — no matter the topic, no matter how well she was performing. It wasn't the work. It was the treatment. She hit her limit, went to her manager, and said: "There are only two paths. I have a crucial conversation with the director, or we go different directions." The meeting was scheduled. She opened by asking the director directly what he thought of her work. He praised her for two minutes. Then she said: "Your actions don't support that opinion. I don't feel respected when we interact. I don't feel wanted in this department." He was taken aback. He apologized. They reset. She went into that meeting prepared to lose her job if she had to — and she walked out with a relationship she could actually work in.

Ashwini holds a bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. She spent over 20 years in automotive before moving to the motorcycle industry, where she is now Head of Motorcycle Development Strategy and Operations at Harley-Davidson Motor Company — one of the most male-dominated sectors in manufacturing. She is also President of the Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation (AWAF). And she will be the first to tell you she has never had a long-term sponsor.

In this episode, she is completely direct about what has actually driven her career forward.

You'll learn:

• Why she spent the first decade of her career with her head down doing great work, why it was necessary but not sufficient, and the moment she realized nobody outside her immediate area knew she had the appetite or ability to grow beyond it.
• Why she believes there is only one completely reliable advocate you will ever have, why most women are better at being advocates for others than for themselves, and how she built that muscle precisely because she didn't have a long-term sponsor.
• The full story of the disrespectful director: how she identified the problem, how she structured the conversation, why she led with "what do you think of my work?" before stating her case, and why going in prepared to lose her job is what gave her the confidence to say what needed to be said.
• The mentee who called her on a weekend in tears saying "I feel stupid." How Ashwini diagnosed the real problem (disrespect, not technical gaps), reached into her network to move the mentee to a different department, and how the same HR contact she helped later reached out to recommend her for a strategy role — a direct return on giving she never could have predicted.
• Why she describes her sponsors as "situational" rather than long-term, what that means in practice, and why she thinks the traditional sponsor model is harder to find than people admit.
• How she uses her role as AWAF president — where she manages an entire P&L — as a judgment-free environment to build skills that corporate rarely hands to women: financial leadership, public speaking, board-level decision making.
• The four A's feedback framework she uses with her leadership team: Appreciate, Assess, Action, Align — and how it prevents feedback from crossing into personal attack territory.
• Why she believes assertiveness and humility come from the same foundation, not opposing ones — and how saying "I don't know, and here's my plan to close that gap" has enabled her to pivot more successfully than projecting false confidence ever could.

About Ashwini: Head of Motorcycle Development Strategy and Operations at Harley-Davidson Motor Company and President of the Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation (AWAF). She holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and has spent over two decades in engineering and strategy leadership across automotive and motorcycle industries.