The topics of leadership, learnings, key traits of people running businesses and the ability to take risks were discussed. After the introduction of all panelists, the topic of leadership, and what it actually is according to the panelists, kicked off the discussion.
As the discussion of “How next generation leaders are changing the game”, commenced, it was made pretty clear that mostly the youth of today have a firm head on their shoulders. The topics of leadership, learnings, key traits of people running businesses and the ability to take risks were discussed. After the introduction of all panelists, the topic of leadership, and what it actually is according to the panelists, kicked off the discussion.
In an all women’s panel it was extremely insightful to hear everyone’s views. As the discussion was on leadership, the panelists were made to dive into that topic as soon as they began. On defining leadership Sanjula Miglani, Business Marketing Head, Dineout, said that even after a string of failures till the real positive result comes up and how it is supposed to be handled is a part of leadership. She has learnt it the hard way as per what she stated. For her there is no definition to it as she believes that leadership is simply listening. As listening is a fine art she believes that listening to customers is also what happens, for example when they are pitching a product in the market. She went on to say that, “Leadership for me is to listen to people, pick up traits, and drop traits according to what I feel is right or not right.”
Anika Tanwar, Business Head, Bobble AI said that the word leadership in itself carries a lot of weight as people when looking at this term have amplified the meaning and she resonated with the fact that leadership is the ability to articulate a vision and unite everyone in that vision which one is able to see. This is a bit difficult because one person’s vision can’t be visualized by an entire team in the same manner, with the same conviction and belief. She stated, “I think the ability to unite people with a common vision and at the same time empowering them and enabling them so that they are equipped with everything that is needed to move forward is leadership. That is my learning so far of whatever I have been doing in my work life and even I feel that it starts with listening which is the fundamental philosophy of leadership.”
On the other hand, Dishari Dutt, AM – Branded Content MX Player feels that her journey and leadership abilities were learnt from being an entrepreneur to an intrapreneur. She said the reason for which she made a switch was after reading a quote – “The purpose of life is not finding your passion but to find something you are really good at and then great at it.” On a very honest note she said that, “Baking was my passion, and after running a food related company for 2 years I knew very well that I wanted to keep my passion and profession different. It just so happened that I was struggling at a decision because at the age of 21 I was making a lot of money. I had investors lined up offering me all kinds of help and methodologies to accept that help and to scale up operations, I was superbly lucky as they were people wanting to be in my position and that time I wanted to abandon it all to start from scratch. I think it was fueled by the fact that I wanted to keep my passion and profession different. I think one thing I have learnt from my journey of switching from an entrepreneur to an intrapreneur is that I realized the power of collaboration and listening to people whilst all of us at some point are guarded by the way we think essentially, leadership is to accept what is good for the end goal that you have in mind and that end goal is greater than personal objectives.”
Discussing the topic of failures and evolution through them, Anika Tanwar said that she was trying different things out, experimenting as if one day something fails it became a learning for her and even if something went right it is a learning. She stated that, “Relooking at problems again and again is what helped me in terms of establishing my credibility as a leader, it is your work that talks for you and you don’t have to be bogged down by your gender, stereotypes or anything at all in society that can define you or put you in a box of – this is right and this is wrong. I feel I really have that thing in me that I tend to look at things with clarity because if you do, everything else is logistics. For me essentially it has been a great learning through failures and mistakes.”
The discussion continued with every one giving their perspective of about how when one hits rock bottom there is nothing lower than that, so then one starts rising. How to get revenue in was a challenge. Mentally how women multi-task and challenges they face are at a different level as when they face challenges of failures and mistakes, which is actually an opportunity. Hence a lot of challenges were discussed and so were leadership styles. On a conclusive note we can say that the youth of our nation is progressing and trying to change certain things.
Source: Business World
