Indians across the globe are excelling in any given field. The recent news of Indian-origin Parag Agarwal being the CEO of popular social media site Twitter shook the world. And not a month goes by, Top Unilever executive Leena Nair has been declared as the new global chief executive of French luxury group Chanel.
Not only that, but Nair is also the first female and youngest-ever Chief Human Resources Officer of Unilever. Now, that’s an achievement not everyone can claim. And to top that, this is not the only achievement in her bag. Unilever CEO Alan Jope even thanked Leena for her ‘outstanding contribution over the last three decades’ at the company and praised her as a “pioneer throughout her career.”
Now counted among the Fortune of India’s Most Powerful Women 2021, Nair life wasn’t pristine perfect from the get-go.
Leena Nair was born on 11 June 1969 in a rather small town in India-Kolhapur. She graduated from XLRI – Xavier School of Management as the gold medalist in 1992 and did her electrical engineering at Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli. And no, unlike many CEO’s that we have covered so far, she didn’t go abroad to study. She stayed in India and made her way up.
Her story and her message are an open letter of dedication and struggle that needs to be heard.
So, eminent Astro strategist and Business development expert Hirav Shah brings to you 3 life lessons to adopt from wonder woman Leena Nair:
Table of Contents
3 life lessons to adopt from wonder woman Leena Nair
1- Your time is your most precious investment
In an Instagram post, she had explained,” I have a friend who kept starting up creative side projects — a podcast, an e-course, a newsletter, etc. Then, one day, she realised these were all just fun distractions. They weren’t taking her closer to her dream of becoming a screenwriter. The more side projects she did, the less time she had to write scripts. “
According to her, we must fix a target and give our all to complete it. The more distraction we take up, the more time it will take to reach the pinnacle of our success. So, choose your battles correctly and coherently.
2- Every experience is important
Leena Nair credits her impressive career trajectory to her determination to work, despite the liabilities. She has never said no to these ‘grass hood roles’ that often highbrows frown upon.
She was the first woman to work at a factory in Hindustan Unilever and the first woman to work a night shift there. She claims that she had an amazing experience doing these jobs. This is a good lesson to all entrepreneurs out there. You are not going to start your business one day and expect success the very next day. You have to cultivate patience in your system and work bit by bit to get there.
3- Accept feedback with a warm smile
An important piece of advice that Nair preaches is the importance of getting feedback. “If people give feedback, it’s because they care and because you’ve made an impact on them, one way or another. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t bother to tell you anything at all,”
Nair claims suggest that every company should be liable to take feedback from its clients, whether it’s negative or positive. No company can work efficiently without taking the grievances of the consumers in mind. This little piece of advice is the most significant one.
Conclusion:
It’s not often that we see a leading lady in action. Joining the likes of Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and Parag Agarwal, Nair is all set to rock the global market. Adding another badge of honour to our Indian pride, I wish Leena Nair all the best for her future-concludes eminent Astro strategist and business development expert Hirav Shah.
Image Source
Yoliveros, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
