Lessons in leadership

When I began my career at Hindustan Lever (as HUL was then called), I was deeply inspired by our chairman, Dr Ashok S. Ganguly.

- SURESH NARAYANAN

He was a leader who balanced toughness with compassion and honesty. His sincerity in both words and actions left a lasting impression on me.

Many years later, during my career with Nestlé, I moved to Nestlé Egypt just at the start of the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011. I had a boss named Roger Stettler, who headed the Africa division. Despite facing challenges, he stood by me, offering support and guidance every step of the way. Instead of inundating me with advice during the crisis, he trusted my abilities and encouraged me to focus on my team and our business. His belief in my authenticity and competence was truly rare and motivating. I believe trust is a binding factor between teams, and the onus of creating an environment that is conducive for teams to flourish rests with the leader.

This takes me back to the words of Mahatma Gandhi: A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create. Real leaders are those who trust their teams, work on their strengths and prepare a core of ‘future leaders’.