“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
― Phil Jackson
At ABFRL, our teams have risen to the challenge, embracing the new normal with zest and positivity, blazing new paths, and achieving milestones. They have done so under the guidance of forward-looking leaders, who have put together innovative and challenge-ready ‘Dream Teams’.
Here is a look at how our four leaders realigned processes and stepped into the ‘new normal’ seamlessly with their Dream Teams.
1) Jyothi VK, General Counsel and Head of Legal, ABFRL
- Creating a culture punctuality even during WFH. Every morning, key members of my team follow a daily routine of connecting at 9.30AM to plan the day.
- Empowering teams with a process and value driven culture.
- Heightening focus on digital connect through initiatives such as dynamic legal portal, daily dashboard, digital training modules, sharing of research updates on technology collaboration, etc.
- Closely monitoring shifts in business and judicial trends to create in-house expertise that can deal with legal challenges and knowledge gaps.
- Mentoring teams to create and pursue personal ‘SMART goals’ in terms of health, hobby, family, skill building and community service to foster a sense of gratitude and positivity.
- Connecting on virtual coffee sessions through e-meetings over weekends for activities such as baking, exercising and painting to promote team bonding.
2) Janet Arole, Assistant Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications, ABFRL
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford
- Create a culture of professionalism with a touch of human element.
- Care for your co-workers by building happy moments in the team. Find reasons to celebrate work, life and its high moments.
- Don’t shy away from innovating. Create, fail at times, experiment, learn, unlearn – we do it together as a team.
- Thrive on process-driven culture, but have the mind-set of an entrepreneur.
- Lead by example – there is no substitute for hard work, passion and commitment.
- Learn to say ‘No’ to mediocrity.
3) Geetika Anand, Vice President, Company Secretary, ABFRL
- We play fair: Everyone speaks, everyone listens and majority wins.
- We don’t go to office, we come to college. It’s about ‘growth’ and not merely ‘delivering targets’. They say, when learning is the goal, efforts become investment. As a result, we do not have dull-days.
- We change, constantly by questioning the stereotype, from ‘how’ (we work) to ‘what’ (we do) and “why” (we do it). Conservative dynamism keeps our mind constantly engaged. We believe in creating our own rules & benchmarks with loads of fun on the way.
- We love EQ (a little more than IQ): Being able to ‘accept’ everyone’s distinctive styles and ‘adapt’ on a collective level is the magic ingredient. It makes even a dull/tough day, manageable by bringing the right perspective.
- We set our roles with boundaries: It brings about right order with desired efficiency and leaves lesser room for surprises. Also, I believe, it brings right mix of accountability and responsibility.
4) Ryan Fernandes, Vice President – Marketing and e-commerce, Pantaloons
“The Marketing and E-commerce teams have been working tirelessly to meet the complex business challenges during the Pandemic. Encouragement and engagement are the twin mantras to carry the team through this challenging period.”
- Building motivation and clarity on team goals – Why these are important? How can we achieve them? What resources do we need? And then getting out of their way and letting each member run with their plans.
- To build alignment and focus, we do a weekly team meeting. This is supported with multiple project based meetings through the week.
- We try to get multiple levels of contribution from team members – to contribute observations, ideate on new activities, input into plans and ask for the support they need.
- Using the huge number of online resources available to encourage learning and re-skilling to compete and contribute in the “New Normal”
- Keep innovating, try something new every week. Measure, learn and improve.
- It’s about providing support through the challenges and celebrating the small wins:
- Professional level – we celebrate product launches, channel launches, new campaigns, etc.
- Personal milestones – A reason to cheer our colleagues for birthdays, parenthood, COVID Recovery.
Under the direction of future-ready leaders and resilient teams, this year has proved, more than any other, that by sharing and lending our strength, we can overcome any obstacles that come our way.
On this note, ABFRL would also like to congratulate Jyothi VK for the new bundle of joy that graced her world during the lockdown!
