Kanchan Andhari

My mother has been a great source of inspiration to me all my life. A 1968 graduate in Child Psychology, she sacrificed her ambition to make a career so that she could spend quality time with my brother and me. She made sure we had the aspiration to excel in everything that we undertook in school. She nurtured perseverance in us to achieve our goals in education and later in our professional lives too. She taught us to fight all challenges with an undaunted spirit. Though she didn’t make a career for herself, I could draw many parallels in my work life based on her ways to handle tricky situations. She firmly stood by me in all my decisions - personal and professional. And I must admit that in this pandemic, a five-minute video call with her over breakfast brings all the cheer and energy to my day ahead!

In the external world, women like Kiran Bedi and Sudha Murthy have inspired me. I have also drawn inspiration from the books authored by writer and philosopher - Ayn Rand.

As a Production Engineering student in the 90s, I experienced gender bias right from campus interviews and to my initial days in the job. Having switched to many industries during my career, I realised that an inclusive environment, that organisations like JLL have, makes a great difference in nurturing employee strengths. It brings out the best in teams. The challenges of hiring and attrition in our industry can be best addressed by being inclusive in all respects – age, gender, geography, industry, personality types and various other dimensions. I believe an inclusive environment can take teams and organisations to the next level. Different people come together with different strengths and weaknesses, complementing each other to achieve the team goals.

Being a woman, I take a keen interest in creating a gender balance in mine and extended teams, especially during recruitment and transfers. Considering the dual roles that employees play, I try to give them space to balance their work and personal life while ensuring team goals are met. Listening to them helps in understanding their challenges. There have been times when I have taken a tough stand with clients and direct reports to ensure a right fit candidate gets the deserved placement. I also try to coach them to command their emotions while dealing with work situations. I don’t leave any opportunity to eliminate unconscious bias that colleagues may carry at times. But the very fact that women are perceived at par with their counterparts instils confidence in them.