Stereotypes always hunt women as society isn’t being able to fix the core issue of discrimination against women. But, PepsiCo’s former chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi have broken all the barriers. She is one of the best leaders of the century with her skills and dedication. She was one of the few leaders who were this successful in their careers. Being the CEO of a company like PepsiCo is hard, but what’s even harder is to expand the already established company. She did exactly that when she was the CFO of PepsiCo and later was promoted to CEO’s post.
Leadership Qualities – Styles, Skills, and Traits of Indra Nooyi
Visionary: She had a very strong vision about the future and the consequences they are going to face in the future. A leader has to have a strong vision with the company’s future or else the actions won’t turn into good results. She was able to grab the strongest aspect of a leader as she had a clear vision of winning.
Courageous: Another quality that she had was the courage of taking risky decisions. Being a CEO at a company like PepsiCo takes a lot of courage and the confidence she had was tremendous. She was smart and aware of the circumstances. As she gave attention to details, she was confident with her actions and leadership. This confidence of hers has brought PepsiCo to even a better place.
Integrity: When she was in the leading position of PepsiCo, she did her job with pure honesty. This inspired the people around her to have the quality of integrity in them. The approach she had with her leadership, made all the subordinates and the whole workforce look up to her. As she was very courageous and confident about her work, the integrity of hers was never questioned. In fact, it is one of her amazing leadership skills.
Consistency: Consistency is the key to success. Indra Nooyi was consistent with her job and leadership. She liked everything in a disciplined manner. This quality has also affected her leadership in a good way. As the leader was consistent about her leadership, subordinates used to get motivated by her action. Only being consistent about life and leadership can bring the best out of the people as it did for Indra Nooyi.
Innovation: The key to her success was the integration between design and innovation. In her earlier years of leadership, she launched some innovative products in the market. Her actions were so precise that every action she made as a leader was hands down, the best ones. She had an eagle’s eye towards her goal and had an innovative mind.
Leadership Style of Indra Nooyi
Indra Nooyi was a democratic leader. This means she was affiliated with the workforce in the decision-making process. As an ideal leader should do, she used to listen to each and every opinion related to the subject matter and made a decision. Team’s support and her leadership have expanded PepsiCo’s business this much. On her supervision, the subordinates felt included and treated the company as their family. This enhances efficiency and a sense of credibility in the workforce. An efficient team with a great leader can achieve the unachievable. As Indra followed the democratic leadership style, she was very cautious about the decisions she made.
Leadership Traits of Leader Indra Nooyi
Decision-Making Capabilities: Taking a decision for a huge organization is hard. But with the help of the team at PepsiCo, Indra showed that decision making can be easy. She used to take feedback from her staff and make the right decision at the right time. As a good leader, she used to be cautious about her decision-making process.
Communication: As she used to be affiliated with her team, she had to be an active communicator. For making the right decision at the right time, she used to take feedback from the workforce. In this approach, communication has to be very clear and elaborated. So that the staff can understand and can follow the rules.
Commitment and Passion: Any leader needs enough passion to lead an organization. She was disciplined to stay passionate. And as she grew, she learned from her previous mistakes. To keep her workforce motivated, she stayed compassionate towards them and turned their strengths into the company’s assets. Indra Nooyi, as a woman, had to face a lot of difficulties in her road but was enough passionate to win every time she was facing a problem.
Other Traits and Characteristics of Indra Nooyi
Rather than having all the traits mentioned earlier, Indra was very patient and strategic about her approach. She is honest and has the qualities to inspire others. Moreover, she had empathy for her subordinates. This made her more likely to be followed by the subordinates. She was strategic enough to have humility for her workforce.
Leadership Skills of Business Leader Indra Nooyi
Team Building: As she was a democratic leader, she had a very good relationship with her subordinates. The key to ideal leadership is always winning with the team and learning in the process. Indra Nooyi was a strategic leader and was aware of all the details. This helped her build a team that is dedicated yet efficient.
Patience: She had patience like no other leader. In her earlier years as an executive in different companies, she had her vision for becoming the best among all. The road hasn’t been that easy as she was a woman. But Indra was patient enough to stay focused and strong enough to fight against all the obstacles.
Risk-taking: One of the finest skills of Indra was the risk-taking ability. She was confident and courageous as mentioned earlier. Besides she always kept herself in a learning process. That gave the confidence she needed to take risks that could’ve hurt PepsiCo’s assets.
Problem Solving: But she was smart enough to solve those problems with the team. The risk-taking capabilities and problem-solving are closely related and she aced both of them. With the support of her team, she was able to be one of the greatest leaders the business world has ever seen.
Conclusion
Indra is a strong, visionary, and strategic leader. Her leadership has made a mark in the business industry. As her approach is more positive and affiliation based, she was able to take in the huge pressure of leading a big company like PepsiCo. This shows how an ideal leadership can change the face of the organization. She made it to “world’s 100 most powerful women” several times and is an example for all sorts of leaders. A business leader should always have the zeal to achieve and she had that. Other than being a great leader, she’s a mother and this only increases her respect in every manner.
Resources
- https://www.progressivewomensleadership.com/inside-the-c-suite-meet-indra-nooyi-ceo-pepsico/
- http://www.centerforworklife.com/leadership-qualities-indra-nooyi/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/pepsico-indra-nooyi-be-a-leader-people-want-to-follow.html
- https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/5skillsand8legaciesofIndraNooyiformerCEOofPepsiCo
- https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/what-makes-indra-nooyi-a-great-leader/
Ratul is one of the contributors to The strategy watch. As a business insights analyst, most of his writings concern business insights and business strategies for a better understanding of the business world.