LEADERSPEAK: KULMEET BAWA

Q. The biggest challenge you faced in your career

A. Being an optimist, I consider challenges as opportunities to learn, grow and reinvent. I firmly believe that challenges help shape the legacy you leave behind – the epitaph you envision for yourself.

Q. Your best teacher in business

A. The only thing constant in business is change and that has been my greatest teacher. It has helped me become divergent in disruptive times, evolve into an innovative thinker and move to the next exciting thing with a spring in my step.

Q. One management lesson for young people

A. Play for failure. It implies consciously facing one’s fears, accepting failure and then bouncing back. It is the latter that helps build resilience, that gives one the courage to wade into uncharted territory where actual learning begins. If you are not failing, it means you are not pushing the envelope enough to achieve your dreams.

Q. Three essential qualities a leader must have

A. Discipline, building an effective team and the ability to dream with one’s eyes open. High performance starts with building a strong team with positive synergy. A leader needs to constantly raise the bar for the team, encouraging them to dream big and chase their dreams with passion and vigour, all the while maintaining a work-life balance.