Akanksha Garg
Founder Waxpol Hotels & Resorts
Akanksha Garg started her entrepreneurial journey at the age of 18. Since her foray into the travel and hospitality industry, she has championed sustainable tourism as one of her guiding business principles, evident in all her operations even after all of these years. She constantly strives to work for the upliftment of the local people and woman empowerment.
In recognition of her efforts in the industry, Akanksha has won several high-profile tourism awards. She received the TiE Tiger Award in 2008 for her tourism development initiatives in the Sundarbans, and the Rotary Club Award for CSR and the East India Travel Awards ‘Face of the Future’ Award in 2016.
Empowerment and team engagement are crucial to an organisation’s success, and Waxpol empowers team members by giving them the ability to make decisions as well as the authority and ownership over their assigned duties. Akanksha says that when communication channels are open, decisions may be made swiftly and slipups can be corrected. Their staff believes that every day is a fresh chance to learn and grow, and they demonstrate this by treating everyone, especially their co-workers, with dignity.
“Over the course of last two decades in the sector, managing and running multiple resorts, I believe the most important qualities of a good leader include integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, adaptability, and vision.”
As Steve Jobs said, “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” Akanksha lives by these leadership principles and motivates her team to diligently discharge their duties.
Akanksha believes that an empathetic leader has a genuine interest in his/her team members’ lives, the challenges they face, and their overall feelings. Such kind of leaders make an effort to understand their employee situations and what they are going through, to offer support and help. The world has changed, and leaders must adjust. Mental health, stress, and burnout are now viewed as organisational responsibilities.
Akanksha senses that for today’s leaders, being empathetic has become critical. Empathy can boost employee engagement and loyalty while also encouraging greater innovation and diversity in the workplace. Empathy, according to Akanksha, is one of the most important qualities a leader can have; however, it is frequently underestimated, and empathy ranks first on the list of what leaders must get right.
Next Vacation: Akanksha would like to visit various national parks in Africa.