No team member can be just an interchangeable cog in a machine: Nidha Luthra

We, at Adgully, have always saluted and honoured women managers and leaders across diverse fields. W-SUITE is a special initiative from Adgully that has been turning the spotlight on some of the most remarkable women achievers in the M&E, Advertising, Marketing, PR and Communications industry. In the refurbished series, we seek to find out how women leaders have been managing their teams and work as well as how they have been navigating through the toughest and most challenging times brought about by the global pandemic.

In conversation with Adgully, Nidha Luthra, Executive Director, Thought Blurb Communications, speaks about how women have very different ways of leading their teams, compartmentalising work and personal lives, why conflict is not always a bad thing, and more.

How do you think the role and scope of women leaders have widened in the current market ecosystem?

I think the biggest difference is how much we have learnt about ourselves and what we can achieve. Trying to lead by conventional wisdom can be limiting. Women have very different ways of leading their teams and once we have shrugged off the patriarchal way of working, it gets easier. Women tend to be a lot more inclusive. We can spot innate strengths in others and leverage them to the task at hand. And that is a whole new chapter being written in the art and practice of leadership.

What has been your major learning from the pandemic period?

Co-ordinating projects remotely was a challenge that we learnt to deal with. We got better at it as we went along. What was interesting though was that our workdays became longer and more relaxed. Some of us had to be reminded to take a breather and get back to the task. Also, it was important to start meetings with an informal chat, to maintain a personal connection apart from work. That was the glue that kept the team together.

What is your mantra for maintaining a successful work-life balance in the new normal? According to you, what makes women the best in crisis management?

Everybody has a different relationship to their personal and professional life. Some immerse themselves in their work. Others struggle to juggle different facets of their life. Neither is ideal. The trick is to compartmentalise work and personal lives in the mind and not to let one interfere with the other.

I think we all have a tendency to panic in a crisis situation, but it’s what you do with that panic that matters. Once you think of the worst-case scenario, every other outcome seems like a win. The thing to do is break down the elements of the problem and fix them individually. It is about multi-tasking, and women are great at it.

What are the five most effective leadership lessons that you have learned?

The most important lesson is to be able to understand people. Men think of team members as soldiers, who are all trained to do a particular task. In our industry, it helps to be a lot more nuanced. No team member can be just an interchangeable cog in a machine. 

All the other lessons I have learned follow from that. And they are a lot more than five individual ones. Some people work better with small format work, while others are more adept at long-term strategising. 

There are team members who thrive under stress, and feel adrift without it. These are some of the most difficult to manage. But that kind of drive can be used to add experience to their years, while getting the immediate jobs done.

Team building is an on-going education. Putting all the pieces of a jigsaw together needs a degree of emotional connect with people that women do best.

Most importantly, I have learned that conflict is not always a bad thing. Sometimes a difference in opinion between individuals is a sign of passion and commitment. As long as it is managed right, and all parties can be brought on the same page, it’s a battle won.

Gender sensitivity and inclusion in the new normal – how can organisations effectively encourage and groom women leaders in challenging times?

In the media, advertising, and marketing business, it is not unusual to find a lot of women working alongside men. Women don’t need to be protected or held to different standards. What we need to understand is that given equal opportunity, talent will show through in every individual irrespective of gender. Having women in senior roles automatically sets the tone of the place and demands a certain decorum and feeling of mutual respect. Everybody thrives in that kind of environment.