Puneet Gaur Next Quarter: World's Leading Leader 2022-2023

WCRCLEADERS in conversation with Puneet Gaur, Chief Operating Officer, Next Quarter

What makes a strong leader? What are your key leadership strengths are make the strongest attributes of success.

The definition of strong leadership varies across cultures and contexts like political leaders, business leaders in socialism, business leaders in capitalism, leaders in nonprofit sector, etc. Assuming that this question is about a business leader in a capitalistic set-up, commonly identified traits of a strong leader are – emotional empathy, ability to lead by example, humility, constant strive for innovation and ability to motivate the employees towards company’s vision and mission.

An acc o m p l is h m e n t t h a t yo u c on sider t o b e t h e m o s t si g nifi c a n t in yo ur c ar e er? What challenges did you face to reach to the success.

I built 1000 people offshore centres in Eastern Europe and Asia from scratch. That is my biggest achievement so far. I consider it as a significant event because there was there was a resistance within the company to build those and there were cultural challenges especially in Eastern Europe. I overcame both to achieve annual multi-million dollar savings for the company. The Eastern European country, which was our base, had a strong nationalist culture in HR and back office function. They were totally against diversity hiring. I had to coach them, nudge them to accept diversity. There was corruption, which I had to crush, without making enemies in a foreign land. Diplomacy, collaboration, patience, open-mind were the key attributes that became my friend in this journey.

What is a role of leader in these challenging times.

Motivate people to be productive and ethical (as work from home has increased the culture of moonlighting)

Create a culture of cross-border collaboration (as unspoken waves of nationalism as hitting the workforce)

Build a culture of constant innovation (as new starts ups are constantly challenging the new players)

Great negotiator to convince large shareholders and employees to build environment sustainable business models

Push for equality for all genders, race and tribes.

What is your vision and how do you share that with your shareholders, employees and others?

My motto is Humanity, Integrity and Innovation.