Schneider Electric : Lessons in leadership at Schneider

You should read this article if you are one of the millions who desire to grow into leaders.

A common fallacy people have today is that organizations are into business purely for revenue, but Schneider Electric proved me and many others wrong from the outset.

Leadership at Schneider Electric is not just carrying out business operations; our leaders are reshaping the world by providing efficient and sustainable energy and automation solutions. In a world that is in constant flux, they do not sit around and wait for the future to happen. Rather, they imagine & create change by inspiring their people. They develop leadership qualities in our associates through trust and empowerment. One of my favorite core values at Schneider Electric is 'Act like Owners,' which enables us to take responsibility and ownership of everything that we do.

Exploring new horizons? No big deal.

Once you have settled into a role, you continuously keep exploring avenues to take your role to the next level and get deeper into your work.

Employees are often anxious about hearing a 'No' from their manager when they want to explore new things internally. For example, a design engineer intends to explore a new area like automation, or a testing engineer wishes to explore a developer role. A manager's success is based on achieving the results of his/her team. So, a manager might not be ready to take the risk of trying new things in their work.

But, a leader's success is based on continuous development with everyone's holistic growth. Leaders firmly believe, 'Employees will do more if they love their job.'

Whenever I ask my leader for his thoughts on me exploring new opportunities at Schneider Electric, I realized that I never get a 'No' from him. Instead, he always discusses what I should do and how to approach and grab the opportunity. This behavior is one of the accelerators that has enhanced my career. I landed opportunities to explore many new things, which helped me deliver projects and ideas across various domains in a shorter time.

My Meaning of 'Work-Life Balance'

In today's era of working from home, managers might push employees to complete a task by the end of the day. It could be a tactic to make employees work extra hours in the office. In these situations, employees may often desire to change their job in order to have a work-life balance.

At Schneider Electric, I always receive a task after an initial meeting with my leader to discuss all the facts about the job. If I already have enough on my plate, he manages to hold the task delivery for me until my schedule frees up a bit. Sometimes, I do offer to stretch over time so that I could complete the work during personal hours. But I'm always met with responses like 'Work and tasks will always be there, so don't commit if you already have enough.' I've learnt that, if we accept a task, then we should adhere to the delivery commitment. So, spend personal hours with family, and if you feel that you've additional time, then spend it on learning something new. It could help improve your knowledge and career, and it will also help you focus on new areas or new problems to solve.

This special care from my leader motivates me to spend extra hours learning every day. Here get satisfaction instead of work pressure, and it supports me to spend the rest of my hours happily with my family. In my opinion, Work-life balance does not depend on working hours. It is rather, living a peaceful life with continuous improvement in what you do.

Working with the leaders at Schneider has made me admire their approach to employee development and balancing your work and personal life. Amongst the many aspects of this great company that have shaped me, it's my honor to dedicate this blog to the leadership that I admire the most.

If you're looking to be a part of a diverse team, work under inclusive leadership in an atmosphere of psychological safety, then look no further than Schneider Electric. Check out our careers here: www.se.com/careers

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