7 Great Leadership Lessons From PepsiCo's CEO Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo¡¯s CEO recently published a note on LinkedIn which is going for viral for its meaningful message. Nooyi, one of the Forbes World's 100 most powerful women has a very important advice for students who could be the future leaders of the world.

Her seven point lessons show how you can hone your leadership skills and excel at your career.

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1. Everyone needs a vision

Nooyi talks about how her initiative called ¡®Performance with Purpose¡¯ gave her a company a vision that helped them scale new heights. She advises that a leader must come up with a vision that motivates people to give their best.

2. Think long term

She stresses on the plans that would benefit the organisation and the individual in the long run. She advises to plan strategies that balance both the level and the duration of returns.

3. Importance of persuasion

Nooyi talks about how she had to persuade her team to follow ¡®Performance With Purpose¡¯. She narrates how her critics told her to focus on selling chips and soda and to forget about nutrition. But, it was due to her persuasion that Pepsico was able to remove 6.4 trillion calories from its food and beverage products, a feat which surpassed their pledge more than 400% three years ahead of schedule.

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4. Always listen more and talk less

The reason we have two ears and one mouth is because we should listen more than we blurt things out. Nooyi narrates an incident where her dance instructor gave a very valuable lesson to her. ¡°If you learned to follow, you¡¯d be a better leader. And it would make you a better dancer,¡± advice which Nooyi follows till date.

5. Keep learning

You cannot afford to stop learning. Despite being a CEO, Nooyi likes to learn things that don¡¯t fall in her expertise. She likes to talk to customers, field salespeople and all her employees. She likes to get as much as information from as many sources.

6. The team and its people are everything

To keep her team happy and motivated, Nooyi sends out a thank you letter to the parents of her employees, saying that how proud the company is for their children¡¯s contributions. She asks people to handout handwritten letters to appreciate team members and their efforts.

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7. You¡¯re A CEO in the office, but not at home

She tells us to ¡®leave the crown in the garage¡¯, when it comes to interacting with family and friends. No matter how higher your position is at work, you are not the boss at home.

According to Nooyi, vision, persistence, persuasion, listening, learning, collaborating and humility are the keys to being a great leader. Her observations are indeed insightful and would help everyone who wants to be an effective leader in the future.