Hi, I’m Pritesh Gadhia. I look after Accenture Song for U.K. and Ireland.
And these are my biggest lessons.
Ask for help.
I remember very early on in my career, I was really struggling in a high-pressure environment,
trying to work out the most optimal team structure to deliver a very difficult program at pace.
I took the courage to ask somebody very unexpected for advice.
The advice he gave was gold dust.
I encourage you all to think carefully about who can help you get to the right solution;
help you to get the right solution not just for you,
but for the business and the people around you.
It often takes a lot of courage to ask for help.
Nobody ever gets fired for asking for help.
In fact, I see asking for help is a real strength
and not a weakness.
Embrace change.
We are in a constantly evolving environment and in the new world order changes are constant.
I'm fortunate that I work for an organization that embraces change.
I have personally found that taking on the challenge of change has allowed me to develop
a much broader set of skills.
It often takes courage to change, I encourage you to think about how you want to embrace
that change in the context of your own Northstar, not change for changes sake, but change that's
going to take you in a different direction.
Take care of the people around you.
We’re in a world of constant change.
Post-pandemic, in this new world order, we need to allow people to feel seen,
safe and connected.
Giving them the space, to be able to share whatever is causing them a challenge,
whether it's personal or professional,
and allowing them the opportunity to deal with those challenges in the context of their
daily life as they continue to try and deliver the best for you is really, really important.
I personally felt the real challenges of the last few years, and I've been really grateful
for the people around me have given me the space to deal with those challenges,
and yet operate at the optimal level.
Celebrate your differences.
I've always been a huge champion of diversity.
And I don't mean diversity, just in the sense of gender or ethnicity.
One of the reasons Accenture Song has been so successful is that we bring together diverse
talent from so many different industries from technology through to creativity.
When we celebrate those differences, and we give people the time and the space to bring
those differences every day, we can do brilliant things.
Everybody is different, unique in fact, and everybody deserves the time, the space and
the support to bring those differences to work.
Be authentic.
It took me a long time to realise that bringing my whole self to work was really important.
Having a voice, having a point of view, having the courage to speak up is really, really important.
It's incumbent on us, as leaders to create an environment where people feel they can
be truly human, where people feel that the difference they bring as individuals is recognised.
Being authentic takes a lot of courage.
But being authentic allows you to enjoy what you do every day and allows you to make a
real difference to the outcomes you create.