Raise Your Voice: Pooja Anand, Director, HR India & APJ
Your Voice is an initiative featuring the women leaders of Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX company. Launched by the Asia Pacific, Japan DEI Council, this series is designed to raise the voices of the many talented women in our organization, share their stories, experiences and valuable insights.
The voice you’ll hear in this edition is Pooja Anand, Director — HR, India & APJ, High Growth Technologies.
Professional Background:
Pooja is a business-centric human resources business partner (HRBP) with 18+ years’ experience, a specialist in Sales HRBP role — translating business vision into human resources initiatives.
She is passionate about nurturing people and creating a great work culture built on values. A keen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and sustainable living advocate, Pooja is also a certified life coach & an NLP practitioner.
Personal Passions:
Pooja is an adventure sports enthusiast and has a black belt in kickboxing.
Pooja speaks up about: Owning your career
Q: What does owning your career actually mean?
Taking a complete responsibility to invest in your career. Having a concrete plan about where you want to go and how you want to get there.
Q: How do you own your career?
Flex your curiosity muscles by:
- Building a strong business acumen
- Having financial acumen
- Developing a deeper understanding of industry/market trends
- Understanding organisational strategy
Q: What behaviours are critical to owning your career?
Building a ‘Growth Mindset’ plays a critical role towards owning one’s career. Just being restless to continuously learn and innovate.
Q: What advice would you give to someone early in their career & mid-career?
Lifelong learning is the key to success. Strive to excel at what you do and sharpen your communication skills.
Q: Being in HR, you would have seen both good and bad examples of people owning their career. Would you please share two good examples and one not so good example of owning your career?
I will go with the two good examples first:
1. People who focus on mentoring and inspiring others, grow at a faster pace. This is a great way to learn process and to propel your career trajectory in the right direction.
2. No matter the phase of your career or your role in the organisation, (individual contributor or manager) people who strive to hone their leadership skills without cessation and add new skills flourish in their careers.
A not-so-good example is: not spending sufficient time in self-reflection or being more self-aware. And, not creating a robust action plan on your development goals, not leveraging multiple learning opportunities available to up your game.
