Shruti Ganeriwala talks about balancing humility and confidence and progress over perfection
When Shruti Ganeriwala, Chief Human Resources Officer ANZ and APAC at Unilever, thinks about the lessons from 20 years of leading people, its four simple words that have stuck.
“A few years ago, we were in a workshop … and one of the facilitators said something which has stayed with me on ‘connect before you correct,’” she said.
“It is to build relationships and connections before you can start correcting, before you can hold people accountable and have the difficult conversations.
“And I had a few learnings along the way on, ‘OK, the reason I couldn't do that change really successfully was because I hadn't spent the time connecting before I tried to correct'.”
Ganeriwala believes nothing beats spending time with people and getting to know them one-on-one and investing time in building relationships.
“My learning was not to underestimate that importance of connecting,” she said.
Ganeriwala will join a panel to discuss leadership and the traits needed for the next wave of workplace disruption, at the upcoming HRFutureFest Australia, on October 29 in Melbourne.
Register now for HRFutureFest Australia
Leading with authenticity
Describing her own leadership style, Ganeriwala talks about the importance of the balance between confidence and humility.
While some leaders may struggle with new models of leadership that embrace vulnerability and humility, for Ganeriwala that was her natural style. The lesson she had to learn was balancing this with confidence and “owning the space”.
“While it's great to be open and honest with your team, they're still looking for direction, especially in times of change,” she said.
“The lesson that I had to learn was how do I still own my space … and do it in a way that's comfortable to me personally.”
Progress over perfection
Ganeriwala has embraced a more agile mindset within her team and encourages progress over perfection.
“In the past, you would create documents, and it would be perfect and completely fleshed before you took it to your CEO or your leadership team,” she said.
“I keep telling my team ‘it’s OK, just make sure it's a shared document, and we'll build on it.’ That's a little bit of unlearning for me because historically when something goes from my inbox it needs to be perfect. But it leads to better results because you're getting feedback in real time rather than waiting to perfect it and then someone to say, ‘maybe not do it like that.’ It definitely leads to better results.”
Continuous learning and personal growth
Ganeriwala stresses continuous learning is essential for leaders. She is currently focused on AI and data-driven insights, seeing value in these skills to lead conversations and tell compelling business stories
“It’s not easy,” she admits. “Even making the time is really hard. I schedule a time for myself to do it. Sometimes I live up to it, sometimes I don't, but at least I make an effort to schedule the time. So at least it'll happen 50% of the time.”
The value of mentorship and networks
Mentorship has been a cornerstone of Ganeriwala’s personal and professional growth throughout her life.
“I've been very lucky to have some great mentors and I've also made quite an effort to go out and seek mentors,” she shares. “You always take bits from different leaders you have worked with. You always look at different leaders and think, I’d like to do more of that, or I don’t like that, I’ll never do that.”
HRFutureFest Australia
HRD HRFutureFest Australia 2025 will be a unique opportunity to build connections and learn alongside leaders and experts through Q&A panels, masterclasses, live demonstrations and discussions.
Participants will be able to build their own event program with a choice of more than 30 sessions across the day, covering themes including:
- Human + AI: Smarter HR decisions
- Work with Meaning: Align People, Culture & Impact
- Workplace Law 2026 and Beyond
- DEI in Action: Inclusive by Design
- Wellbeing at Work: Mind, Body & Beyond
- Leading + Learning in a Changing World
Industry-leading speakers will include Damian Zahra, Chief People Officer at Bunnings; Pritho Saxena, Director Human Resources Australia, China & South East Asia at Amazon; Tom Bosna, Head of Operations – Workplace Wellbeing at Medibank; Sarah Derry, Group Chief People Officer at The Star Entertainment Group; Katie Wyatt, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Global) at BHP; and Joshua Cass, Head of People, Flight and Safety at Qantas.
