Episode 22: Leadership is a service, it‘s humbling and a privilege, with Supriya Iyer

Leadership Amplified by Dr Karen Morley

These were the final words in my recent conversation with Supriya Iyer, Supply Director, Global Networking Supply Chain & Commercial Operations at Google in California. We had a very wide-ranging discussion, from Supriya’s first experience of leadership – being thrown in at the deep end as a brand new graduate to lead a team – to her latest - handling the current complexities of global supply chains, and identifying how they will affect leadership and strategy in the next couple of years. It was encouraging to get an inside view on psychological safety at Google too. Good to know that their leadership development includes a focus on it, and leaders get rated on the safety climate they create. Supriya’s leadership approach, to focus on trust and constructive conflict, draws on that first leadership experience and how she approached it, as well as her experience working in 3 different countries. For her, leadership is about humility, belonging, creating a climate where people will speak up and feel safe to do so. Helping people achieve their dreams. With a global workforce and people working in different time-zones, everyone's needs are different. Supriya says it is like a family gathering around the table and not everyone gets on with everyone, so you need to create space, listen, ask questions openly and help people to feel safe.