For Swati Rathi, head of marketing, Godrej Appliances, providing a conducive yet happy work environment solely lies in the hands of organisational leaders.
As much as one spends a majority of their time at their place of work, it becomes imperative for a leader to set realistic deadlines, balance rigour and pressure with understanding, and positivity.
Edited Excerpts:
The creator economy has taken the world by storm. Which influencers and trends are you following currently?
I consume content from different genres — mental and physical wellness, neuroscience, parenting, literature, humour, spirituality, branding and more.
If I have to choose a few creators or handles whose content I have enjoyed over time, it would be Maria Popova, Twinkle Khanna, Paticheri, Lewis Howes, Elle Cordova, etc. It is amazing that we can sample such a wide variety of content, explore and develop newer interests — from understanding the gut mind connections better to understanding the way our brain works and how to make the right choices, and to get a better understanding of historical events.
The big challenge today is spending time on the right kind of content and ensuring that you consume the content and the content doesn’t consume you.
What marketing-related content do you consume in your free time?
Apart from reading books on consumer behaviour which gives deeper insights, there is LinkedIn, which provides a fair amount of reading material on a regular basis. There are marketing groups I am part of, newsletters I subscribe to, and social media accounts which provide quick bytes. There is no dearth of content today from podcasts to online courses to audio books. There is content everywhere.
There is a lot of talk about burnout, workplace toxicity, and hustle culture. What steps have you taken to avoid the adverse impact of the always-on culture on yourself and your colleagues? What advice would you give to your peers, colleagues, and next-gen marketers on this?
As a leader, it is our responsibility to provide a positive working environment for our teams. We need to be cognizant of this at all times and actively work towards it. The positivity and balance need to start with us and rather than preach, we need to practise. I try to do this by setting realistic deadlines, giving clear feedback, setting clear objectives, balancing rigour and pressure with empathy, paying attention to the camaraderie and fun quotient at work.
We spend our lives at our workplaces, and if one is happy at work, occasional long hours don’t feel exhausting.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practise?
I have always been more of a yoga person, but over the last one year, I have surprised myself with a new-found love for strength training. I try to make it to the gym three to four times a week.
What does your weekend look like?
Quiet time for myself, a slightly longer workout at the gym, more time with kids, running errands for home, tending to my plants, catching up with cherished friends and family, catching up on sleep, reading, scrolling, and, on occasional weekends, a good series on OTT.
What are you watching/streaming this weekend?
In general, I avoid watching long-running series since I invariably end up binge-watching, guzzling away too much time and energy. The last thing I watched was Laapatah Ladies on OTT and absolutely loved it.
Any work/life hack you swear by?
Give people the benefit of doubt. As much as possible, avoid judgements.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
I recently finished The Book of Delight by Ross Gay — a book for anyone looking to make joy a habit. Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul is a book I keep returning to every now and then. Four Thousand weeks: Time management for Mortals is one I recommend to everyone – especially to everyone struggling for time.
Corfu Trilogy is yet another book I enjoyed immensely – highly recommended for all nature lovers. From a consumer behaviour perspective – I recently read The illusion of choice. It was an enjoyable read, recommended for people in marketing.
A piece of wisdom you would like to share
Happiness is an internal choice – available to us in every moment, irrespective of external variables like achievements, acquisitions or even people.
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