Marking International Youth Day, inclusive employer Schneider Electric commented: "At Schneider Electric, we are convinced that we can only make a positive impact by bringing everyone along. We empower all generations to have lifelong development by learning, upskilling, and supporting each employee...In celebration of International Youth Day, we’d like to recognize the young people changing the world."
One area the company supports youth is via its annual Go Green competition that provides students with an opportunity to share their innovative bold ideas for a smarter and more sustainable world. "For International Youth Day, we celebrate the ideas and initiatives they contribute!" applauded Schneider Electric.
The Go Green competition rewards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and business students from around the world, who dare to disrupt and change the game in the digital and energy world with bold ideas of sustainability for future generations.
Take it from the CEO: Lessons for the next generation of leaders
Supporting International Youth Day, Schneider Electric CEO and Chairman, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, shared his advice for the next generation of leaders.
"I’ve been working at Schneider Electric for over 35 years now, and have been leading the company for close to two decades. Very often, I’m asked about leadership, about how to succeed in business. Looking back on these 35 years, the thing I’m always most proud of is the impact I’ve been able to have on people. Because the reality is that no matter what industry or field you work in, people are the foundation of everything. They’re also your allies to drive change," explained the CEO.
"Think about it: our world needs to change. It needs to quickly become both prosperous and sustainable for everyone. And the only way we can do this is by involving everyone in the journey."
The Schneider Electric CEO advised those starting their careers - who’ll be leaders one day, to those responsible for bringing about change in the years ahead - via some very insightful comments.
Leadership lesson: See yourself not only as a leader, but as a coach:
"Companies need to perform at the best possible level. As a coach, your responsibility is to bring your team, your business division, and the company as a whole, to success. It starts with the difficult art of building a team. A good coach celebrates diversity — gender, background, age, personality – and brings it into his or her team. Diversity makes a team perform better because people complement and learn from each other. Then, it’s about making sure the team wins collectively. Once you’ve put together a group of brilliant individuals, you need to ensure they’re cohesive and work together. You yourself need to be invested in the success of your team. You’ll learn, if you haven’t yet, how proud it can make you to develop others and make them successful. It also means building clear directions with your team that help provide a vision beyond the day-to-day. Finally, good coaches care about people. They understand their colleagues personally beyond work. And they try to make work fun. Life is tough enough, work is often complicated. So create a positive vibe in the workplace: it’ll motivate everyone to do their best. If you want to assess a leader, look at their team. The quality and energy of the team speaks the greatest truth about their leadership ability."
Leadership lesson: Never underestimate the social and human dimension:
"Now you have a great team. Brilliant people, very cohesive, very entrepreneurial. Together, you want to make a positive impact on the world. Great! Because performance is never just about technology and business. It’s also about the social and human ability to drive innovation and positive change. I know this because I’ve failed on this front before. In the late 1990s, I was in charge of Schneider Electric’s South and Sub-Saharan Africa operations. We decided to work with a solar panel company to provide local villages with solar panels and inverters to give people access to electricity. What happened is that people dismantled the panels and sold them for short-term profit. Six years later, we revisited the project, this time engaging with the local community leaders who knew all about the human dynamics on the ground. From that, we learned three things. First, that to develop the right solution, we’d have to involve the people who’ll actually use it. That meant working with them to build the social model to access these communities. Second, that we needed to train people to maintain the equipment we were putting in place. Third, that we needed to help them to build an income and business model, so that they would be motivated to keep the systems working. Technology, society, and business are intertwined. You can’t develop one without thinking carefully about the others. So never lose track of how what you do on the ground will affect people there – and vice versa. Success more often comes down to truly understanding micro-problems and social behaviors, rather than macroeconomic theories. People on the ground, not economists, make things happen."
Leadership lesson: Ride the wave of digital transformation:
"History has seen many revolutions: the iron and then the steam revolution, the electrical revolution, the IT revolution, the internet revolution. And now, we’re at the beginning of the next major revolution, that of the internet of things, or IoT, where everything is connected, and where new technologies like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual / Extended Reality will combine to digitize the world all around us. Look back at the past 30 years. The internet has revolutionized how we interact people-to-people. The next decade will revolutionize how we interact with our environment. And this is critical, because we’re facing the catastrophic impacts of climate change. The IoT (internet of things) – with its massive potential for greater efficiencies and resilience — is one answer to this existential challenge. Clean energy generation and electrification – by allowing us to decarbonize and be more efficient with the energy we consume and produce – is another. So ride this wave of transformation. Bring together all these technologies. The opportunity is sitting there for you and your generation of future leaders."
Leadership lesson: Again, never forget the human dimension:
"Never forget that the decisions you make every day will impact people, whether you intend to or not. So whatever you do, make sure to put people — your own team, your customers, the communities you impact — at the center of all your decisions, and understand what makes them tick. That will ensure that the world we’re building is more human, more equitable – that it reconciles sustainability and progress for all. It will also make you a better human being, reconciling your professional path with your own personal journey."
A company that truly empowers young professionals
Marking the day, Schneider Electric highlighted opportunities available for youth globally and young professionals with the company.
It has committed to doubling the number of opportunities for interns, apprentices and fresh graduate hires by 2025.
The company is on the lookout for passionate people to help it innovate at every level, and build a future that empowers all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment.
Schneider Electric seeks to be the most diverse, inclusive and equitable company globally and believes that empowerment generates high performance, personal fulfillment, and fun.
Turn bold ideas into reality with Schneider Electric
"We need to make this planet both prosperous and sustainable for all, which means we are going to have to change a lot of things in the way we live, in the way each of us, and all of us live," explains CEO, Jean-Pascal. "And what we have to understand here is that we might have all the will and the might to change the world, but whatever you do, whatever we do, we need to make sure it centers around people, and embarking everybody on the journey."
Schneider Electric empowers everyone to make the most of energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment.
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.