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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11984945" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="chanel" source="Orion">Chanel</keyword> announced on Wednesday that <keyword id="12739491" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="leena-nair" source="Orion">Leena Nair</keyword> would be the company's new CEO.</li><li>Nair, Unilever's former human-resources head, is an outspoken advocate for <keyword id="11893568" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="diversity-and-inclusion" source="Orion">diversity and inclusion</keyword>.</li></ul>Chanel — the iconic brand that made the little black dress a staple for every woman — has a new leader: Leena Nair.The haute-couture house announced on Wednesday that Nair, the former Unilever human-resources chief, would assume the role of CEO in January. She's replacing Alain Wertheimer, Chanel's coowner. Nair is set to become Chanel's first woman chief and one of the <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/why-arent-there-more-women-ceos-fashion-business-gender-parity-wbc-fortune-500-1234779572/">few women of color</a> in the industry's exclusive <keyword id="11893566" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="leadership" source="Orion">leadership</keyword> ranks.Nair, who is of British Indian descent, is joining an industry rocked by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e6d2bbf2-135d-4ee6-aa75-200c349fced7">the pandemic</a> as stores shuttered and consumers flocked to e-commerce. And unlike its competitors — Gucci, Prada, and Versace — Chanel doesn't sell its famous handbags online, which makes Nair's job more complicated. Nair may also have the big challenge of helping shape Chanel's artistic vision, which <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2019-02-19/how-chanel-became-a-10-billion-business-under-karl-lagerfeld">critics say</a> is still under construction following the 2019 death of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2019-02-19/how-chanel-became-a-10-billion-business-under-karl-lagerfeld">Karl Lagerfeld</a>, Chanel's venerable artistic director. Nair brings a bold vision with her. Recent interviews showed that Nair, 52, wasn't afraid to speak about the need for global leaders to make companies more inclusive."I believe every voice matters," she said in a 2019 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZU6XUukY48&amp;t=170s">interview</a> with the cloud company KRISIN. "Inclusion is at the heart of everything I do."<div type="image" title="People waiting outside a Chanel store" height="3415" width="4554" msid="88349199" hostid="261"></div><h2>A fierce advocate for others </h2>Nair is used to being the "first" in many roles, she said in an interview with the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/unilever-leena-nair-future-of-work-soft-skills-hard-skills/">World Economic Forum</a>'s podcast with Linda Lacina. For her, it's a "privilege and a burden." "You get to do things you didn't think were possible before, but also there's the burden of making it easier for those who come after you, and the burden of success," she said on the podcast. "The last thing you want to do is fail, so you feel this enormous pressure and sense of responsibility to succeed at every job you're given."For the executive, it's not enough to break glass ceilings and succeed in her own role. She wants to make sure others can also climb the corporate ladder. "I think about the people who come after me. I want to make it easier," she told the Forum. Nair didn't make her way to the C-suite through traditional means. In 1992, Nair, a former engineer, began ascending the corporate ladder. In 2016, she became Unilever's "first female, first Asian, youngest ever" chief human-resources officer, Unilever said. She also oversaw the company's diversity and inclusion efforts, helping the company reach a <a href="https://www.unilever.co.uk/planet-and-society/equity-diversity-inclusion-at-unilever/gender/">50-50 ratio</a> of men to women in manager positions during her tenure. Before that role, she served as a nonexecutive director of the British government's business, energy, and industrial <keyword id="11893563" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="strategy" source="Orion">strategy</keyword> department. Throughout her career, she was often the only woman in the room. In fact, the executive recalled dozens of times when there was no women's bathroom in the buildings in which she was conducting business. "Can I get a loo?" she'd ask her male counterparts. She would joke that they should name the bathrooms after her, a quip that spawned a running joke about "Leena's loos," she told the World Economic Forum. But jokes aside, she is intentional and serious, and that's because she knows the stakes. "What tends to happen to you when you're the first is that people tend to think that you represent all women or all brown people, or that you represent all Asian people. But that's not true," she told the Forum. "What happens is your successes get amplified massively, and your failures get amplified massively. When you fail, they say, 'That's why we shouldn't put a woman in the role.'"<h2>Leading with empathy </h2>"I lead with both head and heart," Nair said in an October interview on the "Change Makers" <a href="https://changemakers.works/podcasts/head-and-heart-igniting-the-human-spark-leena-nair/">podcast</a>. "Having intent and purpose gives you the energy to go through tumultuous times."The incoming Chanel CEO speaks to a growing <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-in-leadership">body of research</a> on the importance of emotional intelligence. "Emotional intelligence is a crucial leadership skill to have, one I think more people are going to be talking about in the future," Arquella Hargrove, a <keyword id="11893567" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dei" source="Orion">DEI</keyword> consultant and leadership coach, previously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-leaders-can-build-emotional-intelligence-2021-2">told Insider</a>. Calls for racial equity and diversity, equity, and inclusion still ring out from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-anti-racist-actions-workers-want-their-ceos-take-2020-7">2020's racial reckoning</a>, and more people want <a href="https://justcapital.com/reports/survey-what-americans-want-from-corporate-america-during-the-response-reopening-and-reset-phases-of-the-coronavirus-crisis/">companies to benefit society</a>. To achieve those goals, experts, including Hargrove, told Insider that leaders have to listen to their colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds. They have to engage in tough conversations and work together to find solutions. Nair's personal strategy tracks with that course of action. She told the World Economic Forum that leaders should make creating <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stacey-abrams-creates-psychological-safety-according-to-a-mentee-2021-4">psychological safety</a> a top priority. "Look at leadership," she said. "If you see leaders at the company role-modeling inclusive behaviors, they're being advocates; they're creating environments where they are psychologically safe."

Chanel's incoming CEO, Leena Nair, could shake up the future of fashion

Leena Nair, who is credited for a number of HR interventions and has been with Unilever for two decades, is likely to get elevated as company’s global HR chief. 
 
Although the announcement hasn’t been made, Nair, 45, will replace Douglas Baillie to be the new HR head. 
 
Nair, a gold medallist from XLRI, shifted from India to the London headquarters of the company three years back to join as global senior vice-president for leadership and organisation development. 
 
Nair had joined HUL in 1992 as a summer trainee and was one of the first women managers to opt for a factory stint, in the industrial belt of Taloja. 
 
Recently, many Indians have been appointed to head human resources. Johnson &amp; Johnson had hired Sumeet Salwan from Unilever as the human resource head for its consumer products division. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Meet Leena Nair who is likely to become
Global HR Chief of Unilever

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chanel CEO Leena Nair visited Microsoft to discuss AI, she told Stanford's business school.</li><li>Nair described an awkward interaction with ChatGPT while there.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">ChatGPT</a> may be one of the major contenders in the AI race, but Chanel CEO Leena Nair was left slightly less than impressed by it during her trip to Microsoft headquarters.In <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIJUgnykkOA">an interview</a> for Stanford Graduate School of Business's "View From The Top" speaker series, Nair said that Chanel's leadership team had traveled to Seattle in May to visit various tech companies and startups to understand how the potential impacts of AI."AI is everywhere," she said. "And it's going to be transformative in our world, so luxury has to engage with it, Chanel has to engage with it."However, when there, she had a "funny" moment with ChatGPT."We were in Microsoft and we were playing around with ChatGPT on the premises," Nair said. "And we're like, 'Show us a picture of a senior leadership team from Chanel visiting Microsoft' — it is all men in suits."Nair, previously the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chanel-ceo-trailblazer-every-job-leena-nair-2023-8">first female chief HR officer at Unilever</a>, poked fun at the chatbot's failure to recognize Chanel's largely female staff and audience, instead depicting a "100% male team, not even in fashionable clothes.""This is Chanel. Yes, 76% of my organization is women, 96% of my clients are women, female CEO," Nair said.She added, "This is what you've got to offer, ChatGPT? Come on."Microsoft, OpenAI, and Chanel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.While AI has been rapidly developing to become less robotic, with ChatGPT's latest <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-gpt-4o-feels-more-human-puts-pressure-tech-rivals-2024-5">GPT-o4 model</a> generating more convincingly humanlike responses, Nair said she is still urging tech execs to keep the "integrity" of their work with AI."I constantly talk to my friends in tech, all the CEOs that you know, saying, come on, guys, you've gotta make sure that you're integrating a humanistic way of thinking in AI," she said.Nair said Chanel is still getting "AI-ready," including implementing infrastructure systems, data governance classifications, and testing "a lot of experiments.""We're trying little things for productivity, chatbots on chanel.com," she said.Nair said the is still keeping a "relentless focus on human creators" and maintaining the "freedom" to innovate for artists and workers."I don't want that ever to go," she said. "So ensuring that AI supports human creators and creation, rather than take away what they bring so skillfully and masterfully, is very much core to who we are at Chanel."

Chanel CEO describes the ChatGPT fail that happened while visiting Microsoft headquarters

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chanel CEO Leena Nair told The Wall Street Journal she's been a trailblazer in every job she's had. </li><li>Nair said she got 7,000 emails and letters from women applauding her when she was appointed in 2022.</li></ul>The CEO of Chanel said she got about 7,000 emails and letters from women and girls praising her appointment, she told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/leena-nair-chanel-ceo-unilever-e2c2b697?mod=hp_lead_pos11">The Wall Street Journal</a>. The French luxury retailer appointed Leena Nair as only its second female boss in its 113-year history in January 2022. "I've been the first at every job I've done. The first woman, the first brown person, the first Asian, the first Indian—but I don't want to be the last, and I am going to try and make it easier for those who come after me," Nair told the Journal, adding that one of her mottos is "lift as you climb." <div type="image" title="Models in Chanel Haute Couture Fall/Winter show in Paris this month." height="3838" width="5756" msid="103170546" hostid="261" sizebytes="1065380"></div>Fortune's Global 500 rankings of the world's companies by revenue, <a target="_blank" href="https://fortune.com/2023/08/02/fortune-global-500-female-ceos-women/">released earlier this month</a>, found that just 29 – or 6% – have a female CEOs. That's up from 24 last year. That shows there's considerable room for improvement at the top of the biggest businesses. Nair said she'd been told she couldn't do something "because I'm a girl" many times in her life. The 54-year-old added that "afterwards, you stop listening." Maureen Chiquet became the Chanel's first female boss when she was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/karineldor/2021/01/11/exclusive-maureen-chiquet-former-global-ceo-of-chanel-joins-credo-board-of-directors/">appointed as its global CEO</a> in 2007, before she resigning in 2016 due to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/business/international/maureen-chiquet-is-leaving-chanel.html">strategic differences</a>. Chanel co-owner and chair <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wertheimer-family-chanel-fortune-gerard-alain-vineyards-thoroughbred-net-worth-2019-2">Alain Wertheimer</a> took over the role for five years until Nair was appointed. Nair was previously chief human resources officer at consumer goods giant Unilever before joining Chanel.

Chanel's CEO says she's been the 'first woman, the first brown person, the first Asian, the first Indian' in every job – and wants to lift others up

Many chief executives of large companies are familiar with the term coaching. The boom in personalized business training extends not only to executives but also to high-potential employees. Coaching can be highly effective, but great coaches are expensive, and not always a realistic option for smaller companies or for the large numbers of employees who could benefit from being held accountable for making positive change. 
 
Benefits of peer-to-peer coaching 
 
Sally Helgesen, an internationally acclaimed author, speaker and leadership development consultant whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company and Business Week, believes that given the complex nature of global organizations today, peer coaching — where each participant acts as both the coach and “coachee” — provides a solution. She explains that unlike a mentor/sponsor relationship, each participant in peer coaching acts an equal partner in the process, providing the “least expensive and most underutilized tool for spreading needed change throughout an organization.” This cultural shift results in not only leadership development at reduced cost but also in a behavioral reboot for all employees. 
 
 
 
According to Marshall Goldsmith, a New York Times best-selling author and authority in executive and peer coaching, the coach is a “thinking partner,” offering fresh, objective support. Goldsmith also considers accountability a key ingredient in successful peer-coaching. His research shows that when peers holds others accountable for their actions, they themselves commit to improving performance. 
 
Peer-to-peer coaching in practice 
 
SVP Leadership &amp; Organization Development and Global Head of Diversityat Unilever Leena Nair, a Young Presidents’ Organization member in Bombay since 2011, explains the importance of peer coaching at the multinational consumer product corporation, which is committed to “leaders developing leaders.” 
 
 
 
 
“Peer coaching is a key feature within all our management development programs,” Nair says. “This approach has been very effective in helping us build a cadre of leaders who are not only more self-aware, but who also know how to help others get there.” 
 
Like Unilever, more and more companies are exploring the coaching method. Helgesen explains that with careful planning the peer-coaching process is easy to implement. First, a professional coach helps internal sponsors pair individuals based on company objectives and personality types. Typically teams participate in a full-day session where they get to know another, learn about individual strengths, practice active listening and develop measurable key objectives that focus on concrete steps toward achievement. Once these relationships are established, the pairs connect for a minimum of 30 minutes per week to access goal progress and discuss challenges such as handling stress, effective time management and meeting performance goals. 
 
Helgesen recently surveyed members of a pilot peer-mentoring program that she helped implement for a U.S.-based insurance company. When asked what participants found most helpful in the peer-mentoring experience, 63 percent cited that the peer relationships help address immediate workplace challenges and 57 percent noted that coaching helps address personal development needs. Sixty-five percent said they would recommend peer mentoring to colleagues. 
 
“This is a way of spreading the coaching experience across large organizations and provides a great development tool for smaller companies that can’t afford coaching,” says Helgesen. “Having a conversation with someone on a regular basis, a resource invested in your development and to whom you are accountable, can provide far-reaching behavioral shifts. And if 20 percent of the participants show real commitment to the process, then it’s already life changing.” 
 
(The author of this article is Rola Tassabehji, regional marketing manager for MENA, Africa and Europe) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

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