Leadership Profile on Malavika Sagar
Malavika Sagar, TE Connectivitiy's chief human resources officer, was recently interviewed for a “Profile in Leadership” article at TE.
Malavika Sagar joined TE over a decade ago and was promoted to chief human resources officer (CHRO) in April 2023. As CHRO, she oversees talent management throughout the company, nurtures leadership development through coaching and support, and plays a key role in shaping and fostering a strong company culture that significantly impacts TE’s strategies and successes.
She enjoys engaging with talent and contributing to the development of future leaders. Malavika consistently motivates her team to strive for excellence and champions an inclusive environment where employees are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas, which fuels innovation for the benefit of our customers and shareholders.
TE Connectivity: Describe your role, your responsibilities, and what your favorite part about your job is.
Malavika Sagar: As CHRO, the number one part of my job is managing talent across our organization. Secondly, it’s my team’s responsibility to support the development of leaders and provide them with the coaching that will help them succeed in their roles. Success in both of these areas is driven by creating and facilitating a strong company culture. Culture is what defines how fast we go, how we do things, and how we will win now and into the future.
The part of my job that I enjoy most is interacting with the talent across TE, especially the next generation of leaders who are in the pipeline of tomorrow. These individuals have so many great skills and talents that are ready to be molded, and I enjoy helping them move their careers forward, which will ultimately drive our company forward.
Talk about your career journey and how your background has prepared you for your role today. Are there any lessons learned or advice you would share with others based on your career journey?
Malavika Sagar: While my career journey has not been linear, it has allowed me to learn many lessons along the way. I started as a science major before moving from Mumbai, India, to the United States to earn my bachelor’s degree in marketing and psychology. I started working in marketing and sales selling copiers, and soon after, realized that was not the career I wanted. I then decided to pursue my master’s degree in human resources because, at the time, it was an underserved area of the business, and I believed that HR held tremendous opportunity to make a difference in a company’s performance. My first role in HR was an HR business partner in the sales and marketing space. My bachelor’s degree helped me understand the longer-range view around business—like what we need to do to serve customers and drive revenue—while my master’s helps me hone the skills and capabilities necessary to make our business better from a people perspective.
In terms of advice, I recommend exploring different career paths early in your career. One of the best things that can happen is that you will find something you love, but more importantly, you will also learn what you don’t want to do. While it can be nerve-wracking to make a career switch, you will learn new skills and perspectives that will benefit you later on.
How do you implement your strategy at TE with so many employees all around the world?
Malavika Sagar: Our customers and the markets we serve are global, and part of our strategy is to have global employees to serve our customer base. How we execute the TE strategy may look a little different in each region. We need to understand how work gets done in a specific location and also understand the cultural nuances. It’s important to understand that just because something gets done a certain way in one place, it may not get done the same way in another. This shows up not only in strategy execution but also when dealing with country-specific issues. You must also think about the methods that you will use to get work done and this is where alignment becomes very important. Each culture is different, so aligning on the purpose, strategy, and expected pace before execution is very important.
What changes to the strategy map excite you most?
Malavika Sagar: The addition of inclusion excites me most from a values perspective. Inclusion is something we have been talking about for over a decade, and it’s energizing to see the progress we have made. I was the facilitator of the first Engagement and Inclusion Council established at TE, and at that time, we were starting to align on the definition of inclusion. To go from that to having inclusion as a core value is a full-circle moment and has been a big journey.
What does TE’s new value dedicated to inclusion mean to you, and why is it important to TE?
Malavika Sagar: Inclusion has always been about creating an environment where everyone can bring their best self to work. Inclusion is a key part of our culture because innovation requires the ability for everyone to share ideas and take risks without fear of judgment. Having an environment where employees can speak up fuels the ability to ultimately drive our culture of innovation forward for our customers and shareholders. We need a level playing field regarding equality, and sometimes, you must even out the playing field yourself. You should not be shy to take risks, and it is a leader's job to ensure that the workplace is equitable for everyone else.
TE has set a goal for 30% of leadership roles to be filled by women by 2026. What role does your team play in supporting these efforts and ensuring we meet this goal?
Malavika Sagar: We’ve established this goal and externally communicated it, and it’s important that we achieve it. There is a common saying, “if you can see her, you can be her.” We have made significant progress in developing female talent at TE. In the last decade, we’ve doubled female representation in band three-plus roles.
To continue this momentum, my team works with leaders to make sure we are including female candidates in talent attraction, development, and retention strategies to place women in critical roles across the company.
We are fortunate to have allyship from several of our male leaders who are leaning in to achieve this goal by recruiting, mentoring and developing female employees.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Malavika Sagar: I believe in being open and honest with my team, having high expectations of myself and of them, and supporting them to achieve excellence. I consider myself to be a practical leader and believe that you must “walk the talk,” with the goal being the performance of the business. While I demand a lot from my team, they know that I care about them.
What is one project or TE initiative that you are currently most excited about?
Malavika Sagar: I want to help make TE the best place to work, and there are two things that I am really excited about to help drive this forward. The first is the launch of a new platform, which makes a rewarding career journey available to all employees by allowing them to focus on development and help them determine the career path that is best for them. The other thing that I am excited about is how we plan to streamline the approach to employee services and improve the quality of the employee experience.
What recent industry trend excites you, and what is the potential application for TE?
Malavika Sagar: Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular generative AI, is important—not just in terms of how we do work at TE but also from an HR perspective. It really has the potential to transform our industry. When I think about AI, I think about how it has the capability to improve productivity for our employees. We are working on and discussing the rules of engagement with these generative AI tools and how we should be using them without compromising TE’s proprietary information and data. It’s very exciting because there are so many applications available, including tools for recruiting, coaching, and talent and development. In my opinion, AI will never replace the leadership experience a company needs, but I do believe it will help us solve the small problems so that we can focus on the big challenges.
What career advancement advice would you offer to employees?
Malavika Sagar: Chase learning and growth over titles. If you focus on learning and have a problem-solving mentality, the rest will follow. I also say to always act like you’re in the job you want to get and ask yourself, what would I do if I was in that position? This perspective can help you learn and think a few steps ahead.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received and who gave it to you?
Malavika Sagar: I was in a director role at the age of 29, and I had a feeling of imposter syndrome because everyone I was managing was older than me. A mentor at that time said, “Always remember that they wouldn’t have put you in the job if they didn’t think you could already do it.” This was the best piece of advice I received because it helped me not to worry about proving how I got there, but to settle into the role and focus on what truly mattered and needed to be done.
Describe your proudest or coolest moment thus far at TE.
Malavika Sagar: I am very proud of all of the things we’ve done for our employees that have improved their experience at TE. This includes our flex work guidelines, improving parental leave for working families, and enhancing the quality of the dorms where we have living quarters for our manufacturing employees.