Inclusion by experience: How women leaders are rewriting the rules from within

At the HER Leadership track of the AWS ExecLeaders Summit 2025, the spotlight turned to a question many organizations claim to solve but few confront deeply: What does inclusion really look like when it moves beyond the checklist?

The panel discussion, Beyond the Optics: Building Inclusive Workplaces that Foster True Belonging, brought together three accomplished women leaders from across industries: Aditi Tandan, Head HR, AWS India; Aditi Mukherjee, Chief People Officer, NCDEX; and Archana Chadha, Head of Human Resources, HSBC India. The conversation was steered by Neha Yadav, Head - Gametech and Social Media, AWS India.

This was not a session about optics or broad platitudes. Instead, it focused on the real decisions, everyday leadership choices, and personal journeys that are quietly reshaping how inclusion is practised across sectors, generations, and workplaces.

Where inclusion begins: With lived experience

Each panellist brought to the table their personal understanding of exclusion and how that shaped their commitment to inclusivity.

For Archana Chadha, it was a moment of internal reckoning. As a child, she often felt excluded from sports activities due to her body type. Years later, as a senior leader at HSBC, she found herself hesitant to offer a leadership role to a woman who had mentioned she was planning a family. “It was my male business head who said, ‘We’re still giving her the role’. That moment made me realise how deeply unconscious bias can operate, even within those of us who champion inclusion,” she said.

Aditi Mukherjee’s understanding of inclusion was born out of adversity. Having spent a year bedridden in her youth, she described feeling left behind, watching her peers move forward. “I learned then that everyone carries unseen battles. That shaped the way I view talent and hiring,” she shared. Her journey across manufacturing, education, consulting, and now capital markets revealed consistent patterns of exclusion, from assumptions about age and availability to biases rooted in academic backgrounds and job titles. “Inclusion is not about a committee or campaign. It’s a conscious decision you make each day, who you hire, who you listen to, who you promote,” she added.

From policies to practice: Rewiring the system

The panel explored how policy, while important, is only the beginning. Real inclusion, they agreed, comes down to the choices made in the grey areas, when the system doesn’t offer a template.

At NCDEX, Mukherjee recalled an instance where a senior candidate, initially overlooked due to age, delivered stellar performance over five years. “We had assumed 55 was too old. That experience completely shifted our mindset on age diversity,” she said.

Similarly, she shared how inclusion plays out through non-traditional support. “One of our employees had twins. The policy allowed only the standard maternity period. But we asked, Can we extend it? The system didn’t have an answer, but we chose inclusion.”

For Archana Chadha, inclusion means transforming how organisations frame policies altogether. “We changed all mentions of ‘spouse’ to ‘partner’, and from ‘maternity’ to ‘primary caregiver’. Language matters. It signals who belongs,” she said. HSBC India’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including Pride, Balance, and Ability, also play a pivotal role in shaping culture. “They’re not just support systems. They’re culture drivers.”

She also emphasised data transparency without tokenism. “We don’t set diversity targets, but we do measure outcomes, because what we measure, we value.”

Building inclusion into the business rhythm

Aditi Tandan offered insight into how inclusion is operationalised within AWS. The company, she explained, follows a ‘bolted-on to built-in’ philosophy.

“Cultural programmes, Pride celebrations, they’re important. But the real goal is to make inclusion part of how we make decisions,” she said. Whether it’s analysing succession planning slates for diversity or challenging proximity bias in performance ratings, the idea is to ensure inclusion becomes instinctive, not conditional.

She also highlighted one of Amazon’s unique practices, the deliberate delay in senior voices during meetings. “The most senior person speaks last, so every other voice is heard without influence. It’s a small act, but it has a big impact on psychological safety,” she said.

Another notable leadership principle: disagree and commit. “Leaders are expected to seek dissenting views. Challenging the room isn’t frowned upon; it’s encouraged. And when something’s broken, you escalate it, not hide it. That’s where inclusion starts.”

Allyship, sponsorship and the role of leadership

Neha Yadav steered the conversation towards another vital but underexplored theme: sponsorship and allyship.

Aditi Tandan shared a deeply personal story from when she was expecting her daughter. Despite being on maternity leave, she received a call from her manager, not just to check in, but to inform her she had been promoted. “That decision wasn’t policy-driven. It was leadership showing up for me when I wasn’t in the room. That’s allyship,” she said.

She added that at AWS, leaders are assessed not just on business outcomes, but on how many people they’ve developed. “I’m not interested in whether you were a mentor in a programme. I want names, examples. Who did you sponsor? Who did you help grow?”

Inclusion is evolving, and so must we

As the conversation came to a close, Aditi Mukherjee reflected on how far the corporate world has come since she began her career in 1999. “Back then, sabbaticals weren’t even a concept. Today, we’re working with farmer groups across India, enabling women in rural areas to take control of pricing and protection. Inclusion is no longer an HR conversation. It’s a business imperative.”

The final takeaway? Inclusion isn’t a milestone. It’s a muscle. It must be stretched, exercised, questioned, and rebuilt, with every new challenge, every new voice, and every decision made behind closed doors.

“Inclusion isn’t about being invited to the party,” said Archana Chadha. “It’s about being asked to dance. And better still, being handed the mic to play your own music.”

At HER Leadership, the panel didn’t just talk about change. They modelled it through vulnerability, reflection, and real leadership in action.