Reinvention as a Leadership Skill: Lessons in Risk, Renewal & Purpose

By: Apurva Purohit, Co-Founder, Aazol

Today’s dynamic business landscape demands business leaders to master the art of reinvention or fear becoming irrelevant. However, it is key to note that reinvention is not a one-time dramatic career change; instead, it is as an ongoing process.

Business leader and social development entrepreneur Apurva Purohit believes that professional reinvention is about - evolving skills, redefining success internally, embracing risk & uncertainty, and aligning professional life with deeper purpose and values.

Apurva has over three decades of experience scaling, transforming, and turning around diverse media and consumer businesses. Known for culture-driven leadership, governance expertise, and social impact advocacy, she is also a bestselling author and respected independent director.

In an engaging interaction with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Apurva talks about career reinvention and purposeful leadership. Speaking about key leadership themes, she highlights the importance of building an internal compass that transcends titles. Apurva also shares candid reflections on risk, resilience, empathy, and redefining success while creating meaningful impact through her entrepreneurial journey.

To explore powerful insights on reinvention, leadership courage, and purpose-driven growth, read the full article below.

Q: You’ve navigated multiple reinventions across roles, organizations and life stages. How do you see career reinvention as a leadership skill for women today?

A: I think everyone whether men or women must see how they constantly upgrade and upskill themselves to stay current in their roles and in the ever-changing scenarios. The world is changing very fast and if we don’t equip ourselves to keep pace with the changes, we will become irrelevant.

Sometimes career reinvention becomes necessary if we feel we are stagnating our not seeing any future in the path that we had chosen but it is not necessary always. Growth and upgradation can happen in the same career too. So, reinvention is not necessary but revitalizing and refreshing our skills is very necessary.

Q: Looking back at your early transitions, what was the first moment that forced you to rethink your identity as a leader, and how did you emotionally process that shift?

A: I worked with many marquee organizations in the early part of my career and learnt what drives a good culture and what is necessary to be a good leader. Equally I leant what not to do when I interacted with some poor-quality managers.

I believe I already had qualities which made for an effective leader – accountability, strategic thinking, implementation skills, ability to motivate teams and good communication. However, by watching poor managers at work, I learnt to also develop my empathetic side and most importantly learnt to balance being effective and being empathetic.

As a consequence, I developed a unique and nuanced management style based on the overriding principle of Tough love.

Apurva’s 4 Insights on Mastering the Art of Reinvention as a Leader:

Reinvention is less about changing careers and more about continuous renewal
Reinvention always involves risk, and growth requires accepting possible failure
Reinvention requires emotional tolerance for starting over
Reinvention is not a one-time event — it’s an operating philosophy

Q: As you moved from building businesses to turning them around, how did your inner definition of success evolve, especially when external validation didn’t always align?

A: From my early days I have worked more on developing an internal compass of what is right and what is wrong and over a period have learnt to rely on what I believe is correct to do, rather than look for external validations.

I often tell people that one of the best things that happened to me is that from an early age no one did my KRAs or appraisals for me. So, I developed my own version of setting KRAs for myself and seeing how I performed against them. It helped strengthen my internal monitoring mechanism strongly.

Of course, everyone likes external accolades but if you work hard, you can be your own judge and your own critic and cheerleader. I have found this extremely useful as I work on my startup Aazol Ventures currently. Because at Aazol we are chasing our internal purpose – which is to create financial empowerment for rural women and farmer communities by sourcing high quality and nutritious wholesome food products for them for the urban consumer. We are looking at the impact we create in rural communities rather than the valuation we can drive for our business which is very different from the path other startups follow.

Q: Many women hesitate before big pivots, was there a reinvention that felt particularly risky for you, and what inner voice helped you move forward anyway?

A: Yes of course, any reinvention is risky. Because you are letting go of all that is familiar and jumping into the unknown. Otherwise, it is not a reinvention. I think one must be prepared to take. a certain amount of risk if we really want a big pivot. For that we must train our mins to accept failure. It is likely we will succeed but it is equally likely that we will not – and we must be ok with both. it is not easy but if we work on our mind, pivoting becomes easier and paradoxically we are more likely to succeed than fail.

Q: Having moved from operating roles to boardrooms and authorship, when did you realise your presence mattered more than position and how did that change the way you show up today?

A: It took a long time for me to become comfortable without the tags and titles (and the power) which one becomes accustomed to. I have always had very senior designations and roles throughout my life so to be suddenly without that cover was disconcerting.

But over a period, I realized that if I truly need to follow what my current priorities and passion is, I must learn to let go of all past baggage including the safety of a fancy designation and a powerful role. Reinvention means stripping of everything and starting from zero base.

Today I am very comfortable in being a learner, starting small and not having a huge eco system to support me. It is a choice that I mindfully made and that itself is immensely uplifting and freeing.

LAST WORD: One Unconventional Lesson You Would Share with Women Leaders to Navigate Challenges with Impact

My one piece of advice would be – forget that you are a woman!

When you enter a workspace or a board room you are just a professional, your gender is irrelevant. Many times, we get bogged down by our gender and thus our perception of how the world views us or even how we view ourselves.

As professionals we must believe that we are equal in every way with equal rights to say and do just as every male in the room does. The moment we do that we free ourselves of expectations of what we must or must not do, of socialization that has been percolated into our mindset from our childhood of the role we must play.

The moment we become free of this historical influence on our psyche we can create tremendous impact and navigate all challenges life throws at us successfully!