There was a time when Mansi Madan Tripathy did not have a job.

She had spent 15 years at Procter & Gamble, moving between Malaysia, Singapore,Australia and Boston. Then her husband got a great opportunity in India, she left P&G, andshe was suddenly starting again. Her new role at Shell, as she put it, was at a significantlylower scale in salary and scope than the one she had left.

Today she is Senior Vice President, APAC for Shell Lubricants and Country Chair for ShellIndia, running a $2.5 billion P&L across 22 countries. She has also run more than 50 halfmarathons, trains in Indian classical dance, and mentors students at Harvard, SPJIMR andBabson.

That is why one of her answers stayed with me. I asked what advice she gives most oftenand finds hardest to follow. She did not reach for a polished line. She told me she still getsblurred by what society may think, what her parents want and what her children need.

That honesty runs through our whole conversation. Mansi does not describe a straightclimb. She describes a career built on detours, doubt and one simple habit: do the nextstep well.

Why you should read this

Read this if you have ever felt that your career is not going the way it was supposed to.Mansi’s story is a reminder that a detour is not a failure, and that the most useful thing tomeasure is how much you are learning.

Read it if you give your daughters, students or colleagues the advice to follow their heart,and then find it hard to follow yourself. She says the same about her own life.

Also Read- Five Kilometres Home: Tejaswini Manjunath on Sponsors, Shipping and Leading with Heart

And read it if you are a woman who has walked into a room and felt the quiet check onwhether you know your subject. She names it plainly, and she explains how she stoppedletting it weigh on her.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Measure learning, not titles.
Mansi thought a career would be a linear climb, and calls that the most wrong assumption you can have. The variable she would maximise now is new experiences and new learnings.

2. The advice you give is the advice to test on yourself.
She tells mentees to follow their heart, yet admits the noise of society, parents and perception still sways her subconsciously. Her fix is constant self-examination.

3. Do the next step well.
On the marathon course, the goal becomes overwhelming the moment you count the kilometres left. Focusing on now is what carries you through, and she sees the same pull in the boardroom, where too much happening at once blurs the one thing in front of you.

4. Read the room before you lead it.
Asking about a colleague’s family built trust in Asia. In the US it earned her a look that said mind your business, and sharp feedback after week one. Great leaders adjust their style quickly.

5. Competence is still questioned, so stop letting it weigh on you.
From the lubricants shop floor to meetings with ministers, she feels the quiet doubt about whether a woman can do it. She calls the proving her Agni Pariksha, and has chosen to go through it and move on.

6. Climate promises need all three players to move.
Net zero targets are running behind, she says, because corporates, governments and consumers are each waiting for the others to pay the premium.

7. Effortless is built from unseen discipline.
Her years of Indian classical dance taught her that the more effortless a dancer or athlete looks, the more practice sits behind it. The same is true of a coordinated organisation.

8. The small moments are the real trade-off.
She protects the big events with her children, but misses the unplanned chats after school. Her wish is for a better way to be around when they simply want to talk.

9. The next generation will have portfolio careers.
She expects careers shaped like circles and zigzags, with ventures, teaching and board roles running side by side, and says we all need to make peace with that.

Key quotes

These are Mansi’s words from the recording, trimmed of filler. The first one is the strongest candidate for the pull quote.

“It’s just one step ahead of the other, like just don’t stop and just focus on your next step and do that right.”

-on running

“When you start thinking of a goal, it becomes really big”

-on running

“You feel like life is going to be a pretty linear journey in your career, which is as wrong as it can be.”

-on careers

“I still get blurred by what society may think or what my parents want or my children’s needs.”

–on following your heart

“There is that moment where people still doubt whether you are competent enough.”

on women in energy

“The starting assumption is they are competent.”

-on how men are judged at the start

“The more effortless they are, the more hard work is behind it.”

-on dance and discipline

“The biggest trade-off is missing out on very small moments in their life.”

-on her children

“When I see somebody’s eyes light up, when you say something and it gives them a new insight, nothing is more beautiful and satisfying than that.”

-on mentoring

Listen to the full conversation

Hear Mansi Madan Tripathy’s full story on The AboutHer Show, ranked in the Top 3 on Feedspot’s list of Indian Women’s Leadership Podcasts 2026.

Not just about her. It takes all of us.