COVER STORY
SAGE Foundation.
Which values define a capable
leader and a great leader to you?
A leader who left a deep impres-
sion on me was my Father-in law
Kishinchand Thadomal Shahani, the
Founder of the Thadomal Shahani
Trust. His leadership style was pre-
dominantly inspirational. He consid-
ered the employees in his company
as extended family, and in turn they
treated him like a father figure.
Family values and loyalty tend to
be deeply ingrained in the minds of
most Indians. So even if this “firm
as family” concept is alien to the
Western way of thinking, it worked
very well in the Indian environment.
He showed his concern for his
employees by trying to develop them
and being empathetic to their per-
sonal problems. They regularly came
to him for advice. The managers in
the company were blindly loyal to
him and were inspired to do their
best without expecting any tangible
rewards.
This relationship between him and
his employees could have easily pro-
moted an autocratic style of leader-
ship. However, his personal humil-
ity prevented his ego from supersed-
ing the good of the firm. My father
in law did not encourage politics in
the company. He did not play off
one manager against another for his
personal gains. He tried to arbitrate
inter office disputes in an impar-
tial manner. He was not swayed by
sycophants. His style was a mixture
of consensus building and author-
itarian leadership. His leadership
was not totally centralised, nor
decentralised.
He tried to enable his managers
by giving them a free reign in their
departments. His only expectation
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of his employees was their loyalty to
the firm and their execution of the
major decisions he made. In return
he gave them considerable job secu-
rity and a chance to develop in the
firm. He was a servant leader who
worked for the good of his employ-
ees and company. He always kept a
balance between his personal and
work life and kept time for his chil-
dren and grand children.
My father-in-law’s guiding princi-
ple was the upliftment of the needy
and the underprivilleged. He was a
great believer of Mahatma Gandhi’s
“simple living and high thinking”
tenet. He did not seek to acquire
material wealth simply for his own
gain, but to better help others. He
had his own set of ethical principles
which he refused to compromise.
He fought anything or anyone who
went against his sense of ethics. His
business and philanthropic activities
LEAD | January 2018