Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of our Times

3. Truth Tellers

Truth lies at the heart of all true leadership. To understand how the two relate to one another, consider Mohandas (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, whom more than a billion Indians call the father of their nation. Confronted by unjust laws imposed by the British Empire in the last century, he developed a doctrine of peaceful non-cooperation that he called Satyagraha, or insistence on truth, whose aim was to “wean opponents from error by patience and sympathy” rather than by subjecting them to violence. After early successes in South Africa, Gandhi’s principles spread like wildfire in India, where they helped unite millions in the subcontinent against British rule. “Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to reach truth,” ...