Introduction
The person I interviewed is named Pio and he is an IT consultant who has 20 years in the industry and now heads his own company and provides leadership for other companies that need expert advice on their networks and infrastructure. He is the founder and CEO of his own company and has 15 full-time employees. The reason I selected him is that he is an Indian from the state of Tamil Nadu. He came to America on his own in his late 20s and faced many obstacles, both personal and social, to survive and make it in this country. He is an inspiration for me as a leader and I wanted to interview him to understand his leadership approach more deeply.

Interview

1. How did you get to where you are today?

I got where I am today through hard work. I never gave up like so many other people I see today. It is so hard to get good help today and I don’t understand it because there are so many opportunities, yet you Americans are so lazy, you do not even like to lift a finger. If I could just find 5 hard working men or women I could take over this industry completely—I absolutely, firmly believe that. But aside from that, what else—I cannot take total credit for everything—yes, I worked hard and studied and never allowed myself any distraction—but there but by the grace of God go I. Without God’s help none of this would be possible, so I thank God every day for His assistance and I always ask God to guide me in everything, without fail. Every day—it is so important to pray, I cannot stress that enough.

2. How would you qualify your leadership style (e.g., servant, transformational, democratic, etc.)?

I am a very stern leader my team would probably say—but I am never unfair or tyrannical, because such leaders never last long. Sooner or later their team will abandon them. Leaders have to be compassionate and empathetic—they are leaders after all so if you are not connecting with your followers then ipso facto you are not their leader. You have to be understanding and sympathetic. They have to like you and you have to like them. It is part of the turf, so my leadership style—I would say it is compassionate authoritarian because at the end of the day I am making the decisions and I expect those decisions to be executed—but that does not mean I don’t want feedback or that I don’t want input from my people. I do want that and a lot of times they have good ideas and I listen and they play a part in the decision making process that way. But I am not formerly democratic or servant or transformational. I am very much authoritarian but compassionately so, which is what makes me a good leader I think.

3. What do you find most admirable in people?  Why are those things so important to you?

What I most admire in people is honesty and intelligence. Honesty without intelligence is okay but only for a minute because once you realize the person knows nothing you realize the person is not worth listening to no matter how honest he or she is. Honesty and intelligence are important to me because those are the qualities that allow for good things to happen. I don’t care if you are socially backwards or if you vote Left or Right—if you are honest with me and know how to critically analyze a problem, you’re the person I want.

4. Who is your favorite leader and why?

My favorite leader of all time is Jesus Christ of course. He is God, how can he not be my favorite leader? There is no one like Him. Aside from Him, I would say my favorite leader is a boss I had coming up in New York with Deutsche Bank. He is the one who freed me from the...…He is a master in IT and thus he knows he can run his own consultancy firm. He does not need to be directed by others because he can direct his own course. Yet he is anchored by his faith and it helps him to remain humble, charitable, kind and appreciative. I think that is very important when it comes to assessing his skills. He definitely has people skills and shows strong emotional and social intelligence skills. He can read people and he knows what tone to take, when to be firm, when to be conciliatory, and when to be supportive. He understands people very well and knows that to be successful you have to help others to feel successful.

Overall, Pio strikes me as a very kind leader who knows his own mind and knows what he wants and likes the challenge of helping others and forming a team. He is not shy about voicing his opinion but once voiced he is not going to try to beat anyone over the head with his opinion. He does not want to argue or fight. He wants to be around reasonable, intelligent people and so he attracts these types because he himself is intelligent and reasonable. So like attracts like.

Conclusion

This interview project has shown that what I most admire about Pio and his leadership is his ability to rise above the daily obstacles and that feelings that can wear one down. He learned compassion along the way and partly because he once had a boss who showed him compassion. That type of experience can impress one deeply and I can see how it impacted him. It impacted me just hearing the story, so from what I can tell of his leadership approach, he sees that people even employees have needs that have to be satisfied if one wants them to stick around. This is one of the most important aspects of his leadership style and approach that I found.