Gandhi’s Guiding Principles For Life & Business

Gandhi’s Guiding Principles

For Life & Business……

As I mentioned in my last blog, How do We Change the World?, one of the people who has had the greatest impact on my life is Mahatma Gandhi. When one is born and raised in India it is impossible to NOT be impacted by the life and teaching of Gandhi. Over the years, I have adopted Gandhi’s Guiding Principles not only in my personal life, but also in the course of my business dealings.

Gandhi had six guiding principles and during the course of this blog series, I would like to focus on one principle and how that principle can be implemented in business, regardless of what business you may do. Gandhi’s six guiding principles are:

• Non-violence
• Deep Silence
• Extensive Research
• Radical Empathy
• Symbolic Action
• Be the change you want to see in the world

For today’s blog, I’d like to focus on the first guiding principle of non-violence. You may be wondering how non-violence applies to business, but what I’d like to focus on is what Gandhi did through non-violence that the businessman or woman can apply. He was able to lead a diverse group of people through a time of great adversity. He accomplished this through staying true to his deep conviction of non-violence.

What I take away as a business leader is how he worked with a diverse group of people and stayed true to his convictions. Business is all about people, whether it’s the people we work with or the people we serve in the course of our business, it’s impossible to get away from having to deal with people. The sign of a true leader is one who can rally a diverse group of people around a common goal while staying true to their core values and convictions. This was what Gandhi mastered. He never wavered in his conviction to non-violence and in doing so, rallied an entire nation around him.

As business leaders, we can learn much from this. Staying committed and focused on a common goal can be the one thing that unites a diverse group of people. Additionally, when they are under the leadership of someone who is unwavering in their beliefs and convictions, they are far more likely to stay the course even through an adverse situation.

While Gandhi’s first guiding principle was non-violence, what enabled him to succeed at this was an unwavering conviction that inspired the people he led. As business leaders, our challenge is to remain true to our convictions as we seek to inspire the people we lead.

Dilip Barot is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,500 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, contact info@etechgs.com for more information.