During that period i got an astounding insight into how much of discipline, physical and mental fitness, fairplay and most of all patience and restraint one needs, to hold such a position of power.

The most endearing trait of the man however, was his impeccable and thorough gentlemanly behaviour at all times. while i was all fire and abrasive sometimes, he was always a cool gentlemen who never swore in public or expressed his anger or negative emotions at any job botched up and instead always had kind words of encouragement.

while it is a good thing if observed from a human angle and makes a leader a lot likeable, it sometimes backfires in an organisation because a workplace cannot be run too much like a non-profit organisation or a mission of charity.

the company i was working for at that time, was an international organisation, staffed by various nationalities(predominantly asian) at various levels and i observed that the common uniting factor was money and job security.

while the top management was delivering the above, thanks to the initiatives of the CEO, such efforts were getting lost and unnoticed at lower levels due to complacency of middle level management.

in my opinion, a tough CEO(doesnt have to be verbally abusive to display toughness!) would not have allowed for this sort of a situation(although there are exceptions!) and had the CEO cracked his whip occassionally, things would have worked much better and the organisation would have seen growth, far more than what it was delivering. As a direct supervisor of the managers,, this is one of the primary job responsibilities of the CEO and one which is bound to get compromised if one is too kind.