WASHINGTON: India’s Ambassador to the United States H.E. Mr Vinay Kwatra, recalled how three months spent under the mentorship of Microsoft chief Mr Satya Nadella’s father left him with a lasting lesson in leadership: discipline becomes meaningful when people accept it, rather than when it is imposed upon them.

Speaking at the Ideas4India forum in Seattle on September 17, Ambassador Kwatra moved from discussions on artificial intelligence and development to an experience from his early years as a civil servant. Mr Nadella was the guest of honour at the gathering, organised by the Consulate General of India.

A photograph shown during the event prompted Amb. Kwatra to recall his time under the guidance of Mr Nadella’s father. He had been among a group of about 260 young trainees, each inclined to follow a different direction. Managing and disciplining people in their early 20s, he said, was not easy, as their natural instinct was often to question what lay before them.

“So discipline can either be enforced or it can be integrated in you,” Amb. Kwatra said. “The only way in which it can be integrated in you is when you accept it, not when it is forced upon you.”

That, he recalled, was the distinction understood by Mr Nadella’s father. His approach encouraged the young trainees to accept discipline and make it part of their character, rather than simply comply with an external command. For Amb. Kwatra, the lesson remained with him long after those three months of training had ended. “And I think if you talk of leadership, in my personal opinion, the best leadership is which builds the strength of your character,” he said.