Niren Chaudhary, former chairman of the board of Panera Brands, tells us how authentic leadership springs from the heart.

This interview conducted during the Global Peter Drucker Forum takes us through the journey of Niren Chaudhary, who has transformed personal sorrow into a source of inspiration and growth. Having lost his two daughters, Aisha and Tanya, he embraced courage, gratitude and generosity, values that guide both his personal life and business philosophy today.

In a complex and uncertain world, he explains how businesses can thrive as oases of inclusivity and sustainability. His journey showcases a powerful example of how by caring for both people and the planet, we will have multiple opportunities to create a more sustainable future.

Mr. Chaudhary, how can leaders have an impact in the complex contexts in which we live and operate?

I believe leadership is a privilege because it gives you the opportunity to be a force multiplier for good. By that I mean to have an impact, not only on the enterprise value creation, but also on unlocking dreams of people that work in the company, serving the community, protecting the planet. To do all of that, I believe leaders have to inspire trust and be trustworthy, and to be trustworthy, leaders have to be consistent in how they show up and how they behave. And to be consistent in how they behave, they need to have clarity of values. Your behaviors are like the leaves of the tree that everyone can see. The trunk of the tree are the thoughts that drive that behavior. Underneath the ground that nobody can see are your values and your roots. See your values and beliefs, drive your thoughts, drive your behavior, drive your habits, create your character, and character locks destiny. The reason I share this is to highlight the importance of values for leaders to build trust.

Where does one get these values?

We get them from our parents, from our spiritual practice, and most importantly, from our life experiences. One of the most profound life experiences for me has been the loss of my two daughters: Aisha, who passed away when she was 18, and Tanya, who passed away when she was eight months old. Aisha was 13 when she was told she had five years to live. But she didn't live thinking she had only five years to live, but she lived thinking she had five years to live. Therefore, she made every single day count, every moment magical and added this very unique perspective of life. Her story is one of courage, gratitude and generosity.

I have embraced these three values as follows: courage, which is I must focus on what I can control, not what's happening to me. Gratitude: that I must focus on what is going right in my life, and not what is going wrong. Generosity, which is I must seek fulfillment by serving others by making a difference in this world. From the loss of my daughters, I have learned to become a more humanistic, more empathetic, more compassionate leader.

And finally, I should mention resilience. We will fall down in life, but we must have the strength to always get up and to fight again, and to be the best version of who we can be. These values are how I show up in my life, and through that I build trust, and then I try to unlock my ability to impact people, the community, the planet and the enterprise.

Do you think most of our leaders today freely exercise their imagination, or do they get hemmed in by invisible – and even imagined – boundaries?

Today's world is very complex, it's volatile, uncertain, ambiguous. We're living in very difficult times. There are a lot of challenges all over the world. My belief is that empowered leaders ought to not be limited by constraints. Can we make our organization a shining example of the world that we wish to see? Can we make our companies inclusive, tolerant, respectful, embracing of all differences? Imagine if all leaders and all companies all over the world would just focus on their company and make it great, we could have a much better impact on the world around us.

In what ways do you consider social responsibility essential to achieving a company's goals?

For me, social responsibility would be looking after all stakeholders, shareholders, community, the planet and people. All four of them are actually reinforcing each other. If you serve the people as stakeholders, then people want to stay with you, and you don't have the higher cost of hiring new people all the time. Because they stay with you, people become more efficient, which should contribute to a more profitable business. Serving a community would mean that you serve the community. At our brands, we donate a lot of our unsold bakery and other products at the end of the day, worth millions of dollars. Customers appreciate the fact that we're actually giving back to the community of which we are a part, which builds brand loyalty. We are also doing our best to make the world more climate-friendly. On top of that, all of these three things should strengthen your business model, which would then create more enterprise value. Only if you have the ability to create social value, will your enterprise value be enduring and sustainable.

How can a company's impact agenda include its community and the environment?

We donate unsold products at the end of the day to nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters and people facing food insecurity. In the US, 40% of the food produced is wasted. We have enough food, but it’s not going to the right place. Therefore organizations must correct that imbalance. That's one community. One-third of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions come from food production and the food industry, that’s why any food company has to act responsibly to make a difference. It begins with first measuring the carbon footprint of the food you sell. It also means being more aware of improving that carbon footprint as you develop menus and innovate. I strongly believe there are always ways in which you can have a people, community and planet agenda that can be profitable. It's hard, but it's not impossible, and it must be done.

What is the significance of authentic communication in your interactions with others?

I think there are various ways to do it. It has to start with the leaders in the company who have to be role models for this ambition with compassion, in the way they speak, behave and act. Only if they do that, will the employees consider it to be a serious intent, and will also galvanize around that and make it a cornerstone of the organization’s culture. The wonderful thing is that if you do that, you become branded as a great place to work. Especially young people today are looking for companies that have a broader impact agenda, as are customers.

For most businesses, compassion is an easy thing to say when times are good. How do you hold up those same values when times get tough?

With compassion or any other value, it’s always harder to stand behind your values when times are tough. That's when you really get tested. Whether it is good times or bad times, you can make tough decisions, but you can always do it with compassion and care, whether it is for employees or customers. It takes conviction at the top.