E181 | The Inspired Leader | Anil Sachdev
Anil Sachdev wrote his life’s mission statement at 19. He is the Founder and Chairman of the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), founded Eicher Consultancy Services and Grow Talent, and has spent five decades helping individuals and organisations discover what they are truly capable of. His new book — The Inspired Leader: Seven Practices to Unlock Your Leadership Potential — is the distillation of that lifetime of work.
In this episode, Anil returns to Inspire Someone Today for a rare second appearance. The conversation moves through the origins of his mission, the profound lessons of his Eicher years, the architecture of The Inspired Leader, and the one thing he believes can change a life this week.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
- The 1971 war, a youth forum, and how a 19-year-old found his mission by raising ₹5,000 for a martyr’s family
- Why Vikram Lal — the man behind Eicher — visited a junior employee’s home seven times during a 40-day illness, and what that taught Anil about leadership
- The Two Biggest Lies about leadership — and why Anil chose the word ‘lie’ over ‘myth’
- Dr. James Doty: from a broken home at 12, to world-leading neurosurgeon and founder of Stanford’s Center for Altruism — a story of what a single conversation can unlock
- SOAR vs SWOT — and the miracle of the SOIL campus that was built in six months by a contractor who had never built an office building
- J. Krishnamurti’s choiceless awareness — and what it means to become the witness of your own mind
- What breaks trust most in modern workplaces, and the three ingredients that rebuild it: competence, credibility, and fairness
- Why declining the Director’s chair at both IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore was the right call — and what it cost
- The two AIs that matter more than artificial intelligence: Appreciative Inquiry and Aspiration to Inspiration
- Anil’s Listener Action: one small thing, starting today
About Anil Sachdev
Anil Sachdev is the Founder and Chairman of the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), one of India’s most values-driven business schools, co-created with 32 companies. He began his career at Tata Motors in 1975, spent over two decades at Eicher Group — heading HR, Operations, and sitting on the Board — before founding Eicher Consultancy Services (1991) and Grow Talent (2001). He has been adjunct faculty at ISB, Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business, and CEDEP/INSEAD. He is a Trustee of Chinmaya Mission. Anil wrote the Foreword for Sri’s book, Inspire Someone Today.
