New Delhi: In business, resilience often means “bouncing back” after a poor quarter. In social impact, resilience is quieter and tougher. It’s about showing
up again the next day when a family’s crisis hasn’t changed, when the system moves slowly, and when resources are limited. This work reveals that leadership isn’t about control; it’s about steadiness.
In an exclusive interaction with News9live, Sundeep Talwar, CEO of Impact Guru Foundation (IGF-India), said, resilience comes from routines, not speeches. Field teams are not protected by slogans; they rely on processes.
Sundeep Talwar said, “You learn to simplify because complexity breaks down at the final step. You prepare for “bad days” as the norm: a driver might not show up, a clinic may be overcrowded, a document could be missing, or a supplier might be late. The strength in leadership is repetition—clear priorities, smooth handovers, and a culture where problems can be raised without blame. It also requires the humility to quickly fix what went wrong, and to do so openly in front of the people you serve.
Empathy above all…
Empathy is the second, often overlooked teacher, and it is not about being soft; it is about understanding how things work. When you sit with a caregiver who has spent a day’s wages just to reach a hospital, you realize that “access” is not just a slogan—it involves time, transportation, fear, language, and dignity. Empathy changes design: it leads to shorter queues, clearer communication, fewer forms, counselling that respects culture, and services that meet people where they are. It also alters how you manage teams. You begin to reward clarity, accuracy, and care, in addition to speed, because miscommunication hurts people.
“Decision-making shifts from being about certainty to being about responsibility. Social impact work requires constant negotiation between urgency and thoroughness: act quickly, but check everything; innovate, but don’t experiment with people’s lives. You learn to mix data with real-life experiences—baseline numbers with conversations at the doorstep. You prefer decisions that can be reversed, document your assumptions, and set up early-warning signals so you can adjust quickly. And you discover a hard truth: the cost of delays often falls on those who have the least ability to handle mistakes,” Talwar added.
These lessons travel well. In any sector, stronger leadership comes down to three questions: What will we still deliver when pressure rises? Whose reality are we designing for? And what decision protects dignity as much as it protects outcomes? That is a standard every leader can borrow.
Try this simple audit: spend one day with beneficiaries, one day with frontline staff, and one day in the data. Your next decisions will be sharper—and kinder too.
