Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Dinesh C. Paliwal, the chairman, president and chief executive of Harman International Industries.

To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times

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Bryant: What were some early influences on your leadership style?

Paliwal: My father was a freedom movement advocate. He worked with Mahatma Gandhi. He spent years in jail because of his efforts to fight for India’s freedom, and he would write speeches and my mother would deliver them. Then, when he was with our family, once in a while I would attend meetings that he was hosting. He would speak up in the middle of the conversation if he heard somebody making things up or falsifying things to make themselves look good.

And I just cannot put up with injustice and political maneuvering myself. As people around me get to know me, they know I will never knowingly do anything unfair or unjust. I make mistakes, but I am also very quick to admit and correct them.

Bryant: Other important leadership lessons for you?

Paliwal: I have learned that leadership is all about demonstrating and exuding confidence. One of my former bosses used to say: “There will always be uncertainty in your life, doubts about yourself, about the decision you’re about to make. Keep it inside. Process it. But don’t let it show on your face. You need to come out with a confident but simple description of the problem and tell people a simple three-step process for how we’re going to get out of the problem. Because they need to know that the leader is in control.”

Bryant: You mentioned the importance of simplicity.

Paliwal: That same boss told his direct reports: “Whenever you’re going to talk to investors, to management, to the board, or at quarterly meetings, I want you to write it first. It may be five or six pages. Then I want you to write one page. Then I want you to write half a page.” He used to say he hated PowerPoints: “Where is the power and what’s the point?” He also would say to us, “If you cannot explain it to me without slides, you haven’t understood your problem.” That still resonates with me.

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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times‘ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.