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 Romil Bahl (president and chief executive of PRGX, a data mining and audit recovery firm) who says his father helped to teach him to keep an open mind — and to remember that the best ideas can come from anyone, anytime.

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

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Learn to Walk With Beggars and Kings

Bryant: In reading some of your company’s materials, I came across this phrase: “tactful audacity.” Can you talk about what that means?

Bahl: I heard it from one of our senior executives in Europe. But it was so powerful to me because it said in two words what I have found to be very effective in 20 years of client work — that you can’t give feedback to clients in anything but a constructive fashion. You can’t sort of just push back willy-nilly, and you don’t win arguments with clients, period.

Now, having said that, if you aren’t being audacious, if you aren’t challenging, if you aren’t pushing back, you’re on your way out the door, right? You’re done as the trusted adviser and partner. So now it’s in our value set. It’s about tone and how you pass along a difficult message. You sort of flip that around and say, “How do I like to hear advice and how do I not like to hear it?” You’re doing it because you’re trying to help.

Bryant: Can you talk about the culture you try to create, and how you do it?

Bahl: It probably sounds like an exaggeration, but in some way, shape or form, I spend about 50 percent of my time communicating, whether that’s externally or internally. You’ve got to be able to do it consistently, and with passion.

On my first day with the company, I wrote an e-mail, and put “From Romil’s Desk” in the subject line. Almost two years later, once a month, a “From Romil’s Desk” e-mail goes out. If it’s a day later than it’s supposed to be, I’ll actually get a couple of e-mails from people saying, “Was there one this time? Because I might not have received it.” It’s expected.

Bryant: What did you want to change about the culture when you took over?

Bahl: A little over two years ago, I entered a pretty siloed and not very happy place, and so I had to break those things down. And so I stressed collaboration and teamwork. I stressed that the power of information is in sharing it and not hoarding it.

In my leadership meetings, I ask my team to do what I try to do, which is lead from the front. And I say: “It starts with you challenging me in this room, challenging each other in this room. When we leave the room, we’ve got the one way we do things, but in this room, let’s get it out and please go encourage your people to do the same.” It’s the best of the company that has to be brought to bear for everything we do. And the best idea has to win. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help or to bring other people in. It’s a sign of strength.

Bryant: How do you make sure everyone contributes in a meeting?

Bahl:I will absolutely say something right then and there. People are used to it. People are used to me saying things like: “O.K., for 25 minutes I haven’t heard anything from you. What’s going on over there? Are you with us? Are you looking at your BlackBerry? What’s going on?” So it’s a little bit provocative, as well, and you have to be careful about how many times you do that. But I’ll do it because I have this fundamental belief that these are successful, great people around you who are here for a reason and they have something smart to say. At least on the most important things that we’re going to do, until I feel like we’ve really hit upon that best idea, I’ll keep pushing people to get it done.

Bryant: Doesn’t calling somebody out like that embarrass them?

Bahl: If it’s a new executive, I won’t do it, because they have to get to know me a little bit. They have to be part of the team long enough to know that there’s no malicious intent. I’m not going to remember this in the next hour, far less next week and write it down in some performance evaluation. That’s not what I do, and it’s not what we’re all about. I think everybody has to find a way to get there, because otherwise you’re not having the most authentic conversation.

On a related point, the people who have helped me the most in my career told me things I didn’t like hearing the first time I heard them. And that night I might have tossed and turned a little bit. I probably didn’t even like them much the next morning. But three weeks and three months and three years later, that’s the person I would list as one of those who made a big impact. So in the spirit of “life’s not a popularity contest,” I’ll do some things that maybe others might not. But it’s not an uncommon story even in our personal lives, right?

I mean, the most influential person in my life is my father, and I did not get along with him for a long time. Now, I’ll have moments and say to myself: “That’s what he meant. That’s what he was saying.” Like the time he said, “If the road isn’t getting steeper every minute, watch out, because you’ve already started to head downhill.” I wish I’d listened to him 20 years ago.

Bryant: What were some of his other sayings?

Bahl: “Shoot for the moon,” he would say, “So you’ll miss and you’ll hit the second floor or maybe the third. You’ll still get a heck of a lot higher than what you’re trying to do today.” He would also say, “We must learn to walk with beggars and with kings.”

Bryant: What’s the story behind that?

Bahl: We weren’t affluent when I was growing up. He was in the army. Like every army, the Indian army doesn’t pay much. He was a colonel. But the flip side of that is we were very fortunate because we got to do some really cool things. And then he took early retirement from the army and went into business for himself. It took him a while to get going but once he was doing very well, my mom and dad’s lives were Rotary Club meetings and embassy parties four days a week. So every now and then, we’d make some comment about, “Why are we eating at this place again?” or something like that, and, boy, he would bring us right back down to earth.

Bryant: So how does that saying manifest itself in the way you lead?

Bahl: It’s this great idea of equality. It means the best idea can come from anyone, and let’s open up our minds to getting thinking from cross-functional areas. That’s something that comes from that notion of equality and diversity — that comes from that notion of walk with beggars and kings. You have to get good people around you and then make sure they feel comfortable putting their ideas out there, because somewhere in there, there’s a gem.

And let me give you another example. We’ll be running a big board meeting or something and somebody will say, “There’s no water.” So we can sit around and we can call assistants or we can just get up and get some water. Is that the culture we’re trying to set — one of sitting around waiting and being high and mighty — or is it the culture where we’re going to get things done. I’ll get you a glass of water. Let’s get on with it. It’s hard to extrapolate a whole lot from that one sentence, but it influences just about everything we do.

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To read the compere intervuew, please click here.

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. To contact him, please click here.