Leadership Lessons from the Top of the Org Chart Forget the so-called gurus. Learn from the people worth quoting.

Mark Leslie had overseen two other companies before he came onboard at Veritas Software in 1990 as founding chairman and CEO. So he had some ideas about the kind of culture he wanted to create--that is, what sort of internally generated values could help the company succeed.

For starters, Leslie wanted to make Veritas' decision-making process more transparent. Early on, he presided over a weekly meeting with employees at which, he says, "all of the issues of the day were discussed." Later, after the company went public, he'd conduct an open executive staff meeting once a month--managers worldwide could listen in--during which he and senior executives would share information, such as earnings projections.

The idea, Leslie says, was to share with his colleagues as much information as he could, reducing the level of secrecy within the Veritas hierarchy and thereby reducing the degree to which secrecy bred politics. The company name, after all, comes from the Latin word for "truth."