Servant leadership guides Kellogg student Vishal Save ’08

6/16/2008 - “Those who are giving, should keep giving.” That sentence, translated from a Marathi poem, epitomizes the philosophy of Vishal Save ’08, winner of the Business Leadership Club’s Outstanding Mentorship Award. The inaugural award was bestowed this spring to recognize a second-year Kellogg student’s contributions in mentoring, motivating and coaching first-year students through recruiting, club activities and other aspects of Kellogg life.

Vishal Save ‘08 has earned distinction for his efforts to help his Kellogg peers.

He believes that he and his classmates were fortunate to have great mentors when they were in their first year at Kellogg. “Then when it was our turn, each of us tried to give back in ways we could — by serving on clubs and committees, by providing leadership to conferences and trips, by mentoring, by directing Special K!, by pledging, and so on.”

Save, who is graduating to take a management consulting position at McKinsey & Co., said that he always has embraced servant leadership. “It requires genuine empathy and passion towards those whom you are leading,” he noted. “It is not much different from the marketing concept of ‘serving’ your customers. You can be successful in the long run only if you empathize with your customers.” This perspective is engrained in the Kellogg culture and was what attracted him to the school in the first place, he said. “I can passionately say I made the right choice.”

Save’s nomination for the award read: “Ultimately, mentoring to me is not just about providing coaching, feedback and advice as needed. Instead, it is the notion of a mentor being committed to and being vested in the mentee to the extent that you view his/her success and failure as your own.”

In all, the Business Leadership Club received 24 thoughtful and impassioned nominations from first-year students that celebrated the leadership demonstrated by their peers in the Class of 2008. The other nominees were: Nadine Arotin, Vivian Cheung, Justin Dean, Eric Epstein, Rodrigo Escudero, Krithika Gunasekaran, Kevin Hoo, Jun Kamata, Amy Keith, Merav Kushner, Arun Rajagopalan, Boaz Shedletsky, Laura Smolen, Arjun Srinivasan, Michael Teplitsky, Geoff Thiessen, Jayson Traxler, Kelly Winters and Matt Zales.

Save said that he is excited to see that the Class of 2009 is already eager to give back when their new peers — the Class of 2010 — arrive on campus in September.