Leading Side by Side: The Power of Trust and Tension

In the first of a three-part series on the lead­er­ship behind Ashi­ana Hous­ing, we explore how the Gup­ta broth­ers have turned trust into one of their sharpest com­pet­i­tive advan­tages. Ashi­ana is a pur­pose-led real estate devel­op­er that builds thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ties — and proves their com­mit­ment every day by stand­ing behind and main­tain­ing every home they build indefinitely.

In the lead­er­ship cir­cles I work in, there’s a lot of talk about trust. But trust alone isn’t enough — not when you’re lead­ing some­thing com­plex. Not when the stakes are gen­er­a­tional. And not when you’re three broth­ers, run­ning a pub­lic com­pa­ny together.

Ashi­ana Hous­ing is one of India’s lead­ing real estate devel­op­ers, pur­pose-dri­ven and rec­og­nized for its ground­break­ing focus on senior liv­ing. It’s also a rare case study in how emo­tion­al trans­paren­cy and strate­gic clar­i­ty can co-exist inside a fam­i­ly business.

Vishal, Ankur, and Varun Gup­ta lead dif­fer­ent parts of the com­pa­ny — con­struc­tion, cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, finance. They don’t agree on every­thing. But they do one thing excep­tion­al­ly well:

They chal­lenge ideas, not intent.

“We fight. But we fight with love,” says Ankur.

They each lead their domain — Vishal in design and exe­cu­tion, Ankur in brand and cus­tomer, Varun in finance and land. But they come togeth­er reg­u­lar­ly to push, chal­lenge, and stress-test each other’s think­ing. They don’t try to think the same. They’ve built the con­fi­dence to think together.

What one miss­es, the oth­ers see. That’s how they’ve moved quick­ly on big ini­tia­tives — from enter­ing new cities to expand­ing their foot­print in senior liv­ing. Their align­ment is more than per­son­al — it’s structural.

And what’s even more rare? When ten­sions rise (and they do), it’s nev­er about char­ac­ter. It’s about clar­i­ty. ​“There’s always ten­sion,” says Varun. ​“But nev­er misalignment.”

That’s not just a lead­er­ship sto­ry. That’s a busi­ness advantage.

Ashi­ana has grown into a senior hous­ing pio­neer — by mov­ing fast, think­ing deeply, and mak­ing big bets. You can only do that when your team is both emo­tion­al­ly secure and struc­tural­ly sound.

The Chal­lenge:

Where does your lead­er­ship team need to stop play­ing nice and start get­ting real? 

What one con­ver­sa­tion would build more align­ment with­out demand­ing agreement?

Want to learn more? Read our recent­ly pub­lished case study or watch my full inter­view with Vishal, Ankur and Varun below.

Resources

• Ashi­ana Hous­ing: Build­ing on Purpose
• Three Traits That Make or Break a Leader
• Heart and Hustle
• Pod­cast Ep 146: Why the Great­est Lead­ers Obsess Over Their Goals

About Ashi­ana Housing

Found­ed by the late Om Prakash Gup­ta in 1979, Ashi­ana Hous­ing has grown from a bold exper­i­ment into one of India’s most respect­ed real estate brands. Om Gup­ta pio­neered mid­dle-income hous­ing and retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in India, dri­ven by an uncom­pro­mis­ing vision: to build homes — not just build­ings — where peo­ple could live with dig­ni­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, and pride. His lega­cy lives on through Ashiana’s award-win­ning devel­op­ments, deep cus­tomer loy­al­ty, and val­ues-dri­ven lead­er­ship. Today, his sons Vishal, Ankur, and Varun con­tin­ue to lead the com­pa­ny with the same heart, but a voice all their own.