Do you see marketing yourself as boasting? Do you get annoyed at people who promote themselves? Do you feel uncomfortable talking about yourself? Do you tell yourself that you’re too modest / shy / introverted / humble to tell people about your ......
Imagine your boss calls you on Friday evening and says he wants to meet you on Monday morning at 11 to give you some feedback. What are you going to think? How are you going to feel? For many people, thoughts like, ‘what did I do?’, ‘have I ......
In our work as Professors at the Indian School of Business for MBA students, and consultants for young leader programs at companies like HUL, Airtel, Godrej, Aditya Birla, Teach for India, etc. we’ve noticed a number of repeated challenges ......
There are a few occasions in our leadership workshops, especially with young and mid-level high potential managers, that the conversation turns to ‘authenticity’, and more times than not, I end up wincing or face palming myself. I ......
We do not keep getting better at something, the more we practice it. If that were the case, given that many of us type on our laptops almost every day, we’d be typing at 200 words per minute by now. Actually what happens is that we get better ......
One of the beliefs that was ingrained into me as a child was that ‘the middle path is always the best path’. And it has served me really well. I think I’ve become a well balanced, head on the shoulders, practical person because of that. ......
A team cannot perform at its peak unless its members are willing to fight with one another. High performing teams subject their discussions to Darwininan laws of survival – only the fittest suggestions are allowed to survive. This only happens ......
If you feel you are a judgmental person then you will have to ask yourself the same question that many comic book characters have had to ask themselves when they discover they have special gifts… Are you going to use your power for good or for ......
The newspapers are rife with stories of rich, successful people who end up in jails. It doesn’t seem to make sense for anyone in their positions to put everything they’ve earned at risk. So why do they? Nobody wakes up one day and ......
Often when we are trying to to roll out critical initiatives we come up against key stakeholders who exert an equal and opposite force that can bring us to a grinding halt. We assume that they are misinformed and give them the information that they ......
Games are fun because there are challenges to overcome. Without rules and difficulties that restrict the options available to us, a computer game would be as fun to play as an infinite blank excel sheet. The challenges aren’t distractions from ......
There are no great poems about office life. Nor are there movies or stories or paintings or comics or songs that celebrate the day to day challenges of work. Every other conceivable topic gets covered through these art forms – love, parenting, ......