I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else
Ask better questions “How do I get into analytics?” “What should I do next?” I get a lot of such questions during my mentoring sessions. Unless one knows you personally, these are questions that don’t yield much value. These are what Reid Hoffman called ‘Blue Sky questions’. “What are the skills you gauge in business …
Learning to ask better questions – an under rated skill Read More »
Career Chats with Ranjani and Vignesh Vignesh and I share very few interests – one of it is mentoring 🙂 We talk a lot about common themes that we hear during our respective sessions. A lot of those questions are relevant to a larger audience – how do I get promoted, pursuing passion areas, conflict …
The first thing that struck me when I spoke to Kapil was his downright humility and sense of self reflection – a trait I hugely value in a leader. So much so that by the end of the 30 mins, we were chatting about mental health impact on women, almost as if I knew him …
Episode 5 : On Scaling effectively and influencing without authority Read More »
“For twenty years, the company ran mentorship programs, identified and promoted talented women early and often, and offered numerous trainings. And yet the only women in the C-suite were in marketing and HR, both pivotal but non-P&L roles. Why? “ **A new study of 21 female CEOs by Korn Ferry. Experts say that the systemic change necessary to consistently feed C-suites with diverse candidates has not yet happened. **At most companies, future CEOs need …
Are you indispensable at work? There is a village in China – outside of Shenzen called Dafen. It is said that 60% of new oil paintings worldwide was produced here. The workers in Dafen – while diligent and talented aren’t artists – they are painters. Cogs in a painting machine. The author, Seth Godin, talks …
What do you do when people you manage fail? 1) You forgive and forget 2) You remember, pass blame, stigmatise and humiliate them 3) You forgive and remember The right approach that Bob Sutton, a Professor of Management at Stanford University advocates is to – forgive so that people have psychological safety and – remember, so that you …
PIVOT LeaderTalks Ep 4 – Building High performing teams with Ajeya Motaganahalli Read More »
“Perhaps the most critical communication skill – Be brief. Use as few words as possible to say what you need, and everyone will appreciate it. After writing every sentence it helps to ask “Would the reader still get my point if I deleted that line?” Not “Does that sentence make sense?” Millions of unnecessary sentences …
What was your first job? The first couple of roles we play have an inordinate amount of influence on our careers. To how we work, what we end up doing and the leaders we then become (or don’t want to become:)) And that, therefore, should be an intentional choice to make. I loved Deborah Liu …
Why do folks feel unhappy about their careers? If you think deeply, most of the unhappiness stems from dissonance. Dissonance between what we are doing and what we think we should be doing. The goal, then is to keep that gap as small as possible. How does one do that? Through a lot of things. …
Building a career aligned to your personal values Read More »
A mentor once told me a secret To do well at the workplace And in life ‘Assuming Goodwill’ Conflicts and disagreements at workplaces, are inevitable There are two ways in which I have seen people handle such – Victimhood and Cynicism The former assumes the mentality of blame – that makes one lose a sense …