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Leadership Requires Discomfort
Every leadership training I have been through, be it for the Indian Police Service or at McKinsey, was missing a critical element -- training people how to dissent. Without the ability to dissent, you only have yes-men (or yes-women), not leaders....
Recent Posts
Clear Communication Through Iteration
Did the McKinsey consulting experience help me in my startup journey? The answer is complicated. Yet, one aspect did -- clear communication. In...
Success is an event and so is a failure
After June 12th, when the UPSC Prelims exam results came out, I received a bunch of emails from people who did not qualify. Many were dejected and...
Rethinking Instant Response Culture
Employees responding instantly to your Slack messages is a fantastic thing. Just as the Rolls Royce is a fantastic car. There is only one problem --...
Completion Discipline
I am struggling. In fact, in my startup life, I have always struggled -- there is just too much to do and too little time. And to make things worse,...
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25-Minute Focus: Feasible or Myth?
My friend Vinod Thomas recently told me that while I keep talking about doing 25-minute focus sprints (pomodoros), even focusing intensely for 5 minutes is hard. And Vinod is one of the smartest people I know. So is 25 min of focus feasible or is...
Quit the Noise, Embrace Zen
Your sanity is under threat from the zillion WhatsApp groups that everyone seems to be a part of. These WhatsApp groups are for all and sundry -- folks from school, college, work, close relatives, distant relatives, extraterrestrials... and so on....
Rethinking the Billionaire Race
A while ago, I was talking to a friend who once led a top-tier Indian university. One day, a psychologically distressed student came to him and somberly said, "I am 25. At my age, Mark Zuckerberg was already a billionaire. And what have I achieved?...
Here’s how you break bad habits
Yesterday, I asked my colleagues -- "Which app do you find most distracting or addicted to?" And I heard a surprising answer: Swiggy. One team member candidly admitted that around 12:30 pm, when the Swiggy offers start pouring in, she can't help...