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Why Intelligence Without Accountability Is Dangerous
One of my IIT professors had a stellar academic reputation. But after he quit/retired, he abandoned academic rigour and started making random claims. He would inflate mediocre work using jargon and began behaving like a quack. And the reason was...
Recent Posts
When You’re Lost, Being Busy Is the Worst Thing You Can Do
In my first startup, I outsourced my product development to a small IT services company. In the beginning, things seemed okay. But soon, I was...
Work Smarter, Not Longer: The Power of Leverage at Work
One of my best friends in the Indian Police Service recently told me the story of his boss at a paramilitary organization, who used to tell his...
For Once, Be Selfish: Learn to Listen to Criticism
About a decade ago, I was in Mussoorie (at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) during the training program for senior Civil...
Be Lazy With Messages. Be Serious About Your Life
You take a risk every time you sign bank documentation without reading it (e.g., when taking a bank loan). Yet, it makes sense because we have...
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If You Don’t Want to Stop Working, You’ve Lived Well
Long ago, one of my IITK professors lost his life to cancer. His colleague told me that until the very end, he kept working -- he insisted that his files and other work be brought to him at the Visitors' Hostel. He only stopped working when he was...
Status Quo Is Just Furniture Waiting to Be Moved
When I first landed in Kerala as a Civil Services officer trainee, we were staying in a guest house managed by the police department. One evening, we all batchmates wanted to just sit and chat. So we started moving the furniture around so that we...
Success and Niceness: Why Being Kind Still Matters
Recently, I saw a familiar face in the news -- this person was appointed as a leader of a major global corporation. And I remembered that I had interviewed him at McKinsey! Before this interview, my manager told me, "Be careful! He is not known to...
Effective Delegation: Letting Go Is the First Step to Leadership
When you delegate work, remind yourself that: 1. People won't approach problems the way you do. 2. People's slides or spreadsheets won't look exactly like yours. 3. People won't probably do anything your exact way. And that's ok. Because people are...