Musings, published a few times every week, are my attempt at sharing diverse perspectives to help us better navigate our lives.
The key theme I explore is how can we progress towards achieving our potential, and thereby become more accomplished & secure. Some of these ideas come from my own experience, while others come from a thorough study of management research & leadership books, perspectives from science, arts, history, and discussions with industry practitioners across sectors & functions.
Myth: People Only Leave Because of Bad Bosses
For the longest time, every other week there is a post that talks about how people leave bad bosses or quit managers and not companies.
Now while I don't disagree with this, i do feel this is a bit too simplistic. Let me explain.
DECISION FATIGUE
The ability to think to make choices and trade-offs, and therefore decisions, is what makes us human. Everyday we need to take thousands of decisions to function effectively. Some of these may well be small decisions take we take in a fraction of a second with short term or miniscule consequences, while others maybe big decisions with long term consequences on our lives for years to come. The quality of these decisions and their compounding effect has a direct bearing on the quality of our lives and the success we achieve (or not).
Define IT To Achieve It
I haven’t yet met anyone who achieved anything in life without defining what they want! And, I have also not met anyone for whom things have gone purely as planned!
A story of indomitable spirit: Deepa malik
In today’s edition of Inspiring Journeys, we explore the journey of Deepa Malik, the Indian Paralympian who has achieved great heights over the last two decades. Her story of the undefeatable human spirit, grit, and believing in yourself, can give you chills. Paralyzed, chest down, at the young of 29, she started her sports journey at age 36, and went on to win more than 23 international, and over 58 national medals. In 2016, aged 46, she won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in shot put, making her the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal.
Career Lessons rom IPL AuctioN
Last two days saw millions of dollars trade hands as the biggest cricketing league (IPL) held player auctions for the season ahead.
Here are my 2 cents in terms of the learning from the auction.
Learning Trajectory
Many times I have signed up for beginners classes of something (for instance Salsa) and found it was difficult to for me and I had to stretch to keep pace. It made me uneasy that I was struggling even at something that was classified as beginners level (while everyone else seemed to be rocking it).
Leadership Lessons from Australian Cricket
The recent episode of Justin Langer's (JL) resignation from the post of Head Coach of the Australian men's cricket team has a lesson or two for the professional sphere.
Incentives are a double edged sword
One of my friends decided to do an interesting experiment.
She was having trouble with her 9 year old son, who wasn't doing things she wanted him to do. For instance, he wasn't cleaning his room, wasn't doing his homework on time, or even helping with some house chores.
Is time an Optimization Problem or a prioritization problem
Time management is looked at as an Optimization problem i.e. how can I do more within the available time.
However, often it is a Prioritization problem i.e. what do I need to prioritize (form the host of things) and drop/ outsource/ delegate/ automate everything else.
What Comea First: Confidence or Competence?
Taking action is pre-requisite for achieving anything in life.
Taking action requires Confidence and Competence.
I have often debated which is the starting point for taking action. Is it Confidence or Competence.
Context Is King
Over the last two decades I have hopped, skipped and lived in many houses. The count is more like 12 houses so far.
This has been partly driven by the job and geography rotations (some planned and some serendipitous ones) I enjoyed in my career, and partly driven by circumstantial reasons for instance, one of the houses got termite, one of them got sold while, and other such peculiar reasons.
Many lives many paths
Many years back I had a direct report who was phenomenal at work. You could give him any project, any stakeholder to manage and he would do a fantastic job of it. If there was a difficult, he was the go to guy.
WHen Thoughts Outpace US
There are days when the pace of your thoughts outpaces the pace of action at work and in life.
It feels like being stuck in a slow motion movie, that you eagerly want to fast forward. You want things (often specific things) to move faster and reach the desired state. Yet, nothing seems to be moving at the desired pace, and often not even in the desired direction.
But we get drafted in for a supporting role and sometimes just as cover for someone else.