Nuggets On
Discussions around the role that parenting plays in shaping who we are and our beliefs, habits, behaviours and mindsets. Leaders share their personal experiences around how a lot of who they are got baked in their early years.
Where the seeds of transition were sown
How did Amish Tripathi go from being a banker to a bestselling author? You might think that making this transition would have involved a life altering event. But sometimes, unknown to you, the seeds of transition might be nurtured in your life, through your lifestyle, habits, hobbies or the even the milieu around you.
TAGS
Formative yearsWriting for self
What motivates a bestselling author? In this short nugget, hear Amish speak about the philosophy behind his writing, his views on failure and success and what can make you truly ‘unstoppable’.
Transitioning from Financial Services to Writing
So you have found your passion but undecided when and how to take the plunge? Hear Amish talk about how he transitioned to being a full time author from a banker. Discover how ‘pragmatism and positive vibes’ guided this transformation.
TAGS
Reinventing selfDealing with failure
Confused about listening to your heart or your head? We all face those crossroads in life and Amish did too, especially while facing initial rejections from publishers. Dealing with failure, enlisting support, recognising what works for you and ultimately making it work for you: Amish touches upon these important themes in this nugget.
TAGS
ResilienceHarsh realities of Writing
For every famous sportsperson, there are hundreds who didn’t make it big. For every published author, there are hundreds who met rejection after rejection. How does one deal with being in a profession where a few “winners take it all”? Hear Amish talk about the reality of being an author and how his initial rejections made him go against the grain and market his books innovatively.
What does it take to be an Author
In this nugget, Amish elaborates on the one important question you should ask yourself before transitioning to a new profession. For eight years before he switched to becoming a full time author, Amish focused on only three things- his job, his writing and his family. What drove this level of discipline and commitment? Hear on.
Driving Deep Work
How easy it is these days to be distracted? Just one minute on Facebook or Twitter and there goes the whole morning! In such an age of distraction where our attention spans are becoming lesser and lesser, how does Amish find the time and space to write? Hear his tactics of getting the momentum going. Hint: there is also something about a sugar rush in there!
TAGS
MindfulnessMarketing innovations around the first book
How did a self-published debut author’s books reach the best seller list within a week of launch? Undoubtedly, the book was good but behind the scenes some new, innovative and thoughtful marketing techniques also contributed. As Amish expresses, leadership is not about having the best ideas yourself but being able to pick good ideas when you come across them.
TAGS
InnovationBuilding culture in a company
Culture is contextual and non-transferrable. Know the culture of the organisation and industry you are planning to join. Amish talks about the Chandravanshi and Suryavanshi cultures and discusses how organizations could think about their culture?
TAGS
CultureThree things they do not teach you in B school
Can competitiveness and calmness reside within you side by side? Why should one’s mind and heart be aligned? Listen on to find out what things, Amish thought, were not taught enough in B-schools.
In Summary – Playing to Potential
Thinking of a transition in life? Reflecting upon your purpose in life? Living a life that someone has decided for you? Amish shares a powerful quote from the Bhagwad Gita to conclude this conversation and urges people find their own uniqueness and ‘swadharma’.
TAGS
In SummaryRecalibrating The Notion Of Success
Vijay talks about how he took stock of life at key inflection points during his career in tennis and beyond. He also talks about the distinction between being pedigreed and learning from one’s own experiences through the journey of life. He also talks about how he dealt with the “Astronaut syndrome” (a phrase that Tony Robbins often uses). You have accomplished whatever you wanted to. Now what?
TAGS
View on successPerspectives on Resilience
Vijay discusses how he has dealt with challenging moments when he was on court. He talks about navigating forks in the road where you often have to choose between low risk and decent outcomes and high risk with a potential of making it big. He shares an insight from Billy Jean King who says “Every challenge is an opportunity and pressure is a privilege”. He discusses the frame of mind with which one could approach such crucial moments.
TAGS
ResilienceTransitioning from playing sport to commentating
Vijay reflects on how he transitioned to a new career as his family context changed and he approached the end of his active tennis career. He talks about how re-inventing yourself is often like throwing yourself in the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim. Perspectives that could be relevant for leaders who are trying to re-invent themselves given significant shifts in the world of work and in personal circumstances.
Attributes Of A Great Commentator
Vijay talks about the role distinction between a Broadcaster and a Commentator. He also alludes to the challenge of catering to audiences with varying tastes and appreciation of the game. The challenge is in creating content that appeals to different segments and is not just tailored to the tennis aficionados. Vijay shares some thoughts around how broadcasters could draw audiences in and then keep them there because of the quality of the game.
TAGS
ExcellenceFraming Good Questions
Vijay discusses how less is more when you are interviewing a person. He discusses the role of brevity and the need for active listening to ensure that you are picking up the cues. He talks about some thoughts around how to navigate such a conversation. He uses the metaphor of Billiards where you are not just thinking about the initial contact of the cue ball with the red ball but are thinking two steps ahead of where all the cue ball might go.
TAGS
ExcellenceSpotting Long Term Potential
Vijay talks about the role of effort in the context of long-term growth and development. People often get into a debate about whether it is nature or nurture and he makes a strong case for hard work through which people can often make up for significant deficiencies in talent. This is arguably all the more relevant in the world we live in where the half-life of the relevant of talent in a certain area is diminishing with the velocity of change around.
TAGS
Spotting potentialRole Of Coaching In Development
Vijay talks about the role of coaching at various stages of a person’s life and how as a person evolves, the coach that works with you to help you go to the next level might change. He also talks about how much can get accomplished through sheer will power using the fascinating example of Richard Williams who (with limited background in tennis) through his sheer resolve coached Serena and Venus to become world champions.
Achievement Orientation to a Giving Mindset
Vijay talks about the notion of “paying it forward” and how that attitude towards life got shaped in his early childhood given the influence of his family. He talks about how some of the things that his parents and relatives did when he was young have had a profound influence on how he goes about thinking about giving back to the wider society. He talks about a specific anecdote where he learnt a lesson about giving from his uncle.
In Summary
In summary, Vijay talks about the role of passion and enjoying what you do in us producing our best work. He also alludes to a certain mindset with which we could approach life that will help in us playing to our personal potential. He refers to inspiration from Thurgood Marshall and Buzz Aldrin to talk about how we could approach life to ensure that we go as far as we can given the unique capabilities that each one of us has.
TAGS
In SummaryArmed Forces as a career option
Capt. Raghu Raman, shares his perspectives on a career in the armed forces. Listen to the three main reasons he gives you as to why the army can prepare you to tackle the battlefield of business and life!
How Army looks for Potential
Anyone who wants to join the Indian Armed Forces as an officer has to go through the Service Selection Board (SSB). The ultimate goal is to select people with Officer Like Qualities (OLQs). Thus, the focus is on hiring based solely on potential rather than experience or academic qualifications. Our digital world is also moving towards potential-based hiring. Hear how the corporate world can learn some lessons from the SSB.
Transitioning across Cultures
Having moved from the army setup to the corporate world then onto a government organization and back to the corporate world, Raghu has worn many hats in his professional life. All of these shifts have involved transitioning across cultures- some well established, others being established and yet others, desperately needing a change in culture! Hear Raghu talk about how he navigated these transitions to integrate into the organization he joined.
Transitioning from the Army to the Corporate world
Raghu talks about how we could think about leveraging the pool of leadership talent that the army produces. He compares India to markets such as US, where there have been generations of Corporate Leaders who spent their early years in the Armed Forces. This is not just about providing an education around some of the elements of business. It is a complete rewiring that needs to happen.
Establishing a common language in the Army
What is common to radio, sonar and the internet? All these technological innovations, like many others, have their origin in war or conflict. Most have been researched and developed at military labs and then scaled up. Start-ups therefore, can benefit immensely from this experience. Hear Raghu talk about the need for a common vocabulary in order to achieve this. Hint: there is also a valuable tip about the ‘How’ question.
Z-KITBAG: Communication lessons from the Army
Become privy to one of the army’s most efficient framework approaches: the Z-KITBAG! Raghu elaborates on this acronym and talks about how this structured approach can be used in any scenario- whether you are preparing for a talk or mobilizing your team for a launch.
Transmitting intent down the chain
The chain of communication in an organization – from the CEO to the salesperson on the streets- is one of the main factors for its success or failure. What steps can a leader take to ensure this chain of communication is seamless? Listen as Raghu talks about this and also shares an interesting anecdote about why cheaper phones in India have dual SIM facility!
TAGS
CommunicationBuilding culture - Lessons from the Army
Numbers occupy a large part of our mind space when we think of organizations- sales figures, trend lines, market share – the list is endless and often clinical. But what about the stories behind the companies? These legends, usually ignored, are crucial for culture building. Hear Raghu talks about how the army utilizes this powerful tool to build its cultural identity and motivate its people.
Building Grit
Grit can be defined as ‘courage and resolve; strength of character’- something we all need to live our lives and face successes and failures. Raghu says, “We all have the DNA to create that reservoir of strength.” Hear him talk about the elements of grit and how an organization can create an environment to foster it.
TAGS
ResilienceDriving Mindfulness and Deep Work
Distraction is all around us. Our screens are becoming smarter and our attention spans shorter. Engulfed with this tsunami of data in a world that worships multitasking, how does one develop mindfulness? Raghu shares some invaluable tips practiced by corporate leaders. You will be amazed to hear how simple tweaks (no need for any props! Just your time) can improve your mental well being.
TAGS
MindfulnessIn Summary
Feel like you are not using your potential to the fullest? Thinking about taking a new course or certification to harness this potential? Wait! Hear what Raghu says about the ‘journey of your full potential’ and how you might already know what you need to know! Intrigued? Hear on!
TAGS
In SummaryWhy "Naked"?
One might think that the world of standup comedy and the corporate milieu would be miles apart! Hear Papa CJ talk about his transition from being a consultant to an award winning standup comedian. His show ‘Naked’ talks about all our common vulnerabilities and the ‘brick walls’ we build around ourselves that may prevent us from growing. He tries to reach out to all of us who might be comfortably complacent in our comfort zones.
TAGS
AuthenticityOxford MBA-Consulting-Stand-up
Son of a tea planter, Papa CJ took the predictable path through school and college. Hear him walk us through his early struggles which led to him maneuvering into the challenging and non trivial transition from Oxford, to consulting, to doing 250 standup comedy shows in his first 10 months! Look out for tips on leveraging the asset of relationships that we all have.
TAGS
Reinventing selfPlunging into Stand-Up
“If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.” Hear how Papa CJ took the plunge into the gruelling yet satisfying world of stand-up comedy. A mix of conviction, grit, pragmatism, sacrifice and passion helped him make this journey. This nugget gives us an insight into planning and being prepared for transitions.
Stand-Up: Unknown Unknowns
Think you need to know all about a career before you dive right in? Not necessarily! Papa CJ talks about how the world of stand up was a blank slate for him and all he had was his excitement and eagerness to pursue it. Sometimes all it needs is the drive and the resilience. Hint: Look out for what makes stand-up comedy the one profession where ‘failure is the only way to succeed’ according to Papa CJ.
OGQ and how you can contribute
In this nugget, Viren describes the OGQ model – what they do, the sports they are involved with and the athletes that they are working with. Their youngest athlete is 8 years old and they have committed to working with that athlete for the next 8-12 years to win an Olympic Gold medal. In a world that is running faster and faster and 1 year plans are hard to execute, it was refreshing to hear an organization that describes their 2020 plan as a short-term plan.
TAGS
Social ImpactCommitting to sports as a career
Getting into professional sport can be a “low odds” decision often. If one doesn’t have the financial buffer, it is often tempting to go towards the safer option to pursue education and get a job. Viren talks candidly about how he comes from a family with no prior sports background and how he navigated some of these questions during the points of inflection when he had to take a call.
Transitioning from Playing to Captaining
Viren talks about his journey from being a player to a captain including some of the non-game elements that are required to move from being a successful player to an effective captain. He discusses how important it is for the captain to lead by example. He also talks about how one has to use different approaches to motivate and develop different players with varying personalities.
Spotting potential
Judging potential can be a very tricky thing to do in companies. While outcomes are very visible but markers of potential are often buried deep within and one has to look for them with a keen eye. OGQ’s youngest athlete is 8 years old, an indication of how much they are betting on future potential. Viren talks about how they use a combination of metrics and elements of judgment to figure out which athletes to back.
TAGS
Spotting potentialPlaying hockey to MBA@ISB
We often find ourselves in situations where the circumstances at work and on the personal front have changed significantly over time and there is a need to move onto the next innings. These are uncomfortable phases where there are no easy answers or approaches. Viren talks about how he took stock of life when he was playing hockey for India and the circumstances which led him to pursue an MBA at ISB.
TAGS
Reinventing selfJoining OGQ's Role of serendipity
Viren shares his insights around how he joined OGQ after ISB. When I graduated from IIMA, a lot of us including me, didn’t have a clear framework to make a considered choice in terms of direction. Viren talks about the role of serendipity in how he ended up joining OGQ. He actually talks about how he almost ended up joining a corporate role before he joined OGQ. He also talks about how he has “taken the plunge” at crucial junctures in his life.
TAGS
Mid CareerBuilding the Grit muscle
Viren talks about where he (and some of the athletes OGQ works with) gets his strength during difficult times. There is enough and more research (if interested, please look up Angela Duckworth’s book Grit) on the role of Grit and performance. He specifically alludes to the need for having clarity of why people do what they do in the context of building that muscle.
TAGS
ResiliencePicking a coach - Learning from Mary Kom's example
Picking a coach for a leader can be challenging. There are several variables at play and given what is at stake, it is critical to ensure that this is done thoughtfully. Viren uses the example of Mary Kom to talk about how they went about selecting Charles Atkinson to train Mary Kom. Some of the insights from the nugget are arguably highly relevant in the corporate world in the context of how leaders and companies think about their leadership development and coaching programmes.
TAGS
CoachingIn Summary
In summary, Viren talks about how OGQ is all about selecting and grooming athletes and helping them play to their potential at the highest stage. He also talks about the opportunity that all of us have to support some of these supremely talented sportsmen who may not have the financial resources to pursue their dreams. If you are interested in contributing, please visit http://www.olympicgoldquest.in. It might be a great opportunity for us to invest in a Mutual Fund that carefully picks the human capital and helps them appreciate over time and could make us and the nation proud.
TAGS
In SummaryStand-Up: What it takes
“Find the balance to feed your stomach and feed your soul”: that’s the mantra for delivering to your potential, according to Papa CJ. In this nugget he talks about the qualities of being a good stand-up comedian and how these requirements actually transcend profession and time. Listen on to find tips to harness the true power of your potential.
TAGS
ExcellenceLessons from a journey in Stand-Up
In this fast paced, interconnected world around us, we often have less time and space to think quietly and listen to our inner voice. In this nugget, Papa CJ shares his perspectives around preparing for success and how one needs to grow in the dark so as to play to potential.
Role of Vulnerability in building Trust
Why is vulnerability one of the key elements in building any relationship? Why is it especially so important now when our world seems to be awash with picture perfect Facebook posts? Hear Papa CJ tackle this question. Hint: Watch out for an amazing tip about finding that fountain of confidence that we all seek!
TAGS
Building trustWhat Corporates could learn from Stand-Up
A stand-up comedian is also a brand that provides services worldwide. So what can the world of business learn from the world of stand up comedy? Papa CJ draws parallels between these two seemingly starkly different realms. Watch out for the anecdote on heckling and its comparison with dealing with feedback.
3 things they don’t teach you in B-school
“The cost of our dreams is much lower than we think it is in our heads!” Using this profound thought Papa CJ discusses what business schools don’t teach us. Don’t miss the part about the three things that constitute happiness!
Playing in the gig economy
Moving a corporate world to becoming a gig-economy player can be a tricky decision for a lot of people. There are question marks around timing and what the portfolio should look like. Prakash shares some insights around how he thought about it when he took the plunge.
TAGS
Gig EconomyThe art of story telling
Prakash talks about the role of story-telling in the context of building culture and how one could think about building that muscle. Sometimes, people think that there is a trade-off between story-telling and brevity. He talks about that being a false trade-off and discusses how one could employ both to drive effective communication
TAGS
CommunicationBuilding a Personal Brand
Prakash discusses how one could learn from how FMCG companies build brands in the context of personal brand building. He discusses how authenticity, consumer centricity and choice are critical in building a powerful enduring brand in a certain area.
TAGS
Personal BrandSelecting a Coach effectively
Selecting a coach for a leader can be a reasonably ambiguous task. Prakash talks about how we could learn from the world of sport in ensuring that we get a coach who is fit for purpose.
TAGS
CoachingPicking the first job after IIM
Campus placements are often a pressure cooker situation with significant sub-optimality in how students end up making career choices. Prakash discusses how one should pick the first job after campus based on some reflection on what they like doing.
TAGS
Early careerCareer in Consumer Goods
People often equate Consumer Goods with Sales and Marketing. Finding your first job after an MBA can be confusing with people often resorting to using compensation as the sorting factor. Prakash sheds some light on how people could think about a career in Consumer Goods
Shifting your goal post over time
Prakash talks about how he has thought about his goal post at different points in time and how he finds his True North. He shares a nuanced view on how one should think about value in the pursuit of the sweet spot in which one could consider operating.
TAGS
Views on successUnlocking the potential
Prakash talks about what sometimes comes in the way of people achieving their full potential. He talks about the importance of hard work (however clichéd it may sound) but also talks about the key element of enlisting others on the “bus”
What they don’t teach you at IIMA
B-school education can often be focused around picking up the “tool-kit” that makes students ready for the world of employment. Prakash talks about some of the non-academic elements that end up mattering so much in the long run.
In Summary – Playing to Potential
Prakash shares his definition of a PHD for people to play to their potential. He talks about the role of Passion, Hunger and Discipline in going after a goal for people to perform at their best.
TAGS
In SummaryGoldman Sachs versus McKinsey
High performing B School students often get courted by the top jobs in the market and often several people having to choose between Banking and Consulting. Avnish talks about how he made the decision to join Goldman Sachs after interning at McKinsey.
Starting Baazee.com
Cross-border transitions are always hard and often involve multiple variables. Avnish talks about the context in which he took the plunge from a lucrative career with Goldman Sachs to return to India with nothing concrete in hand.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurial Resilience
There is a lot of literature around how entrepreneurs should demonstrate resilience when hit with failure or tough times. Avnish talks about the role of preparedness in navigating choppy waters.
Taking stock of life after Bazee sale
When Avnish started Baazee, his financial goal was to make USD 2 Million. When he sold Baazee to Ebay for USD 55 Million, he had made close to 10x of his estimate. He talks about how he took stock of life and moved forward from that point.
Venture Investing - Supporting without intruding
As an entrepreneur who has built a business, how do you engage with an entrepreneur when you are an investor. Avnish talks about walking the tight rope of providing input while holding back as appropriate.
Misconceptions around Venture Investing
Avnish talks about the realities of VC investing as a profession and debunks some of the common myths around a "cushy lifestyle" that some people associate with the profession.
Sharpening investing skills
In Venture Investing, several years can pass before you realize the returns on your initial investment. Avnish talks about how investors can create a feedback loop in the interim and learn from the journey without having to wait for that long.
Evolving as a leader
Leading a start-up through all the change and complexity can be quite a challenge. Avnish talks about how he grew as a leader when he was at Baazee and shares some insights on how entrepreneurs could scale up with the organization.
Backing the best founders
Success of a Venture Investing firm is inexorably tied to the fortunes of the investors they back. Avnish talks about the science and art of how they pick investors and engage with them to drive value.
TAGS
Spotting PotentialHarsh realities of Entrepreneurship
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. Avnish talks about how the need for resilience is intellectually understood but not fully internalized till events happen. He talks about how entrepreneurs could build that capability. He also talks about how he has been influenced by Rudyard Kipling's poem IF.
TAGS
ResilienceWhat they don't teach you at HBS
A good education provides a strong starting point at best. Avnish talks about how he has evolved over time through the various experiences he has had and the decisions he has made.
Academics as a career
Did you always know which profession you wanted to pursue? Our career is often shaped by an opportunity that we seize on the way. Prof. Kartik Hosanagar talks about how academia came by as a career choice while he was researching options for his postgraduate education. Named as the world’s top 40 business professors under 40, he certainly seems to have made the right choice!
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Highs and Lows in Academics
Interested in the academic world? Kartik reveals some important questions you should ask yourself and elaborates on some qualities you should possess before embarking on this path. Academia, according to Kartik, is ‘entrepreneurial without the risk profile of an entrepreneur!’ In this nugget, he also discusses some professional highs and lows that face an academician.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Surprises in the Academic path
We often choose a career without having much idea of what the reality is like. Often times, people who like team work take up jobs that may require long solitary hours. In this nugget, Kartik reveals a couple of surprises that people encounter on the path to becoming an academician.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Impact of technology
Technology is all pervasive in our lives today. But how has the world of academia been impacted by this? Hear Kartik elaborate on the increase in opportunity afforded by the tsunami of technology.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
TAGS
Staying relevantBacking an entrepreneur
Apart from being an academician, Kartik is also an active entrepreneur and invests and mentors start ups. So who better to ask, how does one pick an idea to back? Kartik elaborates on three main skills he looks at before deciding to support an idea or a person.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Leadership inflection points
As organizations grow from being start ups to more established businesses, their leadership needs and demands also change and vary. In this nugget, Kartik traces this spectrum of leadership inflection points and maps it with funding cycles.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
TAGS
Inflection pointsBuilding the leadership muscle
We all know the traits and characteristics of a good leader but what does it take to become a good leader? In this nugget, Kartik enumerates three things that you can do or cultivate to harness your leadership potential.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Building an entrepreneurial culture
Organizations love to grow yet want to retain the entrepreneurial culture that nurtures innovation. What is the one thing that Kartik looks at to figure out if an organization has an entrepreneurial culture or not? Find out in this nugget. Hint: Don’t miss the anecdote about a major competitive advantage that Pixar has cultivated and fine tuned which has led to its unprecedented success in the movie business.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
In Summary – Playing to Potential
We all have an aim that we work towards. But in the feverish rush to achieve this goal, we often forget something. Hear Kartik talk about what is really important before we set any goal or take any career decision. It is something we hear a lot about but do we really follow?
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
TAGS
In SummaryDriving social impact
Want to make a difference in society? A lot of us want to positively impact the world around us. But often times, this intention fades into the background or does not come to fruition. Enter Social Venture Partners- a platform for people like you who want to be agents of change. Hear Ravi talk about their ‘million jobs mission’ and the unique challenges faced by leaders in the social sector.
TAGS
Social ImpactEarly childhood wiring
How much of you as an individual can be attributed to early childhood experiences? In this nugget hear Ravi speak about three main influences in his early years that shaped his personality. Did you know that he had to take a year off from school due to medical reasons and this turned out to be a boon in shaping his boundless curiosity!
Career planning 2.0 for graduates
In this rapidly changing world, Ravi has three main nuggets of wisdom for graduates who are thinking about their careers and professional life ahead. How has the view of a ‘career’ changed over time and what is the best way to think about it today? What qualities should one spend time cultivating and nurturing? Hear on.
Leading in India versus other markets
How does being a business leader in India differ from leading in other international markets? Hear Ravi elaborate on what you need to succeed in India by sharing some personal experiences. Don’t miss the bit about Jack Welch of GE and the concept of a younger mentor.
Transitioning from Cummins to Microsoft
Having worked in Cummins and moved up the ladder, Ravi took up the challenge of being the CEO of Microsoft India at just 40 years of age and against the advice of family and friends. This was an industry he knew nothing about and a culture his friends thought he wouldn’t adapt to. How did he make this transition successful? What did he pay attention to? Hint: The anecdote of his interview with Bill Gates is very interesting.
TAGS
Reinventing selfListening intently during Transitions
Ravi’s career trajectory has often taken him to sectors and organizations he did not know much about. The key to his successful transitioning, according to him, has been listening; but listening to what and whom? Get the details and some tips in this anecdotal nugget.
Picking leaders to invest behind
One of the many hats Ravi wears in his professional life is that of an investor. He is a venture partner and invests in young companies. In this nugget, he talks about the five main qualities he looks for in any entrepreneur before backing him and how he goes about deciphering whether those qualities exist in the individual or not. Hint: It is much more to do than your academics or career record!
TAGS
Spotting potentialHyper-development of a leader in a Start-Up
Start-ups often grow at a rate faster than the rate at which people build the leadership muscle. This leads to the risk that your job may outgrow you. Hence, it is imperative to keep growing as a person and as a leader. Ravi lays down three aspects you should focus on in order to grow with the times and your organization.
Executive to Non-Executive Transition
There is an inherent assumption that successful executives can easily transition into non-executive roles on the boards of organizations. However, as Ravi points out, that is not necessarily true. Hear him talk about the special responsibilities and skills of a Board member. He also puts forward four questions you should ask yourself before taking on a non-executive responsibility.
TAGS
Executive to NEDGig economy and careers
Ravi has had two long stints in Cummins and then Microsoft, after which he switched to a portfolio of opportunities. He talks about evaluating this deep root vs. wide branches approach to structuring your career. He also has important tips for organizations looking to attract good performers. Tune in!
Intro to Digital Tsunami
In his book Digital Tsunami, Abhijit contrasts the erstwhile analog world with today’s digital world. How has this shift to the digital realm impacted companies and their cultures? What is the main difference between these two and how has that influenced leadership. Confused about why a company like Google is competing with Ford and GM? Hear more about all this and more in this nugget.
Hiring for the Digital World
Unlike the analog world, employees and customers in the digital world are at the centre and the organization and processes are built around them. This makes the hiring of employees a very significant task. How does a leader go about hiring someone and what are their markers for potential? Don’t miss the insightful anecdote about The Knowledge test that the London cab drivers have to take and how that is relevant to this nugget.
Personal branding in the Digital world
These days, personal branding is something that gets talked about a lot. But what is it and why is it important? More significantly, how do you go about creating a personal brand? In this nugget, Abhijit shares four vital aspects of personal branding that you should think about.
TAGS
Personal BrandingIntegrating into a start-up
Culture is often seen as something that large organizations need to worry about. However, if a start up tackles the challenges of culture from the very beginning and clearly defines its competencies and values, it could be a significant competitive differentiator especially during the scaling up phase. Hear Abhijit elaborate on the startup ecosystem in this nugget.
Leadership Development
Like everything else in the business landscape, leadership development also has undergone a change in this digital age. Think of the instances today where augmented reality is being used for skill building! Hear about this and more way the digital realm is influencing leadership development in this nugget.
Digital Mindset
In order to be relevant in this digital age, leaders need to adapt to a digital mindset. What does this mindset look like? Abhijit discusses the digital mindset in this nugget and gives anecdotes of how extremely competent leaders of the analog era are struggling to adapt to this. He also shares two important core values which can help in acquiring skills to navigate this digital world. Look out for his views on the future being an ‘&’ world rather than an ‘Or’ world.
Building Digital habits
So we know there is a digital world out there, vastly different from the analog one we have been used to. This digital world demands new kinds of leadership, culture and relationships. We need to have a digital mindset to navigate this new world but how do we go about it. In this nugget, Abhijit gives you simple tips to start the journey and formulate digital habits.
Role of Chief Digital Officer
According to Abhijit, the CDO is the mapmaker of the new digital world of the organization. He is the one who takes up the real opportunity in looking at the digital landscape in a holistic sense for the entire organization and not just using it as an easy marketing or feedback tool. Hear more about this popular position that is seeing many hiring ads!
TAGS
DigitalCareer Planning 2.0
Thinking about a career has moved away from a linear notion – educate, work, retire. Also the idea of working in one company for the rest of your life has become obsolete. So how should one think about their career in this digital age? How can people stay relevant? Abhijit believes that skills will become obsolete quicker and gives tips about how to navigate their careers.
In Summary
To conclude, Abhijit answers three quick questions: One piece of advice to students leaving B-schools and making their transition into the workplace; three things they don’t teach enough at B-school and three apps he finds valuable! Find out the answers in this nugget.
TAGS
In SummaryCurrent portfolio of time spent
Nandan talks about how he organizes his time currently and more importantly, the design principle behind how he prioritizes his time. He also talks about his journey through Infosys and Aadhaar to the current portfolio of initiatives that includes India Stack evangelization, EkStep, Philanthropy and investing in & mentoring select start-ups.
Early childhood wiring
The first few years often shape a big part of who we are. Nandan talks about the significance of having spent 6 years in a small town in shaping his independence and cultural adaptability. He also refers to the role of his family in terms of shaping his choices around social service.
TAGS
Formative yearsSelecting the right co-founder(s)
Nandan talks about one of the seminal choices that entrepreneurs often have to make - Selecting a Co-Founder. He provides his thoughts around what they should bear in mind in this process. He also talks about what it takes to make the relationship work over a prolonged period of time.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipScale-up and transitions at Infosys
As an entrepreneur, staying relevant as the company goes through turbo-charged growth can be a challenge. Nandan talks about how he had to reinvent himself and his style at various points as Infosys grew from a start up to IPO, to listing on the NASDAQ and when it hit USD 1 Billion in revenues.
Infosys to UIDAI - a 3D transition
Leadership Transitions can be a period of significant anxiety for several executives who are transitioning across contexts and domains. Nandan shares his insights around what he kept and what he changed when he transitioned across 3 dimensions when he moved from Infosys to UIDAI. He also talks about the power of commitment in such situations.
Setting a goalpost at UIDAI
In a start-up, how do you think about setting a goal post? It is a tricky question when there are several unknown unknowns. Nandan talks about how he thought about "What good would look like" in 5 years for the Aadhaar project.
TAGS
Views on successRunning a start-up inside the Govt.
Nandan talks about how the Government is fundamentally different from the Private sector in terms of how financial and human capital decisions are made. He talks about he thought about navigating those constraints to drive to the outcomes he had committed. He also talks about a couple of mistakes leaders often make in transitions.
Reflections on Politics as a career
All of us have had situations where we step way out of our comfort zone. Nandan talks about his experience from contesting the elections in Bangalore and why he moved on from Politics after that experience.
Re-inventing self and playing to potential
Given the VUCA world we live in, re-inventing oneself every now and then has become a necessity. Nandan talks about the mindset with which he has approached the various transitions he has had in his career and shares his perspective on what it takes for people to play to their potential.
Transitioning from Engineering to Photography
A lot of us "go with the flow" either because we want to conform to expectations, minimize risk or don’t listen to our inner voice. Atul talks about how he was an exceptional student in school and ended up in UDCT - one of the most prestigious places to study Chemical Engineering. He talks about the disconnect he experienced at that point and how he moved forward from there.
Being tenacious through the transition
Transitioning from one path to another is not easy. We often celebrate individuals after they have demonstrated success. But we often miss the iceberg that is below the sea surface. Atul talks about how he persisted through multiple hurdles when he transitioned from studying Chemical Engineering to pursue photography.
Marrying passion with pragmatism
Follow your passion is bad advice says Cal Newport in his book 'So good they cannot ignore you'. How does one think about options and decisions when passion and pragmatism point in different directions. Atul talks about how one could look at adjacencies and be pragmatic about a career decision by looking at supply-demand trends in an industry that one is trying to enter.
Staying relevant over the long-term
We live in a world where professions are being threatened and jobs that existed yesterday may not exist tomorrow. Atul talks about how the world of photography has been democratized with the penetration of mobile phones with good cameras. He shares his insights on how one could think about being relevant in these changing times.
Entrepreneurial pursuits beyond photography
We often have to reinvent ourselves along the way as we go through our career. There are variuos trigger points where our priorities change and market opportunities change. Atul shares his perspectives around how he has managed to go beyond Photography to venture into new domains. He shares a piece of feedback that one of his friends provides which paved the way to a new possibility.
Balancing commerce with creativity
Film production is a tricky area where one has to walk the tight rope between creativity (as appreciated by the audience) and commerce. Atul talks about how he thinks about it and also alludes to the evolving consumer mindset where some early opinions could significantly swing the fortunes of the movie one way or the other.
Enlisting and empowering people in your team
In any profession, it is very easy to be treated as suppliers in the value chain. How does one elevate oneself to move beyond being perceived as a mere supplier? How does one engage and empower the team members so that they don’t feel like suppliers and have greater ownership of the end product? Atul talks about his views in this context. He also talks about his experiences while making the film Neerja and alludes to the role of authenticity in being able to enlist people in his journey.
TAGS
CultureIn Summary - Playing to Potential
How do individuals stay relevant amidst all the change and opportunity around them? Atul shares his perspective around how individuals should think about their future when the current education system is preparing children for jobs that possibly don’t even exist today.
TAGS
In SummaryIIMB, Wharton & path to Venture Investing
In a world with an exponential increase in career paths and complexity around opportunity, it can be unnerving to make key decisions around Stay in India Vs Go overseas, specialize in a field Vs Get a degree in Management etc. The multiplicity of options also makes career decisions complex when people graduate from the best of the programmes. Karthik talks about how he thought about going to Wharton after IIMB and his choice to do I Banking, Corporate Development etc till he got into Venture Investing.
Articulating culture and hiring for it
Articulating the organizational culture is often treated as one of those fuzzy things that large organizations like GE and HUL do. But it is arguably more critical in a young and small organization where the cost of a wrong hire hits the organization much harder than when you have 10,000 people. Karthik talks about how he thinks about culture and how he hires for it.
Pie chart of time in Venture Investing
In any profession, it is important to understand how to spend time on the right priorities. People often get consumed by the urgent and miss out on the critical. That pie chart looks different across professions. Karthik talks about how he spends his time as a Venture Investor and as an entrepreneur at Blume Ventures.
Venture Investing - What does it take
Karthik talks about what it takes to become a successful Venture Capital Investor. He also discusses the nuances across Angel Investing, Venture Investing and Private Equity Investing. Each of these often requires a different set of skills and strengths. People often club all these Investing roles into one large umbrella but there is a significant difference in the type of person that would enjoy and flourish in one versus the other.
Transition pitfalls - Banking/Consulting to VC
Transitioning from one industry to another are always fraught with uncertainty and risk. Leaders are straddling several sub-transitions - settling into a new organization, flourishing in a new space which requires a different set of skills and mindsets. Karthik talks about the common derailers that could come into play when Consultants or Bankers are transitioning into Venture Investing.
Settling effectively into Venture Investing
The first 30-60 days in any profession are often quite tricky. Hairline cracks can quickly turn into fractures if not handled carefully. Karthik talks about how he works with the incoming members and thinks about the early passage of play in the organization. He also talks about how he pre-empts the derailment risk by suggesting to interested individuals to seek certain prior experiences before venturing into Venture Investing.
Picking Founders effectively
Backing the right founders is a combination of art and science. How do you back an entrepreneur who has the conviction around his idea but is also amenable to input. At the stage of Venture Investing, a big part of value creation is often around getting this judgment right on the Founder. Karthik talks about what he looks for during investing.
Dealing with hyper-growth and scale-up
Organizations often outgrow the entrepreneur very quickly. Unless the entrepreneur is proactively thinking about scaling up himself/herself and proactively getting the right people who can drive scale, the start up can very quickly taper off. While 1 out of 10 startups succeed at a Venture stage, he talks about the patterns from the other 9 that don't "make it"
Scaling up the leadership muscle
Scaling up the leadership capability of the entrepreneur and the top team needs to go hand in hand with the business scale up for sustainable growth. Karthik talks about the role of vision, purpose and culture in the early years of a start-up.
What they don't teach you at B-School
Business Schools (especially in India) often taken in students without prior work experience. Several students that work hard to get into elite business schools often assume that they are job-ready when they graduate. Karthik talks about some of the key elements which are not taught which can have a profound impact on your effectiveness in the work-place
In Summary - Playing to potential
For people to play to their potential, people should have clarity around what they have potential for. Karthik talks about the importance of the process of reflection and self-awareness that could significantly increase the odds of people playing to their potential over the long run.
TAGS
In SummaryCurrent portfolio of initiatives
Pramath talks about the portfolio of initiatives that he has today. More importantly, he talks about the underlying principle behind how he has assembled this portfolio together. He gives us a peek into how he thinks about success using internal and external metrics.
Consulting (McKinsey) as a career option
Pramath talks about how he ended up joining McKinsey in Canada instead of pursuing a career in academics which he had originally intended when he completed his PhD. He also talks about how students should think about evaluating consulting as a potential career option including the common mistakes people make when they consider a career in consulting.
Transitioning out of Consulting (including views on entrepreneurship)
A career in Management Consulting in a firm like McKinsey can be immensely rewarding but also inexorably intense. Pramath talks about how he thought about a career in McKinsey versus pursuing something else. He also discusses some of the common misconceptions people often have when they take the plunge into entrepreneurship.
Authentic Leadership
Authenticity is a word that is often used by people in different contexts. Pramath shares his perspectives on Authentic leadership and talks about what it takes to get there. He also talks about how he thinks about flexing his leadership style across diverse contexts.
What Consulting doesn't prepare you for
Management Consulting often provides a whirl-wind exposure to multiple problems across industries and topics. However, one needs to significantly adapt the style while moving from a consulting environment to the Industry. Pramath talks about some of the adjustments consultants have to make when they enter the corporate world.
Vedica Scholars Programme - Nurturing Women leaders
The fact that we need to have more women leaders at the top is well-known and there has been enough commentary around it. Pramath talks about the unconscious biases that still exist in the society and his attempts at making a difference through the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.
TAGS
Women LeadershipEducating ourselves (and link with leadership of the future)
We are growing into a future where there are several unknown unknowns. Pramath talks about what sort of leaders would flourish in the new paradigm and how one should think about education in the context of this broad trend.
Building leadership capability in entrepreneurs
Staying relevant is one of the key challenges that is facing the leaders of this generation. A few decades back, they could check into a career on graduation and check-out at retirement. Pramath talks about how leaders (entrepreneurs and otherwise) should think about scaling up their capability as they go through their journey.
Personal Board of Advisors
We all benefit from mentors at different points in our careers. Pramath talks about his approach to configuring his personal Board of Directors. He describes how he has leveraged his Board of Directors at various points in his career.
Reflecting on the past and the future
Pramath reflects on his journey till date and talks about what has enabled him to get this far. He discusses the role of staying grounded and authenticity in building trust and developing alliances. He also shares his thoughts around where he wants to drive impact and make a difference in the years to come.
TAGS
Views on successIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Pramath talks about his perspectives on how people could play to their potential. He highlights how helping others realize their potential often leads to all kinds of benefits that often enable your success.
TAGS
In SummaryWater.org - Introduction and how you can contribute
Vedika talks about the criticality of solving for water and sanitation at the bottom of the pyramid. She talks about how Water.org is using a multi-pronged approach to tackle this problem. She discusses how access to water is a mission-critical need for all individuals at the bottom of the pyramid to lead a productive life with dignity.
TAGS
Social impactEarly childhood wiring
A lot of who we are often gets baked in our early years. It is often a function of the context we grow up in and the family culture. Vedika talks about how her home environment played a key role in shaping some of the behaviours which have helped her in the journey till date.
TAGS
Formative yearsInvestment Banking as a career and key transitions
Vedika discusses her perspectives on Investment Banking as a career and how B-School students should think about the option. On a related note, she talks about the wrong reasons for which people often end up joining Banking. She also lays out the key inflection points in the journey.
Women and careers
Vedika talks about her initial days at ICICI which has been a breeding ground for several women leaders in India. She also shares her perspectives on how women should think about building their careers and the common misconceptions there-in.
TAGS
Women leadershipEffective Leadership transitions across companies
Leaders during transitions often feel like trapeze artists as they go from one to another. It is the role of the hiring manager and the transitioning leader to think this through. Vedika shares her perspectives in the context of some of her transitions at a leadership level.
Executive to NED transition
Vedika is a Non-Executive Director on 6 Boards today. She talks about the transition from being an effective executive to being an NED. She talks about the significant shift often required in style for successful leaders to be effective in a Board context.
TAGS
Executive to NEDWomen and Board roles
Vedika talks about how women should think about approaching Board roles. Clearly there is an opportunity for more women to get onto Boards but there is a need for women to be thoughtful and considered about this to be in consideration for these roles when they come up.
Transitioning to the Social Impact world
"How do I bring greater meaning in my life" is a question that people start grappling with as they approach mid-life and beyond. However, people struggle with making this happen. Vedika discusses her transition from heading Credit Suisse in India to Water.Org
In Summary - Playing to Potential
In the world with growing complexity in terms of emerging business models and career paths, how does one play to potential. Vedika shares her perspectives on how one could play to potential.
TAGS
In summaryAbout Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Vinita talks about how the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) works with various stakeholders across the world to deliver outcomes to improve nutrition. She also talks about how Corporate Social Responsibility cannot be treated as a separate function but should be embedded in whatever a company does.
TAGS
Social impactEarly childhood wiring
A lot of who we are often gets formed in the context of our childhood. Vinita reflects on her upbringing, her parents’ influence and her passion for extracurricular activities and links it to how that has played a key role in her growth as a leader over time.
Navigating the sea of career options
"What should I do with my life" is often a question that we grapple with at different inflection points in our life. Vinita talks about the various dimensions along which she evaluates opportunities that have come her way at different points in her journey.
Consumer Goods (FMCG) as a career option
Vinita talks about how she got into a career in Consumer Goods and reflects on what elements of it have been rewarding for her. She also talks about the key questions people should ask themselves before embarking on a career in a Products company.
Transitioning roles in a large MNC
Navigating your career in a large, complex MNC can often be challenging and confusing. Vinita talks about how she navigated her career across different roles in Cadbury's and the Coca Cola company.
Navigating the first 3-6 months
The first few months in a new organization can be a nervous passage of play for the incoming leader and for the hiring manager. If not handled carefully, the organizational antibodies could eject the new entrant. Vinita shares her insights on how the incoming leader and the hiring leader could navigate this phase effectively.
Functional Leadership to General Management
Moving from a functional leadership role to a general management role is a big shift and Vinita argues that it is possibly the biggest transition that a leader often makes. She talks about how people should think about success in a General Management role and the need for an adaptive leadership style.
Transitioning back to India in a leadership role
Vinita transitioned from an American MNC in their Latin American division to Britannia in India. It was a transition across multiple dimensions. She talks about her reflections around settling into the new context. She also talks about the role of the hiring leader in setting the incoming individual for success.
Being an effective Board member
Vinita talks about how she evaluates Board opportunities that come her way and how they are a part of her Learning and Development plan. She also talks about her thoughts on the opportunities for Indian boards to get more effective in the way they are staffed and run.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Where to go and How to grow are two questions leaders ask all the time as they navigate their career. Vinita talks about the need for conviction in direction, coupled with abundant curiosity to grow as the key elements of playing to your potential.
Early childhood wiring
Zia talks about how her mother’s strict parenting in her early years played a key role in shaping her as a person. She talks about the criticality of the extra-curricular activities that she pursued and the differing roles that her mother and father played through her growing up years.
Law as a career choice
Zia talks about what it takes to be a successful lawyer. She also teases out the difference between traits that are good hygiene in any profession and what is specific to law. She also talks about how optionalities have changed over time for people with a law background.
Women Leaders - a leaky pipeline
Zia talks about the leaky pipeline of women leaders and talks about the key inflection points where the leakage is maximum. She talks about the false glass-ceilings that women often have in their heads.
Role of a spouse around maternity
Zia talks about how there are several hidden variables that need to be taken care of for a woman to re-enter the workforce effectively after a maternity break. She outlines the small things that a spouse could do in this context.
TAGS
Maternity transitionTough work-life trade-offs
Zia talks about how, in her generation, the notion of work-life balance, didn’t really exist for ambitious women who wanted to make a mark in the corporate world. She candidly talks about the real trade-offs involved in her case and how that is changing.
Becoming a Trusted Advisor
Becoming a Trusted Advisor is often the holy grail for every Consultant, Lawyer, Banker, Doctor etc. who are providing advice to the client. Zia talks about what it takes to become a Trusted Advisor with a client.
TAGS
Building trustBuilding good judgment
Sound judgment is a must have for any leader in any domain. Having a sense of what makes sense all things considered is hard and critical. Zia provides her perspective on what it takes to have good Judgment from a Lawyer's perspective.
TAGS
JudgmentSuccessful Lawyer to Successful Entrepreneur
Zia talks about the journey from being a successful lawyer leading a small boutique with 15-20 people to heading a 400-person organization today. She talks about the trade-offs involved in terms of her time and cultural implications as the organization scales.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Zia talks about the key attributes that have enabled her to succeed as a lawyer and as an institution builder. She talks about how people shouldn’t be afraid to reinvent themselves if they are not having fun in what they are doing.
TAGS
In summaryPie chart of time today
Rama has been a solo-advisor for several years now. She talks about how she has thought about her portfolio of work (she likens it to broadcasting multiple TV channels) and how that has evolved over time.
TAGS
Managing timeEarly formative years
Rama talks about the parenting context in which she grew up and talks about how that has played a big role in shaping her journey till date.
TAGS
Formative yearsCareer in Market Research
Rama talks about how she ended up joining Market Research by accident after joining the Advertising world. She talks about the notion of "sliding doors" where small events along the way can have a significant impact on the overall trajectory and outcomes.
Becoming a solo-advisor
Rama talks about her attempts to work at the intersection of consumer and business understanding and discusses how she ended up going solo after a long stint in the corporate world. She also talks about how her role models (CK Prahalad, P. Chidambaram and Bhimsen Joshi) influenced her choice to go solo.
Careers - Paradox of choice
In a world exploding with choice, Barry Schwartz argues that consumers are often worse off due to the complexity in decision making and Fear of Missing Out. Rama talks about how one should navigate the world under such circumstances.
Shaping your playground
Rama talks about the notion of identifying and playing a game that only "you" know how to play, as espoused by Prof. Indira Parikh. She talks about how she has taken consumer insights and applied it to different contexts.
Becoming a trusted advisor
Rama talks about the various elements that go into the personal brand beyond the pure technical capability that one brings to the table. She describes the notion of "balance tilters" which has an implication on how the bundled proposition is perceived by the customer.
TAGS
Building trustWomen and Leadership
Rama talks about some practical tactics she uses perform effectively in forums (such as Boards) that are often filled with men.
TAGS
Women leadershipTransitioning from Executive to NED
Rama talks about how people who have led companies end up getting empathetic with the management (by default) of the companies where they sit on Boards. She talks about the need for people to have clarity on who they are accountable to.
TAGS
Executive to NEDWhat they don't teach at IIMA
Given how hard it is to get into places like IIMA, Rama talks about the mindset of the typical person that is getting in and how that is at odds with the climate at the workplace of today. She talks about how one could bridge the gap.
In summary - Playing to Potential
Rama talks about importance of navigational principles in a world where we are all headed in a direction where the destination is unclear. She relates this approach to how Google builds its products. She also underscores the importance of a core skill which wires us in a certain way, which gives us the ability to process the world around us with a certain frame.
TAGS
In summaryEarly formative years (including re-attempting IIT-JEE)
Dheeraj talks about his childhood and how his parents have given him an interesting mix of resolve and humility. He talks about how he thinks about parenting given his context. He also talks about how he processed the trade-offs (including the notion of taking the plunge when the worst is not bad enough) when he retook JEE in 1993 despite getting through in 1992.
TAGS
Formative yearsBuilding optionality during early career
Dheeraj talks about the distinction between process and substance in the context of making career choices. He also talks about how he built optionality at various points in his early career.
Relationship between Co-founders and Company
Dheeraj talks about how the relationship between him, the co-founders and the company has evolved over a period of time. He also talks about 4As (Antifragility, Authenticity, Ambition, Attention to detail) which are at the core of how he looks at himself and others he works with.
Evolving as a leader with the company
Dheeraj talks about how he looks at the company like a combination of multiple sub-companies that are building, scaling and maintaining all concurrently. He discusses the notion of arcs of destruction and pursuing multiple arcs at various stages of maturity.
Building an anti-fragile culture
Dheeraj talks about the parallels across the fragility spectrum (that Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to in his book Anti-Fragile) and the Honesty spectrum (that Mike Robbins refers to) and talks about the similarities across the two. He discusses how he has gone about building authenticity and anti-fragility in every aspect of the business.
Perspectives around career choice
Dheeraj discusses his perspectives on how students and professionals should think about choices and learning. He underscores the criticality of having unfettered curiosity across disciplines similar to Da Vinci who showed equal curiosity to matters of art and science across disciplines.
Hiring senior leaders into Nutanix
One of the key challenges as one moves from a start-up to a scale up includes getting senior talent from the outside and setting them up for success. Dheeraj talks about how he looks for the "operating system" of a leader to see if that fits with Nutanix. He also underscores the importance of focusing on the HOW and not the WHAT in the first 6-9 months.
Work, life and success
People often look at work and life as two different compartments that do not intersect. Dheeraj talks about how he tries to weave in work and life, learns from one and applies in the other and has osmosis going on across the two.
TAGS
Work and LifeLeadership Development in a turbo-charged environment
Dheeraj talks about how he thinks about evolving as a leader and discusses the criticality of breathing and staying present even during challenging times. He describes his approach to pause and remind himself of the key elements that are core to him and his effectiveness. An interesting insight in the context of the overloaded lives that a lot of leaders are living.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Dheeraj talks about how businesses and leaders need to have clarity around the interfaces where they have strengths (man-man, machine-machine, man-machine). That self-awareness at an organizational and an individual level can be tremendously insightful in guiding growth and strategy.
TAGS
In SummaryEarly formative years
Anu talks about the influence of values, freedom of choice and financial independence through her growing up years. She also talks about the criticality of role-modeling behaviours that set the right example for the boys (not just for the girls) that are growing up.
TAGS
Formative yearsCareer in Consulting versus Banking
Anu talks about the transitions she went through within Banking before she entered the world of consulting. She also talks about the questions people should ask themselves to see if a career in consulting makes sense for them.
The Maternity transition
Maternity is a critical transition for women and like Anu mentions, you don’t know what you don’t know in terms of how things will play out. She talks about her lessons from that passage of play. She also talks about how she took stock of options out there when she returned to work post maternity and discusses typical mistakes women often end up making in this phase.
TAGS
Maternity transitionNavigating your career
Anu talks about her moment of epiphany during an interview with a McKinsey partner that really pushed her to reflect on what she enjoyed and what she didn’t. She talks about how she has tried to get to the bottom of what gives her energy.
Learning/Unlearning during transition
Anu discusses the transition from high intensity consulting projects with a tight feedback loop to a relatively open ended and longer cycle life at McKinsey Global Institute. She talks about how she adjusted to the new operating rhythm of the place.
The Future of Work
Anu shares the key insights from MGI's study on the future of work. She reflects on the disconnect between what the future world of work needs and what the education system of today is delivering. She also talks about the demands of the generation that is entering today's workforce and the implications for organizations to deal with them.
TAGS
Staying relevantStaying relevant in the future
Anu talks about her take on Leadership Development in the context of the Future of the workplace. She discusses the need for "start-up like" projects and initiatives that need to cut across functions and hierarchies.
What they don't teach you at IIMA
Anu reflects on the notion of heightened risk in the workplace and sensitizing students to that. She also refers to the need for integrated learning across disciplines and functions given that the big problems that are being solved today lie at the intersection of multiple domains.
Message to graduating women
Anu shares her perspectives on how aspiring women leaders should think about their careers. She underscores the point about the need for having the right mentors and sponsors along the way.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Anu refers to the notion of Infinite Game in the context of playing to potential. She talks about challenging the boundaries and extending the scope of how you define the game (instead of taking the circumstances as hard constraints).
TAGS
In summaryCommitting to Chess as a career
Vishy talks about how he thought about committing to a career in Chess. He specifically talks about how he didn’t stop his education despite his meteoric rise in the Chess world. He spoke about why he still pursued his undergraduate degree in Commerce on the sides despite his successes on the Chess board on a Global stage. He also talks about the criticality of building social and emotional skills from education and the criticality of open-ness to learning as we navigate the careers of the future.
Early formative years
Vishy spoke about how his habits and attitudes have been shaped by his parents. He also talks about his style of chess being significantly influenced by his parents. He traces his pragmatism on the chess board and open-ness to ideas (in terms of borrowing from other leading minds) as something that possibly was influenced by the style of his parents.
Growing as a player and inflection points
Vishy talks about how his approach to development has changed as he has grown as a player over time. He talks about his approach to picking Coaches that get the best out of him. He also discusses the impact of technology on what it takes to be a successful player while getting the most out of the machines. He talks about the trade-off between specialization and flexibility in this context.
What it takes to compete at the top
Vishy talks about how players need to adapt their style in a world where machines are makin the games longer and more nuanced. He specifically talks about the declining relevance of a dogmatic approach due to the machines suggesting more and more combinations which are possibly outside the realm of comprehension of the average human mind. He also refers to the crucial role of fitness to be able to make sound judgments deep into a game that has only gotten longer with the increasing role of machines.
Understanding the processor inside
In this nugget, Vishy talks about how he harnesses the potential of his mind in being a chess player at the very top over a prolonged period. He talks about how the human mind is like a wild horse that needs to be harnessed carefully. He shares some of his insights on how he tries to get the best of his conscious and his sub-conscious mind in preparing for big games. He also discusses some of his rituals in ensuring that he brings the best of himself to bear in various match situations.
Staying relevant in the world of machines
Vishy talks about how humans should think about staying relevant in a world where the processing power of the machines has become hard to beat by the human brain. He uses the metaphor of Advanced Chess where people compete with each other but with a machine on their side (Human + Machine versus Human + Machine). He talks about the diminishing role of humans in that context. But at the same time he talks about the exciting possibilities that technology has enabled in terms of new possibilities in the game and access to “best in class” coaching and learning.
TAGS
Staying relevantPerforming at the top and being grounded
Vishy talks about the various elements that matter to perform at the highest level in addition to IQ. He specifically discusses the criticality of collaborating with a range of coaches and players. He also shares how he manages to stay present during a game (a trait that Anatoly Karpov used to be a master at with his ruthless Boa-Constrictor style play he says). He also shares how he has managed to stay simple and grounded despite the towering heights he has reached as a Chess player.
Dealing with losses
Vishy discusses his approach to dealing with losses. He candidly talks about how his approach to dealing with losses has not changed significantly over time. He talks about how he tries to clear the baggage of the past to ensure that he is fully present on the Chess Board at any point in time. He also discusses about how Chess is like other disciplines such as Science and History where you are often standing on the shoulders of giants in the context of discovering the next breakthrough.
TAGS
ResilienceIdentifying and unlocking potential
Vishy talks about what he looks for when he is looking for long-term potential. He talks about the criticality of consistency in performance coupled with an attitude where someone is willing to grind away at a goal. He also discusses the success of academies that have produced a pipeline of talent and juxtaposes that with examples of a Roger Federer emerging from Switzerland or a Magnus Carlsen emerging from Norway.
Parallels between Chess and Business
Vishy talks about his take on the parallels between the Chess board and the world of business. He mentions that in both contexts, the notion of “what got you here won’t get you there” might apply if you are not willing to take a fresh look at yourself and your approach to sport or business. He talks about the importance of tracking what changes in you when you encounter success or failure and ensuring that we cope effectively with the ups and downs whether it is running a company or playing a sport.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Vishy talks about the criticality of loving what you do in order to sustain the interest and passion and to rise to the very top of the field. He also refers to an Ad where he is shown playing cricket (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcnGW4nOTBA ) and urges people to pick the right sport. A profound reminder of the fact that for us to play to our potential picking the right canvas to operate is almost as critical or arguably more important than working hard and attempting to scale up.
TAGS
In summaryEarly formative years
Meher talks about how her early years have shaped her approach to life, specifically around giving and social impact. She also talks about how her parents treated her and her brother in a gender-agnostic way and the impact of that on her attitudes.
TAGS
Formative yearsTransitioning effectively across generations
Meher talks about how the baton of leadership passed to her mother (Anu Aga) when her father passed away and how things changed even further when her brother passed away shortly after. She also reflects on the subsequent transition when her mother decided to retire as the Chairperson suddenly that pushed Meher to the saddle.
Dealing with shocks
Meher talks about how she and her mother (Anu Aga) dealt with the sudden loss of her father and her brother within a span of a few months. She talks about how they got the strength to deal with the loss and the soul-searching she went through to come to terms with it. She talks about the criticality of gratitude and cherishing the relationships that matter when people are still alive and the importance of not having the guilt that you didn’t give it what you could.
Music and Leadership
Meher talks about how her experiences as a singer in a choir have helped her in her corporate pursuits. She talks about how it has helped her build a sense of purpose beyond numbers. She also talks about how performing as a collective has helped her realize the value of teamwork and how an orchestra is only as good as the weakest musician.
Perspectives on Philanthropy
Meher talks about her approach towards CSR and Philanthropy and how she thinks about “chunking” rather than “sprinkling” (a phrase Adam Grant uses in his book Give and Take). She also talks about the criticality of working with the Government to drive Scale.
TAGS
Social ImpactBusiness continuity across generations
Meher discusses her approach towards her children getting involved in Thermax moving forward. She talks about the distinction between responsible ownership and day to day management. She also talks about the criticality of external experience before starting within the company (something she misses in hindsight) in case the child wants to get into the management of the company.
Grooming more women leaders
Meher shares her perspectives on what it would take to have more women leaders at the top. She starts with the challenges in basic education and sanitation and how that severely restricts the number of women who start a corporate journey. She goes on to talk about what organizations and women can do to ensure that we have more women at the top.
TAGS
Women LeadershipIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Meher talks about the role of self-awareness and discovering what energizes you. She also offers a practical tip to people who claim “I don’t know what I am passionate about”. She suggests that they start somewhere and then along the way, figure out what energizes them.
TAGS
In summaryConvergence of Strategy, Creative, Tech and Data
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about how Hypercollective (a company he has just started) operates at the intersection of Strategy, Creative, Technology and Data and combines all four diverse disciplines to present an integrated offering to the clients. He specifically talks about the crucial role of orchestrators that connect the dots across the various disciplines.
TAGS
Staying relevantEarly Childhood and Dyslexia
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about his childhood and how he had challenges due to Dyslexia (which was discovered much later). He mentions that in a lot of ways his story is not that different from Taare Zameen Par (Bollywood movie starting Aamir Khan). He also talks about his daughter being diagnosed with dyslexia and how he worked with her to overcome the problem.
Early career choices - Medical Rep/Painting/Advertising
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about how he thought about an early fork in the road where he had to choose between disparate options in front of him. One was to become a Medical Representative which was highly lucrative in those days, Second was to become a Drawing teacher and the third was to pursue art in the world of advertising. He discusses how he walked the tightrope where the mind and heart were pulling him in different directions.
Rejecting 3 jobs and painting in Goa
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about how came to Mumbai to pursue commercial opportunities and cast his net beyond Hyderabad – where he grew up. He also talks about the fact that very quickly he got himself three offers (on the creative and commercial side) but decided to go to Goa to learn and reboot. He talks about how he led the life of a vagabond for a few months and how he landed the next role at Ulka.
Transitioning from Advertising to the Tech world
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about how he thought about the move from the world of Advertising to the world of Technology. He also speaks about the notion of staying relevant in the context of children and consumers and how one needs to be in sync with them to be able to connect with them.
Advertising as a career option
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about the inherent traits one should possess to flourish in the world of advertising. He talks about the notion of story-telling relating it to how children lie but get away with it because of the innocence. He also alludes to the criticality of understanding the client business, socio-cultural trends and a nuanced understanding of human behavior to flourish in the industry.
Evolving perspectives on success and impact
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about how his metrics of success have slowly shifted from business outcomes (brand performance, ad recall) towards the impact he makes on humanity. He talks about the responsibility the advertising industry has in addressing and influencing the biases (conscious and unconscious) that exist in the society today. He specifically refers to the unconscious biases towards girls and women and what he did to sensitize the ecosystem.
Developing as a leader
KV Sridhar (Pops) talks about the downside of being competitive in a space like Advertising where it is critical to create a climate where the members of the team can be creative and come up with impactful ideas that work. He also talks about how he has approached learning and his self-development as he has gone through his career.
Settling effectively in a new organization
KV Sridhar talks about his perspectives on settling into an organization and how leaders should think about what to maintain and what to change. He makes the case for imbibing the values of the organization and then interpreting it differently as you slowly build trust with the ecosystem.
Secret sauce behind great ads and film-makers
KV Sridhar talks about what separates the great ads and film makers from the rest. He shares his insights from his recently launched book – 30 Second Thrillers where he goes behind the scenes of legendary ads (tag lines such as Wah Taj, Hamara Bajaj, Only Vimal, I love you Rasna) and breaks down the secret sauce behind the ads and the ad film makers.
Building story telling skills
KV Sridhar talks about the distinction between creativity and craftsmanship. He mentions that all living beings (not just human beings) including creatures like ants have the ability to be creative. But for us to express it effectively, we need to practice our craft – whether it is story writing, photography, humour or anything else. And mastering that takes years and years of practice.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
KV Sridhar talks about the criticality of finding one’s purpose and impacting society beyond oneself. He also talks about not being anchored or limited by one’s educational background. He talks about how (irrespective of what we end up doing), our past learning almost always comes into play in some shape or form.
TAGS
In summaryEarly formative years
Suresh talks about the importance of values that he derived from his childhood. He talks about the emphasis on Goddess Saraswathi (education) than Goddess Lakshmi (Wealth) in his family. He also discusses the important of Rishi Valley school and Jiddu Krishnamurthy in shaping his attitudes and beliefs and how that has helped him through his journey.
Career - getting off to a good start
Suresh talks about how serendipity got him to Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL). He speaks about initially appearing for the interview as practice for the IAS entrance but provides context on why he joined HLL eventually. He provides an interesting insight on how he thought about the trade-offs and risks at that point in time. He also speaks about how one should think about navigating their career through a large corporation during the early years where it is easy to get lost in the maze.
TAGS
Early careerTransitioning effectively to a new context
Suresh talks about his experiences in transitioning across companies and roles. He moved from HUL to Nestle and within Nestle, he moved across markets such as Egypt, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and India. He talks about how he thinks about settling into a new context and also what it takes to build systems and processes so that even when you transition out, the organization continues to run effectively.
Maggi crisis and decoding resilience
Suresh talks about how he took charge when he came back to India during the Maggi crisis. He talks about how he prioritized the various elements of the business and how he spent time for the first 6-9 months. He also shares his views on where he got his strength and what it takes to build resilience in the organization while dealing with a shock.
Building good business judgment
Suresh talks about the trade-off between long-term considerations like consumer trust and the short-term cash flow pressures. He specifically talks about the considerations that went into them proactively destroying about 35000 tonnes of food (that was arguably of good quality). He also breaks down what it takes create a climate where the people under the take the right decisions even when under duress.
TAGS
JudgmentRebuilding trust
Suresh talks about the journey of rebuilding trust using the example of what happened with Maggi in India. He provides an insight into what it takes to rebuild trust by talking about the various elements that go into it – not compromising on the pillars on which trust is built and navigating the path with dignity, respect and transparency (something recently demonstrated by Dara Khosrowshahi – CEO of Uber – in the context of the litigation with Waymo).
TAGS
Building trustIncreasing productivity
Suresh speaks about how he used the crisis as an opportunity to ensure that people in the company spent time on the right things. He speaks about how he went on a war-footing to cut down meeting times in the company and got people to be more productive during office hours. He discusses his perspectives around the trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness.
TAGS
Managing timeMarketing 2.0
Suresh talks about how Marketing has a function has evolved given the Digital age we are living in. He says that instead of Digital Marketing, he believes in marketing to the Digitally Enabled that is often the entire consumer base. He also speaks about how he leveraged Digital to resurrect the brand Maggi when Nestle re-introduced the brand.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Suresh shares his wisdom around Where to go (building navigational principles as one moves along in a career) and How to grow (how one scales up their leadership capability over time)
TAGS
In summaryEarly formative years
Devudutt talks about the profound influence of some of his teachers when he was studying medicine. He elaborates that they would often push him to think about the Why behind various elements beyond the what (anatomy) and the how (physiology). He mentions how that has discipline of asking the Why question has influenced his thinking and his approach towards mythology.
Transitioning from Healthcare to Mythology
Devdutt talks about his journey after graduating with a degree in medicine. He mentions that he didn’t have any childhood inclination in Mythology and he first used the word Mythology in a deliberate sense somewhere in the 1990s. He talks about how he started gravitating towards mythology in an organic fashion including writing several books and the TED talk in 2009. He mentions that he was in the Pharma industry till about 2007 after which he became the Chief Belief Officer at Future Group and possibly committed to Mythology as a career.
Being effective in the Gig Economy
Devdutt talks about what it takes to thrive in the Gig Economy. At the surface level, quitting a steady job and taking the plunge to be a player in the Gig Economy can be attractive and seductive. Devdutt cautions people against the peril of ignoring Goddess Lakshmi in the pursuit of passion. He talks about the criticality of securing of Gomata before diving into the wild world of marketplaces and gigs.
Dealing with various life transitions
Devdutt talks about people transitioning from being a Parasuram (rule follower) to Ram (Role Model) to Krishna (Coach) as they go through their career. He discusses the distinction between the western model (that he says is substitutive) and an Indian model (that he says is cumulative). He refers to how sometimes children in family businesses aren’t exposed to adequate real-life experiences before they join the business.
TAGS
Inflection pointsEffective coaching process
Devdutt talks about what leads to an effective coaching relationship. He describes the complexity of a coaching process and mentions that the onus is often on the Coachee to tap into the database of the Coach and extract the value. Several leaders see Coaching as linear relationship where there is a pre-defined process which leads to an outcome. He emphasizes that the reality is quite different from that.
Focus vs Perspective
Devdutt talks about the distinction between Focus (Rana-bhoomi) and Perspective (Ranga-bhoomi). He talks about how when you adopt focus, you see the world from your perspective while when you have perspective you see it as a whole without boundaries. He links this to the business context and talks about the distinction between the healthy side and the dark side of capitalism where companies often over-emphasizing adding value to shareholders (often at the exclusion of some of the other stakeholders that could be impacted).
TAGS
JudgmentBuilding Habits vs Enhancing Awareness
Devdutt talks about the distinction between building habits and enhancing awareness. He mentions that habits are often relevant only in a certain context and it is critical not to become a slave of the habit. He also elaborates on the notion of “Darshan” and “Para-jiva” and makes the distinction between self-awareness and awareness towards the other. He urges us to think about what we would do when presented with Sophie’s choice (where you have to pick between two equally deserving alternatives).
Understanding fear to decipher beliefs
Coaching is often about understanding the deeply wired beliefs that drive leadership behavior. Devdutt shares that understanding people’s fears might provide insights into people’s beliefs. He talks about the fears that often puts people on a hedonistic treadmill with materialistic markers along the way. He also talks about the notion of staying relevant and talks about the notion of rendering yourself irrelevant consciously as we move through life, something that people are often not open to dealing with.
Building perspective and judgment
Devdutt talks about the distinction between sarpa drishti (focus, short-term) and garuda drishti (perspective, long-term). He talks about how there is merit in having a certain rhythm with which one wears each lens. He talks about the churn that happens between the two when you toggle between them rather than looking at them sequentially. He also talks about the merits of having clarity of the role you are in (CEO, Board, Owner –etc.). He mentions that often, a lot of confusion ensues because people aren’t clear about the role they have been entrusted with.
Building story telling capability
Devdutt breaks down story-telling and shares his perspectives around how we could become story tellers. He mentions that story-telling is often about turning a hard fact into emotion through plots and characters. He also emphasizes the need for brevity in corporate story telling. He shares a secret around how he tests for conceptual understanding of a story. He asks the narrator to share a long story such as Mahabharata in 1 line. He mentions that you quickly know if the other person “gets it”.
TAGS
CommunicationIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Devdutt makes the distinction between the market wanting a certain type of fruit (phala) and each one of us being a certain type of seed (beej). He uses this framework to talk about how we could make a choice around changing ourselves or the market we address as we seek to fulfil our potential.
TAGS
In SummaryPolitics as a career option
Jay talks about the criticality of financial independence if somebody is considering a career in politics. He also talks about some of the fundamental disconnects between the world of business and politics and how that can lead to challenges in people from the world of business settling into the world of politics.
Markers of Long term Potential
Jay discusses what a “lambi race ka ghoda” looks like in Politics. He also talks about the role of circumstance playing a much bigger role in Politics than in other domains. He talks about how effective politicians stay relevant by appealing to different segments over time as the public sentiment shifts over time.
TAGS
Spotting potentialResilience
Jay talks about what the bad days in politics look like. He talks about how easy it is for people to assign motives when you have none. He also talks about the good days when some of your ideas take hold and people see you as an individual who championed that change.
TAGS
ResilienceStaying relevant and leveraging technology
Jay talks about what how successful politicians have managed to stay relevant over time and have reinvented themselves. He also talks about how technology is begin to level the playing field in favour of people who do not necessarily come from a family of politicians with an established brand and mobilisation infrastructure.
Generating options amidst political constraints
Jay talks about how he has grown as a politician in all these years. He also talks about Track II dialogues where he is active. These are informal back-channels which can be tremendously helpful in improving the communication and improving one’s understanding of the others’ point of view.
Balancing the macro and micro views
Jay talks about how he thinks about the macro discussions he has when he is in Delhi or with an international delegation (which is often about solving for the future) and balances it with the concerns of the here and now that people in his constituency are facing. He talks about he manages to combine the bird’s eye view and the worm’s eye view.
Three pieces of advice that stand out
Jay talks about some of the advice he has received that has helped him in his political career. This includes being cautious about taking people at face value and in watching what you say in a public domain. He also speaks at length about the importance of listening to the voter needs and not getting swayed just by the voices of the party workers.
Perspectives on Prioritization
Jay talks about the criticality of creating the leverage as a leader to find a mechanism to process the volumes the data that comes to you to be thoughtful about your decisions. He goes on to talk about how he has to balance the need to go after legislative priorities with crises that might erupt in your constituency from time to time.
Lessons for business from politics
Jay discusses how the risk appetite is different in politics is different from that in the corporate world largely because, in politics, unlike in the business world, one has to secure loyalty first before going after performance and that can lead to a very different view on the kind of risks a politician might end up taking.
Influencing an ecosystem
Jay discusses he thinks about picking ideas to champion and talks about how you could get a pulse of the acceptance of the idea. He goes on to talk about the criticality of setting up feedback loops for you to get a pulse of the real public sentiment.
Perspectives on Excellence
Jay shares examples of three leaders (PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi) who have driven significant change despite the challenges that came with the implementation. He talks about how great leaders use a window of opportunity or a crisis to quickly shift gears in dramatic fashion to drive seismic shifts.
TAGS
ExcellenceIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Jay talks about importance of us cherishing the fact that we have a democracy before we get down to analysing what its short-comings might be. He also talks about the criticality of doing things that you enjoy and things that matter.
TAGS
In summaryEarly formative years
Amit talks about how his parents have influenced his attitudes towards giving and his parenting style. He talks about how he and his siblings were encouraged to be grounded and contribute with their capabilities (not just money) to help the needy. He also talks about his parenting style where he emphasizes nudging and role-modelling than prescribing and lecturing.
Joining an Indian I-Bank after a US MBA
Amit talks about how he thought about pursuing an MBA in the US. He also goes on to talk about the considerations he had when he decided to come back to India immediately after his MBA. He also talks about how he thought about Banking as a career option picked Investment Banking as a career path (as against Trading despite his strengths in quant related topics).
Factors behind the rise at DSP Merrill Lynch
Amit reflects on the common misconceptions people have when they get into Banking. Amit talks about how he made the decision to join DSP Merrill Lynch despite it being the job with the lowest pay and title. He also talks about how he leveraged his style of building deep authentic relationships with clients to grow over time. He also talks about the role of early bosses and brutal developmental feedback coupled with mentorship from Hemendra Kothari which have played a key role in his growth as a Banker.
Decoding mentorship
Amit talks about how he has benefited from mentors along the way starting from Hemendra Kothari at DSP Merrill Lynch. He also goes on to talk about how mentors need not be from within the company and how clients could sometimes be great mentors. He talks about how the circle of mentors (which includes KV Kamath, Kalpana Morparia and KM Birla) has evolved organically over time than him going out in an explicit, conscious way to build a group of mentors around him.
Transitioning from Banking to PE
Amit talks about how he thought about the transition from the world of Investment Banking to Private Equity. He talks about taking stock of life after reaching the heights of the Investment Banking profession and also seeking more time to devote to some of the other elements in his life such as Social Impact.
Apprenticeship - the magic sauce in Private Equity
Amit talks about what it takes to build a sustainable Private Equity business over the long term. He also talks about the criticality of apprenticeship in people growing to become effective investors. He talks about three things that investors need to get right (people bets, strategy bets and timing) and how that evolves over time. He also discusses what it takes to transition to Investing as a profession and how he evolved from Investor 1.0 to Investor 2.0 during his tenure at Bain Capital.
Building better business judgment
Amit discusses how people get better at judgment calls over time. In an industry where the lead time to feedback is long, this is a significant differentiator over the long-term. He also discusses how, in order to drive disproportionate returns, it is critical to walk the tight-rope between seeking all the inputs required for a decision but at the same time have the courage of conviction to stick your neck out to avoid a consensus evaluation.
TAGS
JudgmentInstitution building - Leading Type As
Amit discusses how he thinks about hiring and creating a nurturing climate for his team to deliver performance. He also shares how he invests time with each of his colleagues and help build their capability. He also talks about how he handles exits from Bain Capital. He talks about the realities of a corporate pyramid and stresses the importance of handling the people that don’t go up the pyramid with empathy.
Moving to a 50% model at Bain Capital
Amit currently operates on a 50% model where he spends 2.5 days at Bain Capital and 2.5 days on Social Impact, Boards and other matters. He talks about how he and his wife gradually started spending more and more time on the Social sector and how he structured this arrangement when the last fund was being raised.
Being Strategic about Philanthropy
Amit talks about how he and his wife Archana have been thoughtful about how they would spend their time and money towards Philanthropy. He talks about how they picked Water, Education and Health as three areas he would go after. He also discusses how his intervention is a blend of several activities including writing cheques towards break-out NGOs, investing in Leadership Capacity Building and Governing through the Board.
TAGS
Social impactIn summary - Playing to potential
Amit discusses how he has always surprised himself over time with the goals he has set for himself on the work front and the Social Impact front. He talks about the importance of setting goals and revisiting them from time to time. He also talks about the criticality of collaborating with the right set of people who inspire you and enable you to drive impact at a large scale. .
TAGS
In summaryGenesis of the book - CATALYST
Mouli talks about the context behind writing the book which is a combination of him finding time across multiple flights to Singapore to pen down his thoughts given a Regional role and a desire to take a break and take stock of life. He also discusses how he wanted to contribute to social impact in a way that leverages his skills rather than do on-ground field work where he may not have any distinctive value to add.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Turbocharging your growth -TMRR
Mouli talks the fact that the time people put in a job is not an appropriate indication of the experience they have gained. He outlines TMRR (Target, Measure, Review and Reflect) as a process through which people could derive a lot more experience than what the average person might get in that time period. He also talks about how people can build in the habit so that they practice it on a regular basis.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Raising the game when it matters
Mouli talks about the concept of Learning Cycles and how it is critical for people to focus on completing large learning cycles to build significant distinctive capability. He also makes the distinction between major and minor learning cycles and talks about how effective leaders often kick their game up a notch when it comes to a major learning cycle. The concept of learning cycle is also relevant when we think about processing opportunities that come along in our journey.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Playing the 1st half of career to win the 2nd half
Mouli discusses that a lot of the wins in the first half of the career are often on the back of low hanging fruit but the wins in the second half are often harder. He mentions that apart from solving for successes in the first half, we should all build the muscle and resilience to be able to go after the complex win or the high hanging fruit. And that sometimes might require us to go slow and learn than run fast and miss out on building this muscle.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Picking mentors thoughtfully
Mouli underscores the criticality of having sound mentors in todays world where there are more forks in the road and several choices to be made for all of us. Mouli also talks about his framework for how we all should think about selecting the mentors that guide us. He talks about how Mentors should have seen some parts of the “movie” that you haven’t and should be completely vested in your success with no conflict of interest.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Decoupling quitting & joining decisions
Mouli talks about how people often mix up the two decisions and how they can end up over-appreciating what is right in the new context and what is wrong in the current situation. He brings it back to the point that careers are driven by capability and not by role/title. He urges us to think hard about the learning opportunity in the current environment and carefully evaluate the pros and cons of the current and the new opportunity before taking a decision.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Evolving views on the notion of success
Mouli talks about how the early years were often focused on achievement, which later gave way to an orientation towards Mastery and the last phase being driven by purpose. He talks about how he found his purpose along his journey and how it has impacted the choices he makes in everything he does whether it is a market visit or writing a book.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
TAGS
Views on SuccessImpact of Life on Work
People often talk about Work-Life Balance and the rhetoric is often around “Life” being the residual figure after work has consumed you. Mouli flips this argument around and says that there is a lot to be gained on the work front by organizing your “life” carefully. He talks about passionate striving hobbies that push you towards excellence at work and also talks about how some of the social impact initiatives he pursues enhances his empathy when he is at work.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Cultivating "Lodestar" values
Mouli talks about the notion of Values as something that has a significant upside over the long run and challenges the current narrative which is often around showcasing the downside of people who display poor values and are punished. He also talks about the need for us to have an absolute view of this versus a relative view.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Overemphasizing fit in a career choice
Mouli talks about how he has made some of his early career moves based on the notion of fit. He also acknowledges that there is often an information asymmetry here and uses surrogate sources (profiles of others who have gone there and succeeded) of data as a means of determining if he would belong. He also emphasizes the criticality of focusing on learning rather than earning to drive professional growth over the long-term.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
Winning the Second half of career
Mouli talks about how people need to consider evolving the metrics with which they measure their success as they move towards the second half of their career. He strongly advocates the notion of helping others succeed as a means of driving your own success.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Mouli talks about the notion of Potential being an infinite term and not something finite and well-defined. He uses the phrase “you get what you deserve” to make the point we are better off focussing on the deserving than the getting. He also underscores the point about enjoying the ride and therefore playing (not necessarily working) towards our potential.
More from Chandramouli Venkatesan
TAGS
In summaryOmidyar Network and innovating for next Half Billion
Roopa talks about the flexible capital model at Omidyar Network (ON) and discusses how they do a combination of investing in tech enabled start-ups driving social impact and grants to organizations to impact a sector. She also discusses the unique characteristics of the next half billion in India that has access to the mobile phone and will come online in the next 5 years and how this presents a unique opportunity for these consumers and for businesses targeting them.
Early formative years
Roopa talks about how she grew up amidst nature in the North Eastern part of India and how some of her perspectives on working women started getting shaped right from an age of around 10. She also talks about her first brush with Mumbai when she comes to pursue a B.Com in Sydenham College but quickly find the city overwhelming and goes back to Guwahati to pursue B.Sc in Mathematics. She also talks about the peculiar situation where despite clearing the entrance process for IIMA, she is unable to join. She decides to teach in a primary school and appears for CAT yet again.
Growing through the ranks at CRISIL
Roopa talks about how she drifted into CRISIL and how she was not necessarily career oriented in the early years of her professional life. She talks about the notion of focusing on excellence and on topics that are outside the realm of responsibility and how the culture at CRISIL ensured that her efforts were noticed and rewarded. She also talks about the transformative impact that one of her overseas stints had on her in terms of developing a “bird’s eye view”.
Transitioning to a General Management role
Roopa talks about the transition to the role of a Chief Rating Officer being the defining transition in her journey at CRISIL. She talks about how the profile of her responsibilities and stakeholders significantly changed when she moved into that role. She also talks at length about how she recalibrated the relationship with her peers when she got promoted, something that a lot of people struggle with.
Choosing career direction post CRISIL
Roopa talks about how she took stock of options after her successful run in CRISIL. She talks about the process she went through to first eliminate what options may not make sense for her before she ended up choosing to join Omidyar Network. She talks about having informal discussions with ~45 people over a 9 month period to get directional clarity on what might make sense for her.
Flexing leadership style at Omidyar Network
Roopa talks about how she had to adjust her leadership style when she moved from leading a team of 4000 plus people in CRISIL to Omidyar Network which had about 150 people globally and about 15-20 people in India. She discusses the power of listening, learning and tapping into the internal network to come upto speed and build credibility with the organization.
Developing a sense of judgment
Roopa talks about she developed a sense of judgment in the new context when she moved to Omidyar Network. She talks about the fact that she now has to exercise judgment on entrepreneurs who in turn will exercise judgment on several topics that are relevant to them. She discusses how she went about acquiring that nuanced sense of judgment by understanding the world of the start-up entrepreneur and the world of technology.
Women Leadership - The barrier no one speaks about as much
Roopa talks about the fact that there is a lot of commentary around women coming back to the work force after they start a family. She mentions that support structures and corporate policies are evolving and this problem is slowly being addressed. She discusses the barrier that shows up when women are in senior management roles. She talks about the notion of self-belief which often comes in the way of women raising their hand for top jobs and for a seat at the table.
Perspectives on Success
Roopa talks about how she thinks about success and frames it as a journey than a destination. She talks about how the notion of purpose has energized her during her days at CRISIL and in the work she does at Omidyar Network (Supporting innovations that can create opportunities for millions of people who are otherwise either excluded or underserved or disempowered)
TAGS
Views on successWhat they don’t teach you at IIMA but should
Roopa first talks about what she learnt at IIMA before she delves into what they don’t teach there but should. She talks about the notion of first principles thinking that gets deeply ingrained during the time at IIMA. She goes on to talk about the criticality of work experience before pursuing an MBA.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Roopa talks about the attitudes that have held her in good stead as she has gone through her journey. She also talks about how a lot of clarity around one’s own potential evolves over time and suggests that we don’t get anxious about it too early.
Early career choices - Law, Journalism, Teaching and Writing
Vinay talks about how he has thought about his career choices. He speaks about the fact that after his 12th, he could have possibly become an architect instead of a Lawyer. He also talks about his thinking at each of the transition points where he made critical choices (Law versus Architecture, Law to Journalism, Journalism to study PhD in Politics). He also talks about how he thinks more about the quality of the product he creates with his diverse backgrounds than sweat about the notion of his identity.
Delivering good judgments
Vinay talks about how the same judgment can have a different journey of implementation depending on the ecosystem in which the judgment is pronounced. He talks about the distinction between barking and biting when he looks at a Judgment. He urges the leaders (Judges, Lawyers, CEOs) to think hard about the ecosystem they are in and the control they have over implementation before they go for a certain verdict.
The reflection habit - decoding signal from the noise
Vinay talks about Narasimha Rao’s habit of reflection and journaling which helped him deal with the ecosystem he was in. Vinay talks about how Rao used the habit of journaling to develop a nuanced understanding of the context he was in which helped him deal with situations of grey effectively. He also talks about how he managed to gather intelligence around what was happening around him despite his lonely nature.
Managing time, unfettered curiosity and resilience
Vinay talks about Narasimha Rao spent his time at various points in his career. More specifically, he breaks down the pie chart of time across different phases - when you are campaigning, when you are in power and when you are in opposition. He talks about how Narasimha Rao had unfettered curiosity that helped him indulge his curiosity when he was in opposition which helped him evolve as a person but also ensured that he did not make any hasty decisions in the short-term out of anxiety that would hurt him in the long run.
Leadership under extreme constraints - Lion, Fox and Mouse
Vinay talks about how Narasimha Rao combined the notion of intellectual agility (ability to fundamentally shift one’s beliefs when new data presents itself) and implementation agility (knowing how to drive change through a complex system). He talks about how Narasimha Rao could play Lion, Fox or Mouse and the criticality of timing in these situations.
Staying relevant through transitions
Vinay talks about how Narasimha Rao stayed relevant through the various transitions that he went through in his journey. He also talks about how he learns and grows when he did not gets a transition wrong. He also talks about how Narasimha Rao re-invented himself when Congress moved from the Indira Gandhi phase to the Rajiv Gandhi where the core group had several people from an Oxbridge background (far from Narasimha Rao’s comfort zone).
Assembling an effective team
Vinay talks about how Narasimha Rao picked his team members and think about the portfolio of capabilities in his team. He specifically alludes to the fact that he was self-aware about what he knew and didn’t know and was able to hire best in class talent without feeling insecure. He also talks about how Narasimha Rao brought in diversity of thought across various topics to ensure it was a balanced team.
Making/Not making key decisions
Vinay talks about how Narasimha Rao made decisions or chose not to make decisions strategically depending on the political context. He mentions that often people think of Narasimha Rao as an intellectual but Vinay argues that he was a man of action but also somebody who was acutely aware of his political ability to drive through change.
Driving change when there is short term pain and long term gain
Vinay discusses Narasimha Rao’s strategy to usher in liberalization without too much fanfare given the fragile situation he was in. He shares his thoughts on how some other politicians have managed to drive tough change with the support of the public which involved long term gains (Park Chung-hee in South Korea, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore) but short term pain.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Vinay talks about how Narasimha Rao was a fusion of Don Quixote (somebody who acted without too much thinking) and Hamlet (somebody who thought a lot but didn’t act as much) and how he brought the various shades of gray in his personality to bear as a leader. He talk about how we need to be cognizant of our environment when we think about what we do and how we implement it.
Early formative years
Neera talks about how her early years in a Boarding school in Bangalore (while her parents were in Canada) shaped her as a person and gave her a grounded understanding of India despite her parents immigrating to Canada after graduating from IIT Kharagpur.
Changing orbit - HBS, Wall-Street and Dasra
Neera talks about her transitions to Morgan Stanley, Harvard Business School, UBS and then to Co-founding Dasra with her spouse – Deval Sanghavi. She talks about the mindset with which she started thinking about her HBS degree. She talks about moving from seeing it as an asset you could market to something she could leverage and extend to drive impact in the Social Impact world.
Thinking about levers of Impact
Neera talks about how Dasra has evolved into an organization that works in three broad areas (Research, Building Organizations and Giving Strategically). She also talks about the way Dasra has made choices as it has grown as an organization and how it plans to measure impact and success as it grows into the future.
Role clarity with co-founders
Dasra was co-founded by Neera Nundy and Deval Sanghavi in 1999. They discuss how they have evolved their roles as the organization has grown over time. She talks about how they have gravitated to playing roles that are in line with their sources of energy and strength.
Evolving the goal-post at Dasra
Neera talks about how she and Deval have thought about where they have wanted to take Dasra. She also discusses how when they had a funding challenge a few years back, they had to revisit almost all of their key assumptions and have an honest discussion about where they wanted to take Dasra and move forward with increased conviction.
TAGS
Views on successTransitioning roles within Dasra
Neera talks about how she has thought about her role as Dasra has grown and her plans for governance as we look to the future. She talks about the interconnect between the personal and professional life and how the role she has played in Dasra has been in the context of her personal context.
Leadership Development in Social Impact space
Neera talks about some of the common challenges that entrepreneurs in the Social Impact space face. She talks about founders often being “too mission driven” and thereby coming in the way of systems and processes that could build the organization sustainably. She also talks about the Founders not spending enough time on what they are distinctive in leading to spreading themselves across too many areas.
Transitioning to the Social Impact world
Neera talks about the distinction between Needs and Wants as people think about a career in Social Impact as against the Corporate world (although the lines between the two are being blurred). She also discusses some of the real challenges when people with a long successful tenure in the Corporate world transition to the Social Impact world. She shares her perspectives on how could adapt well into the new context.
Distinctive leaders in the Social Impact space
Neera talks about some of the unique characteristics of the distinctive leaders that have made a lasting contribution in the Social Impact space. She talks about a combination of a desire for large-scale impact coupled with empathy for the consumer whose needs and wants they want to address.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Neera talks about how it is not about each of us individually fulfilling our potential but more about how we can work with a group of people and unlock greater possibilities. She also discusses how we all get cues along the way that nudge us in certain directions for us to pursue the path that that could enable us to fulfil our potential
Early formative years
Deepa talks about the discipline that she got from an upbringing in the Armed Forces context. She specifically discusses the point around planning for tomorrow and having Plan B and Plan C for situations. She also discusses the mindset of being prepared for the unseen which has helped her overcome extreme obstacles.
TAGS
formative yearsDealing with two possible fatalities
Deepa recounts her twin-ordeal in 1999. Her husband was fighting in the Kargil war and she was anxious about his well-being. At the same time she had a tumour in her back that worsened which got her to a point where she had to make the choice between leading a normal life and facing a high probability of death or going for surgery to improve her odds of living but in a wheel-chair. She discusses how she navigated this passage of play.
TAGS
ResilienceRebounding from a near-death event
Deepa talks about the mindset with which she took stock of life when she had chest-below paralysis and had to recalibrate her approach to her activities, schedule, relationships and aspirations. She talks about how she developed a sense of gratitude for what she had and how she and her family chose happiness. She also talks about how her hobbies enabled her to immerse herself into an activity and bring happiness to her life.
TAGS
ResilienceGetting people comfortable with the context
Deepa shares her thoughts on the trade-off between seen as a “different person” versus being seen as just another individual who can do most of the things that a regular person can. She talks about how it is about her taking the onus and putting the other person at ease rather than expecting the other person to react to her situation. She says “if I am OK with it, they are OK with it”.
Picking the first "mountain" to climb
Deepa talks about how she took charge of life and how she became a restauranteur and in seven years, had built a flourishing business giving her financial independence. She then talks about her passion for biking and how she wanted to create records on a bike to ensure that her voice is heard and for her to be able to have an impact on Society.
Training for the Olympics
Deepa talks about her pursuit of excellence led her from one place to another and eventually to a medal in the Olympics. She talks about the 68 National Golds and 21 International Medals including medals from Asian Games, Para Olympics, World Championships and Common Wealth Games.
Perspectives on Excellence
Deepa talks about her disciplined approach that enabled her to win the Silver Medal at the Rio Paralympics. She also talks about her frame of mind and personal context which gave her the fire to make the Silver Medal winning throw on that day.
TAGS
ExcellencePicking an effective Coach
Deepa discusses her approach to picking a Coach while training for Rio Olympics. She mentions that given the uniqueness of her body condition and the training need, the traditional coaching approaches did not work. She talks about how she worked with a biomechanics gym trainer, watched her diet and worked on her psychology as preparation for the Olympics.
Building resilience
Deepa talks about what gives her the resilience to deal with difficult situations and how people can build that muscle. She talks about the criticality of moving from a “wallowing in the problem” mindset to a solutioning approach where you think about how you want to drive change and be the change.
TAGS
ResilienceAbout "Wheeling Happiness" Foundation
Deepa talks about Wheeling Happiness Foundation, an initiative she and her daughter have started. She talks about how they plan to bring hope to the life of people and become a medium towards creating an inclusive and accessible (physically, emotionally, mentally) India.
TAGS
Social ImpactIn summary - Playing to Potential
Deepa shares her perspective on people playing to their respective potential. She discusses the criticality of having a happy mind, staying positive and having the discipline and work towards it. She urges us to be true to ourselves for us to push towards excellence
Committing to a career in Music
Jayashri talks about her chance meeting with Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman and how that changed everything for her. She discusses the faith that he had in her when he asked her to learn music under his guidance and how that instilled a sense of responsibility for her to stay committed to the path.
Characteristics of great coaches
Jayashri discusses her observations of Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman and how he would unlock the potential of each of his students by tailoring his approach and finding a different set of tools for each individual. She also talks about how he would role-model standards of excellence in his practice of the art form
Deliberate practice
Jayashri discusses how she splits time during practice. This includes building stamina and preparing your mind to think faster when you perform with other musicians. She also talks about practicing new songs for at least a period of 3-4 months before the music begins to “flow” out of her.
Team work in a concert
Jayashri talks about what it takes to perform with other artists on stage and discusses the notion of emptying oneself and a levelling attitude with oneself for the music to take over. She talks about creating a space inside her from which the music could flow freely.
Making Directional Choices
Jayashri talks about how she made choices along the way, more specifically, the choice between going deep into Carnatic music versus collaborating with different art forms. She also speaks about how she has learnt from collaborating with other artists and how that has improved her core art form – Carnatic Music
Music and Technology
Jayashri talks about overdependence on technology and how that is coming in the way of learning where the student puts off the learning to technology. She talks about how she tries to benefit from the technology while knowing that she could do what she does even without it.
TAGS
MindfulnessSir Ang Lee and Excellence
Jayashri talks about her collaboration with Sir Ang Lee where when she collaborated with him to sing for the movie – Life of Pi. The song was eventually nominated for the Oscars for the Best Original Song (first Tamil song to be nominated). She talks about how Sir Ang Lee brought out the best in her during the five days that she spent recording the 5 odd lines of the song.
Balancing work and life
Jayashri talks about the challenges of being a performer who has to travel around the world and how she is often split between the two worlds. She talks about the criticality of the ecosystem around her including her family that has provided her the support.
In summary - Playing to Potential
Jayashri talks about her approach to giving back to the community through the various things she does, whether it is helping children who have autism or performing for seniors at locations where they live. She also talks about her work through SPIC MACAY in using art to improve lives.
Art of asking good questions
Arun talks about how we could potentially move from understanding the data that somebody presents to us to going deeper in our understanding around why that data is important to the other person and how their experiences have led them to value what they value. He suggests that moving from the What to the Why and the How enables us to get to the next level of insight and intimacy with another person, especially if they are unlike us.
Steering by listening
Arun discusses his definition of a leader – “she or he who takes the first steps towards something that she or he deeply cares about and in ways that others wish to follow”. He talks about the criticality of listening to what other people care about as a key element of building engagement and followership.
Giving feedback by listening
Arun talks about insights from Dalai Lama (who also wrote the foreword for his book) who says that Listening is the first wisdom tool and it is a pre-requisite for reflection, compassion and self-knowledge. Arun discusses why it is important to create a space for the feedback to land on the other side and listening is the path to creating that space.
Having deep conversations at scale
Arun talks about how the depth of insight and intimacy gets compromised when we start having conversations across a large number of people. However, he shares his insights around how we could still make such conversations enriching by moving from the layer of data to the layer of how people form their opinions on the data.
The art of facilitation
Arun talks about how one must be clear about how one should think about structuring a meeting/conversation. He also suggests different formats depending on different depths to which we wish to go in the conversation. He makes the distinction between discussion, debate, deliberation and dialogue and urges us to be clear about what to use when.
Judgment and values
Arun talks about how values play an important role in how we build a sense of judgment on situations. He specifically presents the opposing perspectives of two views. 1) Utilitarian view 2) Individual rights view. He goes on to talk about the importance of tailoring our approach to the specific context rather than being binary about it.
TAGS
JudgmentListening & "Thinking fast and slow"
Arun talks how we might not be feeding our “thinking slow” part of the brain enough (using the phrase made popular by Nobel Prize winning Economist - Daniel Kahneman). He talks about how people now have greater reach in connections but with often diminishing levels of richness. He quotes some recent studies where brains of children have shown to be influenced by this and how this is impacting several areas including how we feel about ourselves, our attitudes and empathy. He re-emphasizes the power of having reading as a habit to further build the muscle of “Thinking Slow”.
Being heard in a noisier world
Arun talks about the downsides of being a good listener and says that sometimes, it might be harder for people to notice you given the noise around them. He also goes on to talk about how sometimes, we embark on a path of making some noise (through marketing, branding etc.) to be heard but he says that sometimes that path changes who we are in the process and by the time we get to the point where we are being heard, we may not be the same listeners any more that we were when we started out. He quotes Sir John Dalberg-Acton and says that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
TAGS
ListeningReinventing oneself at 45
Arun talks about how he was a cross-roads when he had to move from a successful stint as an executive in Tata Motors to a role as a consultant with Arthur D Little in the United States. He talks about the circumstances in which he took the decision (including a nudge from JRD Tata) and how he had to adjust his style to be effective in a new professional and cultural context. It is not very often that you see a leader transition from being a Business Leader to a Business Consultant.
Transitioning across contexts
Arun talks about how one can listen to build credibility in a new context, especially if you are in a situation where you feel you do not have the capabilities on Day 0. He talks about how he learnt from Sumant Moolgaokar by watching him interact with people across hierarchies including how he would engage with the gardener. He shares that it is critical that we move from a “I will teach” to a “I will learn” mindset when you move to a new context.
Leadership in an open system
Arun talks about his perspectives on Leading in an Open System where you do not have money, authority or power to wield as a source of influence. As we move towards a world where more and more value is being added by an ecosystem of players around a corporation (rather than value chains residing fully inside the company), how CEOs of today navigate this shift and create the right culture in the organization is critical.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Arun talks about how it is easy to get lost in the here and now and the buzz of the day to day that we sometimes might forget where we are headed. He likens it to Spanish tiki-taka where there is a lot of graceful ball-passing going on but sometimes the ball doesn’t get to the goal enough (something that commentators about the Spanish team in 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia). He urges us to spend time reflecting on what we deeply care about and take our first steps towards that.
Making early career choices
Ambi talks about how he has approached some of career choices. He specifically talks about some context behind moving to IIMC after IITM and then after graduating from IIM Calcutta, he discusses how he spent some time on the Agency side and the Client side before committing to a direction with the Agency world at FCB Ulka.
Listening as a leader
Ambi talks about how effective CEOs set a climate so that their teams feel comfortable presenting risky ideas to them. He talks about how if you don’t set the right atmosphere in the organization, the team below you can hedge their bets and focus on managing their image with the CEO than really solving for what is right for the organization. He discusses how you can create a culture where the team focuses on “winning in the market” rather than “winning in the system”.
Smoke Signals in a relationship
Ambi talks about what it takes to develop and maintain an account over a period of several years. He speaks about the criticality of having tentacles across the organization to get a pulse on the relationship. He also underscores the criticality of the role of the CEO in ensuring that he/she sets the right climate for the troops to share any potential cracks that are appearing in the relationship.
Influencing without authority
Ambi talks about his key insight around what it takes to influence clients. Given Advertising is a domain where there is arguably a lot of possible subjectivity, it is an interesting canvas to see how advisors influence clients. Ambi shares that it is often more about the intent and then followed by the content.
Building a trusted relationship
Ambi talks about his first interaction with Pradipto Mohapatra (a legend in the retail industry with the RPG group and ex Chairman of Coaching Foundation of India) and how he had a very unusual client meeting where everything except the “work on hand” was discussed. He talks about the notion of what it takes to develop and build trust with individuals.
Trusting the expert
In the book – Sponge – Ambi shares an illustration. Let us say, you have an architect who designs a house for you with 5 pillars. You feel that this doesn’t look good aesthetically and you want her to design it with 3 pillars. She does so and builds a house for you. A few months later, the house collapses. Whose fault is it? Architect’s or yours? Ambi talks about how clients with varying styles (ranging from Dr Varghese Kurien to Mr Rohintan Aga) work effectively with experts to get the most out of them.
Judgment - Balancing head and heart
Ambi discusses how some of the leaders he has worked with combine science and art in making good judgments. He talks about how some of these leaders walk the fine line between following process and using well-informed gut to make superior decisions over time. This is specifically relevant in the world of Marketing and Advertising where the production values can vary by orders of magnitude.
TAGS
JudgmentThe art of story telling
Ambi talks about what he has learnt from individuals like Late Pradipto Mahapatra, Late Mr Rohinton Aga and Mr M. Damodaran when it comes to storytelling. He draws the connection between storytelling and listening and discusses how it is not a skill-set that can be suddenly implanted into a team or an individual but has to be an integral part of the culture in an organization.
Building a personal Brand
Ambi talks about how we can all learn from the world of brands to think about our personal brands. He talks about the criticality of sharing ideas that are in line with the what your brand should stand for. He also discusses the criticality of collaboration in ensuring that you are able get the word out about your brand and what you can offer to the world.
TAGS
Personal brandCEO connect with end consumer
Ambi talks about how leaders like Karsanbhai Patel of Nirma have an intuitive understanding of the customer need. He specifically talks about the “chaiwalla test”, a concept he discusses in his book, to talk about how some leaders find smart ways of getting a quick pulse from the real demographic rather than making misleading assumptions.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Ambi talks about some of the key choices he has made over his journey that has helped get to where he has. He also spends time talking about his curiosity (that led him to do a PhD when he was past his 50) and how it has helped him grow over a period of time. Referring to his latest book, he talks about the criticality of being a SPONGE and learn from around us as we move forward in our respective journeys.
Transitioning to becoming a Board Member
Mr. Bhatt talks about how Chief Executives should be thoughtful about deciding which Boards they want to get onto. They need to have a very clear “Why” before they take on a Board role. He also goes on to discussing the key behaviors that leaders need to embrace and let go as they transition from leading a Company as a CEO to influencing a Board. He underscores the criticality of a contributing mindset and says that it is possibly a greater indicator of effectiveness and fulfilment than competence on a topic.
TAGS
Executive to NEDBeing an effective Chairperson
Mr Bhatt talks about the criticality of the Chairperson to build good one-on-one relationships with each of the Board members so that he/she can facilitate effectively during a Board discussion. He mentions that the biggest contribution a Chairperson can make is to orchestrate the discussion in the room effectively to ensure that all the relevant voices are heard and the group makes a robust decision.
Making good Board decisions
Mr OP Bhatt talks about the role of a Chairperson in ensuring that good decisions are made. He talks about the situations where sometimes not making a decision and seeking more information is better than suboptimal decisions. He also discusses how he would handle divergent opinions on the Board by facilitating a more nuanced conversation that embellishes the issue and the nuances come out.
Chairperson versus CEO - Leadership nuances
Mr OP Bhatt talks about how the leadership context for a Chairperson in a Board is very different from that of a Chief Executive in a Company. He talks about the hierarchy in an organization with KPIs, Metrics and other variables that gives the CEO control over outcomes. He contrasts that to the context in the Board where individuals have to be nudged and cajoled to carry on tasks that might be critical for the Board.
Ensuring Board members add value
Mr. Bhatt talks about the criticality of a Board review to ensure Board members get tailored, actionable feedback that can raise the bar on the performance of the Board. He talks about the importance of the role of a Chairman in processing the feedback that he/she is given as part of the process and in how he/she leverages that to get the most out of each Board member.
Seeking and giving feedback
Mr Bhatt talks about the tact with which Board member should provide and seek feedback. He specifically underscores the criticality of the role of the Chairperson in ensuring that he/she doesn’t have a blind-spot in the way he/she is performing. He discusses how some effective Chairpersons find the subtle opportunity and timing to elicit timely feedback from some select Board Members.
Attitudes that have driven his career
Mr Bhatt talks about how in every role he has done, he has tried to look for a “plus” which is an additional dimension beyond what is expected in the role. He also talks about the importance of understanding the criticality of the service you provide in the life of the consumer.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Mr Bhatt talks about a simple habit that he has found helpful in his journey over the years. He talks about the role of the conscious and the sub-conscious mind and how that can be leveraged for self-development. He talks about how he reflects for 5 minutes at the start of the day and at the end of each day and the difference it has made to him over the years.
Transitioning to solo-preneurship
Indranil talks about his challenges in transmitting some of the elements of the credo he had crafted as the head of Marketing and Strategy of his organization. He underscores the risks of abstraction when we craft values such as honesty, excellence, customer-delight etc. and adorn the walls. He takes the example of a story to illustrate the point “no room for ordinary” a value they were trying to live in his company. He goes on to share how he transitioned to the world of story-telling and reflects on some of his early lessons in solo-preneurship.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
Demystifying Business storytelling
Indranil distinguishes business story telling from Storytelling (that we see in Ramayana, Harry Potter or in movies). Indranil speaks about the fact that brevity and story-telling are not contradictory and it is often a false trade-off that people have in mind. He actually goes onto say that business story-telling might even be a more time-efficient way of getting complex, nuanced messages across the organization.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
Contextual applications
Indranil talks about some of the common areas in the Corporate world where we could use stories – building rapport, influencing and getting strategies to stick. He also talks about the distinction between narrating a story versus sharing something that has the structure of a story. He goes on to say that for the purpose of business story-telling, it is often sufficient to focus on the science and process of story-telling than get bogged down by the art which can be overwhelming for a few.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
TAGS
StorytellingCurse of Knowledge
Indranil talks about the curse of knowledge using the example of “tappers and listeners” – an experiment conducted by Elizabeth Newton at Stanford University in 1990\. He talks about how asymmetry of information often makes us poor communicators because we are too close to the content. He talks about the criticality of understanding the context of the receiver while delivering key messages.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
TAGS
StorytellingStory listening
Indranil talks about the criticality of story-listening and how it is critical to ask the right questions to elicit stories. He speaks about the fact that we often have a propensity to ask the How, Why and What questions because we are looking for a net-view but sometimes the rich data can be found by asking the When and the Where questions when you take people back to a moment in time.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
TAGS
ListeningBuilding deeper relationships
Indranil talks about how we can apply the concept of Story-listening in the context of understanding another human being. He also discusses the power of stories in a home context. He says that stories make things real. Very often we are busy communicating abstract concepts without giving our children an insight into where the opinion comes from.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
Deliberate practice
Indranil talks about what it takes to build story-telling into a habit. He talks about what deliberate practice looks like in the context of building this capability. He suggests that we need to put a stake in the ground and make a commitment to ourselves. He urges us to look for low evaluative and low judgment situations where this can be experimented and we can get the ball rolling. Most importantly, he talks about the criticality of capturing the stories and tagging them appropriately so that we can recall the right story at the right time.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
TAGS
Deliberate practiceBuilding a storytelling culture
Indranil talks about what it takes to build the habit of story-telling within an organization. He underscores the futility of one-off programmes that leave you with a high but don’t really move the needle when people come back to the rough and tumble of their daily life. He re-emphasizes the criticality of some sort of a deliberate practice programme for people to bake in the habit.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
Story tellers that stand out
Indranil talks about some of the hidden talents that story tellers have. He mentions that a lot of them are naturals in the way they tell stories and over time they have fine-tuned that capability. He lists R. Gopalakrishnan, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos as three of the story tellers that he admires and shares a couple of his personal favourites.
More from Indranil Chakraborty
TAGS
StorytellingStrategy and Careers
Tarun talks about developments in the field of Strategy and maps that to how individuals should think about their careers. He acknowledges the influence of Prof. Ben Jones (of Northwestern University) in shaping his thinking here. He talks about the fact that the world of knowledge is growing exponentially and we will know less and less (as a percentage) of what is to be known. He discusses how people should think about specialization and collaboration in this context and shares his perspective on the mind-set with which we should march into the future that can feel overwhelming.
Managing time and attention
Tarun discusses how he has crafted his self-assigned space of thinking about issues around creativity and entrepreneurship in Developing countries. He talks about being known as the “clearing house” for something. He also talks about the tension between access to intellectual capital at Harvard and being located closer to the action that he is passionate about. He later goes on to discuss the allocating mechanism he uses to fill his time when he visits the various markets.
Creating the conditions to create
Tarun makes the case for why it is critical for entrepreneurs in developing economies to build trust in their local economies. He contrasts the differences between a start up in Boston and its counterpart in Bangalore, Bogota or Beijing. Given the relative differences in maturity of institutions that provide support and the depth of talent in some of the associated areas, entrepreneurs starting up in emerging economies might have to deal with a lot of friction and Tarun makes the case for building trust for it to act as a lubricant in those circumstances.
Leadership in Emerging Markets
Tarun talks in detail about the mind-set with which entrepreneurs need to think about creating the conditions to create. He talks about the example of Charles Shao and how he battled the decline in trust in the milk industry in China. He discusses how Charles gave away IP (which seemed counter-intuitive in the short run) to widen the profit pools of the industry as a whole and thereby improve the outcomes of his business.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipBusiness model choices
Tarun talks about variations in how companies and entrepreneurs think about returning capital to the shareholders and talks about the examples of BFIL (earlier SKS Microfinance) and Banco Compartamos to illustrate how you could have very different approaches but still end up building a successful enterprise over the long run.
TAGS
Social ImpactFraming the Strategy question
Tarun talks about how entrepreneurs (keen on having impact at scale) in developing economies should think slightly differently from their counterparts in more developed ecosystems like Silicon Valley. He urges them to include trust-building as part of the objective function in addition to the business metrics they are going after in building out their enterprise.
TAGS
Building TrustMeasuring Trust
Tarun talks about the realities of building and measuring trust. He shares some of his thoughts on how entrepreneurs could take his central idea of creating the conditions to create and bring it to life when they work with multiple stakeholders. He urges the entrepreneurs to pick one stakeholder group and build trust with them as a starting point before looking to build trust with the entire system which can seem like a daunting task.
TAGS
Building trustPath to becoming a Historian
Dr. Guha speaks about his journey from playing cricket for St. Stephens (along with players like Kirti Azad who played for India and was part of the 1983 World Cup winning Cricket team) to pursuing a PhD in IIM Kolkata to eventually becoming a historian. He talks about the context behind some of the choices along the way and talks about the role of chance at various inflection points.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Being a historian - what it takes
Dr. Guha shares his perspectives around some of the elements behind being an effective historian. He talks about how his early years in cricket prepared him for the grind of being a historian and refers to the criticality of an independent mind and the ability to articulate complex thoughts in everyday language. He also gives us a glimpse into the rhythm of his typical day, especially in the mornings.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Key career choices
Dr. Guha speaks about some of the key choices he made at various forks in the road that presented themselves in front of him. He specifically talks about the crucial role of his father and his wife in giving him the flexibility to pursue his calling without getting him to “play safe” or to seek commercially lucrative options at the expense of pursuing things that energized him.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Multiple identities of Gandhiji
Dr. Guha speaks about how Gandhiji straddled multiple careers concurrently (including that of a Politician, Social Reformer, Prophet and Writer). He talks about the fact that he saw his life as one indivisible whole where he emphasized each facet at a different point in time.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Settling into a new context
Dr Guha speaks about the phase of transition when Gandhiji moved from South Africa to India. He talks about how Gandhiji was advised (by Gopal Krishna Gokhale) to spend about a year understanding the nuances of the country before embarking on a journey of change. He also speaks about Gandhiji’s open-mindedness and willingness to listen which enabled him to absorb the complexity of the country without bringing his biases.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Gandhiji's personal life
Dr Guha discusses the dichotomy between Gandhiji’s accomplishments on the public front and contrasts that with some of the challenges he had with relationships on the home front. He provides some context around why this might have happened.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
TAGS
Work and LifeBeing vulnerable
Dr Guha talks about how Gandhiji openly spoke and wrote about his flaws (defects, manias, lusts, passions and superstitions) without any inhibition. This approach is in such a stark contrast to how several leaders of today manage their personal image. He also spoke about how Gandhiji was often open to feedback (including being open to inputs from Mahadev Desai – his assistant) and would be comfortable acknowledging publicly if he was wrong in a debate.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
TAGS
AuthenticityHow Gandhiji made decisions
Dr. Guha speaks about Gandhiji went about making complex decisions. He talks about how he was able to combine the need to be democratic and to listen to the various people around him with the ability to be decisive and back his instincts given the overall context.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Inner journey
Dr. Guha speaks about Gandhiji’s inner journey on multiple fronts – diet, medicine, celibacy and inter-faith harmony. He speaks about how he had a scientific approach in each of these and sometimes crafted experiments to test out a certain belief and based on the results, modified it as he moved forward. He also speaks about Gandhiji’s tolerance and open-ness to others’ views as he was shaping his world-view through his journey.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
In Summary Playing to potential
Dr. Guha speaks about how he has learnt (from Gandhiji) the criticality of using the right language when you engage with people who might have a differing point of view.
More from Dr. Ramachandra Guha
TAGS
In Summary4 porous domains - Self, Work, Home & Community
Stew talks about the building blocks of his Total Leadership Model that he has developed at the Wharton Work Life Integration Project. Of the four domains (Self, Work, Home and Community), he expands on what he means by Self and Community as those two are often the least understood by leaders around the world.
Positive spillovers across domains
Stew talks about notion of positive spill overs across the 4 domains (Self, Work, Home, Community) and describes why finding harmony across domains is a more sustainable than looking at them as trade-offs. He expands on the notion of positive spillovers across domains and specifically talks about some of the elements which are often underappreciated by leaders. He introduces the notion of a four way win where we can look at trying experiments to achieve wins in all 4 domains of life.
TAGS
Work and lifeRole of Authenticity, Integrity & Creativity
Stew speaks about the role of authenticity (being real by clarifying what is important), integrity (having a clear view of who you are as an entire person and being clear about roles towards and expectations from stakeholders) and creativity (being innovating in crafting experiments to deliver four way wins). He specifically speaks about how some stakeholders expect less and are willing to support more than you think.
Tradeoffs by stage - post B-school, mid life, end career
Stew speaks about how the nature of the issues people grapple with varies depending on the stage of their journey. He specifically speaks about 3 points of people. 1) Point of graduation from Business School 2) Mid-life (about 15 odd years after graduation) 3) Retirement. For a longer piece around Navigating Mid-life, please see http://bit.ly/NavigatingMidLife
Technology and psychological interference
Stew speaks about what has stayed the same and what has changed significantly in his thinking around work life integration. He talks about the ubiquity of technological devices that now surround us and speaks about the need for all of us to build psychological tools to benefit from the technological advancements without incurring the cost that often comes hand in hand with such developments.
Managing stakeholder expectations
Stew speaks about the criticality of unearthing what the stakeholders really want and solving for it. He suggests that we should go past what they state as positions and unearth their real expectations while having these conversations. He also speaks about the criticality of caring for self before caring for others. He compares this to a change management initiative and suggests that one needs to be artfully political while driving changes through the system.
Role of a coach in Work-life integration
Stew speaks about the role of two types of coaches in such journeys. Firstly, he speaks about the value of peer to peer coaching networks where you are compassionate, curious, caring and candid with each other and learn/help each of the members of the group move forward. He also speaks about the role of professional coaches in providing another perspective and in holding you accountable
Flex the current context or reboot
Stew speaks about how we should try and stretch the boundaries of our current context before we start thinking about drastic solutions including changing jobs. He speaks about the notion of the Theory of small wins that underpins that Total Leadership approach and also refers to the work of Herminia Ibarra – Author of the book Working Identity.
Leadership Development in the Digital economy
Rich talks about how Google things about spotting potential and about Leadership Development. He quotes an interesting statistic from a piece of research by Corporate Leadership Council. He said that they found that that in 71% of the time people who are high performers were not high potentials but conversely 93% percent of high potentials are also high performers. He also goes on to talk about “Googliness” a term that encapsulates some of the softer aspects of an individual that flourishes inside Google.
Origins of SIY
Rich talks about the origins of the Search Inside Yourself programme. It started out as a quest for Googlers looking for a solution to stay agile and resilient while you are on a “rocket-ship”. He also goes on to talk about how SIY brings in wisdom from multiple domains ranging across Neuroscience, Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence to help people develop a new kind of intelligence that enables them to cope with the roller-coaster ride of a tech driven company
Attention and Meta-Attention
We normally think of attention in broad terms but Rich breaks down the various types of attention. He speaks about Attention being the ability to focus our mind on something specific and Meta-Attention being the ability to pay attention to our attention and have the ability to bring it back when it wanders.
Developing the meditation habit
Rich talks about how he thinks about ritualizing meditation and baking it as a hygiene in the way he goes about leading his life. He also talks about the importance of not treating meditation just as a separate activity that we do once a day but suggests that weave in meditation in the small things we do through the day. He also speaks about the importance of rituals to manage our attention in the digital economy.
Benefits of Journaling
Rich speaks about the benefits of journaling and refers to research in neuroscience that suggests that journaling is superior to typing on a digital device given the speed at which we do each of the activities. He also has some pointers around how people can start the practice of journaling in their lives.
Meta-distress and Response-flexibility
Rich discusses the distinction between choosing a response to a situation and reacting. He also speaks about the difference between events that unfold and the story we tell ourselves about the events that unfold. He links it to the notion of agility where he says we need to be agile in the way we stay present to the world around us and that agility is a prerequisite for us to be agile as leaders in the business context.
TAGS
Mindfulness3 levels of resilience
Rich speaks about three levels of resilience – Inner calm, Emotional Resilience and Cognitive Resilience. He talks about the example of Captain Sully Sullenberger (who miraculously landed the plane on the Hudson river after his plane was hit by birds after taking off from LaGuardia) to talk about how calm and composed he was and stayed present during the ~3 minutes he had between the bird hit and when he landed the plane.
Positivity and Psychological Safety
Rich speaks about why we have a negativity bias as a default setting. He traces it back to human evolution and talks about the fact that for us to survive, it was critical to attach a higher weightage to negative signals in the environment than the positive ones. He links it to the criticality of ensuring psychological safety in a team (results of Project Aristotle in Google) to drive business performance.
Early formative years
Falguni speaks about how her childhood shaped her personality and her wiring in the years to come. She speaks about how she and her brother were treated equally across various aspects of life and the independence parents gave her to try different things (trekking, traveling to Kashmir, going on an exchange programme etc)
Choices post IIMA
Falguni speaks about how she made some early career choices post IIMA. She speaks about how she was independent in the way she went about making decisions. She also speaks about the context in which the transition from Consulting to Banking happened when she got a call from Kotak on her childrens’ 3 year birthday.
Women and intense careers
Falguni speaks about how she juggled her family and her career at various points in time. She specifically speaks about the Maternity transition and says that women shouldn’t treat it as a P&L discussion where they are trading off the income with the opportunity cost of being with the child. She urges the women to look it as an investment in oneself that pays out over the future.
Taking the entrepreneurial plunge
Falguni speaks about the phase of life when she decided to become and entrepreneur after 25+ years post IIMA and after a successful run at Kotak. She also speaks about other businesses she considered (Professionalizing Nursing Homes, Creating a Market for second homes to name a couple) before proceeding with building out Nykaa.
Rewiring the leadership approach
Falguni speaks about the key shifts that she has made to her leadership style as she moved from a Senior Leadership role in an institution like Kotak to starting Nykaa from the ground. She specifically refers to the poem Ithaka that had daughter had shared with her at that point. It talks about the criticality of focusing on the journey than the destination.
Start up to scale up
Falguni speaks about the key shifts she has had to make as Nykaa moved from a start-up phase (where the proof of concept was still being established) to a scale up phase. She speaks about understanding the varying profile of the customer as the organization scales and speaks about how to get the organization ready for scale.
TAGS
Inflection pointsAligning horizons with investors
Falguni speaks about how she thinks about managing Investors in the context of her desire to build a long term sustainable business at Nykaa. She talks about the need to be transparent in the communication with investors on not just the metrics of the business but the philosophy with which you are building the business.
TAGS
Inflection pointsSetting the goalpost when you are an industry leader
Falguni speaks about the criticality of being focused on what the consumer wants and using that as the guide for coming up with the vision and the aspiration as you grow. When you are often the leader in the market, you don’t have the option of looking at competition and setting the goalpost. She speaks about how she has tried to keep her focus on consumer needs as she has scaled up.
TAGS
Inflection pointsTaking stock of the journey ahead
Rajat speaks about how he plans to spend time in the coming years. He talks about how he plans to resume his journey of contributing to philanthropic causes and work on some of the intractable issues that the society faces.
Provoking reflection through osmosis
Rajat provides some context around the style he adopted in the book and talks about the fact that notion of success is so contextual to each individual. He talks about sharing his journey candidly with people so that they could see a piece of themselves in the story and take out what makes sense for them through osmosis rather than by injection.
TAGS
Views on SuccessVivekananda versus Napoleon
Rajat speaks about the kind of leadership style that is required at the helm of a firm like McKinsey. He speaks about how one has to think about influencing and nudging rather than commanding and directing while leading a team of highly capable and self-driven people.
TAGS
InfluencingLeadership at McKinsey across 3 terms
Rajat speaks at length about how he led McKinsey over the 3 terms when he was the Managing Partner. He says that during the first term he co-created the future strategy of the firm and started executing on it. The second term, he says, was largely around driving expansion around the world while establishing key governance processes. The third term, he says, was largely around navigating the dot com crisis after the bubble had burst.
Settling into Scandinavia
Rajat speaks about his stints as leader in Scandinavia and in Chicago and the key levers he focused on to drive the growth of each office. He also make the distinction between the approach in Scandinavia which was significantly underpenetrated and in Chicago which had an established practice.
Transitioning across cultures
Rajat speaks about what it takes to build trust at the highest level with clients. He talks about how sometimes, it takes several years to cultivate a client and how the door opens at the right time if there is adequate trust that has been built with the client.
TAGS
Building TrustEvolution as a leader
Rajat speaks about how he grew as a leader through his tenure in the firm. He speaks about the combination of mentorship, apprenticeship and entrepreneurial space where there is a vacuum that one has to rise upto as a recipe for developing leaders effectively and speaks about how that played out in Scandinavia for him.
Choices during the McKinsey journey
Rajat speaks about how he evaluated opportunities outside of McKinsey through his journey. He also speaks about how he took stock of various options in front of him when he finished his third term as the Managing Partner at McKinsey.
TAGS
Inflection pointsKey choices that stand out
Rajat speaks about some of the choices he is proud to have made in his journey. He also reflects on choices that he wonders if he could have made differently, especially while transitioning into the next phase of his life after McKinsey.
Staying relevant as machines get smarter
Kartik speaks about the extent to which machines and algorithms have pervaded our lives. To give an example, 80% of view on Netflix is based on algorithmic recommendations and 70% of Youtube consumption is based on what it suggests. He talks about what this means for human beings to stay relevant in the future where the machines are getting exponentially smarter by the day.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
Predictability Resilience paradox
Kartik speaks about how AI has moved from being expert systems (where humans input a certain set of rules that machines follow) to machine learning systems (where human expose the machine to tonnes of data with the relevant input and output parameters) and how that leads to situations where the machines often come up with actions that are beyond our comprehension. He also takes the example of US Constitution and the Code of Hammurabi to make the distinction between the two types of systems and the trade-offs therein.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
Building trustConvenience versus Privacy
Kartik speaks about how different FAANG Companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) are trying to inject hosepipes into our lives and capture data for their respective algorithms to get smarter over time. He speaks about how, as consumers we need to walk the tight rope between leveraging the benefits of these platforms while protecting our privacy while doing it.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
DigitalDiversity of thought in the drawing room
Kartik speaks about how we need to be mindful of the risk of being exposed to a certain type of content or view point as the algorithms are solving for engagement and are likely to show content that we are likely to gravitate towards. He speaks about some of the mechanisms he employs to ensure that he builds diversity of thought in his head as he goes about processing the world around him.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
MindfulnessUnanticipated consequences and "Cobra effect"
Kartik speaks about how, if we are not watchful, algorithms might end up creating outcomes that we hadn’t really pictured when we started using them. He speaks about one particular example of an instance with Amazon where using algorithms to screen resumes led to the gender bias being further amplified before Amazon noticed it and addressed it.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
JudgmentExercising consumer choice - balancing efficiency and diversity
Kartik uses the example of music (Pandora, Last.FM and Spotify) and speaks about the different approaches to algorithm design and the implications on the kind of content we are likely to see as consumers. He also speaks about how the designers of algorithms need to have a holistic approach to developing metrics to evaluate the efficacy of the algorithms.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
JudgmentMachines - Decision Makers or Enablers?
Kartik speaks about how we should think about using algorithms for decision making versus decisions support. He urges to think about machines as augmenting and not substituting human capability. He speaks about how we should consider the extent of consequences and social implications to think about how we leverage the power of the machines.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
TAGS
InfluencingJobs at risk and new avenues
Kartik speaks about the impact of AI on jobs of the future. He cautions that it is not just the menial blue collar type of jobs that are at risk but a wider array of jobs where machines could replace man. He goes on to talk about the implication for us and how we should think about staying relevant in the future.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
Re-skilling ourselves to stay relevant
Kartik speaks about how we all could be thoughtful about equipping ourselves with some basic level of literacy around AI. Even if you are not in a technology-led company, it is likely that you will be impacted by AI in some shape or form as a leader, as a consumer or some other form.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP2
ROI of transition support
Michael speaks about the business case for Transition Advisory support when leaders take on a new role (internal or external transition). While is it is understood that it is lonely at the top, it is worth recognizing that it is lonelier when you are settling into a new context when leaders do not have an asset of relationships to count on (yet) and don’t have meaningful feedback loops that gives them a sense of how they are doing.
Creating the mind-space
Michael speaks about what it takes to get leaders to allocate mind-space to their transition while they are settling into a new context. He strongly suggests that we start working on transitions early (even before the leader comes in) so that it feels like a natural part of settling in rather than a separate list of things that one needs to do and as a potential distraction to the job at hand.
The Transition timeline
Michael speaks about how the various elements of transition that get addressed over a 6-12 month period. He talks about the fact that even in well meaning organizations, there is a risk of overloading the leader’s calendar with “stuff” to do and not really solving for what the leader wants. He speaks about the criticality of elements such as communication, arrival posture and alliances and the timing of when these elements matter.
Fit for purpose feedback loop
Michael speaks about the sub-optimality in feedback loops when a new leader comes into an organization. He speaks about the relevance of early conversations with the stakeholders and Day 90/120 conversations to ensure that leaders get tailored constructive feedback to ensure that they are able to course correct early in their journeys.
CXO to CEO transition
Michael speaks about the key shift when a leader transitions from functional leadership to General Management. He speaks about the default anchoring that people often come with when they move from a function to a General Management role. He specifically speaks about adjusting the unit of analysis and the notion of managing in the white spaces which becomes critical as a General Manager.
Warrior to diplomat
Michael speaks about the criticality of leaders transitioning from a competitive mindset to a collaborative mindset where they focus on building alliances and identify opportunities for cross-company collaboration, often even reaching out to rivals to co-create opportunities for the organization.
Leading former peers
Michael lays out the key challenges involved when a leader gets promoted and transitions to a context where he/she has to lead a team with several individuals who used to be his/her peers earlier. He gives some useful insights on how leaders could think about re-engineering the relationships while walking the tight rope between being a “Napoleon” and a “Super-peer”.
When a promotion may not make sense
Michael speaks about how leaders could end up making a mistake by following the “default momentum” in their corporate journeys. He says that it is surprisingly easy to make yourself unhappy by the choices you make at senior levels. He talks about the need to pause and take stock of the opportunity even if it means that it is the natural rite of passage to the top of the organization.
Mapping the influence landscape
Michael speaks about the criticality of navigating the influence landscape especially when one gets into a Corporate Diplomacy challenge where things get done more through influence than through authority. To get things done, one needs to work through the network of allies that one has in the system. Michael speaks about some of the elements of transition involved here and talks about why engineers often struggle with this.
TAGS
InfluencingOnboarding a leader
Michael speaks about the criticality of assimilating into an organization without triggering the immune system that could easily start working against you. He goes on to say that even if you have been hired as a change agent, earn the right to drive change before you start moving things around (unless it is a turnaround and shock therapy is warranted) in the new organization.
Entrepreneur bringing in an experienced CEO
Michael speaks about the specific challenge when start up entrepreneurs bring in seasoned leaders as they transition from a start-up context to a scale up context. He talks about some of the elements that the entrepreneur and the incoming leader need to bear in mind.
Coaching CEOs and Elite Athletes
Matt speaks about the similarities across and differences between how elite athletes and time starved CEOs approach training for triathlon. He makes the distinction between the individuals that check boxes and those that really use this as a springboard to thrive in their mission.
TAGS
CoachingCoach Coachee relationship
Matt discusses how he stays on top of adjacent disciplines such as nutrition, sleep science, strength and conditioning and other related topics to be relevant in the work he does. He also reflects on the learning opportunities in working with the athletes and coaches that he trains at Purple Patch Fitness.
Athlete to Coach to Entrepreneur
Matt speaks about the transition from being a Triathlete to being a Coach and to being a Business Owner. He speaks about how he thought about the choices at each of these transition points and what made him go down this path.
Forced growth - plugging the weaknesses
Matt speaks about how athletes come to him with excellence in one or two domains (cycling, running, swimming) but have to quickly come upto speed in a totally different area to be competitive in a multi-sport context. We discuss the parallels between this and how Functional leaders need to transition to General Managers.
Toughness is not a differentiator
Matt mentions that in the “thin air of world-class performers” toughness is not a differentiator and speaks about the importance of training and rejuvenation in creating the recipe for sustained and consistent performance at the very top.
TAGS
ResilienceExpanding the mental reservoir
Matt speaks about how he works with athletes to expand their mental reservoir that they can tap into during a big event. He also delves into the detail behind how successful athletes debrief after a failure. He speaks about the importance of a grieving window and the need for perspective where the coach could offer significant value.
Visualization as a technique
Matt speaks about his take on terms such as Visualization and Meditation and speaks about how he relates to them. He specifically discusses a ritual of a 7-15 minute quiet time that he practices every day and speaks about the benefits of this exercise in improving one’s performance in a certain.
TAGS
MindfulnessDealing with the "wall"
Matt speaks about how athletes deal with “the wall” which often happens when you deplete your stored glycogen (carbohydrate stored in our muscles) and the negativity and the feelings of fatigue that come with it. He also speaks about how he gets athletes to deal with pain and the nature of the relationship they could develop with pain to derive the performance that they desire.
TAGS
ResilienceRest, Sleep and recharge
Matt Dixon speaks at length about the criticality of rest and rejuvenation. He specifically speaks about some of the qualitative and quantitative considerations around having a restful night’s sleep to be effective in our functioning on a sustained basis in our various domains of life.
Acting your way to new thinking
Herminia speaks about the criticality of not over-thinking around transitions and urges us to take actions which gives us new “material” for us to reflect on and move forward. She specifically urges us to craft experiments (try new activities and roles), shifting connections (find doors into new worlds) and making sense to rework our story.
Experimenting with different pathways
Herminia speaks about the criticality of sticking to your core and playing to your strengths but at the same time finding a way you can experiment and try different experiences on the edges. She speaks about how you need to build a bridge into a new possibility. Has parallels with the journey of Papa CJ and Amish Tripathi.
Portfolio approach versus Full-time role
Herminia speaks about how leaders should think about choosing between a full time role and a portfolio where they take on a set of initiatives. She goes on to speak about the criticality of having an anchor around which we could build our identity which often happens by default when we work in a corporate context.
Pausing to reinvent
Herminia speaks about how it is critical to create mind-space for us to reflect on our experiences especially when we deviate from the standard path. That process of reflection is often critical for people to have a clearer sense of their identity and their fit with the initiatives they are pursuing. She also speaks about how reinventing yourself around mid-life can sometimes take as long as 3 years.
Operational, Personal and Strategic networks
Herminia speaks about the different networks that we need to bring to bear especially when we are in transition. She speaks about personal, operational and strategic networks and goes on to say that the first two often evolve by default but one needs to be deliberate about the third. She also speaks about how leaders need to think about acting like a bridge rather than as a hub where everything converges into the leader.
Identity play versus Identity work
Herminia speaks about the distinction between Identity Work and Identity Play and speaks about how we should think about crafting experiments where we can play around with our identity authentically rather than going down the “fake it till you make it” path. She re-iterates that how we show up is as critical as what we do.
The perils of foreclosure
Herminia speaks about two dimensions – commitment and exploration – when leaders go through a transition. She speaks about how there is a tendency for leaders to commit to something too early and how that could lead to a suboptimal solution because they haven’t considered enough possibilities before they make a decision.
Role of the spouse
Herminia speaks about the role of the spouse in transitions and the criticality of aligning the transition strategy with them. Very often, implicitly they assume that you would plan your way and dive into an opportunity shortly after. They are often not mentally prepared to deal with the phase of exploration and experimentation that is often required before you make a choice of direction. She speaks about the importance of staying close to them and keeping them updated on the thinking process during a transition.
Transitioning from well-paying time-greedy careers
Herminia speaks about the specific challenges facing professionals who are in time-greedy and identity-consuming careers. She provides some thought-starters for those professionals to take charge of the narrative and steer their journeys in line with their evolving life context.
Physical trainer to Leadership Coach
Paddy speaks about the journey and the various steps he took as he moved from being the fitness trainer for the South African cricket team between 1994 and 1998 to becoming the Strategic Leadership and Mental Conditioning Coach (working closely with Gary Kirsten) of the Indian Cricket team between 2008 and 2011 (helping them win the World Cup in 2011).
Going on an inner journey
Paddy speaks about how he went on an internal journey over a period of time that gave him a deeper understanding of himself. He speaks about how he tried a range of things including mindfulness techniques, meditation, breath work and Yoga. He also speaks about how he attended several 2-3 day sessions including the Landmark Forum that gave him an opportunity to explore himself.
Building trust with the Indian Cricket team
Paddy speaks about how he and Gary Kirsten spent the first few months building trust with the players of the Indian cricket team when they were appointed. Given that they were coming from a different culture and with limited prior experience in a similar high-stakes context, it was critical for them to land well.
Setting goal-posts with the Indian Cricket team
Paddy speaks about the 4 goals that Gary Kirsten and he set out along with the Indian cricket team when they started working in 2007. 1) Becoming the No.1 test team in the world 2) Winning the 2011 ICC World Cup 3) Creating a happy team environment and 4) Helping players become better people. He speaks about the process they followed to get to the answer.
TAGS
Views on successSachin Tendulkar and personal mastery
Paddy speaks about how personal mastery is something that people need to pursue deliberately in addition to professional mastery. He speaks about how Sachin Tendulkar went about his journey of growing as a cricketer and as a human being. He also speaks about how this is much more important today than it might have been a couple of decades back.
Gautam Gambhir and the straight drive
Paddy speaks about how Gautam Gambhir was once trying to perfect his straight drive. He noticed that his shots were often going square of the wicket and he wanted to correct that. Expert inputs from accomplished players who understood the technique well didn’t quite help him sort out the issue. Paddy speaks about how he guided Gautam to listen to his own body and tune into his uniqueness to find the answer.
Dealing with failure
Paddy speaks about how great sportsmen deal with failure. We specifically reflect on how Kane Williamson handled himself when New Zealand lost the world cup to England despite being level on scores and how Roger Federer dealt with losing the Wimbledon finals despite having two match points earlier in the game. Paddy expands on the notion of focusing on processes versus outcomes.
TAGS
ResilienceZooming in and out
Paddy speaks about cricketers zoom in on the moment at hand while at the same time zoom out and are situationally aware of where the game is poised. He speaks about the need for staying in the present (rather than dwelling in a past error or a future goal) for people to perform at the highest level.
TAGS
MindfulnessLink between mentally tough and psychopaths
Paddy speaks about why mental toughness is a term that gets used a lot but there is limited research around what it is and how athletes can build it. He speaks about the criticality of embracing the doubts, insecurities and vulnerabilities rather than trying to suppress them.
Self-awareness: Meta-skill of 21st century
Tasha provides some context to why self-awareness is arguably the meta-skill of the 21st century. She discusses why it is possibly the foundational skill that helps us across various domains of life. She makes the distinction between internal and external self-awareness and goes onto say that they are not as closely correlated as one would assume.
TAGS
Self awarenessSelf-awareness Unicorns
Tasha speaks about the notion of Self-awareness Unicorns, the 50 people they shortlisted from 1000s of people to study them. She speaks about how she arrived at this shortlist and who is in it. She goes on to speak about some of their practices around how they cultivated internal and external self-awareness.
Self-delusion Vs Self-awareness
Tasha speaks about the distinction between being self-aware and being self-deluded. She mentions that her research suggests that 95% of the people believe they are self-aware only about 10-15% of people actually are. She speaks about some of the factors that might be contributing to this phenomenon.
TAGS
Self awarenessLimitations of introspection
Tasha speaks about introspecting our way to self-awareness could be a red herring. She speaks about her research where she found that people that introspected often were more anxious, stressed and less satisfied. She makes the distinction between rumination and introspection and speaks about how one could conduct the enquiry when one goes on a journey of introspection.
TAGS
Self awarenessMindfulness beyond meditation
Tasha speaks about the fact that meditation is possibly not the only path to being mindful. There could be several other approaches that could make you more mindful even if you don’t meditate. She speaks about comparing and contrasting as one approach that could help you become more mindful.
TAGS
MindfulnessFeedback as a prism vs a mirror
Tasha speaks about the limited correlation between internal and external self-awareness and speaks about the criticality of us seeing ourselves through a prism (with all the color) than through a mirror (which often can be limited in granularity). She also speaks about the need for people to be comfortable with varying views and urges us to embrace the diversity of views and grow through it.
TAGS
Self awarenessRole of a coach in enhancing self-awareness
Tasha speaks about the value of having an external coach speak to several of the key stakeholders to form a nuanced picture. She also points out the limitations of numeric 360 surveys and details out some of the questions she likes to ask when does her coaching work.
TAGS
CoachingSelf-awareness during career transitions
Tasha speaks about how the nature of feedback that one seeks during a transition is often much deeper than the kind of feedback in an organizational context. Transitions give us an opportunity to examine ourselves more fundamentally (values that matter to us, what we are shooting for, the kind of life we are trying to design etc). She speaks about self-awareness unicorns referring to “alarm clock events” in their life that got them to examine several of the assumptions they made in life.
TAGS
Reinventing selfCatch 22 of Self-awareness
Tasha speaks about the Catch-22 (paradox) of Self-Awareness. The really self-aware people often actually think that (rightly so) that they know only a little about themselves. The un-self-aware ones often think that they know themselves really well. Tasha goes on to speak about one of the unicorns that she had studied who uses the metaphor of space to describe the quest for self-awareness.
TAGS
Self awarenessSports to Business to Coaching
Alan speaks about Bill Campbell’s journey and the various transitions he has been through – from being a Football Coach to becoming a Business Executive to Leadership Coaching where he worked with several luminaries such as Steve Jobs, Founders of Google, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, Al Gore. He also speaks about how Bill transitioned from one canvas to another and what stayed the same across these stints.
Building trust as a Coach
Alan speaks about some of the things that Bill Campbell did to earn the trust of the leaders he worked with. This is all the more incredible as he worked simultaneously with leaders who were involved in an intense competition in the market-place. He also speaks about the fact that Bill had made his money and did this as a service. He alludes to Bill’s radical candour which is encapsulated in the phrase “I don’t take cash; I don’t take stock and I don’t take s**t”.
Coaching a Team
Alan speaks about a “Product” that Bill might have accidentally invented in the way he went about doing his work – The notion of a “Team Coach”. He speaks about how Bill would spend time getting to know the individuals and the overall team to be in a position to be of value to the collective.
Dealing with aberrant geniuses
Alan speaks about how Bill and leaders at Google deal with super-star performers who can have enormous impact given their talent can be leveraged and multiplied with technology. He specifically speaks about what to watch out for as determine if we should put up with the complexity or the toxicity that is caused by the employee.
Having difficult conversations
Bill Campbell was known to have a “salty language” filled with expletives. Alan provides nuance around how Bill used his directness to land tough messages. He also goes on to talk about the safety net that Bill would create around the difficult conversation so that the leader does not get over-whelmed with the feedback.
TAGS
CommunicationBeing an evangelist for courage
Alan speaks about how Bill got his Coachees to believe in themselves and how he often he had greater faith in them than they had in themselves. Alan goes onto talk about how Bill would play the role of a cheerleader in public settings to give a boost of confidence to the people he worked with.
TAGS
CoachingReceiving feedback as a Coach
Alan discusses some of the failures of Bill Campbell as an Executive and his perspectives around Bill being open to input from his Coachees. He speaks about the style of Bill’s intervention where he would not give specific suggestions but share stories and let you come up with your own conclusions.
Enabling good decisions
Alan speaks about how Bill would go about engaging with leaders and ensuring that they made good decisions. There is a piece here around following the right process for making a good decision. He also speaks about his role in helping leaders move on once a decision is made (whether it is in your favour or not).
TAGS
JudgmentHow Bill thought about impact
Alan speaks about what mattered to Bill and how he measured his impact or success. He speaks about Bill’s genuine love for people, his keen desire to help them succeed and his passion for building communities around him.
TAGS
Views on SuccessInfluencing Eric Schmidt's key transitions
Alan speaks about Bill’s role during some of his key transitions in his stellar career at Google. He speaks about the fact that despite his clarity of thought on the business front, when it came to making decisions for himself, there was an element of irrationality. Alan goes on to speak about Bill’s role in ensuring that Eric made sound choices at those crucial moments.
Getting the problem definition right
Sudhir speaks about the close link between IIMA and HUL in terms of the approach towards problem solving and Marketing. He speaks about the role of PL Tandon and Labdhi Bhandari in helping build the IIMA Marketing curriculum along with Prof AK Jain. He also shares an example of when he failed at framing the right question when he was in the Ice Creams business.
Choosing to stay in HUL
Sudhir speaks about why people in organizations like HUL provide an opportunity for people to pursue a career over the long term. He alludes to the quality of HR processes (specifically Career Management and Leadership Development) that keeps motivated through their journey. He also speaks about the criticality of early shared experiences in the field which builds a special culture and creates a camaraderie that keeps the cohort together as they grow in the organization.
HR - a department with teeth
Sudhir speaks about what makes the HR function in HUL effective. He speaks about the structure of HR where it is an independent function but is embedded in the business. He also speaks about why HUL doesn’t label people as heroes or villains too quickly. He speaks about a process where for about 10-12 years, people grow gradually but subsequently, they accelerate or decelerate based on their potential.
Entrepreneurial Professionalism
Sudhir speaks about how HUL has this unique DNA which is a mix of professionalism and an entrepreneurial orientation. He speaks about how some of the early exposure to trade gives individuals an exposure to how Indian entrepreneurs think. He goes onto say that there are strong processes that reinforce professionalism and sharing of stories which drive entrepreneurship leading to this unique combination of the two.
Identifying and nurturing potential
Sudhir speaks about Judgment, Influence and Drive as the three markers of potential and how the emphasis shifts across these three during the career of a professional in HUL. For the first few years it is Drive, then it moves to Influence and eventually in senior management it is judgment. He also speaks about how HUL thinks about what is a considered a good hit rate with judgment. He goes on to speak about how HUL filters for caliber and character, often two orthogonal dimensions.
Building a personal brand
Sudhir speaks about some of the principles behind building a strong brand and a personal brand. He speaks about a strong brand as one where people might like or hate the brand but will align on the key attributes of the brand. He also speaks about the notion of brand archeology where he says that it is helpful to understand the history of the brand to uncover what it stands for. He finally goes on to speak about how brands should look within and let consumers discover them than being different things to different people.
Specialization versus Generalization
Sudhir speaks about why it is easier to grow a category than growing market share in a category. He also speaks about his experiences with Kissan to make the point about limited real estate in consumers’ minds and therefore suggests that brands should win where they are by solving unsolved problems in what they are doing well than going wide. He also goes on to speak about how he thought about his early career choices and his father’s influence in getting him to join HUL.
Core Competence versus Competitive Advantage
Sudhir speaks about the distinction between these two terms that could often be confused. He goes onto say that HUL’s core competence is the ability to understand consumer needs and giving brands to solve those needs. He goes on to say that its strength in some of the other areas like distribution might be a competitive advantage but that is not the “heart of the gig” it is in.
Mavericks, Company men and Rogues
Sudhir speaks about these three types of people and goes onto say that one of the secret sauces of HUL is its treatment of Mavericks. He speaks about the output-oriented nature of KPIs that let some of these mavericks flourish despite not conforming to the “play-book”. He also speaks about HUL being an empathetic meritocracy where people are given some latitude if they are delivering the results (as long as they are not rogues and have issues with ethics and integrity).
Secret sauce behind the culture
Sudhir speaks about the four pillars of culture at HUL - Action, Values, Courage and Truth. He also speaks about how that these elements of culture are percolated through the organization. He traces these elements to the various strains of genetic code of the Anglo Dutch parent. He speaks about how when he spoke to some of the senior alumni of HUL, they shared stories of their experiences which eventually clustered around these 4 pillars.
Journey to studying habits
James speaks about how he got injured as a player and had to focus on small wins that eventually put him on a path of recovery and regaining of fitness. He goes on to talk about how he got curious about habits from a consumer behavior stand-point in the context of the business he had started. He speaks about how those two came together and led to him becoming a bridge between academic research and practical application.
TAGS
HabitsBuilding habits in the right areas
James speaks about the criticality of us understanding our genes and personality (the deck of cards we are dealt with) and ensuring that we play a game that is conducive to our natural wiring rather than get to a canvas which requires us to deviate significantly from what comes to us as second nature. He also speaks about the explore-exploit trade-off in the way we could think about going broad versus going narrow in a certain area.
Keeping the identity small
James speaks about how we sometimes get crippled or limited by the identity we carry about ourselves. He makes the case for a smaller identity for us to evaluate new possibilities and walk down new pathways and reinvent ourselves.
Plateau of latent potential
James speaks about the shape of the compounding curve and speaks about how we should think about motivating ourselves to persist despite no visible progress in the lower parts of the curve where the outcomes are not apparent. He specifically talks about the notion of the plateau of latent potential where suddenly the cumulative efforts bear fruit in a dramatic fashion. He speaks about the kind of feedback loops we need to set for ourselves and the markers that will help us chip away at foothills of the compounding curve.
Systems versus Goals
‘You don’t rise to the level of your goals but you fall to the level of your systems’, says James Clear. He speaks about the fact that goal setting has not found to be a differentiator between performers and non-performers. While Goals give you the broad direction in which you need to swim, systems provide the momentum you need to progress in that direction.
TAGS
HabitsBuilding habits with awareness
A lot of our habits are often sub-conscious. How do we ensure that we don’t become a slave of our habits but really perform our habits with awareness. In one of my earlier conversations, Devdutt Pattanaik contrasted the Indian emphasis on awareness with the western emphasis on habits. James speaks about the Japanese system of pointing and calling and uses that example to talk about how we can perform our habits with awareness.
Environment and habits
James speaks about how environment plays such a critical part in the building and breaking of habits. He speaks about how we can increase the friction in the negative habits that we want to get rid of and decrease the resistance in the positive habits we are trying to create. This is all the more important in the context of how we relate to our digital devices where it is easy for us to go down a rabbit hole very quickly.
TAGS
Habits2 minute rule - the gateway habit
James speaks about the notion of a gateway habit which helps us establish the habit before we start expanding on it or optimizing it. He speaks about the criticality of us mastering the art of showing up before we start obsessing about the fine tuning of the habit.
TAGS
Habits100 - year life
Lynda speaks about how we are moving from a 3 stage paradigm (study-work-retire) to a paradigm where we are going to be moving across these three phases in a fluid manner over our life time. She speaks about the key insights from her influential book - 100 year life – that she authored with Andrew Scott (Professor of Economics and former Deputy Dean at London Business School).
Mid-life: a double whammy
Lynda speaks about the kinds of issues that show up in mid-life. She speaks about how individuals at mid-life are grappling with two transitions – one is the mid-life itself. The other is the fundamental social change driven by technology. She speaks about how individuals in mid-life can navigate this passage of play.
From 3 stages to multiple stages
Lynda says that in the earlier paradigm, people made two transitions. Study to work and work to retire. And they made it in lock step, with the herd (peer cohort). In a multi-stage life, she says that we all make transitions at different points in time and that can be unnerving. She also speaks about the need to focus on recreation to ensure re-creation of our professional journeys.
Specialization versus Generalization (T to Pi)
Lynda speaks about how she thinks about specialization and generalization. Earlier, we would think that being a generalist but with a deep spike in a specific area would be valuable. Now value is being added more and more at the intersection of two disciplines (often one left brain heavy and the other right brain heavy). She speaks about how this trend is playing out.
Cathedrals vs Shopping malls
Lynda speaks about having a mind set for building something tangible and substantial over the long term which means something than solving for the here and now. She uses the metaphor of cathedrals versus shopping malls to make the point. She also speaks about the tension between building for the long term and staying agile as we try different pathways during transitions.
TAGS
ExcellenceIndependent producers vs Entrepreneurs
Lynda speaks about the distinction between entrepreneurship and independent producers. She speaks about people pursuing something because they enjoy it and not because they want to grow it and scale it up. She also goes on to speak about how independent producers should think about signaling.
Choosing the intensity of work
Lynda speaks about how our understanding of ageing is based on what we see with our parents but says that we might experience ageing very differently. She speaks about the need for us to think actively about how we would allocate time if we lived 100 years and urges us to take sabbaticals and breaks to recharge and rejuvenate.
TAGS
Work and lifeThe Power of Options
Lynda refers to the notion of options (as economists think about it) and speaks about the criticality of having multiple pursuits and adapt based on the waxing and waning of intensity levels of the various things we pursue. She also urges us to listen to the head and the heart when we go about making choices around careers.
The case for double-primary careers
Jennifer speaks about the notion of a primary career and a secondary career in the context of a couple. She goes on to speak about the benefits of a double primary career. She says that a double primary model precipitates the need for a couple to have honest conversations around choices, priorities and what matters to them. These things could potentially be brushed under the carpet in primary-secondary career models in couples.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
The 3 big transitions that couples go through
Jennifer speaks about the underlying architecture of her book and lays out the 3 transitions that most couples go through in their journey. Transition no. 1 is about the question – how do we make this work? Transition no.2 is often about the question – what do we want to become? Transition no.3 is often about the question who are we? She speaks about the criticality of addressing these as a couple and not just as individuals.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
The first transition - How do we make this work?
Jennifer speaks about the context behind the first transition which is often about couples having a discussion about how they make the relationship work. She mentions that in the initial years after marriage, couples are often leading parallel tracks. The first transition is often triggered by an event (one of the spouses gets a promotion and has to relocate or you have your first child). These situations can force couples to have conversations around how they make the relationship work. The parallel model begins to break down at this stage.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
TAGS
Maternity transitionWatchouts during the first transition
Jennifer speaks about the kinds of issues that trips couples up during the first transition when they are trying to navigate the question – how do we make this work. She speaks about three themes a) focusing on the short term b) trying to have it all c) over-indexing on economic criteria for decision making.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
TAGS
Work and lifeThe second transition - What do we want to become?
Jennifer speaks about the second transition that couples often go through in their journey. The primary question that each member of the couple is grappling with is often around “what do we want to become”. She speaks about how couples can go beyond the “zero sum” discussions around the topic (I win, you lose or vice versa) to developing more of a positive sum mindset.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
Securing the base for the other to explore
Jennifer speaks about the notion of a mutual secure base relationship and how individuals can enable their spouse to find their “sweet spot”. She speaks about the notion of how we could provide support but layer on top of that a gentle kick away from the comfort zone and be arm’s length about it. Both these elements are quite counter-intuitive to how a lot of people operate. She also speaks about the criticality of relational resilience that is required to weather this phase where there could be a high incidence of divorce.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
The third transition - Who are we now?
Jennifer speaks about the third transition that couples often face often when they are empty nesters and when they have exhausted the gunpowder in their artillery. They now take stock of life and say “Who are we now” and what is the purpose behind our existence.
More from Jennifer Petriglieri
Sleep - The Swiss army knife of wellness
Matt speaks about the role of sleep in the wellness trinity – Diet, Exercise and Sleep. He goes onto say that not only is sleep one of the three legs of this trinity, it is possibly the foundation on which the other two rest. He specifically comments on the trade-off between a healthy night of sleep and early morning exercise (a trade-off that a lot of early morning runners end up making)
TAGS
Health and WellnessMorning Larks and Night Owls - a hard wiring
Matt speaks about why the “morning person” and the “night person” are not behavioural choices but often hard-wired into us. He says that there might be a wiggle room of around 30-45 mins to move the clock against our type but fundamentally it might be hard to change the wiring. He also traces this variation in sleep preferences to evolutionary phenomena on why this phenomenon might have benefited a tribe as a whole.
Dealing effectively with Jet-lag
Matt speaks about how travelers who fly across time zones should think about acclimatizing themselves to the new location without too much disruption. He refers to the timing of when we sleep and how we think about eating and suggests that we should forget about the time zone of the origin and start aligning to the destination the moment we board the plane. He also shares some perspectives around how long it takes to adjust the body clock from one time zone to another.
How much sleep do we REALLY need?
Matt speaks about how much sleep human beings need and he quotes some epidemiological studies that establish the range but also some experiments that study the causality between more or less sleep and outcomes. He alludes to “day light savings time” as a global experiment where we have an opportunity to study 1.6 Billion people.
TAGS
Self-awarenessREM and Non-REM sleep and criticality of each
Matthew speaks about how we sleep occurs in 90 minute cycles in the brain. He says that in that cycle there are multiple stages of Non REM sleep and REM sleep that occur in sequence. He also goes onto to talk about the various benefits of Non REM sleep (Immune system, memory storage, better blood pressure control etc) and REM sleep (creativity, empathy, reproductive health etc). He speaks about why sleeping 25% less in terms of hours could actually mean getting 60-90% less of REM sleep given the way the 90 minute cycles are organized.
Sleep, Music and the Beatles
Matthew speaks about how some of the songs of The Beatles (such as Yesterday and Let it be) were conceived of in Paul McCartney’s dreams. He also speaks about the role of sleep in the context of building complex motor skills (learning an instrument, flying a plane, performing a surgery etc). He says that practice makes it perfect only when it is combined with the right doses of sleep.
Deleterious impact of Devices on sleep
Matthew speaks about the impact of blue light emitting devices (TV, Phone, Tablet, Computer etc) on sleep patterns. Apart from reducing the number of hours of sleep, he also says that it comes in the way of the restorative Non Rapid Eye Movement sleep and the impact sometimes can last several days. He also speaks about regulating the torrent of anxiety that hits us during the night or first thing in the morning.
TAGS
Health and WellnessGetting back to sleep when wide awake
Matthew shares his perspectives on the thing that a lot of us grapple with. The situation when we are trying to fall asleep but are not able to sleep. The more we try, the harder it gets. Then it gets into a vicious loop leading to significant frustration and anxiety. He also speaks about the brain being an associative device and suggests actions to ensure that the brain doesn’t associate lying in bed with staying awake.
TAGS
Health and WellnessCoping with uncertainty
Sudhir Sitapati is currently Executive Director, Foods and Refreshments at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). He recently published his first book - The CEO Factory, published by Juggernaut Books. While I had interviewed him for the podcast 4 months back, I wanted to go back to him to have a conversation around how organizations like HUL handle volatility and what can we learn from them from the way they have handled volatility in the past. For the entire conversation on "The CEO Factory", please visit https://www.playtopotential.com/speaker/su
TAGS
Coping with covid 19The journey till date
Raj speaks about his journey to becoming a researcher of happiness. He speaks about how he thought about his journey after graduating from IIM Calcutta and how he came to the US. He also speaks about how he started out with a deep interest in marketing but has gravitated towards teaching happiness over a period of time.
Defining happiness
Raj defines happiness and speaks about the common misconceptions people end up having around happiness. He speaks about the nuances around prioritizing (rather than pursuing) happiness and how one could walk that tight rope.
TAGS
HappinessAchievement and happiness
Raj speaks about the link between levels of success and happiness. He goes on to speak about the relationship between happiness and education levels. He mentions that happiness rises till the undergraduate level but not necessarily post that, suggesting that the commercial threshold for us to be really happy is much lower than what we might think it is.
Abundance mindset and happiness
Raj makes the connection between our mindsets (scarcity versus abundance) and our levels of happiness. He mentions that more than the amount of money we have, our relationship with the money we have is a better indication of our happiness levels.
TAGS
Views on successTime scarcity and generosity burnout
Raj speaks about the link between time affluence and an abundance mindset, two seemingly uncorrelated concepts. He also goes onto talk about the link between how much we load our plates and the link between that and happiness. He also shares some insights around how we can bring in some time affluence in our lives.
Why we lose the plot with happiness
Raj speaks about the habit of medium maximization (we forget the goals but start focusing on the means instead). He speaks about the paradox here and talks about how it shows up in the suboptimality in the way we make choices including critical ones such as choosing between jobs/career pathways.
Navigating mid-life
Raj speaks about the valley of mid-life and how we can try to bring greater happiness by either job-crafting (look for adjacent spaces around what we do currently in our company), pursuing a vocation on the side that energizes us that could one day possibly become a profession and pick up a hobby or two that could give us a sense of meaning and bring happiness that we could take back to our work.
Dealing with negative outcomes
Raj speaks about how we could reframe the way we look at negative outcomes. He speaks about the phenomenon where we end up having an intense negative feeling around an undesired outcome but often the intensity wears down over time. He suggests a “reminisce and reflect” exercise that could help us see things in perspective.
TAGS
ResiliencePursuing flow than chasing superiority
Raj speaks about the notion of pursuing flow rather than chasing superiority as we think about making key choices in our journey. He also speaks different kinds of flow and goes onto speak about the importance of mastery in us experiencing high flow (harder to achieve at the foothills of a pursuit).
TAGS
Views on successRaising happy kids - love versus discipline
Raj speaks about his thoughts around raising happy children and how parents need to walk the tight rope across discipline and love. He makes the case for leaning into love given a choice and speaks about the framework developed by Baum Rind who has studied this in detail.
TAGS
ParentingCoping with COVID-19
Raj speaks about how we all could think about solving for happiness given the strange times we are in. He speaks about three broad clusters of people and how each of the clusters could cope with the evolving situation with Covid-19.
TAGS
Coping with Covid 19Stages of human development
Jennifer speaks about the 5 stages of Human Development. Stage 1 – Magical mind: When we are a young child. Stage 2 – Self-sovereign mind: When we are the king or queen of the kingdom of 1 (teenage years). Stage 3 – Socialized mind: When we take our cues from the people around us. Stage 4 – Self-authoring mind: when we take charge of our narrative. Stage 5 – Self-transforming mind: Seeing every interaction as an opportunity for co-creation and growth
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Transitions in mid-life
Jennifer speaks at length about Stage 3 (Socialized mind) and Stage 4 (Self-authored mind) as these two account for ~90% of the adults in the world. She also speaks about the notion of liminality and the connection with transitioning across these two stages. Suffice it to say that this is not easy but this transition requires years of commitment to firmly move from one space to the other.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Humans - an outdated OS
Jennifer speaks about the fundamental disconnect between the human operating system that has evolved over thousands of years and the current world we find ourselves in. She says that in order to survive in the jungles, we had to cut out complexity, make quick decisions and not over-finesse our responses. But that approach is not going to cut it in the world we are in given the number of moving parts. She also speaks about how our home life has evolved over time and that has led to additional complexity in our lives.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
5 traps that leaders fall into
Jennifer speaks about 5 traps that leaders often find themselves in as a result of the disconnect between the operating systems they have and the way the world works. 1) Our preference for simple stories 2) Perceived rightness 3) Need for agreement 4) Desire for control 5) Shackled by who we are now than who we could be.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Trap1 - Looking for simple stories
Jennifer speaks about how we grow up listening to linear stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end and there is often a very clear chain of causality. She mentions that this leads us to “making sense” of the world through simplistic stories and often that can be really far from the truth. She speaks about how we can recognize this trap and avoid it.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Trap 2 - Feeling right does not mean it is right
Jennifer speaks about the distinction between feeling something is right versus thinking that something is right. She mentions that the feeling of rightness often arrives a few milliseconds before the actual process of cognitive certainty around a problem and this could lead to us forming an opinion first and then back-filling the data to suit the answer we end up feeling right about.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Trap 3 - Desire to agree
Jennifer speaks about the risk of us going for a compromise and ending up in a “one size fits nobody” situation, as Late Prof Clay Christensen would say. She speaks about why it is important for us to think about disagreement as a means to expanding the solution set and getting to a better place in a complex world.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
TAGS
InnovationTrap 4 - Controlling instead of influencing
Jennifer speaks about how the desire for control is an essential part of human-ness but unfortunately in complex situations, going after control often leads us on a wild-goose chase of chasing superficial metrics while missing out on the bigger picture. She suggests that we focusing more on direction than outcomes and mentions that outcomes are an emergent property of a complex system and it is hard for us to control them given the number of variables that are outside our purview.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
TAGS
InfluencingTrap 5 - Shackled by the past
Jennifer speaks about the tendency we all have to over-estimate the evolution we have had till date and underestimate the evolution that is possible from here on in our lives. She says that a 30 year old will think that 20-30 was a period of tumultuous change and 30s is likely to be smoother. The same person 10 years later is likely to say that 30-40 was transformative but 40s would be a cake walk. She speaks about why this might be the case.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
Actively listening to your body
Jennifer speaks about how we end up giving a lot of importance to our mind and brains and don’t listen enough to our bodies. She speaks about how bodily signals around hunger, sleep and anxiety can fundamentally determine the choices we make and the quality of judgments. She speaks about an example where judges were known to be more generous after a meal than before one.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
TAGS
ListeningLeadership in a post COVID world
Jennifer speaks about the need for a new leadership paradigm in the new normal that we are headed to. She speaks about how leaders need to respond with their whole selves (their body, their mind, their emotions) to the whole selves of other people. She also speaks about the leaders having to proactively think about the physical health, economic health and emotional health of the people that work with them.
More from Jennifer Garvey Berger
TAGS
Coping With Covid 19The ABC of tiny habits
BJ speaks about the ABC of tiny habits – Anchor, Behaviour and Celebration. He goes on to speak about the importance of having an authentic celebration as it causes dopamine regulation that leads to a habit getting cemented in your life. He also urges us to keep the habit tiny before we expand it. He says it is more important to bake the habit even if it is microscopic before we amplify it to the level that would make a meaningful difference in our lives.
The MAP of behaviour change
BJ speaks about the Motivation Ability curve which lies at the heart of his thinking around tiny habits. He speaks about how they complement each other and one way for us to take the vagary of motivation out of the equation is to go up the Ability curve so that we reduce the friction to the extent that we could do the activity with minimal levels of motivation.
Prompts - the low hanging fruit of change
BJ speaks about the role of a prompt in getting us to perform a habit. Prompt is often the trigger that ensures that we perform the habit (assuming we have adequate motivation and ability – something that we discuss later in the conversation)
TAGS
HabitsAction versus Context Prompt
BJ makes the distinction between an Action Prompt (something that we do in our lives) versus a Context Prompt (an external trigger such as an Email, Pop-Up, Message etc). He speaks about how Product Managers in companies could be more thoughtful about how they could understand user behavior to figure out when to use the product to increase the likelihood of adoption.
Build ability to beat motivation cycles
BJ speaks about how we could overcome the vagaries of our motivation by working on our abilities and by keeping the habit really tiny. He also breaks down ability into a chain and says that our probability of doing something depends on the weakest link in the chain. The chain consists of time, money, physical effort, mental effort and routine.
Celebrating to wire in a habit
BJ speaks about the role of celebration in locking in a habit. He also makes the distinction between a reward that often comes several days, weeks or months later and a celebration, which is often in that moment when you perform that habit. He speaks about the need to hack that emotion to really wire in the habit.
Tiny habits to big change
BJ speaks about how we can sow the seed for a new habit but how we can ramp up and ramp down what we do as long as we are moderate in our expectations. He speaks about the trap that a lot of high achievers get into where they keep increasing the bar for themselves often upto a point where they often end up becoming slaves to the habit as the habit starts losing relevance in the evolving context in their lives. BJ speaks about how we can bake the habit, yet regain the flexibility to ramp up or down the habit depending on how our context plays out.
Untangle (not break) bad habits
BJ speaks about the importance of language when we think about habits. He says that breaking habits is possibly a wrong metaphor where we could end up doing more damage than good if we adopt that mindset. He likens a bad habit to a tangled phone cord that needs to be carefully untangled knot by knot for us to really resolve the situation. He proposes a similar approach to dealing with bad habits rather than going after them aggressively.
Getting out of screen addiction
BJ speaks about some thoughts around how we can battle screen addiction both when we are by ourselves and when we are with others. He recommends screentime.standford.edu where there is an automated AI based system that asks for your objectives and understands your usage patterns and suggests a few simple things you could do to grapple with Tech addiction.
TAGS
HabitsThe knowing-doing gap
BJ speaks about why several people cognitively “get” what they need to do but struggle to move the needle in that direction. He links it back to the early success some of them experience in their journey and why that leads to a certain “fixed mindset” that comes in the way of them experimenting with new ideas that could potentially be a failure. He also talks about how we need to work on minimizing our expectations for new behaviours to take root and grow.
Running your career like a marathon
RG speaks about how he has thought about his career like a marathoner. He speaks about all of us having to refire rather than retire. He uses the metaphor of Lego to state that each one of us like a Lego piece with its unique characteristics and we are looking for a hole in the sky where we could fit in. And he suggests that we keep looking (as Steve Jobs would say) till find a snug fit and we find ourselves in flow.
Making robust hiring decisions
RG speaks about his experiences from having made around 200 odd CEO appointments in his years as a mentor and as a Board Member. He goes onto say that his hit-rate might only be around 50-60% over the years. He shares some principles around how we can build robustness in hiring decisions and how we can think about experience, competency and potential as we evaluate different types of candidates.
Settling in - Rock climbing versus Running
RG speaks about how transitioning from one context to another is a bit like moving from driving a race car to rock climbing. You need to feel the surface before you transfer your weight and move forward. He speaks about the criticality of adopting (not appointing) mentors around you. These informal mentors often act as a feedback loop for the leader to course correct ensuring that hairline cracks becoming fractures.
Discerning the pecking order of stakeholders
RG speaks about the fact that CEOs are measured not just on the objective performance metrics that have been laid out but also on how they perform with respect to the expectations of the pecking order of stakeholders in the system. The challenge is that the former is often laid out clearly (if one is lucky) and the latter is a fuzzy truth that leaders need to discern with finesse.
Solving for efficiency versus effectiveness
Gopal speaks about the criticality of focusing on not just efficiency (linearly moving from point A to point B) but effectiveness (moving according to the lay of the land much like how water comes down a mountain). He shares some metaphors and discusses how sometimes CEOs might end up gravitiating towards efficiency while the Board might be seeking effectiveness.
Having the right relationship with the Board
RG speaks about the criticality having a healthy friendly relationship with the Board. He speaks about the narrative that CEOs often have around Board members being another “layer to manage”. He suggests that if we instead treat them as founts of wisdom and as mentors, there is a lot of value that CEOs can unlock from the Board members.
Clementine Mirror - the role of spouses
RG speaks about the criticality of seeking and absorbing the feedback from the people around you. He speaks about the role of a spouse who observes us in high resolution and says that they (or close friends or a trusted colleague or a board member) could act as a concave psychological mirror. He speaks about the story of Clementine Churchill ( wife of Winston Churchill ) whose “feedback letter” to her husband is kept in a museum in London.
Bringing in adequate porosity
RG speaks about the role of the leader bringing in adequate open-ness and a prototyping mindset to the way he or she sculpts his or her ideas. If he or she has the habit of “baking it too much” in his or her mind and then present to the others as a sales pitch it might be bad for business and for the leader’s trust quotient with the ecosystem around.
Getting cross-industry transitions right
RG speaks about how leaders coming in from one context can effectively adapt to a completely new context especially when they do not have a working knowledge of the new space. He underscores the importance of humility, open-ness to learning to build trust and come up the learning curve in the new environment.
Coping with Covid-19
� Vinita speaks about how executives and board members could navigate these choppy waters as the COVID 19 is playing out. She specifically alludes to the transition we are making from the firefighting mode of dealing with the situation to seeing this as a marathon over a few months now. She also speaks about the leadership competencies that would be required for leaders to cope with what we are experiencing and for the future we are marching into.
TAGS
Coping with Covid 19Defining and measuring Judgment
Andrew speaks about how he came up with a framework to measure judgment. He also speaks about the nature of research he did to get to what was judgment and the variables that go in there. He also speaks about how the framework has evolved over time as he did his research and particularly speaks about the role of values in judgment.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Listen attentively; learn critically
Andrew speaks about the criticality of listening attentively to not just what is being said but also what is not being said. He says that the first element involved in judgment is about the quality of the data we consume, the extent to which we do our homework and our ability to ask the right questions to the people around us to get the information that really matters (than be inundated with volumes of information that may not be relevant).
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Seek diversity, not validation
Andrew speaks about how we need to seek diverse inputs while going about a decision and not just look for people that reaffirm our view. He refers to Abraham Lincoln who had the reputation of assembling people around him that gave him a contra-view.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Keeping track of judgment run-rate
Andrew speaks about how leaders can keep track of the run rate of decisions they make. He speaks about how some sort of a reflection process (daily, weekly, yearly) could help you take stock of the key choices you have made and how you fared in them.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Identify, then challenge, biases
Andrew speaks about how we all have intellectual and emotional biases when we make decisions and he speaks about how we can minimize being influenced by the biases during such moments. He speaks about some tactical tips around how one of the organizations tackles this by unearthing prior biases that different people in the room might have towards a situation.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Question the solution set offered
One of the key elements of Judgment that Andrew speaks about is the notion of looking at the entire range of possibilities. Sometimes we fall into the bias of “what you see is what there is” during a transition. It is critical to ensure that we examine the entire range of possibilities before we take a call in a certain situation.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
Judgment during COVID times
Andrew shares his perspectives around the criticality of the various steps involved in getting to a good judgment in these times. Given that there are so many unknowns for leaders to grapple with, and given that this is a once in a life-time crisis that all of us are facing, there is no real playbook for us to work with. In that context, Andrew underscores the importance of having the right process of getting to meaningful judgment.
More from Sir Andrew Likierman
TAGS
Coping with Covid 19The mid-life angst
Atul speaks about his career in building out the IT business with his brother. He speaks about how he had gotten to a point where he was seeing good commercial success in the business but it was wearing him down and he didn’t quite have the mojo for the business that he had when he set out with his brother. He speaks about his desire to try something new that led him to trying DJing and Bartending!
Seeds of a career in Stand up
Atul speaks about how he got started in his career in Stand up. He traces it back to a New Year Resolution he made on 1 Jan 2012 that he would do something to change his life and sign up for the first open mic that would come his way. After having tried DJing and Bartending, he speaks about how he nervously approached the first performance he gave with absolutely no prior background in Stand up or any Public Speaking in his childhood.
Fertilizing a new possibility
Atul speaks about how he straddled the two worlds concurrently – one in which he was running an IT business, the other where he was an emerging comedian. He speaks about how these two ecosystems were very different and how he moved from one domain to another. He also speaks about how doing more stand up made him better in his IT job despite getting busier.
Riding two horses
Atul speaks about how had to straddle both the worlds concurrently – the world of business and stand up comedy. He had to ensure that the business partners didn’t feel that he would let them down and vice versa. He also speaks about the fact that he had been battle hardened in life to deal with the ups and downs that the world of stand up threw at him.
Finding your voice
Atul speaks about the notion of staying authentic and the audience slowly finding you rather than trying to pander to the tastes of any one particular segment. He indicates that he doesn’t start by saying what does the audience want and tailoring his message to the cohort. He says that you need to stay true to who you are and let your audience slowly warm upto you over a period of time.
TAGS
AuthenticityPassion versus Pragmatism
Atul speaks about how he had to be pragmatic about the cash flows given the lop-sided odds of success in this industry. He also speaks about the support that his wife offered to ensure that there is some buffer in the system. He speaks about the timing around moving from his career as a businessman to doing comedy full time.
Writing evergreen material
Atul speaks about how he derives inspiration from legends like Anand Bakshi and Kishore Kumar to ensure that he creates material that has value a few months down the line. He speaks about resisting the temptation to pander to the “flavour of the month”. He also speaks about the effort involved in creating a special show. He suggests that it takes about a year of work to create an hour of good quality stand up material.
Coping with Covid-19
Atul speaks about how he is coping with the changed situation given Covid-19. He speaks about how he had to cancel several of his shows that he had lined up in Canada and the US and head back home as the world started shutting down its borders in front of his eyes. He also shares some thoughts on what he has been doing to stay positive, adapt to the times and move forward.
The S curve of personal disruption
Whitney speaks about the application of the Theory of Disruptive Innovation (Courtesy Late Clay Christiansen) as applied to Careers. She speaks about why going up and up on the same curve starts yielding diminishing returns and discusses how we can take a step back or sideways to slingshot ourselves into the next trajectory.
Picking the right S curve
Whitney speaks about how we all should think about the next S curve we could get onto in our journeys. She speaks to the notion of market risk versus competitive risk when it comes to identifying S curves. She goes onto say that the rewards are statistically better if we choose to identify a “job to be done” that is currently not being done or an unmet need.
Discovering our distinctiveness
Whitney speaks about how we all need to tune into our “super-power” and discover our strengths and use that as a starting point to discover our next S curve. She speaks about the fact that we are often quite blind to what our strengths are and have the tendency to shrug off complements when we get them. She suggests some ideas on how we can discover our strengths.
Leaning into constraints
Whitney speaks about how sometimes constraints bring out the best in us and drive us to innovate – at some level, I guess that is the whole raison d’etre of Jugaad innovation. She speaks about the need for an optimal number of constraints that bring out the best in us. She urges to leverage constraints as a tool of creation to gain the momentum up the curve.
Cutting our losses
Whitney speaks about the dilemma that a lot of face at the foot-hills of a new S curve. Should I persist with the pain or should I climb a different mountain. She speaks about the fact that even if we climb the right S curve, statistically, often, it is only a 36% chance of success which leaves us with a 64% chance of failure. She speaks about the 4 questions we need to ask ourselves to discern if we should persist or jump.
Rethinking our metrics
Whitney speaks about how we need to often rethink the metrics with which we need to measure ourselves as go from one S curve to another. Very often we are hardwired to think about metrics in a certain way and we often become a slave of that wiring/habit leading to disconnect with what we measure when we move from one S curve to another
TAGS
Reinventing selfHandling our identity
Whitney speaks about how we should think about our identity when we experience the free fall when we move from the top of an S curve to the foothills of a new S curve. She speaks about the criticality of having a clear “Why” and the notion of smaller S curves to make it less risky when you transition from one trapeze to another.
TAGS
IdentityDiscovery driven career planning
Whitney speaks about how we can think about picking career paths in a world with abundant opportunity. She speaks about the notion of maximizing optionality especially early in the career when one doesn’t know what one is truly passionate about.
Formative years
Venkat speaks about the fact that he is a lucky recipient of the Ovarian Lottery and speaks about the environment in which he has grown up. He specifically speaks about the opportunity to interact with children from different segments of the society that helped him build a greater sense of empathy towards the world around him. He also speaks about some of the early choices in terms of discipline and how he ended up at IIM Ahmedabad.
The IIMA years
Venkat speaks about his years at IIMA and how his thoughts and beliefs got shaped by some of his friends (Sridhar Rajagopalan and Sunil Khairnar). He also speaks about how the course LEM (Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation) taught by Prof Sunil Handa got him to articulate his direction sharply with the following words “I see myself as an instrument or tool that’s available to society and my choices should be guided by maximising the returns that I will give to the society’
Early career choices
Venkat speaks about how he considered different possibilities for a career in “making a difference”. He speaks about briefly toying with the idea of IAS as a career option. He speaks about his summer internship with Khadi and Village Industries commission and describes the placement process which eventually leads him to accept a job at Times of India. He also speaks about his early years in Times of India and at Sony.
Setting up Eklavya
Venkat speaks about how he transitioned from Sony to running Eklavya. He refers to Prof Sunil Handa (who takes the popular course LEM – Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation) sending him a concept note leading to him and Sridhar Rajagopalan quitting their jobs and starting Eklavya. He also refers to the research and the groundwork that went into setting up Eklavya. He also speaks about some of the early challenges involved in setting up the school and in convincing people to send their kids here.
Eklavya to GiveIndia
Venkat speaks about how a trip to the US when he was Eklavya opened his minds to the involvement of the citizens in the running of some of the elements. He specifically speaks about an experience during one of the meetings with a school in Burlington where he saw segments of the citizen community come together to solve a societal problem. That was the seed of an idea that eventually led him to start GiveIndia, a movement to galvanize philanthropy in India.
Misconceptions around giving
Venkat speaks about his observations around people’s journey in Philanthropy. He speaks about how people initially look for instant gratification but over time realize the complexity involved and slowly start solving for systemic issues rather than surface level problems. He also speaks about the fact that the journey is Philanthropy is a lot more about what it does to the giver than the receiver.
TAGS
Social ImpactGiving time versus Giving money
Venkat speaks about how individuals should think about giving money versus giving time to the Not for profit sector. He says that all money and no time may not move the needle given the complexities involved and might not be a fulfilling experience. He goes on to say that all time and no money might not get you the attention of the NGOs that actually need your help. He speaks about the sweet spot of money and time that each one of us has to find. He also offers some powerful metaphors around how we should think about ROI of time and money invested in the social impact space versus in the capital world.
TAGS
Social ImpactOur relationship with money
Venkat speaks about the link between our relationship with money and our overall happiness and fulfilment. He speaks about the link between the process of wealth creation and the formation of our attitudes towards money. He speaks about how the distinction between our needs and wants can provide greater degrees of freedom and open up newer possibilities for us and can liberate us from the “money trap”. He also speaks about LivingMyPromise, a movement where several people have chosen to give 50% of their wealth away.
Raising “Giving children”
Venkat shares his perspectives around how we can raise kids with a concern for the world around. She shares some thoughts on how we can engage with the child when he/she asks us uncomfortable questions. He also illustrates the criticality of reflection in slowly building compassion in the child.
Giving over the long term
Venkat speaks about how we can approach our journey in Giving as a marathon and not as a sprint. He speaks about how we need to take baby steps in a certain direction, reflect on our experience, make course corrections and then move forward rather than taking a sudden plunge into a new domain. Such an approach could lead to disillusionment.
Dreaming big
Venkat speaks about how he thinks about his vision – inculcating the spirit of giving in India. He sees it as a journey that gives him a sense of direction. He also speaks about how he derives from Bill Gates who says that if he has managed to solve a problem well, then the odds are people a few years down the line may not remember him. Not being remembered around an issue that exists today is possibly the best measure of somebody having addressed the issue.
Givers that inspire
Venkat speaks about some of the givers that have inspired him. He speaks about mythological characters like Karna, Mahabali and business men like Chuck Feeney and Andrew Carnegie who have set the bar really high for giving. He also speaks about how we can derive inspiration from Indian leaders like Gandhiji, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya or Vinobha Bhave in the way they approached Giving. He also speaks about his perspectives on how we should think about keeping it private versus doing it in a visible way. He urges us to keep our WHY front and central as we think about this.
TAGS
Social impactIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Venkat speaks about the notion of playing to potential and why he feels him and a lot of us significantly underplay to our potential. He discusses the criticality of reflection as we go through our journey and the importance of keeping our saw sharpened. He also speaks about the notion of going after efficiency optimization that often comes in the way of understanding the big picture.
Staying relevant over the long term
Marshall speaks about how he has thought about staying relevant over the 40+ years in the profession. He speaks about the Buddhist concept of starting a new life with every breath. He speaks about how we need to think about each breath, each moment and each day as a new beginning and not live in the past.
TAGS
Staying relevantChoosing Coachees and link with ROI
Marshall speaks about the advice that he once got from Alan Mulally about how he needs to be thoughtful about the clients he works with. Marshall speaks about some of the criteria he uses to pick the clients he works with. 1) Courage to look in the mirror 2) Humility to admit that they can improve 3) Discipline to do the hard work.
TAGS
CoachingThe path to excellence
Marshall speaks about how one could think about becoming the world’s best at something. He speaks about leveraging parallel experts (people who are experts in an adjacent yet related space) and developing one’s own point of view and a voice.
TAGS
ExcellenceGetting behaviours and habits to stick
Marshall speaks about the challenges in getting behaviours to stick and the need for a Coach to keep you accountable and ensure that you be at it. He speaks about how he gets somebody to call him every day to get him to ask him a few questions around areas he wants to improve and how that has helped him with behaviour change.
Art of asking good questions
Marshall speaks about the 6 questions that he often asks the leaders he works with. 1) Did you do your best to set clear goals 2) Did you do your best to make progress towards achieving your goals 3) Did you do your best to find meaning 4) Did you do your best to be happy 5) Did you do your best to be fully engaged 6) Did you do your best to build positive relationships
What matters in the end
Marshall speaks about how we should think about what matters in the end and use that to guide our actions and choices today. He says that old people don’t regret the risks they took and failed. They regret the risks that they never took.
Having career markers at 30 and 45
Ashish speaks about how he had told himself that he would like to turn entrepreneur when he is 30 and do something else when he is 45. He speaks about how these markers influenced the way he made choices and spent his time and attention when he graduated at Harvard Business School and beyond.
TAGS
Reinventing selfTaking the entrepreneurial plunge
Ashish speaks about how he thought about entrepreneurship despite the high opportunity cost given his HBS education and employment at Goldman Sachs. He also goes on to speak about his initial challenges as an entrepreneur trying to raise a fund for investing in India despite having no significant work experience in India. He also speaks about the role of mentors and supporters in giving him the confidence to take the plunge.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipWhat it takes to be a good PE Investor
Ashish speaks about a few elements of an effective PE investor. 1) Having the conviction and independence of opinion yet have your ears to the ground 2) Being an effective macroeconomist and a historian 3) Being street smart and having your own intel (developing your own polygraph) 4) Staying the course. He speaks about how his education in liberal arts prepared him well for a career in Private Equity.
From PE to Philanthropy
Ashish speaks about the notion of controlled ambition which enabled him to stay detached from the material outcomes and also gave him the conviction to step away from the corporate world despite his accomplishments. He speaks about expenses growing at a much slower clip than his income that enabled him to take the step to move towards philanthropy.
Potential pathways post ChrysCapital
Ashish speaks about the different pathways he considered at the point of leaving ChrysCapital. He speaks about his interest in academia and a desire to become a Professor in a University or a Teacher in a school. He also speaks about a potential option of running an NGO or the Indian operations of an established Foundation. He speaks about how he eventually zeroed in on undertaking educational system reform through Central Square Foundation and how the Ashoka University project came about.
Unanticipated challenges in driving Social Impact
Ashish speaks about the challenges involved in leading in the Social Impact sector. He speaks about why the production function in this space is much more complicated and that coupled with not having adequate control over key levers of change makes it much harder to drive outcomes. He also speaks about the nuances involved in attracting and motivating talent in this space as they respond to different cues. He then goes on to discuss what he had to learn and unlearn as he transitioned from the Corporate Management world to the Development Management world.
Metrics to measure progress
Measurement of metrics in a Social Impact context can be complex. This is unlike the corporate world where there are established P&L and Balance Sheet metrics that can be used to measure progress. Ashish speaks about how he thinks about metrics when it comes to evaluation of progress with Ashoka University or Central Square Foundation.
Educating ourselves for the future
Ashish discusses his perspectives around how we should educate ourselves for the future. He speaks about STEM versus Liberal Arts and the role each plays in informing our mental models.
Planting seeds for the future
Ashish speaks about how he is seeding some initiatives that could possibly prove to be pathways for him in a few years. He speaks about his interest in Air Quality, China and Healthcare and how some of these experiments might pave the path for his next innings.
Leading a richer life
Ashish speaks about how we all could spend some part of our life involving ourselves with the Social Sector. He specifically speaks about Indian Leaders for the Social Sector (ILSS) run by Anu Prasad that conducts a 9 day boot camp for corporate leaders who want to consider transitioning to the Social Impact world.
TAGS
Social ImpactThe uniqueness of the Advani-Vajpayee relationship
Vinay puts the Vajpayee – Advani relationship in perspective. He speaks about how they had two occasions where the power equation flipped completely. He shares other examples to illustrate how special this dynamic is when you compare it to most other relationships at the top across disciplines.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
TAGS
TeamworkManaging transitions when power flips
Vinay speaks about how the two phases of transition played out when the power shifted between Vajpayee and Advani. He speaks about the how the transitions were not sudden and how the two leaders handled themselves in the situation.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
What binds the RSS together
Vinay speaks about how RSS has been able to create a tight bond amongst its members. He attributes it to the requirement of the RSS pracharaks to be Brahmacharyas (stay single) while their emphasis on family-like values in the organization. He speaks about how this has helped them attract talented people into the organization and avoid the pitfalls of dynastic politics.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
RSS and McKinsey
Vinay speaks about how RSS wires up its members in a certain way through the various things it does as an organization. He likens it to McKinsey, the Consulting firm in the way the firm installs a certain Operating System which often endures (I can vouch for it as an alumnus) in the way we think and act long after we have left the organization.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
TAGS
CultureManaging diversity and handling disagreements
Vinay speaks about how the RSS and BJP use the interpretation of history to create a certain purpose for the institution which is beyond the individual. He also speaks about some of the institutional norms that ensure that the organization stays cohesive and there isn’t unnecessary “chatter”. He also uses the term “sulking on mute” to denote how leaders would disagree yet commit to a chosen path putting the institutional interests ahead of theirs.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
Getting comfortable with contradictions
Vinay speaks about the many layers of Vajpayee and how he had several contradictions within. He goes on to speak about great leaders and how we have to study them in a non-linear fashion for us to make sense of them.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
The dynamics of Jugalbandi
Vinay speaks about some of the nuances involved in the way Advani and Vajpayee handled their personal and professional relationship. He speaks about how they often put the Hindu Nationalist agenda (as cultivated given their formative years in the RSS) might have acted as a glue that might have held them together over the long term despite their differences.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
Making sense of complexity
Vinay speaks about how tactful politicians like Vajpayee understand the notion of an “Overton Window”, a skill that CEOs need more and more as the levels of complexity compound in the world we live in.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
TAGS
JudgmentManaging hierarchy and merit
Vinay speaks about how RSS balanced the notion of hierarchy (that is so prevalent in the Indian context across various organizations) with the need to be meritorious to create a culture that brought the best of both worlds in the way it shaped the culture.
More from Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
TAGS
CultureUnderstanding the notion of time poverty
Ashley speaks about the notion of Time Poverty and how it is structural and psychological. She goes on to say that while have more time for leisure now than in 1950s, we still “feel” time poor. She speaks about the role of technology in exacerbating this further.
When money stops moving the needle
Ashley speaks about research that suggests that above USD 60,000 money does not necessarily buy more happiness. She goes on to say that above USD 100,000, people might start to feel worse off because they start comparing themselves with a different economic stratum. She speaks about how the pursuit of wealth for the sake of it being a happiness trap.
Are you a Taylor or a Morgan?
Ashley speaks about two broad archetypes in the world – Morgans (people who prioritize money) and Taylors (people who prioritize time). She speaks about how this impacts some of our daily choices and some of our macro choices. She goes onto say that interestingly enough Taylors often end up making more money than Morgans. She links it to how this is often impacted by our upbringing and the impact on our overall happiness levels.
Career choices in the future
Ashley speaks about implication of valuing time (as a Taylor) or money (as a Morgan) on how we make career choices. She speaks about how it is all the important for us to self-select ourselves into a career that we are intrinsically passionate about given that the paradigm is shifting from driving on a highway to navigating a maze.
Consulting causing an adversarial relationship with time
Ashley speaks about how having a number attached to a unit of time can sometimes lead us to optimize for money thereby leading to us solving for the short term while missing out on some of the elements required us for us to be effective and happy in the long run.
TAGS
Managing timeOptimizing versus Satisficing mindset
Ashley discusses how our approach towards getting the “best deal” in a situation can actually accentuate time poverty. She says that we end up finessing on getting the best deal but miss out on savouring the experience (called life!). To borrow from John Lennon, she says something to the effect of “Life is what happens when you are busy trying to get the best deal”
Big why, Small why and Time Confetti
Ashley speaks about the notion of how we should outsource the task of staying productive to tools and apps that are out there and not leave it to the vagaries of our will power. She also speaks about how we should have a conversation with ourselves on why we might be reaching out to technology whenever we have a few residual moments to kill.
TAGS
HabitsChanging our relationship with time
Ashley speaks about how we should think about bringing time affluence in our lives. She speaks about the notion of time being a collective resource and therefore the need for us to engage our friends, our family members and our colleagues at our workplaces to move from cognition to behavioural change.
TAGS
Managing timeRelating to time during "Covid times"
Ashley speaks about how the current context around COVID has really made it that much harder for us to switch off. People are feeling more and more overwhelmed despite having more time at their disposal given commute has been taken out of the equation.
TAGS
Coping with Covid 19Notion of identitylessness
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how we can sometimes get trapped in all kinds of labels around us. He speaks about how he has been guided by his curiosity and his quest for spirituality without getting pigeonholed into some box.
TAGS
IdentityLimitations of the rational mind
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how he took the call to walk out his home into the unknown when he was 10. He speaks about the limitations of the rational mind and how we all tend to take actions and then often subsequently justify our decision using logic. He also speaks about the criticality of parents getting out of the way while bringing up children.
Shaping one's journey
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how he has shaped his path and has made choices along the way. He speaks about how he has handled the various pulls and pressures to move in a certain direction to stay true to his purpose.
Mindfulness is not a hack
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how a lot of people have tried to make the practice of spirituality into a hack. He specifically speaks about how several people have tried to create apps for meditation and how that often goes against the grain of how one is supposed to pursue meditation without any addiction of sorts.
TAGS
MindfulnessDeliberate practice of Spirituality
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about the notion of curiosity and how we can all be truly aware of what is unfolding in front of us. He speaks about how we all need to embrace effortful meditation and practice it for a period of time before it becomes effortless for us. He also speaks about spiritual discipline as something that ought to permeate every aspect of our life from perception to decision making to choices to every interaction.
Opening the aperture of learning
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how we sometimes limit the learning opportunities by trying to look “within the box”. He suggests us to surrender to the teacher/coach/guide/mentor and the process to derive the value from it.
Pursuing self-awareness
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi makes the link between pursuing self-awareness and building non-transactional relationships. He also speaks about the need for all of us to have virtuous friends (we may not go to the movies with them but they might provide perspectives that might open up new vistas).
TAGS
Self AwarenessCovid-19 - a time-out for humans
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi speaks about how Covid-19, in some ways, is like a time out that Mother Nature has given human beings so that we could go back to our rooms/homes and reflect on what our priorities in life should be. He shares his perspectives around how could reclaim the fundamental sense of being human rooted in a sense of empathy and in a sense of compassion.
TAGS
Coping with Covid-19Leadership challenges during Covid-19
Ramesh speaks about how CEOs of companies have had to focus on 4 elements during this crisis over the last few months. 1) Using the opportunity to set even bolder aspirations 2) Focusing on their To-Be list, not just the To-Do list 3) Embracing the notion of stakeholder capitalism 4) Harnessing the full power of their peer networks. He also speaks about how they have had to adapt their ways as they have moved from the crisis mode to the long-tail.
Discerning the "mandate"
Ramesh speaks about the construct of the Bower Forum – McKinsey’s program for CEO learning. He speaks about some of the themes that come up in the Bower Forum and specifically speaks about the notion of discerning the mandate and how leaders from within or from the outside can do this in a thoughtful way.
Being versus Doing
Ramesh speaks about the notion of Being versus Doing. He speaks about what it takes to create a safe space, and bringing down the anxiety level to establish a deep authentic connection with the leader you are working with. He speaks about how it has become critical for leaders to be authentic in these times.
TAGS
MindfulnessEvolution of the Consulting model
Ramesh speaks about how the Consulting model has evolved over the last several years. He specifically talks about how the teams have evolved from being 2-3 people to a much larger group of diverse people from across domains (designers, data specialists etc.)
TAGS
ConsultingReinventing self within McKinsey
Ramesh speaks about how he has stayed relevant over the 26 years in the Firm and how he has taken on different responsibilities to align his professional pursuits with his personal passion.
Personal Board of Advisors
Ramesh shares his perspectives around why he has chosen to stay with McKinsey. He also speaks about an informal Board of advisors/mentors that he has architected to stay relevant and to stay interested and interesting in the world.
Dealing with lifequakes
Ramesh speaks about how he and his wife Charuta dealt with the trauma after losing two of their children to cancer. Their daughter Shruti was 9 when she passed away in 2009 and their son Aditya was almost 12 when he passed away in 2015. He speaks about how they dealt with the shocks and how they found meaning and purpose post that to move forward.
TAGS
ResilienceContributing to Education
Ramesh speaks about how he ended up getting involved with Education. He speaks about how his meeting with Shaheen Mistri galvanized his wife Charuta and him to involve themselves with Akanksha Foundation, Teach For India and Peepul. He urges us to pick a topic that we are passionate about and stick with it for a long period of time to make a dent.
TAGS
Social ImpactThe Power of stories
Bruce speaks about how he was leading a reasonably successful and predictable life till his 40s where he experienced multiple events that shook his world. He was diagnosed with an adult onset pediatric cancer (a 9-inch tumor in his femur), his father tried to take his life 6 times in 12 weeks, his father’s family business almost became bankrupt and his mother went through health challenges. He speaks about how he discovered the power of stories in healing his father’s situation and in making sense of what was going on. That eventually led him to pursue the life story project where he spoke to thousands of people and analyzed all the data with the management thinker Jim Collins and his team.
TAGS
StorytellingHappy Families and Agile Development
Bruce speaks about how families can learn from the Agile Development process and ensure that there is a ritual and a space for having a meaningful conversation around what is important to each member and find a way of addressing the issues given the ever changing context.
TAGS
CultureWhat is the shape of your story
Bruce speaks about how his research led him to identifying 52 different disruptors that could change our life context across 5 categories – Relationships, Identity, Beliefs, Work and Body. He speaks about how his research suggests that we might go through a disruptor every 12-18 months and how one in 10 ends up being a lifequake. He speaks about how we end up spending half of our adult lives in transition without having any adequate training on how to deal with this.
TAGS
Inflection PointsDisruptors and Lifequakes
Bruce speaks about how his research led him to identifying 52 different disruptors that could change our life context across 5 categories – Relationships, Identity, Beliefs, Work and Body. He speaks about how his research suggests that we might go through a disruptor every 12-18 months and how one in 10 ends up being a lifequake. He speaks about how we end up spending half of our adult lives in transition without having any adequate training on how to deal with this.
TAGS
Inflection PointsMidlife to Whenever life transition
Bruce speaks about the notion that transitions happen to us all the time and not at a particular stage of life. He specifically talks about the limitations of the transition model espoused by Gail Sheehy who suggests that mid-life transitions often occur around late 30s and early 40s. He goes onto say that voluntary or involuntary transitions could happen at any time in our lives.
Make sense from scars (not wounds)
Bruce speaks about the criticality of not jumping too early into the process of meaning-making when we go through lifequakes. He says that only when we have completed the processs of transition and when the wounds have dried up are we in a position to weave a narrative through what we have been through.
TAGS
Infelction PointsShape-shifting instead of resilience
Bruce speaks about how resilience as a term originates from the Industrial age where our lives where shaped by manufacturing and the paradigms around it. He says that it implies that we sprint back to the earlier status quo. He goes on to say that life and transitions are complex and we rarely go back to the old (as we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic). He urges us to think about shapeshifting instead. He speaks about how we could use lifequakes to rebalance our lives across 3 dimensions which he calls ABC (Agency, Belonging and Cause)
TAGS
ResilienceThree phases of a transition
Bruce speaks about the three stages of a transition (the long goodbye, the messy middle and the new beginning). He goes onto say that each one of us has a super-power in one of these three and are likely to be good at coping with that stage of the transition.
TAGS
Reinventing selfTaking a leap of faith
Bruce speaks about the criticality of taking the plunge after shedding our past to explore new possibilities. He links it to what we see in some of the greatest stories that have been told across religions. He goes onto say that growth actually occurs when we feel the discomfort when we go through change, much like how we build muscle when we go to a gym.
TAGS
Reinventing selfRole of money in transitions
Bruce speaks about how we live in world today where there is an opportunity for us to architect a life that is resonant with what matters to us. He urges to be more open about taking cuts in compensation in the short run for us to pursue what we really love.
Role of a Sounding Board/Coach
Bruce speaks about the role of a Coach/Sounding Board/Therapist in helping people through a transition. He speaks about how Coaches often help by participating in the process of co-narration (a term that comes from the world of social sciences).
TAGS
CoachingIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Bruce speaks about how we all need to recognize that there are no linear paths to success or glory or happiness. He urges us to deal with the wolf/ogre/wilderness to get past it and get to a meaningful place. He speaks about how we may not be able to reach our potential unless we become the hero of our own story.
TAGS
In summaryJourney and transitions till date
Sanjeev and Hari speak about their respective journeys and talk about how they transitioned from one orbit to another. Sanjeev speaks about his journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship at Daksh to investing in Helion and Fundamentum. Hari speaks about his journey from engineering in Tata Steel to how he serendipitously ended up at Daksh and how that has taken him to head HR at Bigbasket and on a wider note, engage with the start-up ecosystem.
TAGS
Reinventing selfThree rhythms of a scale up
Sanjeev speaks about the three rhythms with which organizations often need to operate – growth, efficiency and foundation. He mentions that the first comes naturally to entrepreneurs and what differentiates the great founders from the average ones is their ability to walk that three-dimensional tight rope. He also goes on to speak about the power of complementarity in the leadership team that can enable these three rhythms.
Being deliberate about culture building
Sanjeev and Hari speak about how entrepreneurs can get intentional about building a certain culture in an organization. They speak about the role of the founder initially but also the criticality of having processes, systems and role-models as the organization scales.
TAGS
CultureGetting senior leader transitions right
Hari and Sanjeev speak about how start-ups can be thoughtful about getting senior leadership transitions right. They speak about what organizations can do at the stage of hiring and what they can do at the time of the leaders transitioning in.
Intellect and clarity of thought - correlated?
We often get confused with the notion of intellect and thinking clearly. Hari shares his perspectives here. He also speaks about how laziness might be a preferred attribute with founders as being busy could lead founders spending time and getting caught up with the wrong things.
Founder development and role of coaching
Hari and Sanjeev share their perspectives around how founders can think about improving their self-awareness. They also speak about the effectiveness of Coaching in gathering nuanced feedback and helping founders and the leadership teams scale up.
Founder CEO or Professional CEO?
Sanjeev speaks about how he thinks about Professional CEOs and Founder CEOs and speaks about why it is so hard to get the transition right. He also shares his take on what is the one thing he looks for while betting behind founders.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipLearnable elements from Jeff Bezos's leadership
Bill speaks about some of the elements of Jeff Bezos’s leadership that make him distinctive. While some of those elements are in-born and hard to replicate, he teases out some of the elements that we could learn and imbibe as we go through our journeys.
Bringing 14 leadership principles to life
Bill speaks about the story behind the evolution of the 14 leadership principles at Amazon. He speaks about how Amazon reinforces these 14 principles in the way it hires, conducts performance appraisals and the way it brings it to life when it comes to making hard decisions.
TAGS
CultureRaising the bar on recruitment
Bill speaks about how Amazon uses the Bar-Raiser process to ensure that it recruits great leaders into the company. He specifically speaks about the role of a Bar Raiser and how he/she is empowered to uphold quality standards without being pressurized by the “here and now” demands of the business. He also speaks about how Amazon trades off the Type 1 and Type 2 errors that often occur while recruiting.
TAGS
Effective hiringRecognizing and developing good judgment
Bill decodes the Amazon Leadership Principle – Are right a lot. He speaks about how Amazon thinks about good judgment and the nuances between 1 way door decisions and 2-way door decisions. He speaks about how Amazon creates a culture of open-ness to multiple perspectives in the spirit of enabling good quality decisions.
TAGS
JudgmentDisagree yet commit - bringing it to life
Bill speaks about how decisions are made and how well people are listened to which ensures that there is minimal dissonance post the decision leading to “passive aggression”. He links it back to the writing culture in Amazon to ensure that complex ideas are presented with all the nuances for people to appreciate the various trade-offs.
Written communication - a competitive advantage
Bill speaks about how Amazon uses written word as a source of differentiation and a competitive advantage. He speaks about how meetings are run in Amazon and the impact on productivity and effectiveness when people submit written documents. He also speaks about the PR/FAQ process which, in a way, is the backbone of the Working Backwards culture at Amazon.
TAGS
CommunicationBuilding a culture of learning from failure
Bill speaks about how Amazon drives a culture of risk taking by being open towards failures. He also goes onto speak about the distinction between good failure and bad failure and how companies should ensure they don’t mistake one for the other
TAGS
Culture"What" decisions versus "Who" decisions
Bill speaks about how Jeff Bezos made the distinction between “what” decisions and “who” decisions. He takes us back to 2004 when the whole media world was transitioning from physical to digital. Bill lays out how Jeff thought about the decision and first focused on deploying the most prized resources (the who) in the company to go after the opportunity, who put in place a set of processes (the how) to explore new opportunities that eventually led to them going after the opportunity (the what).
Understanding the 4 default conflict habits
Jen speaks about 4 common conflict habits we gravitate to – Blame (externalize the problem), Shame (internalize the problem), Shut down (refuse to have a conversation), Relentlessly Collaborate (proactively work with the other side). She speaks about how we end up developing one of these styles and what happens when we meet another person or entity that has a different conflict habit.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
HabitsWhy some conflict patterns are common
In the previous nugget, Jen speaks about each of us defaulting to one of 4 conflict types. When we are in conflict with another person, they often have one dominant conflict type out of 4. That lends itself to 16 permutations. Jen, however, states that most of the conflict patterns in pairs end up falling into 5 frequently found permutations. She speaks about why this might be the case
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
Managing ConflictListening to understand the nuances
Jen speaks about our tendency to look at conflict in simplistic and often binary terms. She speaks about a few techniques we could use to understand the various dimensions of the conflict and the interconnections between the various actors involved in the situation. She suggests that we don’t fall for the simplistic narrative that bubbles up immediately in front of us.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
Engaging our senses
Jennifer refers to the legendary “I have a dream” speech from Martin Luther King and speak about the criticality of engaging our various senses in the way we see a situation. She urges us to imagine a future that we can describe with our various senses.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
Self awarenessReactive and a Proactive pause
Jen speaks about how we should practice pausing in the moment (reactive) and otherwise (proactive) for us to be able to choose responding instead of reacting at various points in time
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
MindfulnessDown side of too much empathy and collaboration
Jen speaks about the occasional downsides of some traits like empathy and collaboration. As they say, too much of a good thing might be a bad thing. She speaks about situations where it is helpful for us to maintain a healthy distance from what is going on rather than getting deep into it. She also speaks about situations where collaboration might be counter-productive.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
Managing ConflictRole of ideal and shadow values in conflict
Jen speaks about how we all need to be cognizant of the values of the person we are dealing with. She goes on to categorize the values on the other side as ideal values and shadow values. Ideal values are those that are visible and those that the person is willing to acknowledge. Shadow values often are those that are hidden below the surface and the person may not publicly acknowledge those.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
Self-awarenessReal meaning of "take a walk"
We often use phrases without often questioning where they come from or what the deeper meaning behind those might be. Jen here shares her perspective around the phrase “taking a walk” and how it could have an impact on how we see a situation.
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
TAGS
MindfulnessPattern breaking behaviour and Camp David
Jen shares her perspectives around how we can try different conflict breaking paths for us to get out of the loop. She specifically refers to what President Carter did to reframe the conversations in Camp David where his talks with the then President of Egypt (Anwar Sadat) and the then Prime Minister of Israel (Menachem Begin).
More from Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
How women often respond to feedback
Sally speaks about two phenomena which are often at play when it comes to feedback. She speaks about how women sometimes can take the developmental feedback to heart and start to question themselves in often unproductive ways. She also speaks about how men can often have double standards and for the same set of behaviours, they might have a different interpretation depending on the gender.
How women often think about ambition
Sally speaks about how women often think about ambition slightly differently from men. She also goes onto to say that the paradigm of leadership has evolved over the last few decades that a lot more men today also have started looking at ambition in a holistic manner compared to a few decades back. However, she says – “women got there first”.
Reluctance in accepting credit
Sally speaks about the phenomenon where women, when given positive feedback, might unnecessarily divert it to other causes or shine the light on other team members without adequate acknowledgement of their role in the outcomes. She speaks about the downsides of this behavior.
Downsides of pursuing mastery
Sally speaks about how women need to think about recognition and mastery to move forward in their career. She goes onto say that women often assume that recognition will “just happen” and when it doesn’t they often double down the rabbit hole of pursuing mastery which can come in the way of them being considered for roles with wider scope.
Leveraging relationships to move forward
Sally speaks about how it is critical not just to build relationships but to leverage them in a non-transactional way. She goes on to say that a quid pro quo approach to asking for favours from others often doesn’t work and suggests a more nuanced approach here.
TAGS
InfluencingDelivering performance vs unlocking potential
Sally speaks about how women often end up getting assessed for performance in their current role while men are seen for their potential. She says, this coupled with women often focusing on loyalty to the role often leads to a double whammy that keeps women stuck in their current place hampering their progress. She speaks about how we can avoid this phenomenon.
Impact of COVID on Women vs Men
Sally speaks about the impact of COVID on men and women over the last several months. She goes on to discuss the short term and the long term implications. She speaks about some of the mindset shifts around remote and flexible work that have happened over the last several months and goes onto say that it might actually end up levelling the playing field for women.
TAGS
Coping with Covid 19Executive presence
Sally speaks about the notion of Executive Presence and how that plays out for men and women. She alludes to a piece of research that suggests that women on average end up speaking 20,000 words a day while men end up speaking around 7000 words a day. She discusses the implication of this on how men and women could think about Executive Presence.
TAGS
CommunicationLeakage in the leadership pipeline near the very top
Sally speak about how maternity is a point of leakage when it comes to women rising to the top. She also speaks about another place where there is often a lot of leakage. She speaks about how women leaders rise almost to the top but then they look at the person in the top job and have a discussion with themselves around whether it is worth it and often back off.
TAGS
Women LeadershipChanging the game vs playing by "club rules"
Sally speaks about the notion of women “changing the game” rather than “playing by the club rules”. She speaks about the transformation that has happened over the last several years.
TAGS
Women LeadershipInsights for parents as they bring up boys and girls
Sally shares some insights for parents as we bring up our boys and girls. She specifically speaks about how we could get boys to listen more and girls to let go without being trapped by the quest for perfection which could be counter productive beyond a point.
Cancer and life-choices
Dan speaks about how being diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma brought him close to death and how that clarified a lot of things for him. He speaks about a phenomenan called “transience aversion” in that context and speaks about how he moved forward with purpose coming out of that event.
Crowd-sourcing your highlights reel
Dan speaks about the notion of a “highlights reel” like in sports. He suggests that we reach out to people that we have interacted with across domains (not restricted to work) and get feedback on their memory of a time when we were exceptional. He suggests that we reflect on that and use that as a compass as we navigate our journey forward.
TAGS
Self awarenessEulogy delay
Dan speaks about why people find it extremely uncomfortable and awkward to talk about people strengths when they are around while when somebody passes away, we are generous with the eulogy. He speaks about why there should be a barrier in us having a “eulogy like” feedback conversation with a person when he/she is alive.
Visualization and peak-performance
Dan speaks about how elite athletes conjure up peak performance when it matters the most. He speaks about how even some of the Olympians experience imposter’s syndrome. He speaks about the notion of neuroplasticity and how this can help performance.
TAGS
ExcellenceDeveloping directional clarity
Dan speaks about how we can think about our strengths when we are at an inflection point. He goes on to say that recognizing our strengths is not about being stuck to the past but really about stretching into new areas that could help us lead a more authentic life and sometimes cues for this could come from domains outside of work.
Emotional Labour
Dan expands on the phrase “Emotional Labour”. This the effort that a lot of us put in where we feel we are not being our true selves and have to put on a mask. He speaks about the connection between his work in the role of highlights reel and advances in neuroscience.
Providing thoughtful feedback
Dan speaks about the nuances in delivering feedback that could help people activate their best self. In organizations, feedback is often the key lever for development but very often, no formal attention is given to how people deliver the feedback. He also speaks about the role of gratitude as an emotion in galvanizing a group of people around you.
Highlights - Big bang vs Drip feed
Dan speaks about how the Highlights reel should ideally be consumed. He suggests a big-bang approach where we collect and accumulate a critical mass of content in the highlights before absorbing them. He suggests that we create the space for us to receive it and reflect on it. If we end up doing it as a drip feed, there is a risk of those drips getting drowned in the daily noise in our life.
Engaging different parts of our brain
Dan speaks about engaging different parts of our brain in expressing ourself. He speaks about how he uses LEGO Serious Play to have participants in his course express themselves in the context of their journeys and the future they are trying to create for themselves.
When strengths become derailers
Dan speaks about situations where we might get into trouble by overusing our strengths. He speaks about how we should watch out for those situations and ensure that our strengths don’t become derailers. He speaks about the combination of awareness and intelligence required to navigate these situations.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Dan speaks about how we could play to our potential by keeping the concept of death close to us. He also speaks about how we can unlock others’ potential by providing timely feedback to others without falling trap to the notion of eulogy delay.
Learning 5 completely new skills
Tom speaks about how we went about picking 5 skills that he wanted to learn from Ground Zero. He picks Singing, Surfing, Drawing, Juggling and Making a Ring. He speaks about the criteria he used to come up with this short-list of items that he would pursue.
How learning works
Tom speaks about how learning works and speaks about the distinction between conscious and sub-conscious learning. He also makes the distinction between the different parts of the brain and intelligence that get developed when we learn. He speaks about fluid intelligence which is often the raw horse-power that gives you the ability to process a situation. He contrasts that to crystallized intelligence which is often the wisdom based on the cumulative experiences we have had in life. Chess Legend Vishy Anand had spoken about this distinction when he was on the podcast.
Misplaced pursuit of Mastery
Tom speaks about how sometimes we get caught up in a race towards mastery on a topic where we are amateurs. But in our mind, there is often a misplaced sense of professionalism that can sometimes have negative consequences without us realizing. I guess these are individual choices that we make but being aware of this phenomenon and having a clear Why behind some of these pursuits is often helpful.
Real meaning of baby steps
Tom speaks about how kids learn and how they keep changing the nature of experiments they do to make the learning “less brittle”. He speaks about his insights from the Infant Action Lab in New York University where he saw how children experiment their way into learning and what we can learn from that.
How unlearning works
Tom speaks about the challenges we face in the unlearning process whenever we have spent a lot of time learning something. He speaks about a rocket scientist in Huntsville Alabama, who constructed a cycle with different movements to prove the point about how difficult it is to balance the cycle.
Learning Approach across the Learning curve
Tom speaks about how our approach to learning shifts as we go through the various stages of learning something - Novice, Advanced beginner, Competent, Proficient and Expert. He speaks about how we initially focus on learning the rules involved but as we go up the learning curve, we need to get comfortable with the evolving context around us and that can require a very different approach.
TAGS
Deliberate PracticeRole of feedback loops
Tom speaks about the limitations of learning a skill on an online platform like YouTube where there are several videos to learn various skills. He talks about the role of feedback in the way we can grow our capabilities in a certain area.
Observing things the way they are
Tom speaks about how drawing is an immersive and a meditative process and how it helps him see a situation with a lot of nuance and accuracy.
TAGS
MindfulnessFriction in the learning process
Tom speaks about how we should think about friction when we learn something. He uses the metaphor of travel versus tourism to say that it is easy to get a quick a dirty version of most things but sometimes the immersive slow learning process has its own rewards.
Depth of learning
Tom speaks about how dabbling in a new area often provides a fresh perspective and a new energy to pursue mastery. He speaks about how some of the Nobel Prize scientists are statistically more likely to have participated in amateur activities performing arts, magic tricks and pursuits like that than the non-Nobel Prize winners.
TAGS
CuriosityIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Tom speaks about the notion of infinite potential and how people often fall victim to the end of history illusion where we feel we have become the person we are going to be. He goes onto say that we should stop thinking of ourselves as a fixed identity or that we are at full potential and just be open minded about the idea that we may not be aware of our full potential and be open to something that may come from an unexpected direction.
TAGS
In SummaryRelationships in a 2D world
Darleen speaks about some the nuances in building and maintaining relationships in a remote world. A lot of things that we might do in the rhythm of an offline world don’t apply. She speaks about some observations from the leaders she has worked with. Sahiba Singh from SpencerStuart India team also shares her perspectives on the topic.
Driving Accountability virtually
Darleen speaks about how leaders should walk the tight rope between letting people be, giving them autonomy and seeking performance. It is a fine line and it is easy to swing too far without realizing it. She speaks about the ATC (Action, Timetable, Check-in) approach in dealing with colleagues.
Communicating thoughtfully
Darleen speaks about how leaders need to look at the way an organization works and the cadence to ensure that people are not overloaded with responsibilities and information. She goes on to say that it is less about technology but more about how it is used and applied in an organizational context.
Office of the future
Darleen speaks about how organizations are beginning to think about the role of the office in the future. She provides her perspective on the insight from Charles Handy who said “An office will be like a club: a place for eating, meeting, and greeting, with rooms reserved for activities, not people”
TAGS
Staying relevantRemote leadership with Boards
Darleen speaks about how Boards have evolved in a Remote working context. She speaks about CEO succession coming back front and centre in the Board agenda. In addition, Atul Bhandari (who sits on the Global SpencerStuart Board) and Ritu Kochhar (who leads the India Board practice) share their insights around how Boards have started thinking about risk and the kinds of skills that are becoming more relevant in the Board room today.
Remote apprenticeship
Darleen speaks about how leaders and organizations have thought about apprenticeship in these times. Rohit Kale (who leads SpencerStuart in India) speaks about how peer mentoring has been impacted in these times but also goes on to speak about the silver lining here as this provides opportunities that didn’t exist earlier for some colleagues to experience the “moment of truth”.
Transitioning remotely
Darleen sheds light on how leaders and organizations can get more thoughtful in the way they get the cultural assimilation right when a new leader comes on board. Leadership derailment is a lot more about Leaders missing out on the “how” of a job rather than the “what” of the job.
Remote Leadership hiring
Darleen speaks about the challenges in hiring effectively in the remote world. Atul Bhandari, Ritu Kochhar and Rohit also share their perspectives around how we need to tap into stories much more in these times and how remote work has opened up the aperture in terms of where people look for talent. They also share an interesting perspective around how companies are thinking about experience versus potential in these times.
Managing your energy
Darleen speaks about how we need to take care of physical, mental and spiritual energy in these times. Atul Bhandari and Sahiba Singh also share their perspectives around how some leaders can think about staying healthy and productive in these times.
Nuances of Psychological Safety
Amy speaks about the way she thinks about Psychological Safety - an environment where people feel free to take interpersonal risks. She goes on to speak about some of the pieces that people get wrong or miss. For instance, she speaks about the fact that this is not about being nice. She also teases out the nuance between developing trust with a leader and creating a climate of safety, something that people might mix.
Implication on Learn-what vs Learn-how
Amy speaks about the implication of psychological safety on how team members learn. She makes the distinction between “Learn what” behaviours and “Learn how” behaviours and goes on to say that Psychological safety has a significant implication on the latter.
Impact on leadership transitions
Amy speaks about how psychological safety becomes even more critical in the context of a leadership transition. She speaks about the criticality of the incoming leader to portray humility and curiosity as he/she settles into a new context. She talks about the case of Alan Mulally, who transitioned from Boeing to Ford Motor Company when it was bleeding about USD 17 Billion dollars a year. She speaks about how he embodied situational humility to transition effectively to win the trust and respect and drive the turnaround.
Calculus of silence
Amy speaks about the asymmetry between silence and speaking up in the way people size up the trade offs. The upsides of speaking up are often felt (if at all) way down the line while the downsides of speaking up are felt right then and there. Given this pay-off structure, people often end up preferring silence to speaking up. Amy also speaks about Ray Dalio and Bridgewater Associates where he frames silence as an unethical choice.
Traits that drive psychological safety
Amy speaks about what traits we should look for in leaders if we are solving for psychological safety in an organization. She shines the light on three traits – Curiosity, Humility and Empathy. She also speaks to the limitations of the interview process and how we could consider getting the candidates to interact with the team to suss out the manner in which they engage with the people around them.
TAGS
Effective hiringEffective feedback processes
Amy speaks about the nuances involved in giving and receiving feedback so that it is productive. She speaks about the practices at Pixar where they strive hard to create a climate that is conducive for healthy feedback on a project. She also shares a small but powerful nuance in the way she interacts with her PhD students when they submit their drafts.
TAGS
Psychological safetyRituals that drive psychological safety
Amy speaks about how companies have to work hard to create a climate of risk taking. She alludes to failure parties at Eli Lilly and the Museum of Failure at Google X to talk about how companies have to work hard to take the stigma of failure away to encourage risk taking. Some of the insights, I guess, are as applicable to families specifically in the context of parenting.
Miracle at Fukushima Daini
Amy speaks about the case at Fukushima Daini, where under the leadership of Naohira Masuda, 400 employees worked non stop for 48 hours, when their lives were under threat, to achieve the cold shut down of the nuclear reactor thereby saving 1000s of lives in that process. She speaks about the brand of leadership that Naohira demonstrated through this phase.
Nuances in application - Google-X vs Walmart
Amy teases out some of the nuances involved in the way Psychological safety applies in different contexts. One end being the relatively predictable, repetitive work in the shopfloor of an organization like Walmart, the other end being Google X that works on moonshots. She also speaks about the similarity of human beings across some of these very different situations.
The "naïve realism" trap
Amy speaks about the term, Naïve Realism, that was coined by Lee Ross of Stanford. This is a phenomenon where we believe that we all see a certain version of reality but believe that that IS the reality. She speaks about the implication of this trap.
TAGS
StorytellingIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Amy speaks about the notion of Team Potential and the power of psychological safety coupled with good process and rituals and techniques and unlock the potential of a group of people.
TAGS
In SummaryAgassi and Behaviour change
Katy speaks about Andre Agassi and the approach Brad Gilbert took with him when he was going through a slump. She says that Brad suggested that Andre would have to devise a strategy that is specific to each opponent and come up with a tailored approach to win and this new approach helped Agassi climb back to the top and win many more tournaments. Katy suggests a similar approach to tackling behavioral change.
The power of a fresh start
Katy speaks about how we all can leverage the power of a fresh start to drive behavioural change. She goes on to say that if we look hard enough then there might be several fresh opportunities we could find in our lives. Very often, we think Jan 1 in a year as a fresh start and have resolutions. But Katy goes on to say that we can have a similar approach if we think wider about a new start. She also refers to an initiative at Google that looked at key moments where people are more likely to engage in a certain behaviour.
TAGS
Driving changeTemptation bundling
Katy refers to the song “Spoonful of sugar makes the medicine goes down” and speaks about how kids naturally warm up to the notion of doing something that seems like fun but adults sometimes don’t appreciate it enough. She goes on to say how we could think about combining activities to ensure that we increase the odds of doing it.
TAGS
HabitsEntering the magic circle
Katy speaks about how gamification of something is an art and if done well can really draw people into activities that they might otherwise consider boring. But she also goes on to say that if such games are not intuitively fun to people, they may not enter the magic circle, i.e. they may not embrace the implicit rules of behaviour that is required for everybody to have fun. She talks about how individuals and organizations should think about this.
TAGS
Driving changeBenefits of Commitment
Katy speaks about the power of constraints and commitment devices which can help us move towards our goals. She refers to what Victor Hugo did when he was faced with a deadline in 1830 to publish his new book – The Hunchback of Notre Dame. When he had only 6 months left, Victor collected all of his clothes, removed them from his chambers, and locked them away. He was left with nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking any suitable clothing to go outdoors, Hugo was no longer tempted to leave the house and get distracted. Staying inside and writing was his only option. Katy speaks about the notion of commitment devices which borrows from this broad idea.
TAGS
Driving ChangeBoosting morale instead of Unsolicited advice
Katy speaks about one of the attributes of Dr Max Bazerman, her advisor (who has a track record of having several of his students in reputed colleges around the world) when she was a PhD student. She speaks about how he would behave when his students would often face a bump or deal with a rejection and come to him for advise. Katy says that rather than focusing on critiquing the work content, he would focus on encouraging the student, highly counterintuitive for a lot of us.
Building a robust habit
Katy speaks about what it takes to build a robust habit. She speaks about two archetypes – Flexible Fernando and Robust Rachels to illustrate the point. She goes on to say that Fernandos end up building a habit that is likely to stick despite the vagaries of real life as compared to Rachels (any gender related themes are just a mere coincidence!). She expands on this topic here.
TAGS
HabitsOne goal at a time
Katy speaks about the magnitude of change that one can typically hope to undertake. She refers to the example of Ben Franklin who decides to make a fresh start after a phase of debauchery. He goes on to make a list of 13 virtues and starts tracking himself on those. Katy shares her perspective around how much to take on in a change initiative.
TAGS
HabitsKey choices along the way
35 years after graduating with a Gold Medal in IIMA, Harish speaks about how he thought about some of the key career choices that came his way including his approach during campus placements at IIMA.
Perspectives on Navigating Career
Harish speaks about the navigational principles that he has used in his journey. He speaks about how we all could explore for 5-10 years and once we have some sense of what we enjoy and what our unique skills are, we start converging and going deeper in a certain area.
Taking a pause
Harish speaks about him taking a sabbatical 25 years into his career. He reflects on the fact that he was in a good place in his career and there were enough forces that were urging him to continue. He speaks about what he gained from the pause.
Art of storytelling
Harish speaks about 4 elements that need to come together in a good story. It needs to evoke an emotion, involve human spirit, use simple language and add value and leave the user with a thought or an insight. He also speaks about some of the stories of Brands (Indian and International) that have inspired him.
TAGS
StorytellingProfits with purpose
Harish speaks about the three different levels at which the Tata Group tries to make a difference to the communities it operates in. One is at the level of the Tata Trusts and the organizations it supports. Second is at the level of each company in the Tata Group and the CSR initiatives within each company. The third is through the various brands (such as Tanishq and Tata Tea) and the messages they carry when they reach out to the consumers.
TAGS
Social ImpactIdentification with Labour and Capital
Harish speaks about how Tata Group walks the tight rope in terms of focusing on Labour AND Capital. He speaks about how some of the benefits of the efficient use of capital flows back to the people who have made it happen. He also speaks about the story of when Gandhiji came to Jamshedpur in 1925 and how it inspired many people.
TAGS
CultureShaping culture through stories
Harish speaks about how the Tata Group tries and uses Storytelling as a mechanism to reinforce the culture. He speaks about the need for discipline in collecting and telling stories. He also speaks about creating opportunities for the Tata Group members to listen to the stories of some of the legends that lived these values.
Competing with a collaborative spirit
In one of the stories, Harish takes us back to 1930 when the competition was to see who could complete the fastest solo flight between India and England that year. JRD Tata (flying from India to England) and Aspy Engineer (flying from England to India) are two of the competitors and it turns out to be a close rase to the finish line with these two. The story is about something that transpires between them when they meet in Egypt, something that illustrates the approach to competition in the Tata Group.
TAGS
TeamworkIn Summary - Playing to Potential
Harish speaks about how we need to have not just focus, energy and discipline, but also creativity and lateral thinking coupled with purpose that we can work towards in our life.
TAGS
In summaryBeing a Chief Life Officer
Bob speaks about the notion of a Chief Life Officer, and how each one of us can play that role for ourselves as we go through life. He also makes the distinction between what is valuable and what is priceless and urges us to think about the distinction as we think about choices as we often move from being a warrior to a king to a sage in our respective journeys.
Pausing after success
Lloyd speaks about hitting the pause button in 1993 when he got to a position of success and influence. He also speaks about how he manages to build some deep reflection time in the middle of his busy life. He goes on to reflect on the words from the song by Michael Card - it's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.
TAGS
Reinventing SelfDeploying Time, Talent and Treasure
Lloyd speaks about how we all can take stock of our resources (Time, Talent and Treasures) to discover the greatest impact one can make as we go through our journey.
Measuring what Matters
Lloyd speaks about how thinks about impact and makes the distinction between Asset items (things that endure) and Flow items (things that come and go). He speaks about the small things that we (can) do that can make a significant impact in other people’s lives and in the impact they can have around them.
TAGS
Views on SuccessFrom Interest to Identity
Lloyd speaks about how we get interested in a certain topic or an area and how it slowly grows to becoming a part of our identity. He speaks about how we can look for some of the cues from the past to see how we can reflect on some of our experiences that move us and see if there is an opportunity to lean in towards any of those as we architect our lives.
Position in the team
Lloyd throws some light on a question that a lot of leaders grapple with – What should be my role in the Social Sector?He speaks about how we should think about our contribution towards Social Impact as we move from Success to Significance.
TAGS
Social ImpactLow Centre of Gravity
Lloyd refers to the metaphor of Speedcar racing and suggests that the cars are able to be agile and nimble because of their low centre of gravity. He suggests that we take a leaf from that to reduce our wants and declutter our life so that we are able to reduce our centre of gravity that might give us the ability to navigate the twists and turns life throws at us.
TAGS
HappinessMaintaining a Margin
Lloyd speaks about how we need to think about maintaining a margin across four domains: physical, emotional, financial and spiritual. He links it to the thinking of Jim Collins in the context of his book – Great by Choice. He says that businesses need to have some buffer and margin to deal with good luck and bad luck that come their way.
TAGS
Work and LifeSuccess or Significance or Satisfaction?
Lloyd speaks about how he has slowly moved from emphasizing success to significance to satisfaction. He lays out the distinction between these terms and speaks about what it takes to move towards satisfaction.
TAGS
Work and LifeMyth of the single choice
Sukhinder speaks about the myth of the hero’s journey that often goes along with several successful people. She also goes onto say that we think we make a few clean choices which drive our outcomes but it is a lot of the micro-choices that determine the shape of our journey. She speaks about some of the small choices and micro-risks that shape our destiny.
Embracing risk as a discovery process
Sukhinder speaks about the fact that we often make decisions once we have sized up all the risks and rewards. She says that “take risk and iterate” approach beats “plan and implement” as a strategy. She says that people feel that risk taking begins when we make a choice. She goes on to say that taking risks will ensure that we end up with the right kinds of choices.
Managing work and life
Sukhinder speaks about how she has built her self-awareness along the way. She goes on to say that she spends time figuring out “who she is” because what she wants often evolves along the way. She also speaks about the criticality of negotiating and having conversations with people around us to solve for the future that we want to go after.
Decade long coaching journey
Sukhinder speaks about her decade long journey with David Lesser and speaks about the different ways in which he added value to her. She speaks about the benefit of cumulative context that David had that helped him work with Sukhinder to reconcile various pieces over time and across her distinct identities.
Working with Bill Campbell
Sukhinder speaks about her experiences working with Bill Campbell. She speaks about how he got her to be proud of her team and how he got she and her team to be proud of the “dirt underneath their fingernails” given what they were building at Google. She speaks about his unique brand of coaching which combined tough love with cheerleading.
TAGS
CoachingMoving from a Large Org to a Start up
Sukhinder speaks about her transition from Google to Accel as a CEO in residence post which she moved in as a CEO at Polyvore. She speaks about some of the challenges in establishing a healthy dynamic with the Founder and the Board and the criticality of values fit in addition to complementary of skills and capabilities.
Discerning what is a good fit
Sukhinder speaks how one could possibly discern some of the elements around values fit while considering an opportunity at the very top. She speaks about how some of these could be unearthed in a conversation and how we could reference some of these from the ecosystem the leader operates in.
Stepping into a white space
Sukhinder speaks about the notion of White spaces in an organization. These are the activities that are often at the interfaces of different functions and are often not captured in role descriptions. She says that very often people might be “green” in their respective roles but the project might be at a “red” in terms of status. She speaks about demonstrating and looking out for that behaviour as a leader wherever you are in the organization.
Inside out or Outside In
Sukhinder speaks about the scene from the movie where Nemo’s father catches the East Australian Current to get to Sydney quickly to rescue his son. She speaks about how we can look for some of the tailwinds that can turbocharge our career and how we can marry that with our understanding of ourselves as we think about our career.
Going Deep Vs Broad
Sukhinder speaks about how we should think about going Broad initially to explore different pathways and then once we know our sweet spot, we should think about going deep in a certain space. Eventually, she speaks about how we should consider going broad to leverage the distinctive capabilities we have built-in a certain area and apply it in different contexts. She also speaks about how women sometimes prioritize specialization overgeneralization and how that can sometimes come in the way of CEO / GM roles that require breadth.
Formative years
Harsh speaks about how his personality was shaped in the early years. He speaks about diverse interests his family members had (ranging across Indian Classical Music, Sailing, Golf etc) that informed his thinking. He also speaks about values such as frugality, tolerance and consensus building one builds while growing up in a joint family construct.
Tactful separation
Harsh speaks about how he tactfully separated from the rest of the family. He speaks about the role that Mr. Bipin Shah (appointed as a Trusted Mediator) played in moving the conversations forward. He also speaks about how some family events, sometimes, can serve as an opportunity to revive the relationships.
TAGS
Managing ConflictRemove Escape Buttons
Harsh speaks about his belief in Prof Ram Charan’s maxim – Remove Escape Buttons. Harsh speaks about how he leveraged this insight in the way he went about pursuing the International Business and implementing the ERP system in Marico.
Breaking the Catch-22 of mediocre talent
Harsh speaks about how he broke the cycle of mediocre talent that a lot of companies struggle to do. He speaks about hiring his CHRO from XLRI and how he went about building the quality of talent from there.
Growing through feedback
Harsh speaks about how he has grown as a leader over the years and how he has gone about seeking feedback from the people around him. He speaks about the criticality of setting the right climate for feedback for people to tell him what they think of him.
Unlocking the power of the collective
Harsh speaks about how he thinks about assembling a good quality Board and extracting value from them.
Markers of good talent
Harsh speaks about how he looks for good talent where it is at an Executive Level or at a Board level. He speaks about the mix of passion, determination and perseverance that he looks for in the individuals he hires.
TAGS
Effective HiringThinking about Next Gen
Harsh speaks about how his children are charting their journey. He goes on to say that he would like them to make choices on their own terms based on their interests and skills.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Harsh speaks about how he focuses on doubling down on his strengths than wallowing in the development areas. He also speaks about the criticality of seeking feedback as we go through our journeys.
TAGS
In summaryStepping off the corporate track
Rajiv speaks about how he thought about stepping off the corporate track despite being on a very good wicket at Franklin Templeton. He speaks about the growing dissonance within and the quest for purpose and self-improvement that led him to this path.
Attitude towards Money
Rajiv speaks about how he thought about money when he decided to step off the financially lucrative corporate track. He also makes the distinction between foregoing future upside versus taking a cut on the lifestyle as things stand today.
Key choices as a Coach
Rajiv speaks about some of the key choices he has made along the way in his journey as a Coach. He speaks about how he kept his North Star front and centre as he thought about various options and possibilities around expanding the practice. He also speaks about how he balances quality of his work with the volume he takes on.
Working with the leader as a whole
Rajiv speaks about why he chooses to work with the leader as a whole and not limit himself to the professional elements. He speaks about how some of these elements are intertwined and why one has to approach this holistically to be of value to the leader.
TAGS
Work and lifeBuilding the Spiritual Quotient
Rajiv speaks about IQ, EQ and SQ and expands on the notion of SQ (Spiritual Quotient). He goes on to talk about the criticality of building self-awareness, having a sense of purpose and taking greater self-responsibility.
TAGS
Self awarenessSelf-acceptance before Self Improvement
Rajiv speaks about why we need to be non-judgmental when it comes to reflection and journaling. He speaks about why self-acceptance is a prerequisite to self-improvement.
Delegating thoughtfully
Rajiv speaks about how leaders can be thoughtful about what they delegate thereby creating bandwidth and mind-space for themselves to engage on the most impactful set of activities.
Decoding Executive Presence
Rajiv breaks down the notion of Executive Presence and speaks about some of the elements that constitutes it. He speaks about importance of gravitas, credibility, quality of communication and appearance. He also expands on the notion of Authenticity and the link with credibility and presence.
Multiple levels of listening
Rajiv speaks about the different levels of listening. Level 1 – Focusing on the message; Level 2 – Focusing on the emotions of the communicator; Level 3 – Staying tuned to our own emotions as we receive the signals.
TAGS
ListeningBeing, not just doing
Rajiv speaks about what it takes to move from a paradigm of doing things to that of being somebody. He says that very often we end up making the being contingent on an outcome or a series of outcomes and says that this approach could be a mirage and a moving goal post.
TAGS
Self awarenessStaying open to possibilities
Rajiv elaborates on the benefits of mindfulness. One obvious benefit is that we are able to observe ourselves better. Rajiv goes on to say that this practice also ensures that we are able to be more open to various possibilities that emerge along the way.
TAGS
MindfulnessCoachee selection
Rajiv speaks about some of the coachees where he has been able to make a difference and speaks about the commitment of the coachee to the process. He also speaks about the pros and cons of working with people “like you”.
TAGS
CoachingUnlocking our potential
Rajiv interprets the term “Play to Potential” and shares his perspectives on how we should think about the full human potential and not just limit this conversation to unlocking professional potential.
TAGS
In SummaryWinding journey to entrepreneurship
Dorie speaks about how she started with a degree in Theology from Harvard Divinity School and then tried her hand at Journalism, Politics and other fields that has got her to her current role that includes teaching, speaking, writing, Coaching and Consulting.
Prioritizing sharply
Dorie speaks about how she has prioritized her time and attention as her practice has picked up over time. She urges us to raise the bar on meeting people as one builds a brand and more and more people start reaching out for help.
TAGS
Managing timeBeyond retailing time
Dorie speaks about how Marshall Goldsmith (inspired by Paul Hersey) moved from being an effective Coach to start thinking about his legacy and started writing and conceiving of several initiatives including MG100.
Riding an S curve
Dorie speaks about the life cycle of becoming an expert in an area. She speaks about 4 waves involved here – Learning, Creating, Connecting and Reaping. She also speaks about the criticality of transitioning form this to the next wave once we exploit the full potential of that space.
Infinite horizon networking
Dorie speaks about networking over an infinite time horizon which often means connecting with people that are seemingly in a different orbit but could potentially be relevant in the future. She speaks about leaning into our curiosity in these kinds of situations.
TAGS
CuriosityValue based pricing
Dorie speaks about some of the principles around indexing the Pricing to Value which can be quite nebulous when it comes to Coaching and related services.
Metrics to measure green shoots
Dorie speaks about how we should think about situations where the green-shots might take a while to appear especially when we embark on something new. She shares some perspectives around how we should think about cutting losses versus persisting and what metrics we should track.
Experimenting on the sides
Dorie speaks about how we can experiment in adjacent spaces with 20% of our time like they encourage in Google.
TAGS
InnovationExtending the horizon
Dorie speaks about the time horizon with which we operate and says that if we are able to operate with a longer time horizons, the number of credible competitors around us drops significantly.
Being a Lesbian
Dorie speaks about how she has handled the fact that she is a Lesbian ever since she came out as a teenager. She speaks about how people often take their cues from you and we have an opportunity to shape how they relate to us.
TAGS
AuthenticityJourney to becoming a Life Designer
Ayse speaks about her origins growing up in Turkey in a family of lawyers. She speaks about how she moved towards architecture and subsequently into Industrial Design. She goes on to describe how the Financial Crisis of 2008 got her started in the space of Life Design. Related Insights from: Bruce Feiler-70.07-Shape-Shifting instead of Resilience (https://playtopotential.com/audio/742)
Nelson Mandela - a Master Life Designer
Ayse speaks about why she thinks Nelson Mandela is one of the Master Designers of Life she admires. She speaks about how he evolved through the various twists and turns he went through. We connect the dots with some of the insights we learnt about Gandhiji from Dr Ramachandra Guha.
TAGS
IdentityDeconstruction and Reconstruction - The 4 step process
Ayse speaks about her four step deconstruction and reconstruction process that she uses in Life Design. She uses the metaphor of a Chicken Soup to make the point about deriving inspiration to create a recipe that is unique to our life context. We connect the dots with an insight from Rama Bijapurkar in an earlier conversation where she speaks about how she drew inspiration from her role models.
Life Design vs Product Design
Ayse reflects on the distinction between Life Design and Product Design. She speaks about the fact that in the case of Life Design, there is no “3rd party consumer” which makes it a pure process. We connect the dots with what Stew Friedman says about getting other people into our world.
Getting playful about Life Design
Ayse speaks about how it is critical for us to get playful when we think about coming up with ideas for Life Design. She speaks about some of the warm up exercise she conducts to get people in the right frame of mind.
Life Redesign - How long does it take?
Ayse speaks about how long it takes for somebody to design their life. She touches upon the benefit of leveraging others’ perspectives and how we can accelerate our design process. We connect the dots with an insight from Herminia Ibarra.
The Power of Metaphors
Ayse speaks about the power of having creative metaphors to help us unearth possibilities. She says that sometimes thinking logically and linearly may not produce the same effect as an “Out of the box” metaphor. We also connect the dots with an insight from Prof Dan Cable where he speaks about how he uses Lego blocks with senior transitioning leaders.
Helping Children Design their life
Ayse speaks about how we can equip our children to design their life as they set sail on their respective journeys in a world filled with twists and turns. We connect the dots with an insight from Pramath Sinha on how we can help equip children to navigate the world of uncertainty.
Bringing ideas to life
Ayse speaks about how we move from getting some of these ideas cognitively to making real change happen. She speaks about the difference she made to Marshall Goldsmith and how her input helped Marshall develop the MG100 programme. We had Marshall on the podcast earlier. We connect the dots with his take on this subject.
TAGS
Driving ChangeKey choices post the Corporate path
Ravi speaks about some of the choices he has made post his corporate career spanning Cummins and Microsoft. He speaks about how he has thought about the portfolio of things that he has architected and how the portfolio has evolved over time. He also discusses how one could think about doing one thing versus pursuing a portfolio.
Punctuated Equilibrium
Ravi speaks about the notion of punctuated equilibrium where long periods of stability are punctuated with occasional periods of extreme change. He speaks about such periods of extreme change can lead to a new kind of species flourishing on the other side of the change.
Three roles in the future of work
Ravi refers to the work of Charles Handy and says that in the future, there will be three broad kinds of work – Creatives, Caregivers and Custodians. He goes on to say that it is critical that we map ourselves into one or two of the three and develop deep capabilities to ensure that we are the top of that particular field as there is a significant risk of commoditization if we are an “also ran” in a field.
Being intentional about life
Ravi speaks about how it is very easy to drift through life and it is critical for us to be deliberate about the various choices we make. He urges to pay attention to what we are paying attention to.
Cultivating an abundance mindset
Ravi speaks about how we can create a mindset of abundance even if we are in a situation where we might face material scarcity. He speaks about the link with Philanthropy and makes the distinction between having resources and being resourceful.
Different forms of Capital
Ravi speaks about the different forms of Capital that we possess and how we can deploy that in the context of a situation. He specifically refers to the conversations at Social Venture Partners, a philanthropic organization I am a part of.
Specialization vs Generalization
Ravi speaks about how he thinks about Specialization and Generalization. He uses the metaphor of Birds and Frogs to talk about the ability to adapt to new environments. He urges us to be a Swiss Army Knife rather than super specialty special purpose knife that could lose context if the environment changes.
Unlocking Entrepreneurship
Ravi speaks about his work with GAME and with Udhyam Foundation along with Mekin Maheshwari and how they have gone about creating a curriculum that helps children develop an entrepreneurial mindset as they grow. He speaks about immersive experiences that drive Empathy, Tenacity and Resourcefulness in children.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipLeadership next door
Ravi speaks about what Leadership looks like in daily life. He speaks about instances of people around him that have taken initiative and have assumed Leadership. He says that Leadership is not a Noun, Title or a Position but is an act and a verb.
How will you measure your life
Ravi speaks about how we could think about measuring our life. He speaks about how he has gone about discovering what makes him distinctive and chosen the various initiatives that he has participated in.
Develop your voice not your brand
Ravi refers to the phenomenon of Stotting found in the jungles where quadrupeds, especially gazelles, spring in the air and lift all four legs off their ground often to signal their fitness to the predators. Ravi speaks about how we all should communicate our capabilities in a crowded and a noisy market. He urges us to focus on Marketing and not Sales when it comes to creating opportunities for ourselves.
How Kings and Queens were groomed
Pradeep speaks about how potential rulers were encouraged to patronize the arts and the humanities. He refers to the Hitopadesha and Rayavachakam (written by Krishna Deva Raya) and the wisdom contained in them.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
Council of Advisors
Pradeep speaks about how some of the kings assembled the right council of advisors around them to help them through complex situations. He refers to Malik Ambar, Ahilyabai, Serfoji and Aurangzeb in how they thought about getting advice from experts.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
Chhatrapati Shivaji and strategic patience
Pradeep speaks about how kings thought about expansion and consolidation at various points in their reign. It is a little akin to how entrepreneurs think about going after scale and putting processes in place and getting the house in order.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
TAGS
CultureJournaling
Pradeep speaks about how some of the greatest rulers had the habit of keeping a journal and touches upon some of the benefits of journaling.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
TAGS
JournalingJahanara and her political savviness
Pradeep speaks about Jahanara Begum who was Shah Jahan’s daughter. Pradeep speaks about how, despite not holding an official title, she had significant influence in the Mughal Kingdom.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
TAGS
InfluencingSerfoji and Social Development
Pradeep speaks about Serfoji and how he could have chosen a comfortable life but he decided to go ahead and commit his time and energy to various causes that led to the thriving of Thanjavur in those times.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
Content Marketing in the olden days
Pradeep speaks about Srimanta Sankardev who was a 15th-16th century polymath from Assam. He was a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. Pradeep speaks about how Sankardev used various forms of content to bring people together and for people to build trust with him.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
TAGS
StorytellingDecline of the Mughal Empire and Corporate Office
Pradeep speaks about the parallels between how a kingdom expands and the dynamic between the Corporate Office and the various branches. He speaks about the criticality of having a connect with the various corners of the business.
More from Pradeep Chakravarthy
TAGS
CommunicationLawyer to Leadership Thinker
Dan speaks about his journey from qualifying as a lawyer to what he does now. He also shares his insights around what drives his wide arc of curiosity which has led to him writing about the Mind, the process of Selling, Regret, the Science of Timing and a book about careers in the Japanese comic art form – Manga!
Regret - The photographic negative
We all are familiar with the phrase – No regrets! Dan speaks about why it may not be a good idea to say that we do not have regrets. In the book, he actually speaks about an individual who got a Tattoo that said “No Regrets” and subsequently regretted that! He compares Regret to a photographic negative and says that it might have useful information around what we truly care about.
Four Core Regrets
Dan speaks about the Four core regrets that often lie below the surface of the regrets which we often experience – Foundation regrets (I wish I had done the work to lay the foundation when I was younger), Boldness regrets (If only I had taken the chance), Moral regrets (I wish I had done the right thing), Connection regrets (If only I had reached out). He also speaks about how the regrets we have reveals something about the needs we might have.
Regrets and Choice
Dan speaks about the work of Barry Schwartz around regret and teases out the distinction between regret and FOMO (Fear of missing out). He also speaks about how we call can undertake “time travel” to ensure that the “me of 10 years from now” would minimize regret.
Counterfactual thinking
Dan speaks about an interesting piece of research where the study shows that Bronze Medallists are often happier (for being on the podium) than Silver Medallists (who are often upset about missing the Gold). He goes on to speak about the role of “at-least” and “if-only” in the way we frame situations in our head.
TAGS
AttitudesGoldilocks balance in handling regret
Dan makes the point that a lot of us are not quite taught to cope effectively with negative emotion. He says that we need to be careful with how we handle regret. On one hand, we cannot ignore it. On the other hand, we cannot wallow in it. Getting that balance right can sometimes be hard.
Inward Outward Forward
Dan discusses three phases that we might want to go through when we deal with regret. The first step is going inward with self-compassion while processing the regret. The second step is about sharing it with a few people around us. The third step is about processing the lesson from that episode and moving forward with greater conviction.
TAGS
RegretRegrets and Transitions
Dan speaks about the role of regret especially around transitions. He refers to the Japanese art form of Kintsugi which is about embracing the negatives and bringing beauty because of them and not in spite of them. He also refers to the work of Herminia Ibarra who speaks about acting your way into a new way of thinking.
Rifts and Drifts
Dan speaks about two types of Connection regrets – rifts (an event happens and people separate) and drifts (where people move away from each other slowly). He speaks about having a bias for action when it comes to these kinds of regrets as over the long term people regret omissions much more than commissions.
Triggers and Dopamine Hits
Alisa speaks about how she gets every Founder to reflect on 4 things – Strengths, Development Areas, Triggers and Dopamine Hits. She goes on to expand on the notion of Triggers and Dopamine Hits and the implication of this on Leadership.
Giving away your Legos
Alisa speaks about the phenomenon where the Founder, as the company scales up, has to give away some part of the job that he or she really really enjoyed. As the company scales up the Founder often needs to get involved with the building of the company and not really the specific activity or function that really brought him or her energy. And that can be a non-trivial transition.
Policing your passion
Alisa speaks speaks about how with certain Founders, their passion can lead to them turning into a “bully” when they lead teams. Their internal drive and energy can spill over into the team and that can have negative consequences for the organization
Imposter syndrome as a founder
Alisa speaks about how lonely it is to be a Founder and to manage multiple expectations across a range of stakeholders and when you couple that with the fact that they are often operating in areas where they don’t necessarily have deep expertise, it can be an unnerving experience.
Stress and Depression
Alisa speaks about some of the mental health challenges of Entrepreneurship. She says that stress is the child of a start up and depression is the child of stress. She says that Founders are depressed 30% more than their counterparts. She shares some suggestions on how Founders can combat this.
Economics of praise
Alisa speaks about how authentic praise is such an unused tool in Leadership. She speaks about how the team sometimes can start spinning wheels in their head about their performance and their standing if they don’t get adequate good quality feedback.
Handling Leadership transitions
Alisa speaks about how Entrepreneurs need to be thoughtful about assimilating new leaders and equip the incoming leaders with adequate context for them to succeed. She also goes on to speak about how Entrepreneurs need to re-onboard themselves as the context changes.
Co-founder dynamics
Alisa speaks about some of the elements that Founders overlook when they look for Co-Founders. She also speaks about some of the conflicts that ensue between Co-Founders as the journey carries on.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipGoal setting - a Goldilocks balance
Ayelet speaks about the four steps involved in Goal setting and what it takes in getting the right balance between inspiration and action orientation of the goal. She also goes on to speak about the roles of approach goals (going towards something) and avoidance goals (moving away from something) and how we can work with the two as we move forward.
Goals and the long game
Ayelet speaks about how we should think about Goals for the long term. They need to be enough of a stretch but at the same time, they shouldn’t lead us to satisfice or burn out once we get there.
Parenting and Psychological reactance
Ayelet speaks about the notion of Psychological reactance – the tendency to “not do” what you are told to do. She speaks specifically about how this shows up in the context of parenting and what we can do to avoid it.
Choices post financial independence
Ayelet speaks about how having clear goals can show us the path but our ability to stick to the path is determined by our intrinsic motivation in walking that journey and the joy we experience in it.
Connecting with our future self
We normally think of empathy when we think of the way we connect with others. Ayelet speaks about how we could build a deeper connect with our future selves and how that can act as an inspiration for us to make meaningful choices in the present. She speaks about the discount rate we apply on the future and how that can lead to us either over-indexing on the future or ignoring it depending on what we do.
Glass half full or half empty
Ayelet speaks about how we should think about “glass half full or empty” when it comes to motivating ourselves or others around us. Do we look at the ground we have traversed or the distance ahead? She speaks about the nuance involved here and when each of the approaches might make sense for us to motivate ourselves or others around us.
Motivating ourselves during the long middle
Ayelet speaks about the fact that we often have celebrations at the beginning of a journey and at the end of the journey and it is the long messy middle during which we often struggle to find the motivation to keep marching forward. She shares some insights on how we can overcome this long middle.
Mining the silent graveyard
Ayelet speaks about how there is much more information in failures and in us mining the graveyards of failure than trying to overanalyze the factors behind success. Her assertion is that there is greater heterogeneity in failure that leads to richer information that could be helpful than the relative homogeneity of successes. She also goes on to speak about how we think about sharing positive and negative feedback with people.
Identity and Optimizing vs Satisficing
Ayelet speaks about the link between our approach to optimizing or satisficing in a certain domain and our identity. She goes on to say that our identity often helps us prioritize across different choices and the extent to which we push ourselves in a certain domain.
Marie Curie and power of joint goals
Ayelet speaks about the case of Marie Curie. She wins the Nobel Prize in 1903 with her husband Pierre Curie for discovering Radioactivity. (She wins another Nobel Prize in 1911 for isolating pure Radium). Their eldest daughter, Irene Curie, won the Nobel Prize with her husband Frederic Joliot Curie. They were the second couple to win the Nobel Prize together, the first one being Marie and Pierre. Ayelet speaks about the power of joint goals using this as a reference case in point.
TAGS
Driving changeElevator problem and reframing
Thomas speaks about the context behind the fact that we have mirrors in elevators and speaks about the criticality of not taking problems too literally. He speaks about how our default wiring can sometimes lead us to frame problems in a certain way and how it can be limiting.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Myth of the false binary
Thomas speaks about the myth of the False Binary and how that can lead us to choosing from a limited set of options. It is a very powerful concept which can have a profound implication on how we make choices especially during key phases of transitions.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Framing existential questions
Thomas speaks about the challenges in framing questions that are specific to our journeys. Philosopher Rene Descartes asked the question – Who am I? Is that the right question? Or is it something else? “What the Heck do I do with my life” is the title of a recent book by Ravi Venkatesan (who has also been on the podcast). Thomas sheds some light on how we can frame some of the fundamental questions we ask around our lives.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
TAGS
Self awarenessPresented vs Open-ended problems
Thomas speaks about presented problems versus open-ended problems. He says that there are three types of open-ended problems, something around a pain point, something around a nebulous goal or a solution someone fell in love with. We speak about how we approach some of these tough open-ended problems as we navigate through life.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Focusing on the underlying
Thomas says that designers distinguish between features and benefits, negotiators distinguish between positions and interests and policy experts between outputs and outcomes. He expands on the nuance here around focusing on the underlying and not getting swept away by surface level considerations.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Teaching Reframing to kids
Thomas speaks about how we can teach reframing to kids, something that we don’t explicitly discuss with children. He speaks about the fact that children, often, are better at this than we adults think they are.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Eliciting authentic responses
Thomas speaks about what we could do in the way we frame the questions so that we can elicit candid responses from the other side.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
TAGS
CuriosityLabeling emotions
Thomas speaks about the criticality of labelling emotions that the other person is experiencing and that could be an opportunity to get to a better place.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Problem framing and Coaching
Thomas speaks about the power of problem framing in the context of Coaching. The way we frame a problem can have a profound implication on the path we undertake.
More from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
TAGS
CoachingListening to stories as a child
Raghu reflects on his childhood and how his grandfather would read the Mahabharata or the Ramayana and also use those stories as an opportunity to share a self-reflective story about their life. He speaks about how this approach might have influenced his style of interacting with people and his teaching approach.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Key choices in the journey
Raghu speaks about some of his choices post his undergraduate degree from IIT Madras. He speaks about how he was influenced by the times he was in and the people he came in touch with (Student Revolutions around the world, Meeting Dharampal etc). He goes on to talk about how Dharampal urged him and some of his friends to spend a decade going deep in a subject before moving on to make a difference.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Being Dharmic
Raghu speaks about the notion of being Dharmic and how it can be simply defined using three filters – 1) How is it enlivening you? 2) How is it enlivening the person you are interacting with? 3) How is it enlivening the wider context you are in? He goes on to speak about how he has discovered his Dharma in his journey.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
TAGS
Social ImpactFive Pandava archetypes
Raghu speaks about the distinction between Archetypes and Stereotypes when it comes to relating to some of the historical characters like the Pandavas. He goes on to talk about the defining characteristics of each of the Pandavas and how each one of us might end up having some elements of each of these in us.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Counterpoints to each archetypes
Raghu goes into depth about how for every Pandava Archetype, there is a Counterpoint on the Kaurava side who has similar set of skills but the difference is the orientation (dharmic vs adharmic). He also goes on to speak about how each of the Pandava archetypes has a shadow side that they need to get in touch with to be effective as a Leader (as a King in those days or as a CEO today).
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Resolving Dharmasankatas
Raghu speaks about the notion of resolving Dharmasankatas – the double bind situations where there are no easy answers. He speaks about how Indian leadership (going back to King Vikramaditya) has had an emphasis of resolving Dharmasankatas. He goes on to speak about the Leadership traits that help in resolving these tricky situations.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
TAGS
JudgmentKarna and Krishna - the conversation that never happened
Raghu makes an interesting observation. He says that while Bhagwad Gita was a discussion between Krishna and Arjuna on the various dilemmas the latter was facing, it could have well been a conversation between Krishna and Karna. He says that Karna was so consumed by his hurt that he never even saw the dilemma and that was a missed opportunity. He connects this to several people and communities that might be going through a similar phenomenon.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Accessing Equanimity
Raghu expands on the notion of Shantham and calls it the state of quiet high potential but something that is completely silent. He likens it to some one like a Roger Federer who is in “flow”. He calls it the state where one is fully alert and fully alive and open to all possibilities. He also speaks about how busy leaders can try and access that space of Shantham.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
TAGS
MindfulnessEvolving Leadership Paradigms
Raghu speaks about the evolving paradigm of leadership and how that is likely to look like a combination of Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Yudhishthira and Bheema might possibly be not as relevant as they were in a more predictable past.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Doing versus Being
Raghu speaks about the distinction between DOING and BEING. He speaks about BEING as a regenerative process, something that heals and nurtures. He also speaks about the need for coherence between what we are doing and who we are being at various points in time and not resolving this is often at the root of what people often describe as a mid-life crisis.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Creating the emotional infrastructure
Raghu speaks about the Nakula archetype that often creates the emotional infrastructure in an organization. He speaks about how such leaders might have to flex and demonstrate some of their other elements to build trust when they move to a new context. He also speaks about the link between having this emotional infrastructure and agility that a company might need to respond to sharp changes in the reality of the world.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Balam and Shakti - External and Internal forces
Raghu spells out the distinction between Shakti (internal forces) and Balam (external forces). He expands on each and discusses them. He speaks about three types of Balam – Asana Balam (Position, Status, Resources), Yoga Balam (Political capability, Friends, Enemies), Kala Balam (Timing, Market readiness). He expands on the three types of Shakti – Icha shakti (conviction, intent), Gnana shakti (intelligence, competencies), Kriya shakti (taking action). He speaks about the criticality of aligning Shakti and Balam as we go through life.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
TAGS
Self AwarenessJourney as an action researcher
Raghu speaks about his journey on three fronts as an action researcher – Understanding how Systems work, Study of Yoga in depth with Krishnamachari, Process work with Prof Pulin Garg. He also speaks about how he has experimented and engaged with institutions like the Murugappa Group, TCS and Core Healthcare. He speaks about how he has used some of these organizations as a laboratory to try and develop some leadership development and culture building approaches that have been tried and tested.
More from Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Leaders that build to last
Tarun speaks about the traits that separate the entrepreneurs that Build to Last from the rest. He calls out three elements. 1) Audacity of intent 2) Humility of demeanour 3) Steadfastness of Purpose.
Playing the long game
Tarun speaks about what keeps the entrepreneurs going over the long term. He speaks about how family businesses have a fabric and provide a safety net that ensures that businesses endure over the long run.
TAGS
EntrepreneurshipPassing the Baton
Tarun speaks about how family businesses think about the next generation coming into the family business. He speaks about how sometimes the next-gen wants to pursue a different path and how they walk the tight rope of ensuring continuity versus tuning into the passions of the next generation.
Driving self-discovery with Next-gen
Tarun speaks about how enduring families think of dealing with the question of the next generation entering the business. He speaks about how the more evolved families give the next generation an opportunity to actualize their potential and go on a process of self-discovery.
Professional CEOs in Family Businesses
Tarun speaks about how Entrepreneurs think about the Principal Agency problem when it comes to recruiting CEOs. Entrepreneurs are often playing the “infinite game” with the enterprise while the leaders they hire are often there for a stint. He speaks about the distinction between how developed markets like the US deal with it versus how Indian companies often deal with it.
Compassionate Capitalism
Tarun speaks about how Family businesses in emerging economies proactively fill in to take care of elements of Public Good that are not taken care of by the state.
Growing thoughtfully
Tarun speaks about how companies that have a self-imposed constraint (focusing on values, lower corruption or something similar) are likely to grow at a slower pace than a company that is focusing on growth in an unrestrained manner.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Tarun expands on what the term Play to Potential means to him. He speaks about how given the human condition only about 7/8th of our potential is being tapped. He speaks about the significant unlock if this could be enabled
TAGS
In SummaryLeaving the past behind
Manjari speaks about the challenges she experiences in her first marriage and how she had the courage to walk out of the relationship and rebuild her life and her career. She recounts the role of her parents and some of her friends in this phase of life.
Raising an independent girl child
Manjari speaks about what it takes to raise an independent girl child. We specifically touch upon the notion of ensuring that the girl makes choices that make her financially independent which in turn gives her agency.
The art of investigation
Manjari speaks about the art of investigation and interrogation. She first speaks about how the approach of investigation is often very different depending on the context of the crime. She goes on to speak about the role of empathy while conducting an investigation.
Dealing with grey
Manjari speaks about some of the situations at work where she had to balance the multiple egos and agendas and find an approach that is tactful. She also goes on to talk about her black and white approach to situations and how she cuts through the clutter.
Staying positive
Manjari speaks about how she manages to stay positive despite the nature of her profession that brings her in touch with a lot of human suffering. She also speaks about how she has managed to compartmentalize the various elements of her life.
TAGS
AuthenticityManaging dual careers
Manjari speaks about how she and her husband (also a batchmate from National Police Academy) juggled their careers and personal lives given the pulls and pressures at various points in time.
Taking charge in a new role
Manjari speaks about some of her insights around how she would settle into a new role. She specifically speaks about how her approach changes depending on the context in that situation.
Driving human transformation
In my experience of having worked with leaders, I have realized that outcomes often depend on the mindset of the coachee than the skill-set of the coach.
Finding your style as a woman
Manjari speaks about how she embraced her femininity as a Police Officer rather than trying to develop a cold exterior to fit into a world filled with men in the IPS.
Going 'inside' as a child
Ethan speaks about the role of his father in shaping his interests. He speaks about his father’s interest in the Bhagavad Gita and other elements of Easter Philosophy and how he would encourage Ethan to go inside to find the kernel of truth if something bad happens. He speaks about how some of that might have percolated down to him and his career choices.
Defining Chatter
Ethan defines the term Chatter. He uses Chatter as a term to capture the breadth of the different experiences all of which the common feature is looping over the negative thoughts, going down the rabbit hole, sucked into a vortex of negativity that won’t let you free.
TAGS
Self awarenessRafael Nadal and Rituals
Ethan speaks about the role of rituals in helping us manage chatter. He goes on to speak about how Champions like Rafael Nadal take the help of rituals in managing their mind when they play tennis at the highest level. He also speaks about the role of rituals in coping with transitions.
Inner voice vs Inner chatter
Ethan speaks about the line between having negative thoughts (which can help us move forward) and Negative Chatter that get us into an unproductive never-ending loop that can prevent us from making progress.
Time travel, Distancing and Awe
Ethan speaks about some of the strategies that he uses to manage Chatter. He speaks about effectively undertaking time travel and how we can ensure that while we undertake time travel, we don’t get stuck in the time machine. He also refers to the benefits of Nature in inducing Awe and the benefit of Distance self-talk.
TAGS
MindfulnessInner voice - Zooming feature of our minds
Ethan suggests that our Mind is often functions like a lens when it looks at a situation while our Inner Voice functions like a Zoom button. We have a choice of whether we want to stay Zoomed In our Out when we deal with a situation.
Journaling and Chatter
Ethan speaks about how Journaling, more specifically, Expressive Writing can act as a distancing mechanism, provide closure and act as a meaning making mechanism to some of the Chatter we experience in our lives.
TAGS
JournalingAllowing Venting Vs Coaching
Ethan speaks about how we could be effective in helping people deal with Chatter. He suggests that while we need to play a role of empathizing and listening to allow the person to vent, we also need to consider providing some coaching or widening of their perspective so that they could move forward. He speaks about the few people that he calls Chatter Advisors that he turns to where he gets a healthy balance of listening and Sounding Board support when he experiences Chatter. He speaks about some of the characteristics that leads them to be on his Speed Dial.
Markers of an "exceptional" relationship
David shares 6 markers of what he calls as “Exceptional Relationship”. 1) You can be more fully yourself and so can the other person. 2) Both of you are willing to be vulnerable 3) You trust that self-disclosures will not be used against you 4) You can be honest with each other 5) You deal with conflict productively 6) Both of you are committed to each other’s growth and development.
Healthy feedback - not crossing the net
David speaks about how there are three realities in any conversation between A and B. 1) A’s intent 2) A’s behaviour 3) Impact of A’s behaviour on B. A can see 1 and 2 and B can see 2 and 3. The challenge often happens when A makes up a story about 3 or B makes up a story about 1. David likens this to how we play tennis and urges us to stay on the same side of the net (2 being the metaphorical net in this case).
Idea to behavioural change
David speaks about why it is often so hard for us to stay on the same side of the net. He links that to our tendency to go for the simple plausible story and build misplaced conviction around it.
Building an emotional vocabulary
David speaks about how critical it is for us to tune into what we are feeling at various points in the day. Not just for the surges in emotions but the mild emotions that are often humming in us through our day that we may not be present to.
Deepening the trust in a relationship
David speaks about how he starts with a trusting posture in a relationship and how that could help us build a positive spiral of mutual trust and enhanced disclosure in a relationship. He also speaks about the nuance in the language he uses when he raises issues if there are any hiccups along the way.
TAGS
CuriosityNuances in giving good feedback
David speaks about the limitations of the feedback sandwich where the detailed negative feedback is often sandwiched between cursory positive feedback. He speaks about a better way of delivering direct feedback with empathy.
Leaning into the messiness to move forward
David speaks about how we can quick get embroiled in a conflict situation and we need to wade past the swamp to move to a better place. Running away from it rarely yields meaningful outcomes.
TAGS
Managing conflictRepair and restoration of relationships
David speaks about how at least one of the individuals needs to take responsibility to drive the repair and restoration and rejuvenation of the relationship.
Personality vs Behaviour - Understanding change
David speaks about personality (which is often hard-wired) and behaviour (often in the realm of growth and change). He speaks about how we cannot use our personality as an excuse for our behaviour.
TAGS
Driving ChangeHelping kids learn interpersonal skills
David speaks about the few things we need to bear in mind as we help build the Interpersonal muscle with the kids. He underscores a couple of themes. Firstly, he suggests that we should avoid labeling a child. Instead, he suggests that we should provide feedback on a certain element of behavior. Secondly, he urges us to legitimize the feeling of a child rather than brushing it aside with a positive pep talk.
Displaying the right kind of vulnerability
David speaks about how it is important to signal the right kind of vulnerability when we work with others. He makes the distinction between vulnerability that could get people to question our competence versus vulnerability that shows others that we are human.
TAGS
AuthenticityAutonomy vs Power
Jeffrey speaks about how he came around to studying Power. He also goes on to speak about the kinds of career choices he has made and what he has said No to over time as his Power increased over time.
Power and Value Neutrality
Jeffrey speaks about how nuclear energy can be a boon if used to generate electricity but could be a bane if it is used to make a bomb that kills people. Jeffrey goes on to say that context determines if something is good or bad and says that Power works in a similar fashion.
Implication of being judgmental
Jeffrey speaks about how being judgmental comes in the way of learning and can drive people away from us. He speaks about how Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and Elon Musk wielded power but as a result had a lot of attrition around them. He also speaks about how we may not have the right to tell somebody else what they ought to do but we possibly have a right or an obligation to tell others how they can get better at doing something.
Projecting Power vs Humility
Jeffrey speaks about how the opposite of humility might be something like Narcissism. He also speaks about Jim Collins work around Level 5 Leadership where he speaks about combining Modesty with Fierce Determination. Jeffrey says that some of these leaders become modest after they become leaders but not on the way to the top.
Higher Power and Poorer Signals
Jeffrey speaks about how, when people become more powerful, they stop getting meaningful feedback given the power dynamic. He also speaks about how we all need to get out of own way by reminding ourselves behind the “Why” behind accumulating greater Power.
Vulnerability and Power
Jeffrey speaks about how one needs to be careful about showing vulnerability while climbing the Corporate Ladder.
True to which Self?
Jeffrey speaks about being true to oneself as a limiting construct. He says that by being true to some version of self in the past, we might be limiting our possibilities.
Warmth Vs Competence
Jeffrey speaks about how we need to be careful about how we signal our warmth vs how we project our competence especially in situations where people are meeting you for the first time.
IKEA effect and Escalation of Commitment
Jeffrey speaks about how one could think about engaging people and creating a certain stickiness to the commitment they make as a result. He uses the example of Jon Levy and the concept of Influencer Dinners that he organizes.
TAGS
InfluencingHUL to McKinsey to Transformation Work
Michiel speaks about the arc of his journey and how he shifted trajectories over time and over time his interests and passions shifted from Sales, Marketing and General Management at Unilever to driving Personal Transformation at McKinsey and beyond.
Pausing to Reinvent
Michiel speaks about how he takes various retreats (3 days, 10 days, 6 months etc) at various points in time and how that often creates the space for new things to emerge.
Learning Zone vs Protective Zone
Michiel speaks about how our behaviour comes in the way of our learning when the stakes become higher. He speaks about the link between how team members listen and the link with learning.
Accessing your Skylight
Michiel speaks about how leaders can access their skylight and what rituals they can build before, during and after an event.
TAGS
MindfulnessLadder of Self-Awareness
Michiel speaks about the different levels of Self-Awareness and speaks about how we can slowly move up the ladder. 1) Bliss or Ignorance 2) Delayed Awareness. 3) Perceptive 4) Resilient 5) Adaptive. He speaks about the timing of when things come to our attention and our ability to regulate ourselves.
TAGS
Self awarenessThe infiniteness of Purpose
Michiel speaks about how Ambition can be a finite resource which could empty at some point in time but Purpose can be a perennially replenishing driving force if we tune into it.
Criticality of recovery
Michiel speaks about the criticality of rest and recovery for a leader to be effective. He speaks about how the recovery period could actually spark some creativity and new possibilities.
Collective Icebergs and Team Dominos
Michiel speaks about how in a team, we can have a chain reaction where people end up triggering each other and that could really be counter-productive. He speaks about how teams can collectively access “mini – balcony moments” to deal with these situations.
TAGS
TeamworkSigns of early potential
Chris speaks about how people were talking about Roger’s potential when he was just 13 or 14. He speaks about how Regis Brunet saw Roger in action in Florida and then immediately ran to the payphone to get hold of Roger’s parents back in Switzerland.
TAGS
Spotting PotentialParenting influences on Roger
Chris discusses Robert and Lynette’s parenting style on Roger. Not putting the child on a pedestal given his precocity, having goals to de-risk the path, handing out consequences when the child crosses the line and so on. He speaks about how they emphasized as much on raising a good human being as being committed to his growth as a tennis player.
Roger's curiosity and empathy
Chris speaks about Roger’s curiosity and empathy when he met somebody. He speaks about how he would always be curious about where the other person was coming from before getting into tactical matters of business.
TAGS
CuriosityManaging down-time between rallies
Chris speaks about the fact that players often have 60-70% of match-time when they are not playing a point where they have to channel their focus and attention. He speaks about how Roger managed these periods of time.
TAGS
MindfulnessSecret to Roger's longevity
Chris speaks about Roger’s ability to context switch instantaneously from one situation to another. He also speaks about how Roger decided to declutter his plate by choosing to play fewer tournaments when he knew that he could get the ATP points he needed by doing will in lesser number of tournaments.
How Roger picked his Coaches
Chris speaks about how Roger thought about his Coaches at various points in time and how he moved from Peter Carter to Peter Lundgren to Tony Roche to Paul Annacone to Stefan Edberg to Ivan Lubicic while having Severin Luthi as a constant in his team. He speaks about his judgment on some of these matters over his career.
Bouncing back from a rough patch
Chris speaks about how Roger came back from different phases of his career when he was having a rough patch. He speaks about how, at each of those inflection points, his career could have taken a nosedive.
TAGS
ResilienceRoger the businessman
Chris discusses how Roger earned about USD 125 Million in prize money but more than USD 1 Billion in earnings. He says that this multiple is quite rare in Sporting elite circles. Chris speaks about some of Roger’s traits as a businessman.
TAGS
Personal BrandIn Summary – Playing to Potential
Chris speaks about his take on the term – Play to Potential. He also says that whether somebody is playing to his or her potential is a matter of perspective and opinion. He says that Gunter Bresnik (a reputed coach from Austria) thinks that Roger should have won many more Grand Slams and he possibly didn’t quite play to his full potential.
TAGS
In SummarySowing the seeds for the next innings
Chris speaks about how Roger thought about success at various points in time but at the same time was sowing the seeds for his next innings of his life (e.g., the connect with Bill Gates in the context of his Foundation).
Growing out of father's shadows
Stephen speaks about how he initially focused on the business side of things while his father was the ‘larger than life’ thought leader. He speaks about how, over time, his insights around the high cost of low trust have emerged and how he has found his voice a thought leader over time.
Decoding Trust and Inspire
Stephen speaks about how Command and Control has evolved from being authoritarian in the Industrial age to becoming what he calls “Enlightened Command and Control” where the underlying paradigm is still about treating people as assets. He brings out the nuances of Trust and Inspire and how the paradigm is very different from enlightened command and control.
TAGS
Building trustTrusting despite scarcity
Stephen speaks about how a lot of us grow up in the context of scarcity in our early years but as we grow to leadership levels, we need to embrace a very different paradigm of abundance to lead by trusting and inspiring. He speaks about how we might have scarcity of resources but we all have access to an abundance of possibilities.
Shifting the paradigm through beliefs
Stephen speaks about five underlying beliefs that are at the heart of a Trust and Inspire approach. 1) People have greatness inside of them 2) People are whole in body, heart, mind and spirit 3) There is enough for everyone (abundance) 4) Leadership is about responsibility, not rights (stewardship) 5) My job as a leader is to go first
TAGS
Spotting PotentialSpotting and unlocking Potential
Stephen speaks about how we can tune into micro-moments where we get a glimpse of what somebody might be capable of. He says that if we don’t look for it, we will never find it. He goes on to talk about the four steps involved in unlocking the potential of the person - See, Communicate, Develop, Unleash.
Trust and Inspire at scale
Stephen speaks about why Fast is Slow while Slow is Fast when it comes to matters of trust. He speaks about the upfront investment that is often needed in running Trust and Inspire in a large organization. But he goes on to make the distinction between efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to these matters.
TAGS
Building TrustThe Trust Equation
Stephen speaks about the Trust equation that is often attributed to Charles Green and David Maister. He reconciles his model around Trust with the various variables in the Trust Equation (Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy and Self Orientation). He also goes on to make the distinction between being Trustworthy and Extending Trust in a relationship.
Guardrails while extending trust
Stephen speaks about some elements to look out for before extending trust to somebody. He speaks about three things in this context 1) Job to be done 2) Risks and stakes involved 3) Credibility of the person on the other side
T&I in paradigm, C&C in the moment
Stephen speaks about how we can lead from a paradigm of ‘Trust and Inspire’ but choose to go ‘Command and Control’ in the moment depending on the context in front of us. He goes on to speak about how the people around us would experience the same action very differently depending on the paradigm we come from.
The MOVE framework
Carol and David speak about their M.O.V.E framework; M – Mindful, O – Options Generating, V – Validating the Vantage Point, E – Engage and effect change. The key, they say, borrowing from Viktor Frankl, is to create the space between stimulus and response.
3 Dimensions of Mindful Alertness
Carol and David speak about 3 different dimensions of Mindfulness that leaders need in every context. They suggest that we are attuned to what is going on around us, inside us, and with others, and respond in an agile and an appropriate manner.
Waypower over Willpower
Carol and David speak about how we can adopt multiple approaches to a situation. They borrow from the notion of fight, flight, fright or befriend and talk about the different approaches leaders could take to a situation – Lean in, Lean back, Don’t lean at all and Lean with.
Validating the vantage point
Carol and David speak about Validating the vantage point that a leader has. They speak about the various elements of a vantage point – resolution, level of detail , biases, near term vs long term and more.
Vantage point during transitions
Carol and David speak about how leaders who inherit a new context (external candidates or even internally promoted individuals) need to tune into the vantage point based on various priorities and preferences people in the ecosystem (within the company or outside) might have.
Engage and effect change
Carol and David speak about how leaders can engage and effect change once they have been mindful across 3 dimensions, have generated adequate options and have validated the vantage point. This where the rubber hits the road. They speak about how leaders can get the intent across in these situations.
TAGS
CommunicationMOVE in a Coaching Context
Carol and David speak about how one could apply the MOVE framework in the context of Coaching. Carol speaks about how sometimes we can get sucked into the energy of the client and sometimes that can be counter-productive. David speaks about how as a Coach, he tries to generate many options to a certain situation and iterate their way forward.
TAGS
CoachingAbhijit Bhaduri
My seventh guest at the Play to Potential Podcast is Abhijit Bhaduri. Abhijit is an Author, Columnist, Keynote speaker and a Digital Transformation coach to Leaders and Organizations. Abhijit writes regularly for Indian and International publications including The Wall Street Journal. Abhijit is the author of The Digital Tsunami (Published by Rupa Publications India in Oct 2016), where he talks about how Leaders and Organisations should reinvent themselves given the digital wave that is sweeping everything around us. He is one of the top HR influencers in Social Media according to SHRM, India.
Till recently, Abhijit Bhaduri was the Chief Learning Officer for the Wipro group. Prior to this he has held HR leadership roles at Microsoft, Pepsi, Colgate and Tata Steel and worked in India, South East Asia and US. He is on the Advisory Board of the prestigious program for Chief Learning Officers that is run by the University of Pennsylvania.
Abhijit is passionate about Theatre and has acted in plays and in a movie Apna Asmaan. He is an amateur cartoonist and uses sketches to capture key learnings across various fields. He has been blogging for about 10+ years. For a deeper insight into various other facets of Abhijit Bhaduri, please visit www.abhijitbhaduri.com
This conversation was published around March 2017.
Alan Eagle
Alisa Cohn
Ambi Parameswaran
Amish Tripathi
Amish Tripathi (born 18 October 1974), is an Indian author, known for his novels The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras, Scion of Ikshvaku and Sita: Warrior of Mithila (launched on May 29 2017). The first three books collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy and the next two are the first two of the Ram Chandra Series.The Shiva Trilogy was the fastest selling book series in Indian publishing history and the Scion of Ikshvaku was the fastest selling book of 2015. All four books have sold over 3.5 million copies in the Indian subcontinent since 2010, with gross retail sales of Rs. 100 crores. Forbes India has ranked Amish among the top 100 celebrities in India four times in a row in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Amish was also selected as an Eisenhower Fellow, an exclusive programme for outstanding leaders from around the world.
After a Management degree from IIM Kolkata, Amish spent his initial several years in the Financial Services world. In this conversation, he talks about how he transitioned to the world of writing, his challenges in the early years of being a writer, how he had to innovate to stand out from the clutter and more.
This conversation was published around December 2016.
Amit Chandra
Amit Chandra heads Bain Capital in India and is a Managing Director in the Financial and Business Services Vertical and a member of the Asia Pacific Private Equity team and a part of its leadership group. Before joining Bain Capital Private Equity, he spent most of his professional career at DSP Merrill Lynch, a leading Investment Bank in India. He retired from DSP Merrill Lynch in 2007 as a Board Member & Managing Director.
Amit is also a committed Philanthropist. He and his wife Archana (CEO - Jai Vakeel Foundation and Research Centre) aim to donate 90% of their wealth to social causes. He has moved to a part-time model in Bain Capital where he devotes 50% of his time to Bain Capital and the remaining 50% to Social Impact and related topics.
In our conversation, Amit spoke about his formative years and his early career choices including the decision to come back to India after an MBA in the US and join Investment Banking. He spoke at length about how he was able to have a successful career in Investment Banking despite his style running counter to the prevalent “wining and dining” culture in Banking. He spoke about how he thought about the transition from Banking to Private Equity and related that to his life goals and how they had evolved over time. He spoke about how he has cultivated an apprenticeship culture at Bain Capital. Finally, he spent talking about how he has been strategic about spending his time and money towards social impact related topics.
Published in April 2018.
Amy Edmondson
Anu Madgavkar
Arun Maira
Arun Maira is a former member of the Planning Commission of India and former Chairman of BCG India. He had a distinguished career in Tata Motors (then called TELCO) and rose to be on the Board of the company. He then had to relocate to the US due to a personal situation and had to reinvent himself at 45. He has written several books, the most recent one being “Listening for well-being: Conversations with people not like us”.
In our conversation, we discuss some of his key transitions post Tata Motors to the world of Advisory Services. We talk about how he went about making some of those choices and settled into the new context. We also deep-dive into his book on Listening and discuss its impact on various domains. We talk about the art of asking deeper questions, how we could steer through listening, how we can have tough conversations and give hard feedback by listening, the trade-off between richness and reach of conversations and more.
Published in September 2018.
Ashish Dhawan
Ashish Dhawan is the Founder and Chairman of Central Square Foundation (CSF) and Ashoka University. He worked for twenty years in the investment management business and ran one of India’s leading private equity funds, ChrysCapital. In June 2012, he left his full time role at ChrysCapital to focus on philanthropic work in education. Ashish is an MBA with distinction from Harvard University and a dual bachelor’s (BS/BA) holder with Magna Cum Laude honors from Yale University. Central Square Foundation works on system reform in school education in India. The foundation has 60 team members who work on grant making, research, policy reform and policy implementation. Ashoka University is a new liberal arts institution that aspire to transform higher education in India. In our conversation, we spoke about how Ashish set markers for himself at 30 (to become an entrepreneur) and 45 (to move towards social impact) and has made choices in line with those markers. We also speak about the various pathways he considered when he chose to move on from ChrysCapital to the Social Impact world. He also shares about the challenges involved in the Social Sector and how individuals transitioning to this sector should listen and understand the nuances before trying to jump into action. Published in Nov 2020.
Ashley Whillans
Dr. Ashley Whillans is the Volpert Family Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School. Professor Whillans earned her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Her research seeks to understand the associations between time, money, and subjective wellbeing. She is particularly interested in understanding how individual, organizational and societal factors like gender, workplace policies, and income inequality predict how people value and spend time and money, with possible implications for well-being.
Published in December 2020
Atul Kasbekar
Atul Kasbekar is an award winning photographer (first Indian to win the prestigious International Food and Beverage Creative Excellence awards 2005, held in London for his work on Kingfisher Calendar), Film producer (His film Neerja won the National Award for the Best Feature Film in Hindi in 2017) and works with the who’s who of the Corporate World and Bollywood through Bling! Entertainment Solutions (a Celebrity Management Company) and Corporate Image (a Specialist Imaging Service for top management and spokespersons within an organization).
Atul studied at Campion School, Mumbai and Jai Hind College (University of Mumbai) and then joined UDCT (now Institute of Chemical Technology – one of the leading Chemical Engg colleges in the country). But against all odds and advice, he dropped out of UDCT and backed himself to pursue a course in photography in Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. He has subsequently come back to India and has built a distinguished career in Photography, Celebrity Management, Film Production and more.
In our conversation we spoke about the key transition from engineering to photography, the role of resilience in changing trajectories and his reflections on the journey post that. We also spoke about how he has managed to stay relevant and has been able to re-invent himself in new areas as the area of photography has transformed given the onslaught of the digital revolution.
This conversation was published in June 2017.
Atul Khatri
Atul Khatri is one of the top Stand up comedians in the country. In his previous avatar, he used to run a successful IT Business with his brother for several years. When he got tired of the business routine, he tried his hand at DJing and Bar-tending before trying his hand at comedy in Feb 2012 as part of his new year resolution in 2012. 7 years later, he had a Netflix special featuring 47 comedians from 13 countries around the world.
We speak about his journey, mid-life reflections and how he rode two horses (IT Business and Stand up comedy) for a period of time before he took the call to do Stand-up full time. He also speaks about how he had to balance passion and pragmatism as he transitioned from the world of Business to the world of Stand-up.
We also spent time talking about his response to COVID-19. He had a series of shows lined up in US and Canada from 13 March to 13 April. He speaks about how he was in Canada on 10 March and the world started falling victim to Corona and started shutting its borders. He speaks about how he had to adapt to the context to survive and thrive in these challenging times. Something, all of us could learn from.
Published in August 2020.
Avnish Bajaj
Avnish Bajaj is the co-founder and Managing Director at Matrix Partners – a Venture Investing firm, a firm that he set up around 11 years back. He did this at the back of a successful exit from Baazee.com when he sold it to eBay for around USD 55 Million. In his own words, he has been a serial brand collector before he took the plunge and started eBay. He is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Harvard Business School, Apple Computers, McKinsey & Co. and Goldman Sachs.
In our conversation, we spoke about the various transition points in his journey till date and discuss how he thought about some of those forks in the road. He talks about what his views on what it takes to succeed as a Venture Investor. We also talk about his views on entrepreneurship given his experiences as an investor and an entrepreneur in his previous innings.
This conversation was published around May 2017.
Ayelet Fishbach
Ayse Birsel
Baijayant Jay Panda
Baijayant Jay Panda is currently serving in his 4th term in the Parliament of India. He was elected to his second term (2014-2019) in the Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency, Odisha. He graduated from the Michigan Technological University and, with a background in Engineering and Management, worked in the world of Business before joining politics. Jay Panda had helped to form the erstwhile Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) and was its Convener. He has also been associated with the India-USA Forum of Parliamentarians from its founding in 2001 and is currently its Chairman. He was awarded the “Bharat Asmita National Award” for best parliamentary practices by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India in 2008.
In our conversation, Jay spoke about what it takes to build a career in politics and specifically addresses the notion of resilience in a political context. He also talks about how politicians need to think about staying relevant over time in a digital world. He goes on to share his perspectives on how he priorities and marries the short-term and the long-term in the choices he makes. He talks about the notion of influencing and how the world of business could learn from politics on how distinctive leaders take advantage of fleeting windows of opportunity.
This podcast is for information and learning purposes only. All content and opinions expressed in the podcast are that of the guests and are not necessarily the opinions of Deepak Jayaraman or Transition Insight Private Limited (TIPL). Deepak Jayaraman and TIPL do not have any political affiliations or associations of any sort and this conversation is intended to be a non-partisan interaction.
Published in March 2018.
Bill Carr
BJ Fogg
Bombay Jayashri
Bombay Jayashri is one of the leading Carnatic musicians in the country. She is born into a family of musicians with a rich lineage in classical music. She represents the fourth generation of music practitioners in her family. Apart from her contribution to the world of Carnatic music, she has collaborated with artists around the world including Egyptian musician Hisham Abba, Senegalese musician Thione Seck and Finnish composer - Eero Hammeeniemi. Her collaboration with Sir Ang Lee (for the movie - Life of Pi) got her a nomination for The Academy Award.
In the conversation she spoke about how the role of an inspiring guru, her approach to growing as a musician and training for performances. She also sheds light on some of the elements behind team work that play out in a concert when artists from different contexts come on stage. She talks about her experience with Sir Ang Lee and his orientation towards excellence when she recorded the title track for The Life of Pi.
Published in September 2018.
Bruce Feiler
Bruce Feiler is an American writer and television personality. He is the author of 15 books, including Council of Dads, a book that describes how he responded to a diagnosis of a rare cancer by asking a group of men to be present in the lives of his young daughters. His latest work explores the power of life stories. Drawing on interviews with Americans in all 50 states, he offers strategies for coping with life's unsettling times in his new book, Life Is In The Transitions, published in May 2020. Informed by the sifting and coding of life story interviews across America, Feiler examines what gives our lives meaning. Adam Grant called the book, one of "The 20 New Leadership Books for 2020”.
In our conversation, we speak about the notion of anytime life transition, how resilience might be the wrong attribute to have during transitions, the three phases in a transition, the power of stories in navigating transitions and much more. In a world where the rate of transitions we all will go through is increasing by the day, this conversation is a goldmine of insights that could help us make sense of life and move forward with intention.
Published in Feb 2021.
Capt. Raghu Raman
Third guest on the Play to Potential Podcast series is Captain Raghu Raman. Raghu spent eleven years as an officer in the Indian Armed Forces, followed by another eleven years in the corporate sector before joining the Government as CEO of the National Intelligence Grid.
Raghu started his career with the Indian Army. During his stint, he was in active combat in Punjab battling terrorists and in Siachen Glacier facing Pakistani troops. He has served as a UN peacekeeper, as well as been an instructor teaching leadership and strategy to officers at the prestigious School of Armoured Warfare.
After leaving the Indian Army, Raghu joined the Mahindra Group in 1998 and helped set up Mahindra United World College. Over the next ten years he led various companies, including First Choice, Mahindra SSG and finally DLSI, a Mahindra joint venture with British Aerospace before being handpicked to create and head the National Intelligence Grid, Ministry of Home Affairs in the Government of India. After his five year stint as the founding CEO of NATGRID, Raman joined Reliance Industries as Group President, Risk, Security & New Ventures.
Raghu is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a frequent guest faculty in business schools, keynote speaker and columnist on National Security Strategy and Leadership in leading publications. He is also the author of “Everyman’s War” - a book published by Random House.
This conversation was published around January 2017.
Carol & David
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. This quote is attributed to Viktor Emil Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, devoted his life to studying, understanding and promoting “meaning.” Carol Kaufman and David Noble give us practical tools that we can use to make the ‘space’ count.
Carol and David have authored Real-Time Leadership - Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High. In the podcast conversation they expand on the 4 step MOVE framework which lays out the various ways in which leaders can be deliberate in the way they go about playing the role of a leader.
Published in May 2023
Chandramouli Venkatesan
Christopher Clarey
Roger Federer is somebody who needs no introduction. While, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have overtaken him in terms of the overall Grand Slams won, when there is a discussion about the Greatest of All Time (GOAT), all fingers very often still point to Roger. One could attribute that to his fluidity, his charm on and off court, his longevity, his stable family life, and much more.
I had a unique opportunity to engage with Christopher Clarey, a veteran New York Times Correspondent who has been covering Sports at an Elite level for more than 30 years. From Bjorn Borg to Serena Williams. He has recently published the book - The Master: the Brilliant Career of Roger Federer. He gives us a behind the scenes account of Roger’s journey starting from his childhood.
We speak about how Roger handled his mental chatter, how he made choices that made him play a long innings, how he handled stress, the role of his parents in shaping his character, how his skills as a businessman are probably better than his skills on the court. We hope you enjoy the 100th episode.
Published in March 2023.
Dan Cable
Dan Pink
Darleen DeRosa
David Bradford
Deepa Malik
Deepa Malik is a Silver Medalist at Paralympic Games (Rio 2016), an Arjuna Awardee (2012) and a Padma Shree Awardee (2017). She has won 58 National and 18 International medals (and counting) in her sporting career that started at the age of 36. She is paraplegic and was compelled to spend the rest of her life on a wheelchair after choosing to undergo a crucial surgery in 1999. This happened around the same time when her husband was fighting the Kargil War.
In our conversation, we spoke about her formative years in the Armed Forces and how that moulded her attitudes and approach to life. We also spoke about some of the key choices she made at pivotal points through her journey (including the decision to go for a surgery that would offer a high chance of survival but would confine her to the wheel chair). We also spoke about her approach towards excellence and how she has trained and gone onto win all that she has.
Published in August 2018. All facts are relevant and updated at the time of publishing.
Devdutt Pattanaik
Devdutt Pattanaik writes on relevance of mythology in modern times, especially in areas of management, governance and leadership. Trained in medicine, he worked for 15 years in the healthcare and pharma industries before he focussed on his passion full time. He is author of 30 books and 600 columns, with bestsellers such as My Gita, Jaya, Sita, Business Sutra and the 7 Secret Series. He was a speaker at TEDIndia 2009 and spoke on Myths that Mystify, East versus West. His TV shows include Business Sutra on CNBC-TV18 and Devlok on Epic TV. He consults organisations on culture, diversity and leadership and also consults various television channels and filmmakers on storytelling.
In our conversation, Devdutt spoke about how he transitioned from the world of Medicine and Healthcare to the world of mythology. He recounts the teaching methodology of some of his professors in medicine which, he mentions, laid the foundation for him to be curious about the world around him. We spoke about his take on flourishing in the gig economy (I quite didn’t expect the metaphor that he went on to share here). We spent some time talking about his views on transitioning effectively across the various stages of life and what lies behind a successful coach and a healthy coaching relationship. He uses the concept of rana-bhoomi and ranga-bhoomi to explain how leaders should think about focus and perspective and balance the short-term & long-term.
Published in March 2018.
I hope you find the conversation as purposeful as I did. We value your feedback on the podcast. If you have 3 minutes, please visit http://bit.ly/p2pfdback.
Dheeraj Pandey
Dheeraj Pandey is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Nutanix, Inc. (Market Cap of ~USD 3.5 Billion) that had an IPO in September 2016. Nutanix is a cloud computing software company that sells what it calls hyper-converged infrastructure appliances and software-defined storage. He grew up in Patna and is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and UT Austin.
In our conversation, Dheeraj spoke about his early formative years and the rationale behind some of the initial career choices (writing JEE twice, going for a PhD instead of job and subsequently dropping off the PhD programme). He also talks at length about 4As - Antifragility, Authenticity, Ambition and Attention to Detail that are core to him and the character of Nutanix. He also discusses how he has grown as a leader over time and has scaled up as the organisation has grown over time.
This conversation was published in October 2017.
Dorie Clark
Dr. Jennifer Goldman Wetzler
Dr. Pramath Sinha
Dr. Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bangalore. He has taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the academic year 2011-2 he served as the Philippe Roman Professor of History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics.
Guha’s books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods (University of California Press, 1989), and an award-winning social history of cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2002). India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007) was chosen as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, and Outlook, and as a book of the decade in the Times of India, the Times of London, and The Hindu. Gandhi Before India (Knopf, 2014) was chosen as a notable book of the year by the New York Times. His latest book, Gandhi: The years that changed the world (Penguin Allen Lane, 2018) is widely considered as one of the most comprehensive biographies of Mahatma Gandhi. It was shortlisted by The Economist as one of the Books of the Year. Apart from his books, Guha also writes a syndicated column, that appears in six languages in newspapers with a combined readership of some twenty million. Guha’s books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages.
In our conversation, we first spoke about Dr Guha’s journey as a historian and then went onto discussing his insights on Gandhiji given he has spent a significant portion of his life studying Gandhiji. For ease of listening, the full conversation only contains the discussion around Gandhiji. If you wish to get some context behind Dr. Guha’s career, some his early choices and his insights on history as a career option, please click on the appropriate nugget.
This podcast is for information, learning and developmental purposes only. This podcast does not have any intent to harm, injure or defame a person, body of persons, associations, communities or parties or to bring disrepute to any person (living or dead). All content and opinions expressed in the podcast are that of the guests and are not necessarily the opinions of Deepak Jayaraman, Play to Potential Podcast or Transition Insight Private Limited (TIPL). Deepak Jayaraman, the Podcast and TIPL do not have any political affiliations or associations of any sort and this conversation is intended to be a non-partisan interaction. Deepak Jayaraman, Play to Potential Podcast and Transition Insight Private Limited disclaim any kind of claim of libel, slander or any other claim or suit of any sort. Listener’s discretion is advised.
Published in Jan 2019.
Dr. Tasha Eurich
Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author. With a PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Tasha is the principal of The Eurich Group, a boutique executive development firm that helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders and teams. Her primary areas of expertise are executive coaching, executive team development, and leadership and high potential development programs.
She contributes to Harvard Business Review and has been featured in outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, Forbes, and Fast Company, as well as peer-reviewed journals. Tasha’s first book, Bankable Leadership, debuted on The New York Times bestseller list in 2013. Her latest book, Insight, delves into the connection between self-awareness and success, where she shares the surprising findings from her multi-year research program on the topic.
In this conversation, we dive into the granular nuances around building self-awareness based on her research for the book, Insight.
Published in October 2019.
Ethan Kross
Falguni Nayar
Harish Bhat
Harsh Mariwala
Herminia Ibarra
Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behaviour at London Business School (LBS). Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. An authority on Leadership and Career Development, Thinkers 50 ranks Ibarra among the top management thinkers in the world. She is the author of the best selling, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader and Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing your Career. She writes for HBR and business publications such as Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
In our conversation, we unpack the nuance behind Herminia’s belief “Adults are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than think their way into a new way of acting”. We talk about how leaders in transition could experiment with different pathways and think about a portfolio versus a full-time role. We also get to the bottom of the catch-22 that a several professionals encounter especially in identity consuming time greedy careers such as Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Private Equity, Law and related professions. We also speak about avoiding the risk of foreclosure while evaluating options and discuss the role of the near and dear around us in helping us get to a new orbit.
This conversation is likely to be of value to people who are at cross roads or people who are in successful careers but feel an increasing dissonance grow inside them.
Published in August 2019.
Indranil Chakraborty
Indranil Chakraborty runs StoryWorks, that helps organisations and leaders harness the power of stories to create and deliver impactful messages. He has spent two decades of experience leading teams and driving change at reputed firms such as Unilever, Tata Group and Mahindra & Mahindra.
He is the author of the book "Stories at Work - Unlock the secret to Business Storytelling” published recently by Penguin Random House. In our conversation, we talk at length about some of the insights in the book. Indranil first demystifies the term “Business Storytelling” and distinguishes it from other forms of storytelling. We then discuss other elements including how one should listen to stories and collect them systematically, the different applications of story telling, how story telling bridges the asymmetry that often exists due to the "curse of knowledge”, how one can build deeper relationships through stories, how we can bake in the story-telling habit in our life and more.
The lessons from this conversation could be relevant to a range of people. But specifically, This conversation is likely to be specifically relevant to four constituents. 1) Entrepreneurs that are trying to build a certain culture in their company; 2) CEOs that are trying to mobilise the organisation around a certain set of values and a certain vision; 3) HR leaders who are looking to drive change in the organisation; 4) parents who are looking to connect more with their children.
Published in Nov 2018
James Clear
Jeffrey Pfeffer
Jennifer Garvey Berger
Jennifer Petriglieri
Jennifer Petriglieri is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and the author of Couples That Work, a book on how dual-career couples can thrive in love and in work.
Her award-winning research and teaching focus on identity, leadership, and career development. She is particularly interested in how people’s close relationships shape who they become professionally and personally, and how moments of uncertainty and crisis make us who we are.
She was named one of the world’s best 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets & Quants. Her research has appeared in the Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, and the Journal of Organizational Change Management. It has also been featured in the Business Week and the Harvard Business Review.
A British citizen, Jennifer earned a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from INSEAD. She also holds an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, and a BSc in genetics from Nottingham University, UK. Prior to joining INSEAD, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Organisational Behaviour at the Harvard Business School. Her husband, Gianpiero Petriglieri is also an Associate Professor at INSEAD and is an expert on Leadership and Learning in the workplace.
In our conversation, we get into the details of the key questions around the three transitions that Jennifer speaks about that most couples go through. Transition 1) "How do we make it work" when we move from parallel tracks to a single track. Transition 2)"What do we want to become" as couples navigate mid-life. Transition 3) "Who are we” as a couple.
Published in Feb 2020.
Karthik Reddy
Karthik Reddy (based in Mumbai) is a Founder and Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, one of India’s leading tech-focused early stage VCs that was set up in 2010. Karthik is the architect of the Blume business model and investment hypothesis framework that he constantly iterates with his team members. Karthik is arguably one of the best sounding boards in the early stages of a business on capital raising, user and customer behaviour and product market fit.
Prior to starting Blume Ventures, Karthik had held a variety of roles across Financial Products Structuring, Investment Banking, Business Development, and Strategic Planning in a Large Corporate. He is an alumnus of IIT (Roorkee), IIM Bangalore and the Wharton School.
In our conversation, we spoke about his choice to go to Wharton after graduating from IIMB, his path to Venture Investing, his thoughts on what it takes to transition effectively and succeed in Venture Investing, how he picks Founders, how they could scale up their leadership capability and more. This conversation was published in June 2017.
Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Fifth guest on the Play to Potential Podcast series is Professor Kartik Hosanagar. Kartik is a Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kartik's research work focuses on the digital economy, in particular Internet media, Internet marketing and e-commerce.
Kartik has been recognized as one of the world's top 40 business professors under 40. He has received several teaching awards including the MBA and Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching awards at the Wharton School. His research has received several awards including the best paper award at the Consortium on Technology Policy and Management. Kartik is a cofounder of Yodle Inc, a venture-backed firm that has been listed among the top 50 fastest growing private firms in the US. He has served on the advisory board of Milo Inc (acq by eBay) and is involved with other startups as either an investor or board member. His past consulting and executive education clients include Google, Nokia, American Express, Citi and others.
This conversation was published around February 2017.
Kartik Hosanagar EP2
Katy Milkman
KV Sridhar (Pops)
Lloyd Reeb
Lynda Gratton
Lynda Gratton is a Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and is one of the World’s foremost thinkers at the intersection of leadership, the world of work and careers.
Over the last 20 years Lynda has written extensively about the interface between people and organisations. Her eight books cover the link between business and HR strategy (Living Strategy), the new ways of working (The Democratic Enterprise), the rise of complex collaboration (Hot Spots and Glow) and the impact of a changing world on employment and work (The Shift). Her last book (100 year life) that she co-authored with Andrew Scott (Prof of Economics at London Business School) has fundamentally shaped a lot of my thinking and the choices I have made in the last few years.
Lynda’s work has been acknowledged globally - Lynda is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and has chaired the WEF Council of Leadership. She chairs the Drucker Prize panel and is on the governing body of London Business School. In 2017, Lynda was also, as the only foreigner, invited by Prime Minister Abe of Japan to join a new advisory council “Council for designing the 100-year-life society”.
Published in Jan 2020.
Manjari Jaruhar
Manjari Jauhar is Bihar’s first IPS officer and one of the first five IPS officer in India (Kiran Bedi being the first).
After an unexpected turn of events upended the homemaker role her parents had planned for her, Manjari Jaruhar overcame extraordinary odds to become the first woman from Bihar to join the country’s elite police cadre. Her journey is a masterclass in courage, resilience and leadership by a woman who broke new ground and thrived despite being viewed with disbelief and derision by her colleagues. She has recently authored the book - Madam Sir, which captures her journey against several odds. It is a stirring account of a sheltered girl’s rise to the top echelons of the Indian Police Service. Set against the backdrop of significant events such as the Bhagalpur blindings, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Lalu Prasad’s reign in Bihar, “Madam Sir” is an inside look into the IPS through a woman’s eyes.
In our conversation we spoke about her childhood, her challenges in her first marriage and how she picked herself up and “took charge” of her personal and professional life. We also speak about the many glass ceilings that she had to break as one of the first few Police Officers in the country.
Published in Nov 2022.
Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall Goldsmith helps successful people achieve positive, lasting change in behavior; for themselves, their people, and their teams. He has four decades of experience of helping top CEOs and executives overcome limiting beliefs and behaviours to achieve greater success. He has received several accolades over the years. Thinkers 50 ranked him as World's most influential leadership thinker (2015 and 2011), top ten business thinker, top rated executive coach (2015, 2013, and 2011). In our conversation, we spoke about staying relevant over the long term, ROI in Coaching, the path to excellence, getting behaviours to stick, the art of asking good questions that open up new possibilities and what matters in the end given his work with several leaders. This had a slightly different tonality from a typical podcast conversation. Very often Marshall would slip into a Coaching mode and get me to reflect on several key questions. I hope that you find it as purposeful as I did. Published in Oct 2020.
Matt Dixon
Matthew Walker
Matthew Paul Walker is a British scientist and Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the book - Why We Sleep (NY Times Bestseller, #1 Sunday Times Best seller). Previously, he was a professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the impact of sleep on human health and disease. He has published more than 100 scientific studies and is the founder and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science.
A lot of us grow up with the narrative of sleep being a residual figure in our lives where getting work done at the expense of sleep is seen as a victory of will power and mind over body. The reality is that there are dire consequences of trading off sleep for work or for exercise and it often shows up several years later. Given the delayed feedback loop and possible lack of attributability, many of us possibly end up ignoring it. Sleep constitutes about one third of our time on the planet and the quality of sleep possibly accounts for the effectiveness of the remaining two thirds of our time on the planet.
Published in March 2020.
Meher Pudumjee
Michael Watkins
Michiel Kruyt
Michiel Kruyt is CEO of IMAGINE, an advisory boutique helping executive teams develop future fit leadership and company vision. He had a fifteen-year career at McKinsey and Co, where he was a partner focusing on top team effectiveness, large-scale transformations and culture change. He helped many top teams around the world increase their ability to lead with impact. Michiel has co-founded and led Aberkyn, a change-facilitation firm, now owned by McKinsey. Before joining McKinsey & Co, he had a 15-year career at Unilever.
Michiel, along with Aaron De Smet and Jacqueline Brassey of McKinsey has Co-Authored the book - Deliberate Calm, a tangible guide that combines cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, and consciousness practices, along with the authors’ decades of experience working with leaders around the globe.
In the podcast conversation, we speak about what it takes to be an adaptive leader given the changing world we live in. More specifically, we speak about being the Learning Zone versus Protective zone, climbing up the ladder of self-awareness, avoiding a triggering “nuclear” reaction and more. A very valuable guide to be effective in the times we are in.
Published in Feb 2023.
Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani is a leader who has worn several hats though his illustrious career. He was part of the founding team at Infosys and held several leadership roles with the company including being the CEO and Co-Chairman. In 2009, he moved from Infosys to serve as the Chairman of UIDAI and in the five years there, enrolled about two thirds of the country. He subsequently contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election and post that has moved onto a portfolio of initiatives that includes his work with EkStep Foundation and other philanthropic initiatives, India Stack evangelisation and working with start-ups.
This conversation was published around June 2017.
Neera Nundy
Neera Nundy is Co-Founder at Dasra - India’s leading strategic philanthropic foundation. Dasra actively shapes the process of social change by forming powerful partnerships with funders and social enterprises. Since its inception in 1999, Dasra has accelerated social change by driving collaborative action through powerful partnerships among a trust-based network of stakeholders (corporates, foundations, families, nonprofits, social businesses, government and media). Over the years, Dasra has deepened social impact in focused fields that include adolescents, urban sanitation and governance and has built social capital by leading a strategic philanthropy movement in the country.
In our conversation, we spoke about how she and Deval Sanghavi (her husband) started Dasra about 19 years back after their initial careers in Banking in the US. We also discussed how she has evolved as a leader as the organization has grown, the challenges in people transitioning from a corporate career to the Social Impact world, what comes in the way of Founders of Social Enterprises letting go as the organization scales up and more.
Published in July 2018.
OP Bhatt
Paddy Upton
Papa CJ
Fourth guest on the Play to Potential Podcast series is Papa CJ. Papa CJ is a world-renowned stand-up comedian. He has won awards for both Asia’s and India’s Best Stand-up Comedian. Forbes Magazine called him ‘the global face of Indian stand-up’ and Toastmaster International called him one of the most influential comedians around the world.
He has performed over 2000 shows across five continents. His work has been broadcast on NBC, BBC, Comedy Central, Showtime, MTV, Paramount, The Comedy Channel, ITV and a host of other international networks. He taped a Showtime USA Stand-up Comedy Special with Russell Peters in Amsterdam and in the American TV show Last Comic Standing, he was adjudged one of the top ten acts from over 3000 contestants across the world.
Papa CJ holds an MBA degree from the University of Oxford and is a former Management Consultant. He frequently works with companies and educational institutions as a motivational speaker and executive coach. He has coached executives from over 50 blue-chip companies all over the world including Nike, Google & UBS in Europe, Deutsche Bank, Accenture & E&Y in USA, Universal Music and BBC in the UK and Unilever and HSBC in Asia.
This conversation was published around January 2017.
Pradeep Chakravarthy
Prakash Iyer
Prakash Iyer is a best-selling author, motivational speaker and a leadership coach. Before he officially became a member of the “Gig economy”, he was the Managing Director of Kimberly-Clark Lever. Prior to that he the Managing Director and CEO of Infomedia India Limited (formerly Tata Infomedia). He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and he spent the formative years of his career with HindustanUnilever Limited. He has authored three books – The Habit of Winning and You too can.
This conversation was published around April 2017.
R Gopalakrishnan
Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Raj Raghunathan
Rajat Gupta
Rajiv Vij
Rajiv Vij is a life and executive coach, author and speaker. He works with senior leaders of several Fortune 500 companies and other large organisations across Asia and India and has been a coach to several industry leaders. He also voluntarily coaches a number of founders and leaders of social-sector organisations.
He is the author of two books, including his latest release, 'Inside-Out Leadership: 16 radical insights successful leaders wish they had discovered sooner'. Prior to finding his calling and starting his coaching practice in 2006, he served as Managing Director, Asia for Franklin Templeton.
Published in December 2021
Rama Bijapurkar
Ramesh Srinivasan
Ramesh is a Senior Partner at McKinsey& Company, and a leader in the Pharmaceutical and Organization practices. He is the Global Dean of the Bower Forum, McKinsey's program for CEO learning. He is a member of McKinsey's Global Social Responsibility Council, and sits on a few non-profit Boards in the Education sector in India. He also has been through the unimaginable trauma of losing two young children to cancer. I was keen to speak to him to get his perspectives on leadership given his experiences at McKinsey and how we can all deal with lifequakes when they hit us given what he has been through on the personal front.
We speak about how CEOs should discern their mandate when they take charge, how they should focus on not just doing but being, how he has reinvented several times over within McKinsey, How he has architected a Personal Board of Advisors and how that replenishes him, how he and his wife have dealt with the twin shocks that they have experienced and more.
Published in Feb 2021.
Ravi Venkatesan
My sixth guest on the Play to Potential Podcast series is Ravi Venkatesan. He is the Chairman of Bank of Baroda and the Co-Chairman on the Board of Infosys. He is the co-founder and Chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a network of engaged leaders attempting to address complex social issues through venture philanthropy. He invests in young organizations through Unitus Seed Fund. He also works as a mentor with some start-ups that need guidance. Ravi is the former Chairman of Microsoft India and Cummins India. He is the author of bestseller “Conquering the Chaos – Win in India, Win everywhere” published in 2013 by Harvard Business Review. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay (B.Tech – Mechanical Engineering), Purdue University (Masters in Engineering) and Harvard Business School (MBA).
Ravi has had several interesting transitions through his career 1) Moving from the US to India to head Cummuns 2) Moving from heading Cummins in India to heading Microsoft 3) Leaving Microsoft to pursue his current portfolio of Board memberships, writing, speaking, philanthropy, investing, mentoring start-ups and more. We spoke about a range of topics including the transitions he has made, leadership in the social impact world, building a career in a growing gig-economy and more.
This conversation was published around March 2017.
Ravi Venkatesan EP2
Rich Fernandez
Rich Fernandez is the CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). Prior to this he was a Director of Executive Education and People Development at Google.
SIYLI began as an initiative in Google in 2007 when a team of leading experts in mindfulness, neuroscience and emotional intelligence developed an internal course for fellow Googlers. It quickly became incredibly popular within Google and given the interest outside Google was so great, SIYLI was set up as an independent Not for Profit in 2012. Since then SIYLI has become a globally recognised programme and continues to work with Google as well as other Corporate, Nonprofit and Government Organisations around the world.
In our conversation, we spoke about Rich’s take on Leadership Development in a “rocket ship” such as Google and talk about the distinction between performance and potential, something that several organizations mix up. We talk about the various types of attention (open, focused and meta-attention) that we need to cultivate and discuss how one could think about baking in a meditation habit. We also discuss other themes such as response flexibility versus reaction, meta-distress, building a positive mindset, 3 levels of resilience and more.
This conversation is likely to be of value to any leader (specifically in the tech world) who is at the cutting edge of disruption and innovation and is trying to build his/her leadership capability as he/she scales up the organisation.
Published in March 2019.
Roopa Kudva
Roopa Kudva is Partner at Omidyar Network and Managing Director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, where she leads overall Investment Strategy, Operations and Portfolio Development. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Roopa spent 23 years with CRISIL, and was its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer from 2007. She led CRISIL’s transformation from India’s premier ratings agency into a diversified global analytical company. Under her leadership the company’s market capitalisation grew four-fold and revenues tripled.
In this podcast conversation, we spoke about her initial years in Assam and Meghalaya, her journey to IIMA after being rejected the first time based on a technicality. She speaks about her journey through CRISIL and how a stint in Standard in Poor (Paris) changed her mindset towards her career. She also talks about the various transitions in her career - getting to the Chief Rating Officer role, MD role and then to Omidyar Network. She shares some interesting insights around how she handled the passage of play from CRISIL to Omidyar Network in terms of exploring various pathways for her career.
Roopa holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Published in May 2018.
Sally Helgesen
Sanjeev and Hari
Sir Andrew Likierman
Stephen M.R. Covey
Stewart Friedman
Stewart D. Friedman is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program and Wharton’s Work/Life Integration Project. He has been on the Wharton faculty since 1984 and became the Management Department's first Practice Professor in recognition of his work within the fields of Leadership Development, Human Resources and Work–Life Integration on the application theory and research on the real challenges facing organizations.
In our conversation, we spoke about how Dr. Friedman thinks about 4 domains - Self, Work, Home and Community and how we can harmonise across the four domains by going after what he calls “4 way wins”. He also talks about positive spill-over effects from one domain to another and urges us not to see these choices as trade-offs but as porous elements with osmosis across them. He goes on to talk about how we can craft experiments and interface with the various stakeholders to create a life that in line with what we care about and what matters to us.
Published in Feb 2019.
Sudhir Sitapati
Sudhir Sitapati is currently Executive Director, Foods and Refreshments at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). He has just published his first book - The CEO Factory, published by Juggernaut Books.
I have had the privilege of knowing him for the last 22 years right from the day we joined IIM Ahmedabad in the summer of 1997. This podcast conversation is special for a few reasons. 1) It is the first time I am interviewing a friend on the podcast 2) It is the first time two siblings have been on a podcast (I had interviewed Sudhir’s brother Vinay on his book Half Lion a while back). 3) Sudhir speaks about Prof AK Jain of IIMA in the book and in the podcast. I had the fortune of being taught by Prof Jain and happened to interview him in the context of a felicitation function we had organised last year. You can find my interview with Prof AK Jain here.
In this conversation, Sudhir and I spoke about various elements of his book - The CEO Factory. We spoke about a range of topics including how HUL looks for talent and thinks about career planning, the importance of having an HR function with teeth, how it breeds Entrepreneurial Professionalism, the distinction between core competence and competitive advantage, unlocking the value of mavericks, the secret sauce behind the culture and how that gets propagated and much more. I also happened to shoot this conversation in a video format. If you prefer that, please see our interview here.
Published in Dec 2019.
Sukhinder Cassidy
Suresh Narayanan
Suresh Narayanan is the Chairman and MD of Nestle India Limited (which recently crossed INR 10,000 Crores for the first time after about a century of operating in India). Suresh is often dubbed as a turnaround leader given what he has accomplished in various markets - Handling the operations in Singapore during the 2008 financial crisis, Leadership in Egypt, Libya and Sudan during the Arab Spring around 2011, turning around Maggi in 2015 when the company had taken a significant hit on the P&L and the Balance Sheet.
In our conversation, Suresh spoke about how his childhood years, especially the years at Rishi Valley School have given him the foundation and the attitudes that have helped him through the journey. He spoke about how he made some of his early career choices including the decision to join Hindustan Unilever Limited, while he was actually preparing himself for the IAS. He also discussed how he has transitioned effectively from one context to another and his perspectives on what it takes to settle in well in a new environment. He spent time discussing how he specifically turned around the fortunes at Nestle when he took charge in 2015 and breaks down the notion of building resilience as an individual and in the team. Finally, he also talks about how Marketing as a function is evolving with the emergence of Digital.
Published in Feb 2018.
Tarun Khanna
Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he has sought for two decades to study the drivers of entrepreneurship in emerging markets as a means of economic and social development. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, corporate governance and international business to MBA and Ph.D. students and senior executives. For many years, he has served as the Faculty Chair for HBS activities in India and South Asia. He was named the first director of the university-wide The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard in the fall of 2010.
Outside HBS, he serves on numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards in the US and India, including AES, a Washington DC headquartered global power company, and India-based Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL), one of the world’s largest firms dedicated to financial inclusion for the poor. He is a co-founder of several entrepreneurial ventures in the developing world, spanning India, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Recently, he co-founded Axilor, a vibrant incubator in Bangalore. In 2015, he was appointed a Trustee of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. He has recently published the book - Trust: Creating the foundations for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries. In our conversation we spoke about how we can learn from some of the thinking in Strategy to inform how we think about our careers. We then get into discussing the book and explore what he means when he says the entrepreneurs in developing economies should create the conditions to create. We talk about what that means in terms of Leadership and how one could go about measuring Trust that is being built in the system.
This conversation is likely to be relevant to Entrepreneurs, Investors, CEOs and Advisors in the Start-up ecosystem in India and other developing economies.
Published in Dec 2018.
Tarun Khanna EP2
Tenzin Priyadarshi
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi is the president and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2020, Priyadarshi released his book "Running Toward Mystery: The Adventure of an Unconventional Life”. In the book, he speaks about his walking away from his school at the age of 10 based on some dreams he had been having from the age of 6. He speaks about the various twists and turns in his journey that has now brought him to MIT.
In 2009, Priyadarshi founded the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT to design and disseminate innovative programs on teaching secular ethics and human values. The Center for Ethics has 6 Nobel Peace Laureates as its founding members and its programs run in 5 countries while poised for a global reach.
Published in January 2021.
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Tom Vanderbilt
Vedika Bhandarkar
Venkat Krishnan
Vijay Amritraj
This conversation was published around December 2016.
Vinay Sitapati
Vinay Sitapati - Jugalbandhi
Vinay Sitapati returns to the Play to Potential Podcast on the back of his recently published book - Jugalbandi - The BJP before Modi. The book begins with the creation of Hindu nationalism as a response to British-induced elections in the 1920s and moves on to the formation of the BJP in 1980 and ends with its first national government, from 1998 to 2004. The book also traces the entangled lives of its founding leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. Vinay digs into various moments to really understand what made their six decade relationship tick. He teases out the secret recipe behind their cohesiveness despite twists and turns in their respective fortunes. He says that what kept them together was fraternal love, professional synergy and, above all, an ideology that stressed on unity. This podcast is for information and learning purposes only. All content and opinions expressed in this podcast are that of the guests and are not necessarily the opinions of Deepak Jayaraman or Transition Insight Private Limited (TIPL). Deepak Jayaraman and TIPL do not have any political affiliations or associations of any sort and this conversation is intended to be a non-partisan interaction. Published in Dec 2020.
Vinita Bali
Vinita Bali is a distinguished leader who has held leadership roles in 6 countries (UK, Nigeria, South Africa, Chile, USA and India) across 5 continents across organisations including Cadbury’s, Coca Cola Company and Britannia. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). In addition to this, she also sits on multiple Indian Boards (CRISIL Ltd, Titan Industries Ltd, Kasturi and Sons Ltd) and MNC Boards (Smith and Nephew Plc, Syngenta International AG). She is also a Member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore.
Vinita has had several significant transitions across cultures, functions and organisations in her career. We spoke about a range of topics including spending time on some of the transitions she has made, her early years and how they influenced her ability to see things as a continuum, her perspectives on adopting the mindset of a “tourist” and more.
This conversation was published around August 2017.
Viren Rasquinha
Viren Rasquinha is a former captain of India’s national field hockey team. He quit international hockey to pursue an MBA at ISB and since 2009, he has been the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) - a Not for Profit company dedicated towards helping Indian athletes win Olympic Gold medals. They have played a key role in 5 out of the 8 medals India won in 2012 and 2016 Olympics. We spoke about his reflections from his personal journey and from his experiences around spotting and grooming potential at OGQ. For more details on Viren, please visit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viren_Rasquinha
This conversation was published around April 2017.
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former World Chess Champion, considered as one of the greatest chess players of all time. Anand was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was the first sportsman to receive India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.
Harnessing the full potential of our mind and staying relevant in the context of advances in machines is something that all of us wrestle with as we go through our respective journeys. Chess is a great canvas for us to explore perspectives on these two questions.
During the 90 odd minutes that I spent with him in Chennai, Vishy spoke candidly about how he got into Chess as a career, how he thought about his own development at various stages of his growth, how he harnesses his mind and leverages the right brain and the left brain, how EQ matters as one grows through the ranks, how he stays level-headed and grounded despite his towering achievements, his thoughts on harnessing human potential and more. This conversation was published in Nov 2017.
Whitney Johnson
Zia Mody
Zia Mody is an Indian legal consultant and the Managing Partner at AZB & Partners. She is considered an authority on Corporate Merger and Acquisition Law, Securities Law, Private Equity and Project Finance. She is an alumnus of Harvard Law School and worked for 5 years in the US with Baker and Mackenzie in New York City before returning to India.
She started her own practice in Mumbai in 1984 and over the years, she has built AZB & Partners as one of India’a largest and most reputed law firms. She has frequently appeared on Most powerful Businesswomen and Most Powerful CEO lists over the last several years.
In our conversation, we spoke about her take on how people should think about law as a career, her take on women growing to become leaders and the leaky pipeline there, trade-offs between work and life, what it takes to be a trusted advisor with a client, what it takes to build an institution of repute and more. This conversation was published in September 2017.