Removing the creases from our chutes Parachute jumpers follow a unique practice to hang their reserved chutes every once in 60 days for 24 hours to let the creases out, and get the life back into the material. What can we do to remove the mental creases that we have accumulated over the years of …
Removing the creases from our chutes | Reason is not Rational | Having faith in people Read More »
Obaitori – Every flower blooms in its own time When everyone sees everyone else as their competitor in the mad rat race, Obaitori, a Japanese idiom, comes as a great mental model to instill sanity in us. It refers to the four trees – plum, apricot, cherry, and peach that bloom at their own time …
The difficult part of learning Learning is hard if it requires us to let go of our own personal truths. Indian philosophy uses the term Avidya. It means the presence of mistaken conclusions about ourselves and the world that we value as knowledge. The only way to learn is to ask ourselves if what we …
A valuable leadership trait Responding to bad news deftly is a valuable leadership trait. It involves truth-seeking, decision-making, and course correction. These can happen only from the space of response rather than knee-jerk reaction. Good leaders do not shoot the messenger. They do not ignore the message. They do not scare others by saying, “We …
A valuable leadership trait | Seeking support | Taking time to heal Read More »
Appreciating interdependence In today’s increasingly interconnected world, collaboration has become a crucial success factor. Paul Petzoldt, who coined the term Expedition Behavior, emphasized the importance of being aware of all the relationships that influence a group work like expedition. The success or failure of an expedition is usually determined by the dynamics of the team …
Appreciating interdependence | Career management tip | True indicator of generosity Read More »
Unnatural leadership skills All leadership skills do not come naturally to all leaders. Some leaders struggle with executive presence, while some struggle with being decisive, and many struggle with being empathetic towards their team. There are always areas that need improvement. Real growth happens when leaders acknowledge and are willing to learn, even if it …
Unnatural leadership skills | Lesson on evaluation | Pygmalion effect on team members Read More »
Valuing surplus time We value money over time. As Seneca rightly said – “People are frugal in guarding their personal property, but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”The decision to spend time is driven by the need …
Valuing surplus time | Vision and purpose as binding forces | Expecting to win Read More »
Relativity and coaching In a recent behavioral science conference, that I attended, one of the themes that was reiterated was being multidisciplinary in approach; Bringing concepts from different fields to solve a problem. Upon reflection, I found it relevant for coaching. One example is that of the concept of Relativity. The main idea of relativity …
Relativity and coaching | Pursuing contentment | The nonlinearity of success Read More »
Perfection trap There are three dimensions to perfectionism I have to be perfect Others expect me to be perfect I expect others to be perfect It becomes hard to zoom out and see that the very trait which we think will makes us successful will eventually sabotage our success and rob us of a rich …
Perfection trap | Sharing credit | Power of simple Read More »
Indicator of calmness The test of calmness is not the absence of stress but our ability to handle stress and come back to equilibrium as quickly as possible. Our threshold and our time to recover are good indicators of how calm we are as a person. Working with intensity Whenever I have spent more time …
Indicator of calmness | Working with intensity | The power of labeling Read More »
