In an industrial age, people went to factories and worked together to produce the outcomes. When required, they collaborated in person. Supervisors commanded and controlled others and leadership was often equated with “taking power”. Factories depended heavily on rigid top-down hierarchies and people were viewed simply as dispensable workers. With technological advances, our world of […]
The caterpillar was turning into a butterfly. In that biology lab, the teacher explained how butterfly struggles to break the cocoon as students curiously observed this metamorphosis. Before leaving the class, she urged students to just observe and not help the butterfly. After a while, one of the students took pity on the struggling butterfly […]
In a fast paced environment, we notice things that are urgent, immediate and abrupt in nature. We forget to notice the gradual. One small serving of unhealthy food doesn’t seem to harm but many such servings over a long duration increase the odds of having a health problem manifold. One conversation that went wrong now […]
An elderly woman used two pots to fetch water, each hung on the ends of a pole. One pot was perfect and delivered full portion of water while the other had a leaking crack. The imperfect pot felt very ashamed and this went on for a year. One day, the woman told the cracked pot, […]
Companies spend considerable amount of time and money on developing leaders through training programs and workshops. My experience so far suggests that these time-bound and finite interventions fail over a long run in developing leadership capabilities. I have attended a number of such training programs and workshops and have observed the impact of these interventions. […]
A novice painter once put his first painting at a busy cross road for people to mark mistakes. End of the day, the painting was full of cross marks! Next day, he made the same painting and displayed at the same cross roads. This time, he kept colors and brush there and requested people to […]
We are living in a world of attention deficit where no one has the time to listen. From what I have observed, organizations suffer from a listening crisis. Everyone has the answers and everybody wants to tell their story. No one is patient enough to sit back, ask questions and then really listen. This calls […]
In that leadership workshop, the trainer and the participants were discussing about the importance of humility in life and leadership. Some people defined humility as ‘modesty’ while others said it was about ‘seeing the self as a means to an end and not an end in itself.’ After listening carefully, the trainer said, “Humility is […]
The cricket coach had some wise words for his team. This team was reeling under pressure to perform and was marred by penalties imposed on key players due to their overly aggressive behavior on the field. Coach knew that some course correction was required. “Aggression” he said, “is a double edged sword. If used correctly, […]