Love in leadership? I know, it sounds like something you’d hear at a retreat or from a guru who’s never had to meet a deadline. But hear me out what if I told you that the same thing that makes a band of superheroes unstoppable might also be the key to leading a high-performing team? …
The Leadership Catch-22: Why Complexity Trips Us Up (and How to Beat It) A funny thing happens when we face complexity: instead of leaning into it with curiosity, our nervous system often sounds the alarm. Fight, flee, freeze anything but engage. It’s as if our brain mistakes a messy spreadsheet or an uncertain future for …
More often than not, the greatest obstacles we face aren’t external challenges they’re the mental traps we’ve unconsciously created within ourselves. These subtle yet powerful barriers can cloud our judgment, limit our growth, and obscure our path to authentic leadership. And lead us to look for external solutions when the challenges (and hence solutions) potentially …
Have you ever felt like the rules of the game are changing faster than you can adapt? That no matter how much expertise or experience you bring to the table, the challenges you face seem messier, less predictable, and harder to solve? I see this all around us today. The corporate world, especially in India, …
Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar, has been known to say that he considers smart people, working together as more important than good ideas. To some that is quite shocking, coming from a creative powerhouse that has spawned ideas into blockbusters. But, a closer look at Pixar’s culture reveals that collaborating may actually be Pixar’s …
On January 27, 1967, a cabin fire occurred during a pre-launch test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft, resulting in the tragic deaths of all three astronauts aboard: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee. A huge blow to the morale of the team and the engineers at NASA. A massive overhaul ensued in engineering, flight …
In 1911, Endicott, New York, a company called “Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR)” was founded by Herman Hollerith, Charles Flint and Thomas J. Watson Sr. A company we now know as IBM. The founders enshrined three core values into the company: “Respect for the individual”, “The best customer service” and “The pursuit of excellence”. The values that were meant …
Analysts refer to LEGO as the Apple of Toys. And the system continues to thrive. LEGO’s steadfast belief in continuously learning, experimenting and reinventing, speaks to our research on the attributes that make businesses thrive and be resilient in the face of chaos and complexity.
We want to share a story with you; a true story. The setting is a corporate boardroom after a poor quarter. The Managing Director asks, very calmly, but seriously, on how the team feels the quarter went. One by one, each functional leader speaks. Each of them is well prepared, anticipating the question and keen …
My coach once asked me: What is that one thing that holds you back from doing what you want? I said: Overthinking. The consequence is inaction. Analysis-paralysis – that’s my biggest challenge. I was reminded of this when my friend T, called me a couple of days ago, to give me the big news that …
