As leaders, one of our primary responsibility is to share ideas and our vision in a manner that those we lead can not only remember in full but also be able to spread it further as and when required. The best way to do so is through the medium of stories. Over the next few posts, we will explore the kinds of stories we need to be able to tell and on the art and science of storytelling and how we can get better at it.
Effective leadership demands mastery in various areas: making tough decisions with limited information, fostering self-awareness, ensuring the welfare of others, practicing active listening, cultivating high performance, upholding organizational culture, remaining humble yet driven, building trust, managing conflict, aligning team and individual goals, hiring sagely, bringing appropriate energy, learning from successes and failures, treating everyone equally, inviting feedback, seeing potential, setting high standards, expanding influence, clearing team obstacles, taking accountability for failures, and adeptly switching between numerous roles as required.
Death valley is known for its harsh weather and for being the place where the highest ever ambient air temperature was recorded (134F). It is a desert valley for most of the year. However, in 2005, the valley got heavy rainfall which led to, what is called a super bloom. The valley was blanketed with blooming flowers all around. When the environment becomes conducive, even the most harshest place for life to exist comes alive. The same thing is true when it comes to the performance of people. If we are able to create a conducive environment, people bloom and […]
In this masterclass, I share my insights on some of the most important things that we need to keep in mind when we are leading large scale transformation efforts. (You can watch the recording here.) Once the transformation is initiated (inspired or for survival), there are 4 phases: 1. Initiate: This phase is all about explaining the reason behind the transformation, recruiting your change agents, identifying the different stakeholder groups and understanding our own apetite for change or transformation. This phase is all about building the foundation on which we can lead our transformation effort. 2. Mobilise: This phase is […]
The teacher, philosopher, J Krishnamurthy’s insight on the impact of culture on our thinking is deep and I believe right on target. We are social beings and our evolutionary biology still plays a significant role in how we show up, think and act in social settings. This in turn has an impact on what we think about, how we think about it and what are the boundaries within which we think about it. It is very rare that someone is able to go beyond these boundaries and think outside the cultural norms, usually the few exceptions to the rule. So, […]
