Streets, Roads, Stroads and Leadership Effectiveness

I was listening to a podcast episode on 99% Invisible hosted by the inimitable Roman Mars and they were talking about Stroads, which piqued my curiousity. So, today, we will explore this topic but from a leadership lens. Before we go ahead, I think it makes sense for us to define each one of these terms and what it means. Roads: A road is defined as a medium to move vehicles (cars, trucks, etc) from one point to another as quickly as possible. By this definition, all your highways and express ways are all roads. Streets: Street is a medium […]

Are You Setting Yourself Up For Failure

The Situation: My job entails a lot of travel and that has resulted in me amassing a decent number of miles on an airlines frequent flier program. A few weeks back, I got an email from the airline announcing that they will equip their aircrafts with wi-fi and if I downloaded an app, I shall be able to have access to an array of inflight entertainment options. I love watching movies. This was exciting news for me as it gave me an opportunity to catch up on movies that I had missed watching when they originally screened. So, excitedly, I […]

The Tale of 2 Hair Stylists

I would like to share with you what I have seen happen with two hair stylists in my neighbourhood. I would call the first hair stylist one as HS1. This saloon has been around in my neighbourhood for a long time, about 15 – 16 years. The stylists who work here used to know all their customers by name. They were very good at what they did. However, over time, the owner became cynical and took his customers for granted. All the small talk vanished and instead was replaced by a cynical look and the scorn on face. This change […]

Right Data at the Right Time to the Right People

Today I was travelling from Bangalore to Mumbai on an airline. I had a upgrade voucher that I used and got upgraded to Business Class. As soon as the flight took off, I realized that 6 of the 16 business class seats were un-occupied. That is such a waste of opportunity. The airline could have used this opportunity to delight at least 6 of their loyal customers. All the airline had to do was the following: Include the Frequent flier status/miles of the passengers in their manifesto. Once the boarding is completed and if there are vacant seats in the […]

What I Learnt About Engagement From My Son and His Friends

We had planned a small new year eve party at our home yesterday. We had invited a few of my 10 year old son’s friends and our neighbors to the party. The plan was simple – Play some games, eat dinner and watch a movie to ring in the new year. The kids came in on time and we started off by engaging them all in a few games – getting them to dance, compete against one another and in general have fun. It was all good until it was not so good. As long as we adults were totally […]