3 Things That I Look for When Hiring

We all end up in a situation when we are required to hire someone. It might be to grow your business or to replace someone who has decided to move on her career.  There is already lot of good advice on hiring best practices. However, I would like to share with you three things that i look for in a candidate before deciding to hire her.  Passion: The first thing that I look for in a person is passion. The passion could be for any topic, not necessarily their jobs or roles in the past but for any topic. I […]

Life Lessons from the Tao Te Ching

Almost all the religious and philosophical texts have some very insightful ideas about leadership and how to lead our lives. One such text is the Tao Te Ching. Chapter 3 in the book reads as below (from the English translation by  Derek Lin): Do not glorify the achievers, so the people will not squabble Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain, so the people will not become thieves Do not show the desired things, so their hearts will not be confused! Thus the governance of the sage: Empties their hearts, Fills their bellies Weakens their ambitions, Stengthens their […]

Are you an Effective Leader?

One of the simplest and the best definitions that i have come across for good and effective leadership is in the Tao Te Ching. I was reading the English translation (by Derek Lin) of this ancient chinese text and came across this quote in chapter 17: The highest rulers, people do not know they have them, The next level, people love them and praise them, The next level, people fear them, The next level, people despise them, If the rulers trust is insufficient, Have no trust in them. Proceeding calmly, valuing their words, Task accomplished, matter settled, The people all […]

10 Things to Stop Doing This Year to Become More Effective

One of the most expensive gift we all have is the 24 hours we have in a day. If we want to improve our effectiveness, we need to learn to be able to do more in less time. So, in order to do more , we need to do less. So, I have created a list of things that i shall stop doing in 2015 so that i get the time to do things that matter to me more. Here is my list of things to stop doing in 2015: Stop Procrastination Stop Multi-Tasking Stop Trying to Please everyone Stop […]

When Does True Learning Happen?

Imagine that you are a piano virtuoso and are  invited to play  in a series of live concerts all through summer in a different country. So, what do you do? You practice your part diligently and are excited and ready to perform your piece. Due to some reason, you have not been able to practice with the entire orchestra, but that doesn’t matter much as the orchestra and yourself are professionals and know your entry’s exits and more importantly, the conductor of the orchestra can take care of that. So, you go on stage all prepared and the orchestra starts… And […]