Tag: culture

Leadership

Why Logic Is Overrated: How Leaders Worth Following Can Learn to Hack the Irrational Mind

Premise: In the last post, we saw how leaders can benefit a lot by learning from the field of Anthropology. In this post, I am going to share how leaders who learn from the field of behavioural economics can have a better shot at becoming leaders worth following. I will reiterate the importance of the need to understand the complexity that we need to address as leaders in this ever changing environment and in order to address this complexity, our understanding also needs to evolve and learn how to bring different different mindsets/skillsets and toolsets to solve difficult challenges that […]

Leadership

Four Ways Anthropology Teaches Us to Become Leaders Worth Following

Premise I know that becoming and being a leader worth following is not simple. It is a complex endeavor, which requires us to sense the situation we are in and change our mindset accordingly. It also requires us to bring in skills from different fields if we really want to make the best of the situation we find ourselves in – making the most of the “RIGHT NOW” moment.  So, I want to look at different roles that we end up playing when we are being a leader worth following and also explore what we can learn from the real […]

Leadership

Should your Next Hire be Cultural Fit or Culturally Aligned

This was the topic of my recent conversation with Yuvan Gupta on our podcast – Culturally Speaking! Here are some of the key ideas we covered: What’s the Problem with “Cultural Fit”? Some companies say they want people who are a “culture fit.” What they often mean is:•⁠ ⁠Someone who will settle in quickly•⁠ ⁠Someone like everyone else in the team•⁠ ⁠And so can feel right at home and hence “hit the ground running” But this can lead to hiring people who all think the same way, which creates echo chambers—places where only similar ideas are shared, and new thinking […]

Leadership

The Foundation on which High Performing Teams are Built

Premise I was catching up with a friend who was recently promoted to a manager. He wanted to understand how can he transform the team, which was doing decent work, into a high performing team. I thought about it deeply and here is what I shared with him as the foundation upon which high performing teams are built. Companionship or camaraderie The most foundational aspect that is common across all high performing teams is a sense of companionship. People on high performing team are usually friends and get along well. They like being together and have learnt to work well […]

Leadership

How to Lead Teams to Drive Innovation, Efficiency, Growth or Transformation

Premise I watched this short video in which HBS professor Linda Hill shares her experience from engaging a Life Sciences company and how they went about building teams and leading for innovation. You can watch the full video here. I have written many times about this topic (here, here, here, here, here, here and on innovation here). As leaders, we need to adapt and change depending on what we are trying to achieve and what our objectives are. Leading for Innovation If we want to drive innovation, we need to foster a culture that enables, engages and encourages the team […]