Leadership Advice from Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero Moto Corp

Last week, I had the opportunity to host Vijay Sethi, CIO at Hero Moto Corp as part of a Leadership Talk series at my work. Below are my notes from the talk and the Q&A that followed the talk. Hope there is some learning for you. I learnt some new things and some thoughts were reinforced. Notes from the session: Honesty, integrity, humility: the three most important virtues of a good leader. Diversity is only as relevant, as much as the leader is willing to listen to differing opinion. Motivation comes from within. External stimuli that motivates, can quickly turn […]

7 Lessons for CEO’s from Aam Aadmi Party’s Revival in Delhi

In a remarkable feat, upstart political party – Aam Aadmi Party, consisting of non-political contestants swept across the elections for the Delhi Assembly poll. People across the nation had expected them to put a decent fight but not many expected them to win 67 of the 70 assembly seats. What makes this feat even more remarkable is that they did this after suffering a humiliating defeat during the national lok sabha elections that concluded less than a year ago. In my opinion, there are a lot of lessons for CEO and business owners if they understand the way this party transformed […]

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 […]

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 […]