The Art of Possibility Thinking

Average leaders react to their situations; Good leaders respond to them BUT Great leaders find the opportunity within them! This doesn’t happen by itself but needs intentional thinking and a specific mindset and go looking for these possibilities. I talk about how to go about doing that here and here.

Infectious Generosity

Premise: I watched this TED talk delivered by Chris Anderson and was inspired by this. He tells a lot of stories that have sparked the imagination of people, who went on to spread a lot of joy by being generous and creative. I also like the concept that Ben Zanders talks about in his book, The Art of Possibility, about “Giving an A”. At the beginning of every class that he teaches, he tells his students that he will give them an “A” as their grade, provided they write him a letter, dated the day their class finishes (and in […]

Lessons on Leading from two Short Stories about Richard Feynman

I stumbled on to a short TEDx video, where Danny Hills shares a couple of stories that he shared with the great Richard Feynman. You can watch the video here. This is a short 7 minute video and I would strongly recommend that you watch the video. If nothing else, you will atleast have a couple of laughs. I am a big fan of Feynman, his work and most importantly, of him as a teacher. As a teacher, he had this uncanny ability to get to the level of understanding his students had about a subject and start taking the […]

Skills, Attitudes and Habits that Make Us Better Leaders

We all know (either by experience or by research) that people who like us and trust us are much more likely to work with us or refer us or our services to their peers, friends and social circles. In his book “Top of Mind“, John Hall talks about some rules, skills and habits that can help us become more likeable, trust worthy and top-of-mind, as he calls. These are: Shift the spotlight: This is easy to say but extremely difficult to do. A lot of us enjoy being in the spotlight and find it difficult to leave it, let along […]