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Honing your craft matters much more than your hustle
Despite that, I highly encourage professionals to pick up projects on the side; I’m not a massive fan of hustle porn or the side-hustle culture. It beats the purpose of having a side project, to begin with! The idea of having side projects has less to do with making money but getting better at your…
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An excessive need to be “me”
Be honest — how many times have you screwed things up or annoyed everyone around by thinking out loud, “that’s just the way I am!”? If the answer is “all the time, Sunil,” you and I know that we have a problem, don’t we? Our faults, despite our conviction or our best efforts to rationalize,…
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Telling the world how smart you are
I’ve had the privilege of meeting leaders who consider themselves smart, ambitious, successful, experienced, motivated, or any other adjective spend an inordinate chunk of time positioning themselves above the people they work with. If that’s you, let me tell you — it is damn annoying! Of course, all that positioning might not be apparent, but…
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Winning too much
I once asked my friend about his “greatest weakness”, if any. And he coyly mentioned “winning too much” and how it has ruined many relationships in the past. Of course, that got me curious, and I encouraged him to elaborate further. He mentioned how competitive he’s been all his life and how that streak set…
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Effective leadership is a lot like coaching
The ultimate goal of any coach is to help their clients achieve their highest potential. And once they reach that goal, most coaches to transition to “maintenance” mode where they connect with their clients once a month (or perhaps, a quarter) while moving on to pursue other assignments. Essentially, they work themselves out of their…
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Jill Ellis’s Rules for Life
Continuing with my notes from watching The Playbook on Netflix. Here are Jill Elli’s Rules for Life. Wait, who is Jill Ellis? Jill coached the 2015 and 2019 US Women’s soccer team to the winning the World Cup! She masterfully navigated the challenge of coaching a team that was already #1 in the world and keeping them there. And if you think…
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Start with a why and then what
Many coaches and leaders who work closely with their associates are advised to never ask a ‘why’ question. Because it gets the other person on the defensive (sometimes, right off the bat!) And it made a lot of sense to me back then, a professional coach-in-training, as I found it hard to turnaround a conversation…
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All transformations begin with this…
The other day a friend asked me about the difference between intentional leadership and transformational leadership. The question got me thinking as I’ve always thought transformations at any scale is intentional. While it still holds true, I also realised that transformations happen because of intentions. Transformational movements require transformational leaders. Jim Collins I think a…
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This too shall pass
Could this be the worst the world has ever seen? With all due respect and without minimising the seriousness of the situation — I don’t think so. We’ve see more than a dozen crises’ over the past 20 years such as the Y2K/dot com bubble burst (2000), 911 attacks (2001), SARs (2003-4), the global financial…
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What you’re not aware of controls you…
Someone wise once said, “the first call of leadership is identifying reality.” And you do that by gaining knowledge and insights about your situation, surroundings, and most importantly yourself. This last bit seems to be missing in pursuit of knowledge acquisition. Why? Mere knowledge is only potential power, waiting to be tapped into. Having a…