Latest Post
Why Working Less Can Make You More Productive
In my past life, when I routinely worked 12-16 hour days, I had to occasionally stop work at 7 pm because of some contingency (e.g., doctor's appointment). But surprisingly, even when I worked 25% fewer hours, my work wasn't really affected -- I...
Recent Posts
Why Company Values Often Fail
During my MBA, an investment bank was visiting the campus for a pre-placement talk. After the talk, students were mobbing the visiting bankers,...
Guiding vs Letting Go
To be a good manager, you need to do two seemingly contradictory things: 1. Hand-hold people, guide them, and occasionally, even show them how to do...
Why Meaningful Work Matters More Than Comfort
Can you guess what terrifies Indian civil servants the most? Getting a posting with no work to do. And sadly, a lot of these positions do exist. But...
Why Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game
I was once talking to a public market investor who seemed very hesitant to reveal the stocks he had invested in, as if he was holding some trade...
More Articles
Don’t Let One Critic Stop You from Playing the Game
You give a talk and the auditorium claps, but one guy boos you loudly. Or you write a LinkedIn post and get 99 positive comments, but one guy calls you scum. Will you feel 99% positive, and 1% negative? No. You will be 100% infuriated -- that one...
Staying Calm Under Pressure
My best managers -- be it in the Indian Police Service or at McKinsey -- were not the charismatic ones with swagger or bravado. Instead their biggest quality was this: In a crisis, when things became rough, they remained calm -- no freaking out, no...
Why Public Safety Should Matter as Much as VIP Safety
It was very hard and painful to see the photo of a poor taxi driver crushed in the Delhi Airport canopy collapse. And without facts, I won't speculate on whose fault it was, and how far up the responsibility should go. But one thing I will tell you...
You Don’t Need 10 Hours of Productivity, just 2 hours of deepfocus
You cannot be 100% focused, 100% productive, all day long. In fact, don't even try -- it is a guarantee for self-inflicted agony. Life ebbs and flows. There are good days and bad days. Even within a day, our mood and energy go up and down. But here...