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How Seniority Can Hide Incompetence
I once knew a guy who had spent decades in investment banking and had climbed up the hierarchy but he was clueless about finance and deal-making. I often wondered how he got there. My guess is that in many organizations, if you don't antagonize the...
Recent Posts
When Bad Luck Turns Out to Be a Blessing
In the 2008 financial crisis, most of my MBA classmates working in Wall Street lost their jobs. The rout started with Bear Stearns going bankrupt...
Is Consulting the Best Training Ground for Future CEOs?
Is consulting the best training ground for future CEOs? I think the answer is complicated. Consultants are very good at getting to quick first-cut...
Why Throwing More People at a Problem Makes It Worse
During one of my consulting projects, we had a very influential and intimidating client. So to dazzle him, a lot of senior leaders were added to the...
Remote Work Isn’t the Problem — Fake Work Is
I was recently chatting with a youngster in the US, who told me that his sister has a full-time remote job where she works only one hour a day and...
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Why Top Performers Don’t Work More Hours
When I landed as a 1st year student in IIT, I imagined that the all-India toppers would be obsessive bookworms. But not only did they study the same hours as everyone else, the were also involved in a lot of extra curricular activities. In that...
Why Constraints Make You a Better Writer (and Thinker)
Back in the days when LinkedIn had a 1300 character limit for posts, writing was a real pain -- I often had to edit out even seemingly essential stuff to fit the character limit. Today, with a 3,000 character limit, your creativity is no longer...
Why Life Is a Daily Event, Not an Achievement
LinkedIn posts from many successful Civil Service aspirants reminded me of the feeling one often gets on clearing the exam -- that you have arrived at the final goalpost. That there is nothing more to be done -- life will now be on cruise control....
Why Work Expands to Fill All the Time You Give It
During my consulting stint in New York, I had two Jewish colleagues who observed Sabbath and would leave office sharp at 5 pm on Friday. And for the next 24 hours they were unreachable. And this was in a firm where late nights, long hours, and fast...