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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 their job. 2. Give people the freedom to do their job, without unnecessarily meddling or imposing...
Recent Posts
The Myth of the Top of the Hierarchy
I once met a mega business leader in his office in Mumbai. And on the office wall, there was a photo of the Indian PM with another head of state,...
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...
Are Meetings Hiding Your Insecurities?
Why do we spend so much time in meetings, even when it's a horrendous waste of our time and talent? One might say, "What choice do I have?" Who...
The Mid-Career Trap And How to Avoid It
Mid-career can be a dangerous place -- you might become too expensive for the roles you can perform, and unwilling to take the roles you can get....
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Education Without Values Is Dangerous
Before we graduated from college, our electrical engineering professor (I think it was Dr SS Prabhu) told us, "As you graduate, it is not enough to be technically competent -- you also need a value system, without which, you are no better than a...
When You’re Lost, Being Busy Is the Worst Thing You Can Do
In my first startup, I outsourced my product development to a small IT services company. In the beginning, things seemed okay. But soon, I was struggling with product-market fit (aka, nobody wanted my product). Instead of staying laser-focused on...
Work Smarter, Not Longer: The Power of Leverage at Work
One of my best friends in the Indian Police Service recently told me the story of his boss at a paramilitary organization, who used to tell his staff, "After 5 pm, I want all of you on the sports ground -- nobody should be seen in the office." So...
For Once, Be Selfish: Learn to Listen to Criticism
About a decade ago, I was in Mussoorie (at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) during the training program for senior Civil Servants. During one of the sessions, a guest speaker gave a talk that was critical of the bureaucracy...