All Entries Tagged With: "Leadership"

Many of us many a time might have realized that leadership is not about a position but an attitude. It is all about making a difference to one’s own self and others. It is an inner shift, a calling, an urge, a pull, a realization and a cause that kick starts the leadership or changes journey for many.

In the last three decades of my work in the behavioral arena, I have met eminent personalities at the highest echelons of society as well as the unsung heroes at the grass-roots. In the process, my conviction has become stronger that leadership means being a ladder for others to rise.

I hold this to be true: the best leaders are not famous. When I asked a class to talk about someone they considered a great leader, all of them identified leaders in history, or famous business personalities. Names like Gandhi, Trudeau, and Trump were mentioned. Then they asked me whom I considered a leader. I [...]

We were just leaving a restaurant when we were stopped by an old friend and her husband who were taking the evening sun with a group of friends on the embankment by the river. We had a chat and talk turned to the latest book, how was it doing and for the benefit of the [...]

Strategy in business, primarily marketing is derived from the military lexicon. Hence there is no better book that teaches strategy than The Art of War by Sun Tzu written 2500 years back. Yet today its contents still hold true in military. Since marketing is a war of the mind, the strategies hold true in marketing [...]

Businesses today have to act and react faster than ever before as they are impacted by increased competition and global changes. Hence the need for enhanced effectiveness and productivity at work so as to help the business grow in this increasingly competitive and changing arena. Being productive is about achieving our goals while making optimal [...]

Businesses fail because of people, period. The effects of the failure can be observed, for example, on organization, processes, product or service, finances, marketing and sales. The causes can be related to strategic planning, implementation, management, control, human resources, absence of competitive intelligence and external factors like market dynamics or government regulations. If we are [...]

Organisations should tap into the whole system intelligence to take important decisions to cope with the economic crisis. The economic slow-down and the financial crisis in India has put CEOs and promoters under pressure. While a few segments of the industry would be more affected than others, the ripple effect is seen and felt everywhere. [...]

A common sentence that we hear often is that leadership is given not taken, is it true? Another common sentence is that you are born a leader, that it is a natural gift. In some aspects it is. But, there are some attitudes that can be acquired to change that perception. A born leader – [...]

Most suggestion schemes consist of a box with a label on it that says “suggestions” and that is what the scheme consists of. Pretty soon the box fills up with banana skins but never any suggestions. The workforce are blamed for the failure of another scheme that could have helped the business and that is [...]

Nowadays companies are looking for competence in HR professionals. In the past, HR professionals were often viewed as systematizing or a policy making hands. Their role was more aligned with the administrative role and was limited to day-to-day personnel operations. Now the things have changed. The HR professional is required to play a significant role [...]

Since the end of last century we are seeing global changes never seen in recent or old history. The iron wall collapsing and the Soviet Union breaking in pieces are unique events in history because never a large empire disappeared so smoothly. Coupled with what we saw in China, moving from communism to capitalism. Never [...]

Traffic authorities in a city faced a problem typical of any busy city – a street choc-a-bloc with vehicles, bumper-to-bumper in ordinary parlance. It is evening time and harried office goers are returning home. Suddenly a pedestrian darts across the road, a car driver instantly swerves to the adjacent lane upsetting the car in that [...]

There is a paradox at the heart of facilitation as there is at the heart of all people management; and that is, that to get people to do great things, we, the group leaders, need to allow things to happen, not by doing a lot but by doing as little as possible. When we get [...]

Did you think that vision statements or credos are only for organizations and not for you and me? It’s time for a reality check. The most important driving force of any successful and contended individual is his or her ‘vision statement’. And this statement can be made by the person at any point in life, [...]

Cash is God. Such was the mantra of Venture Capitalists at the TiE Summit 2008 Bangalore. Money has always been expensive, but since the economic meltdown, it has now become more of a rarity. The mechanisms for the financing of small-time start-ups are breaking down. The future looks bleak, if you are looking for funds. [...]

“Who is an entrepreneur?” Scott Cook, Founder & Chairman of Intuit asks. An entrepreneur makes something better or faster or cheaper or all three. These words were representative of the Entrepreneurial Summit conducted by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) – straight-shooting, practical and unblemished. A grand event at the Hotel Lalit Ashok in Bangalore, the TiE [...]

What and who is a leader? The Webster’s Dictionary defines leader as a person who by force of example, talents or qualities of leadership plays a directing role, wields commanding influence, or has a following in any sphere of activity or thought. It defines leadership as that ingredient of personality that causes men (and/or women) [...]

Business today is global and many executives must meet the challenge of delivering results through global teams spread over different geographies and time zones. Team members often speak different languages, have different mindsets, lifestyles, professional and personal values and expectations. And let’s not forget the tug-of-war between global and local objectives. Leading such teams is [...]

Emerson states, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. A majority of the issues related to worker productivity stem from enthusiasm or the lack thereof. Individuals simply go to work despite their abhorrence of their employer, the monotony, and the products. There is no passion or pride. Much of this issue stems from practices embedded [...]

Owning a business is an audacious task. There are numerous things that need to be completed in a day. It gets so frustrating that owners and fitness professionals question how all will get accomplished. The crux of the issue lies not in the amount of time or lack of time, but organization. The successful entrepreneur [...]