As I saw it

An approach in life that I have most resonated with is the Go Givers philosophy, so beautifully articulated by Bob Burg and John David Mann in their Go Givers series of books. And just last week, we were talking about and practicing this very approach in the leadership outbound session I had the opportunity to facilitate for a Delhi based surrogate client. And today, I met a living embodiment of that philosophy who can as well be the poster boy for Bob Burg and John David Mann's book: Go Givers Sell More. He would also become one of the examples I will henceforth quote in my leadership workshops on responsibility, ownership, the Inside Out Model of Leadership and Bain & Co.'s 2015 study on what leads to 225% productivity at workplace. I sat in Ajay's rickshaw from the Aacharya Niketan market today afternoon after my grocery shopping and made a simple request - drive slowly as I cannot afford the bumps on the road. He assured me and got talking when we had a R...

Legends come in some of the most inconspicuous looks, places, means and ways. I am a huge fan of instrumental music but haven’t enjoyed some of the instrumental versions of some of the legendary Hindi film songs. But Subhash here was able to effortlessly bring a deep soulful spirit to each one of the compositions he generated out of his Ravanetha last week at the Hotel Gold Palace and Resorts in Kukas, Jaipur during the leadership outbound I was facilitating for a Delhi based  surrogate client. There are rare gems waiting for our discovery outside of our comfort zones. Was a pleasure and honour to be in his presence and loose oneself in his renditions. Do look him up the next time you are in Jaipur. I’ll be happy to share his number.

The newspaper headline today about 350 Indian cricketers going under the hammer for the next round of IPL auction, reminded me of something I had done years ago. A couple of years ago, I was doing a series of team building sessions for an organisation. This was years before I went ahead with my strengths certification from Gallup. To begin with, the participants were segregated into homogeneous groups based on their predominant style of behaviour as highlighted by a questionnaire that was administered to them. We segregated them into three groups of Thinkers, Doers and Relators. They then went about playing a game which brought out the need for a diverse, mutually complementing set of team members. In every batch then, I shared the story of how managers are selected in Semco, Brazil. Later on, as the participants had to regroup into heterogeneous teams that had a proportionally diverse mix of Thinkers, Doers and Relators, I pulled out the managers and put them o...

In my 19 and half years of career so far, I started training 18 years ago. As I look back at all those years, I happened to remember one of the most profound incidents today. It happened exactly 4 years ago to this date on a Friday on 12 th December 2014. I had been invited by the CMD of a company to develop the leadership abilities of 17 division heads and senior managers in his organisation. For me, leadership at its core is all about taking initiative, ownership and responsibility at one level and then having a positive influence on a group of people which inspires them to move in a purposive and possessed manner to make a positive difference in this world. I for one have always believed that there already exist enough and more traits and leadership abilities within people and that at best, my job is to chip away at the rocks and wipe clean the mould that has taken over the limiting beliefs of the person concerned to then let their natural and unique leadersh...

I was conducting a session on the GROW model of coaching some time back and during one of the practice sessions, I asked the coachees to share how it felt as their coaching partners were applying the model with them? I remember the most profound answer one of the participating managers shared: “Life would have been so much more better if only our real managers would have listened to us the way my coaching partner is currently asking me the coaching questions and listening to me.” Mind map courtesy: www.biggerplate.com

In the last couple of social functions that I attended, it became clear to me that the ones who love talking about themselves first, foremost and the most, tend to miss out on what others could do for them and how others could be of great help to them in their work. Without any intention of sounding superior in any way, what I observed as a pattern was that some of them seemed so dead-sure of what they had done and were currently doing that there did not seem any curiosity to learn from a diversity of subjects and sources. They just seemed so full of themselves. And yet I came across three people in those gatherings who spoke the least except to know first and know more and then shared how knowing something from a totally different perspective seemed to help them in their work. They asked lot of relevant questions and had the humility to learn first. The adapted version of Stephen Covey's habit number 5 becomes so much more apt and relevant here: Seek first to know an...

In the last fortnight, in two managerial effectiveness training programmes for two clients from vastly different sectors separated by about 1,500 kms, I heard the same remark from two participants: "Aap Urdu bohat achhi bol lete hain. Yahan tak ki, aap ki pronunciation bhi ek dum sahi hai." In both the cases I smiled and said, "You mean, meri pronunciation ek dum khaalis hai?" They smiled even more; nodded and asked me how I did it? Their question was basically how could a person with a clearly south Indian name be so good with a north Indian language, its nuances and pronunciation? One of them further added that he had noticed that I was equally good with pure Hindi as well as fluent in English and that I switched effortlessly between all the three languages. He too wanted to know how. Well before I proceed, I must share that I am not a master of any of the three languages mentioned here; least of all Urdu which I cannot read or write. I have been mi...