Anjani runs a growing small business with 5 employees and recently one of her employees received a better job offer from a competitor. Authority question : Is it Anjani, the employee who received the offer, the other 4 employees, or the competitor? Arjoo decides to run for local elections. Authority question : Is it Arjoo,…
Category: questions
Who’s got the ball?
Nowadays there are more company meetings than necessary. Zoom meetings, Client meetings, internal sync ups, and weekly catchups fill up our calendars every week. Months go on with many meetings that serve no purpose or get results. Meetings are not going away soon. However, effective meetings are highly valuable for everyone in attendance. To make…
What does Progress look like?
We want Progress. Like yesterday. It’s tempting to be thinking of achieving massive success as soon as possible. So what does Progress actually look like (realistically)? In Atomic Habits, James Clear says if you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or breaking a bad habit, it is often because you have not yet…
Empowering Curiosity
Building a company culture of curiosity in an organization takes small intentional steps. If a team member asks a question in a group, how is that question handled? Does the meeting organizer have an agenda and allocated time for questions? What is the team leader’s first response to a team member’s question? Is it a…
Do you have a Company Alumni Network?
Companies go through all sorts of changes in their journey. One of the biggest and costly changes is personnel change. When experienced employees leave the company for better opportunities, it can take some time to fill the vacancy or get someone ready internally to take that position. The most untapped and available opportunity that companies…
That happy place
There was a place called NotTooFarAway. In NotTooFarAway, lived two groups of people. One group lived in the city and the other group lived on the beach. A group from a nearby place called, CuriousEyes looked at the above two groups and wondered: Are the beach group more happy than the city group? If the…
From Entrepreneur to Empowerer
How can entrepreneurs grow their startup? The qualities that help entrepreneurs start their businesses might not be the same that will help take the startup to the next level. There will still be challenges that entrepreneurs will face when they have hired all the “right people” for the different roles of the company. If the…
3 A’s to greatness
Awareness. Action. Automatic. Awareness is the first component of becoming great at a skill or craft. Once awareness is established, action is needed to intentionally practice and work on the skill or craft. After taking consistent action to get better, the skill or craft becomes automatic.
Working those muscles
Being more creative, more inquisitive, more evolved requires working with intention on those creative/curious/reflection muscles. If you want to be more creative, keep challenging yourself to think outside the box, look for different ways to solve the same problem or spend time around “creative people.” If you want to be more inquisitive, keep asking questions,…
What’s your authentic greatness?
Authentic greatness is about realizing your individual uniqueness, purpose and living a fulfilling life daily. Each of us is gifted with a talent and our purpose in life is to find that and live our life through it. Some of us find our purpose early while others find it later. However, one of life’s goal…
Beyond the Comfort Zone
In our comfort zones, we tend to feel at ease, almost no anxiety, stress free, and safe. In the boundaries of our comfort zones, we tend to feel some or a lot of anxiety, stress, and get defensive. Do we all have comfort zones? If so, do we stay in those zones or go beyond…
Transitioning from an employee to an employer
Entrepreneurship can be a beautiful journey. Many individuals enter the workforce and work for several years before striking out on their own. Some individuals go straight into entrepreneurship before working for anyone else. There are several questions/scenarios that an aspiring entrepreneur(s) considers when deciding to stay in the current job (if working) to going completely…
Is success really “self-made”?
We often see the below headline in the media (blogs, magazines, articles etc.) to describe an individual or founders’ success. They were self-made billionaires. They were self-made entrepreneurs. Then the rest of the media coverage goes something like this… Person A’s company is now worth a billion dollars. Having started in her garage four years…
the “perfect” work
Seth Godin’s blog today was Unbeatable vs Perfect. In it, he states that Google has killed more than 200 projects over the last few decades. They fail all the time. MORE THAN 200 PROJECTS!!! Over the years, I knew Google discontinued a few products/services here and there but did not expect more than 200. Often we see…
What will your Ted Talk be about?
Imagine receiving an invitation to give a Ted Talk. What will your Ted Talk be about? Each of us have unique experiences in the world and these experiences shape our perspectives, thoughts, and behaviors. Each of us has an authentic story and it deserves to be heard. There are many platforms out there to share…
Handling dissatisfying situations
In Albert Hirschman’s book “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States” he mentions that there are four different options for handling a dissatisfying situation. Decades of research show that you have a choice between exit, voice, persistence, and neglect. Exit means removing yourself from the situation altogether. Voice involves actively…
The creative narrative
“She is so creative.” “He is really creative.” “That’s the creative team.” Creativity is hard to define. Each one of us is creative – that creativity can be seen at our homes, workplaces, the hobbies we have, the activities we do, and it can be anywhere and everywhere. What type of environment helps in facilitating…
Curiosity is its own reason
Albert Einstein once said “Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And…
Then what else do you see, Arjuna?
“What do you see?” I see the eye of the bird. “Do you see the tree?” No. “Do you see the branch?” No. “Do you see the bird?” No. “Then what else do you see, Arjuna?” Nothing, I see only the round black eye of the bird. Excerpt from The Mahabharata – A conversation between…
Your company’s “Chief Question-Asker”
“The most important thing business leaders must do today is to be the “chief question-asker” for their organization” says Dev Patnaik of Jump Associates. Patnaik says that “the first thing most leaders need to realize is, they’re really bad at asking questions. The business executives rose up through the corporate ranks because “they were good…