Meetings fill up a work day. There’s a meeting here and a meeting there. Then the day is almost done and we still have a lot of important work to be done. With remote work being a part of our professional lives, video conferencing tools so easy to use (Zoom, Meet, Teams), and devices at…
Tag: leadership qualities
What’s your Trillion Dollar Venn Diagram Of Success?
Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot shares his thoughts on rare skills and the Trillion Dollar Venn Diagram Of Success (phrase credit to him). Dharmesh shares that “You probably have a few valuable skills right now. The question is, how do you turn those skills into a successful career or company? By combining skills…
Engaging Company Culture
Engaging company cultures have empowered, creative, and growth oriented team members leading company culture events. Through empowerment, employees are given the decision making authority and independence to decide what activities bring out the best in the team. Through creativity, employees can be resourceful and come up with activities that are out of the box and…
when you’re ready for fishing
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Heard it many times. Seems like a valid point of view right? That is if the man is ready to fish or wants to learn how to fish, then it becomes…
Getting to that Next Level
What’s the Next Level? There are Levels. Realizing that there’s another level to be better is a key component in getting to that level. If you strongly believe that there’s no more level beyond where you currently are, then either you’ve achieved a lot already (Happy for you!) or you are limited in your circumstances,…
Relationship equity
What’s your relationship equity like? Have you invested time and energy into building the personal and professional relationships in your life? If there’s not been much investment in the important relationships, should we be surprised by the current status of those relationships? Relationship equity is about putting in the time, energy, care, generosity, and empathy…
Institutional knowledge : A case study
Nepal is a beautiful country with its unique opportunities and challenges. Alicia and Ajay both attend a top management college in Kathmandu, center of colleges and universities in Nepal. Once they finish their undergraduate studies, they plan to pursue their graduate studies outside of Nepal (Europe, Australia, North America). After graduating top of their class,…
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…
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…
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…
Feedback for growth
Growing up in a household or being in an environment where you get mostly or only positive feedback, you will expect that type of feedback in all areas of your personal and professional life. How helpful is the (mostly or only) positive feedback for the person receiving it in the long run? Is that positive…
Asking questions to understand better
Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and other books says that “asking questions doesn’t mean you’re the stupidest person in the room; it usually means you’re the only one brave enough to speak up.” Some of the reasons why we aren’t asking enough questions even when we don’t understand the topic of discussion are…
Organizations that grow
In Carol S. Dweck’s groundbreaking book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she talks about the research that Jim Collins and his team did on what made companies move from being good to being great. The five-year study showed that there were several factors that distinguished the thriving companies from the others. In Jim Collins’…
Take care of your employees.
We’ve heard the phrase many times “Employees are a company’s greatest asset.” Do you think most companies actually believe that phrase in their core and behave accordingly? That’s a profound statement that companies have to visit and revisit all the time. Some well established companies tout all the benefits they provide to their employees but…
I & We
“You want to hear “I” when things don’t go well. You want to hear “We” when things do go well.” Golden State Warriors General Manager Bob Myers stated as he discussed the conversations he had with Warriors players after their Game 7 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals. When things go…
Starting a movement
Starting a movement means being the shirtless guy dancing all by himself when most of the crowd is sitting down. Well not just him but his first follower is equally or even more important. Derek Sivers in his Ted Talk says that the leader needs to have the guts to stand out and be ridiculed….
A symbol of…
To be a symbol of something positive is powerful. Powerful enough to inspire people from all walks of life. Powerful enough to be the motivator for people in far corners of the world. Powerful enough to make others realize that there is actually light at the end of the tunnel. President Obama. Muhammad Ali. Anuradha…