...shoOOonya...

 From my point of view, the most important / crucial / useful words of wisdom on this subject is - "Talk to Someone"  If something is troubling you (in your head); talking to a good friend who will understand is definitely a great idea and something you shouldn't hesitate to do. All I would like to add is that I am #OpenToConversations  If you feel stuck, stressed, trapped, emotionally drained, or any of those feelings that seem to weigh you down .... I am #opentoconversations  Open for individuals as individuals ... playing roles in their personal lives :) ... conversation as a friend ! Sometimes, you might be open to a complete stranger about things you can't discuss with people who know you (things ranging from self-doubt and lack of confidence to larger things)   And also open to conversations with managers, senior managers, L&D teams, CXOs regarding their concerns about their teams, business etc. I may or may not offer solutions (most probably will...

  I just told my wife (pretty randomly) that Big B Amitabh Bachchan turns 80 this year (in a matter of a week) and next year, he will be celebrating the golden jubilee of his marriage anniversary with Jaya Bachchan.  Intently looking at her face for a reaction, I could almost sense the calculator wheels turning in her head :) We celebrated our 12th anniversary this year and she celebrated her 40th just last month.  The question of our age and health has come up in various contexts off late. Whether it is the general health conversation or children's marriage (and our age at that time), or the working-life remaining ahead and earning based on that, about retirement life and its challenges - physical as well as financial, about investments and how I have been late to it. Or simply how I need to lose weight (well, I must admit, that's the most common of all)  We have tossed around these things in conversation but in my head, I have been thinking about them pretty seriou...

"Life main Lion ban-na hain to bakra ban-ne ki himmat honi chahiye"  (To become a lion in life, you got to be ready to become a goat (bait).  A hard-hitting dialogue given weight by the dhai-kilo ka haath actor, Sunny Deol, in the recent movie, CHUP. Besides, the many notable things from the movie, this dialogue stuck with me.  If you have Aspirations to become a leader, be ready to start from the bottom or at least understand the individual at the bottom of the pyramid AND your customer & consumer.  Lets look at it with a couple of examples ...  There was a recent post by  Vivek Subramanian  (VP Finance at Flipkart) where he became a 'delivery person (also called 'wishmaster') for a day as part of their Big Billion Sale. He has talked about his experience as a wishmaster. I am sure it would have been an eye-opening experience as he got to experience the joy as well as the pain of the delivery person. The boardroom conversations about improvin...

  NLP is know to most as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) - a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States, in the 1970s. NLP's creators claim there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro-), language (linguistic) and behavioural patterns learned through experience (programming), and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life (Source: Wikipedia ) ... This article is NOT about THAT NLP !! :)  Now let's talk about the New NLP of India. If you haven't guessed it yet, I am talking about the recently unveiled National Logistics Policy of India.  While it is always boring to go through the policy papers or strategy docs; videos make it easier to consume information. And once a simplified form of communication introduces you to the core subject and salient points, its no longer boring to go through long documents or policy papers. ...

Over the weekend, I got the feeding duty of my 5-year old and this time around, I picked up some picture story books to read to him while feeding him. It worked. He ate his dinner in 30 minutes (against his usual 120 minutes of harassing his mother/father). But he surprised me all through the 30 minutes ... practically on every page of the different books we went thro.  Typical picture based story books - full page pictures with 2-3 sentences on each page. The text and picture in sync with the picture depicting whats written above OR the text depicting whats in the picture (You might want to debate this just like the chicken and egg situation PLUS this is important)  As I began reading and switched to page 2 ... kiddo stopped me and asked where is the character described on the page. I pointed to the picture to which he shook his head in negative. he pointed out that the character is wearing a red T shirt (as per the text that i had just read out) while the picture on the page...

  An article titled "Sorry ! You are too old to be hired" has been doing the rounds of Linkedin for past couple of days and incidentally it came up in conversation with some friends / senior colleagues also. It also refreshed memories of a discussion in our MBA batch whatsapp group from couple of years ago where the entire lot is around 40 yrs age group and the conversation centred around how many more years of survival in corporate world lay ahead of us - conclusion being, not many.  There are several diverse perspectives and facets of this discussion. Over the last few decades, the average age of the organization has been steadily decreasing ... but that was more from the fact that a far greater number of younger people were being employed with modernization of processes and automation tools / computers coming in etc. The senior roles were still being help by the more 'experienced' people giving direction to the organization. The younger lot was growing and rising b...

Rare and priceless-precious (and needless to say private) pics of the Finland Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, get leaked and we have a world divided between "What Non-sense (How can PM behave like this)" and "Woah, the PM is human (and has a right to party like any other human" !! Perfect for a 'what a time to be alive' reaction !! One of the simplest, yet the most powerful coaching tools is the 'Wheel of Life' ... which recognises 'Fun & Recreation' as an integral and crucial aspect of life. In my coaching experience, most people beyond the 30+ age group are ignoring the significance of fun and recreation, focussing on work way too much, worrying about their present and future. (Nope - watching Netflix alone is not F&R) I see the 'Partying PM' pics as a gentle reminder to the world ! the foundational principle of the Wheel of Life philosophy is to balance life in all areas rather than be a super achiever in one and a dud in othe...