Tag: leadership

  • Corporate Realities

    Corporate Realities

    Mango Range was an interlude in my career. I was marking time and waiting for some positive change to happen, and in the meanwhile I enjoyed myself. It has long been my philosophy to live one day at a time and to try to create as much happiness for myself and around me as possible.…

  • Nawab Saab

    Nawab Saab

    From Nawab Nazir Yar Jung, I learnt the importance of commitment to quality. He never once used the word, but he never accepted anything but the best. Be it in breeding dogs or in their training, or in training horses. Attention to detail and insisting on the best. He was an expert in Judo and…

  • See with ‘THEIR’ eyes

    See with ‘THEIR’ eyes

    Try an experiment. Walk down a street that you usually walk down. Notice how it looks and try to remember the details. When you get to the end of the street or if it is a long street, then when you have walked a few hundred meters, turn around and look up the street you…

  • Leadership is a Personal Choice – Podcast

    Leadership is a Personal Choice – Podcast

    This is a new initiative that I started this week. Leadership is a Personal Choice. It will be available on Google Podcasts (Android) also. Please listen to the introduction first which tells you what this is all about and what I am trying to persuade you to do. Then listen to the first episode, Differentiate.…

  • Differentiate

    Differentiate

    If you asked me to tell you in one word; only one word, the secret of success, I would say, “Differentiate.” Differentiation is to stand out. Not blend in. Incidentally that is also how I define leadership. Nobody understands this better than Apple. Or Coke for that matter. And that is why these brands inspire…

  • The meaning of ‘Covenant’

    The meaning of ‘Covenant’

    Anyone can teach you what to do. But hard taskmasters teach you standards. That is the biggest favor that anyone can do for you. That is what I owe to AVG and Ahmed. Both were the kindest of people off the job, but on the job, it was a different matter. If you did well,…

  • Leadership is about living your values

    Leadership is about living your values

    One cardinal fact of plantation life always took its toll – nothing in planting life was private. If you took a bribe, its exact amount, who gave it, and for what, was the subject of much conversation in the bazaar. If you refused to be corrupt and lived a life of honesty, that also became…

  • People listen with their eyes

    People listen with their eyes

    The plantation industry is perhaps the finest place in which to learn leadership in a very hands-on manner. It is hugely exciting, sometimes very painful and always beneficial; the lessons learnt of lasting benefit. It is a treasure-trove of memories that last all life long; decades after most of us left planting. It enriches us…

  • Planting was a way of life

    Planting was a way of life

    The more time I spent with myself, the clearer it became that it is important to be ‘friends’ with yourself. The more you are self-aware and comfortable internally, the more you can enjoy the world outside. When you are not aware of what is happening to you inside or are unhappy with decisions you have…

  • Influencing without authority

    Influencing without authority

    Two lessons from this incident; the importance of building a good case and the importance of putting it in a way that makes sense to the listener from his perspective. ‘What’s in it for me?’ is a tune that everyone listens to. It’s about speaking the truth but doing it in a way that makes…