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Kindness allows us to become a better innovator
I found this article quite resonating – a link between kindness & innovation. It also explicitly calls out that ‘being nice or polite’ is often confused with being kind. Leading with kindness is simplified with 3 simple behaviours:1. Always opt for honesty over politeness2. Don’t just listen, find solutions3. Lead with empathy and compassion I…
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Right-fit work environment, a vital aspect of work life
Last 5-6 years, I have been part of building teams and a step to that is interviewing. I would have easily conducted 100+ interviews over the last 5 years (and also gave some as I was shifting jobs) I believe that a part (usually 20% of the interview slot) of each interview where the interviewee…
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Yes, She Can!!!
(part of an infinite stories’ series) I started my first role as a Category buyer for car seats at Maruti Suzuki India Limited. It was considered a complex category because it involved multiple components/materials such as fabric, sheet metal, seat pads, plastic frame, sub-assemblies (sliding, reclining) In the early months, my then manager used to send…
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A step towards shaping your role (purpose) in life
04.07.2005, we lost him forever He was navigating us through thick n thin, he was making all important decisions and he was winning bread for the familyGrowing up, he was my source of inspiration, I always saw him acting from a position of power and I wanted to be like him 1 day I knew…
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She paid it forward, even when she never had it for herself
This story is about a woman who could not break biases for herself BUT enabled me to break every social bias which came my way… 1. LETTING ME AIM AT DIFFERENTË— I come from a family where decisions on girl education were like this ‘teacher is the ONLY aspiration you can pursue or ‘If I spent $x for…
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5 steps to break the bias in large corporates
#breakthebias 1. Identify if there is a bias– you will find symptoms across hiring practices, evaluation practices, bonus allocations, how the airtime with decision makers gets allocated, how the day-to-day communication is conducted (are some favoured more? are some interrupted more when they speak?), and many more… 2. Validate the bias– how robust are your…
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Everyone needs that 1 chance; only if as a leader we lean-in
We both dialed for the interview He was casually dressed, holding a drink, and assumed it was going to be a less formal, chit-chat… I take case interviews and these are rather moderately difficult to difficult – one needs some seriousness & preparation to perform well. We did 2 cases, he did okay…I was convinced…
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Difficult conversations open doors to opportunities; only if we allow
She is 11 and being raised by a single parentI asked her mother if she ever had a heart-to-heart conversation with her daughter about her separationAnd, not to my surprise, her answer was ‘No’ because she found it difficultThis was unsettling for me… I decided to have a conversation with herIt was the first time…
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Transformed herself from a liability to an asset; YES, SHE DID IT!
We met in late 2020…In early 2021, our coaching relationship got deeperHer top 2 priorities were – 1) to get a laptop 2) to pay her loan (~$1000) apart from day-to-day expenses On exploration – I found she is making <$1 per hour part-time which was barely enough to meet her day-to-day expense. She is…
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Don’t sell them your ambition so easy!
Growing up as younger one, I had the privilege to observe journey of many elder cousins (mostly sisters) One of my cousin, she was very intelligent and had an ambition to become a DOCTOR Those days (1994/95) there were only 300-400 seats in government medical colleges across India so my cousin could not get through…