One of the surest signs of progress in life and leadership is that looking back often makes us uncomfortable. We revisit an old project and wonder how we could have thought it was complete. We recall a decision that once felt confident and now see all the flaws in our reasoning. We hear our … [Read more...]
The Meeting You Lose Before You Speak
It begins the moment you sit down. You look around the table and realize the faces are polite, but the decision is already tilting away from you. No one says it outright, yet you can feel the drift. Questions come that aren’t really questions. Support feels soft. And when the meeting ends, your … [Read more...]
The Funnel is Gone. Your Brand is the Algorithm.
Obaid was in Ottawa this past weekend, and of course we met. These days the core emphasis of our in-person conversations is for me to get a download from him on what is happening in the Valley. In our chat, he described something that felt small at first. It was just a reflection on how … [Read more...]
When the Light Is On but the Door Is Closed
There’s a quiet grief that accompanies the moment you realise your investment in someone’s growth is no longer lifting them. Not because they’re incapable. Not because they’re unworthy. But because they’ve stopped showing up for themselves. You haven’t given up on them. But you’ve stopped … [Read more...]
The Illusion of Tidy
We often confuse tidy with clean. On the surface, they may seem interchangeable, but they are not. Tidy is cosmetic. It is the art of arrangement, the ability to make something look appealing to the eye. Clean, on the other hand, is foundational. It is about integrity, substance, and truth. Tidy … [Read more...]
From Mud Floors to the Stars: A Story of Satellites, Soil, and the Soul of India
There are stories that stir your pride. There are others that spark your imagination. And then, once in a while, there are stories that do both - while quietly rewriting what we believe is possible. Reading NDTV’s recent feature on the 50-year anniversary of India’s landmark SITE experiment - … [Read more...]
Plans as Mirrors, Not Maps
I stood in front of my class yesterday and invited them to sketch a five-year leadership plan. That invitation arrived with a confession. I am not, by reputation or by habit, a serial planner. At least not if we define a plan as a crystalline template that foresees every twist in the next … [Read more...]
The Domain You Never Claimed
Why your name is the professional real estate you didn’t know you were losing There’s a quiet but consequential mistake that even the most ambitious professionals make. It isn’t about strategy or skill or networking. It’s about something much simpler and surprisingly overlooked - your … [Read more...]
The Vineyard, the Vanity Appointment, and the Value of Trust
There’s something oddly profound about a colleague thanking you for letting them take a day off to go to a vineyard - or to a vanity appointment. Not because the request is groundbreaking, but because the honesty behind it is. No cover-up, no excuses, no medical emergency inserted to justify time … [Read more...]