An important factor to work with others is to not only care about your own needs but also what the other person wants — What kind of relationship do you have with your manager? Is it a thriving one or are you barely surviving? Most people attribute a poor relationship with their manager to be the manager’s fault. If the relationship isn’t working, the manager must either be bad, uncaring, or downright incompetent.

Not everything you say will stand out. But you can’t make a difference unless you’re also willing to risk voicing your opinion — For every step forward you take in your career, how many steps are you taking back? Do you actively recognize and pay attention to mistakes that limit your career? Those who succeed at work do not have special skills and abilities. They aren’t more intelligent or talented than others. What…

Don’t see the world as a limited pie but view it as an endless ocean where there’s enough for everyone — Limited number of promotions. Limited salary hikes. Limited opportunities to lead high-visibility projects. Limited number of people who can receive awards. Thinking this way makes winning in corporate parlance equivalent to beating someone else. In order for you to succeed, someone else must fail. …

Get over nonsense and start putting some sense into your work — Too many meetings. I had said those three words way too many times that month. Sometimes as a fleeting comment to myself. Other times in the form of self-pity as this excessive, self-absorbed unhappiness over the current state of my work. Instead of shouting at the top of my lungs…

Learn to scale yourself while also scaling for impact — If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, right? The perfectionist in you likes to be in control and is good at finding excuses: The outcome won’t be as good. It will take me longer to assign and explain than to do it myself. I don’t…

Managing imposter syndrome is important, but knowing what constitutes bad advice is equally important — There’s a wealth of information on managing and getting past imposter syndrome. Just do a Google search, and more than five million results will vie for your attention. Too much advice makes it hard to separate effective strategies that focus on long-term improvement from coping strategies that are workarounds to…

Good management does not require being a superhuman with extraordinary skills. — Management was tough for me in the beginning — too many things to learn and too little time to put everything into practice. I kind of assumed that to be an effective manager, I needed to master all the skills and be great at everything. Trying to do it all…

Create a new recipe from the fundamental truth — First principles thinking drives complex problem-solving and workplace innovation through reverse engineering. Companies that employ first principles thinking are one step ahead as they plan and build for the future. We start with multiple principles in life governed by our values, perceptions, belief system, and how we learn to reason…

An excerpt from my new book — “Rethink Imposter Syndrome: Build Confidence, Beat Self-Doubt and Succeed” — Imposter syndrome may cause you to run around with excuses in your head, feel paralyzed with self-doubt, make it hard to muster up the courage to share your opinion, cause you to dwell on mistakes and failures, and play the negative tape in your mind on repeat. When you fall…