Building credibility requires more than just competence and knowledge. — What erodes credibility at work and what builds it? Most employees don’t think about credibility consciously which prevents them from taking the right steps to build it. They think that if they keep their heads down and keep doing the good work, someone will take notice and good opportunities will…

Disagreements can save time and energy by preventing critical mistakes and course correcting before it’s too late — What do you do when you disagree with your manager or someone senior? Do you voice your opinion, or do you choose to keep quiet? Speaking truth to power is a rare skill. Telling someone above you that they’re wrong requires courage and confidence. Holding your tongue and staying silent…

Thinking errors are a common part of being a human. Let’s understand the traps to watch out for and learn how to avoid them — Leaders are ordinary human beings who make mistakes from time to time. While some mistakes are insignificant or have minor negative consequences, others might be potentially harmful and damaging to the organization and its people. Most of these mistakes are unintentional — they stem from thinking errors, applying shortcuts, and…

Occasional errors in thinking make us form an inaccurate view of reality and stick with it, thereby impacting our behaviors and actions — In part 1 on cognitive distortions, I wrote about the five cognitive distortions that impact your decision-making by impairing your ability to think clearly. In this article, I will cover five cognitive distortions that impact communication: Heaven’s reward fallacy

A constant state of overwhelm and reactivity can drain team energy, increase stress and can even lead to burnout. — Some leaders ruthlessly prioritize to ensure important work is not compromised at the cost of urgent actions. Other leaders treat every request as a priority and don’t pay attention to how much something deserves their attention. Attaching a heightened sense of urgency to every request makes it difficult for their…

How can you trust your managers to do the job while you’re still responsible for it? — When you stop managing individual contributors and start managing other managers, a lot needs to change. Your role is no longer about assigning tasks, meeting deadlines, or taking care of your team’s work assignments and other responsibilities. Your managers are now doing the work you used to do yourself. You…

5 factors that have the ability to overpower and completely color your thinking. — Our thoughts aren’t clear most of the time. Instead of a clear blue sky, they often appear as dark clouds and storms in the sky. While some people are able to look beyond this temporary darkness into the hidden bright blue sky, others get bogged down by it and feel…

Potential is not a matter of where you start, but of how far you travel. — We all have tremendous potential waiting to be unleashed. Some people utilize their potential to achieve amazing feats while others never realize what they’re capable of as they let their self-limiting beliefs get in the way of their growth. When you consider talent as the only measure of success and…

A blueprint to success to guide you in your journey towards your goals — In all our endeavors, success is a desired end state. It brings a moment of exhilaration, joy and pride that’s hard to explain. Failure on the other hand is disappointing, frustrating and can even demotivate some people from trying to reach for their goals. Multiple setbacks, challenges and obstacles are…