Advertise on podcast: Pushing Beyond the Obvious

Premise: Life and work are never static; they operate on an emotional roller coaster where peaks of success are inevitably followed by valleys of struggle. Far too many leaders view their teams as “resources”—cogs in a machine designed for output—rather than recognizing the complex human beings behind the results. The most effective leaders possess the strategic agility to serve as both a sanctuary and a catalyst – they act like a thermostat (constantly adjusting the culture) and not just as a thermometer. Our core mandate is to build an environment where we provide psychological safety for the struggling while simultaneously […] The post The Paradox of Modern Leadership first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise We have been conditioned to believe that inspiration is a mantle we must put on, a performance we must give to drive our teams toward excellence. We treat “being inspirational” as a line item on a professional development plan. But here lies the paradox – the moment we set out with the ego-driven goal of becoming an inspirational leader, we have already failed. To seek to be inspirational as a personal badge of honor is a self-centered pursuit. True inspiration is never the starting point; it is the quiet, powerful byproduct of specific behaviors. To move others, we must […] The post How to Be an Inspirational Leader? first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise For decades, the standard leadership playbook has been built upon an ironclad, yet increasingly fragile, triad: vision, strategy, and execution. While these pillars are foundational, they are no longer sufficient to navigate the complexities of the modern knowledge economy. A significant, transformative chapter is missing from the manual—one that addresses the human engine of performance. We have been conditioned to believe that leadership is exclusively “serious work” and that joy is a frivolous activity, which is at best emerges as after work activities and at worst considered a liability to be checked at the door.   This cultural perception has […] The post The Play Advantage – Why Fun is the New Frontier of High Performance Leadership first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise In this podcast episode, we host India’s biggest and best Executive Coach Shital Kakkar Mehra. She has trained more than 1000 CxO’s and more than 40000 leaders about how to develop their executive presence. We talk about how we lead and expectations from us shift as we continue to grow in our careers. What makes us successful early in our career is no longer enough when we become managers (managing people) and it changes again, when we start leading managers and again shifts when we start leading functions and organisations. Apart from all the technical skills and the ability […] The post Here is Why You Are Stuck in Middle Management.. first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise: A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review carried a title that should stop every leader in their tracks: “Your people are not all right.” It speaks to a widespread reality of overwhelm, stress, and burnout that many teams are facing. While tracking performance, hitting targets, and managing metrics are essential parts of leadership, they are not the whole story. A truly great leader—a “leader worth following“—understands that sustainable success is built on the well-being of their people. This requires going deeper than the dashboard. It’s a strategic blind spot for most leaders, who overlook the single most powerful and […] The post The Single Most Important Question You’re Not Asking Your Team first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

In most scenarios, the default instinct for solving problems is additive. We add more features to a product, more resources to a team, more complexity to a process. We operate under the assumption that “more” is inherently better. This approach feels safe and logical, layering on solutions to cover every contingency. This is also in line with the natural process of increasing entropy all around us. However, imagine, what if the most powerful strategy isn’t about adding, but enabling radical subtraction? What if the path to an unbeatable advantage lies in stripping away the very things everyone else considers essential? […] The post The Last Legal Competitive Advantage You Are Allowed! first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise: Standing out starts with choosing to see, think, and act differently from the default, and then designing your work, relationships, and systems around that choice. This means intentionally questioning “how things are done here” and repeatedly experimenting with better ways that reflect who you are and what you care about.​ Why being different matters Most environments quietly push people to conform, to not make waves, and to follow existing templates for success. If you obey those pressures blindly, you become invisible, even when you are talented and hardworking. Think differently Thinking differently begins with the questions you allow yourself […] The post How to be Remarkable and Stand Out as a Leader first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Teams that are engaged perform better, collaborate more, and stay longer. I often talk about how employee engagement sits at the heart of every high-performing team. The real question is: how do leaders actually build it in day-to-day work? Hire for Attitude Before Skills Engagement starts much earlier than most people realise — right at the hiring stage. I believe that while skills can be developed over time, attitude is much harder to change. Hiring people who naturally align with the team’s values and energy creates a stronger foundation for engagement. At the same time, we need to understand the […] The post A Practical Guide to Building an Engaged Team first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise:  In today’s fast-paced world, every organization and leader feels the relentless pressure to innovate. We’re taught to hunt for that game-changing idea, that single “Eureka!” moment that will redefine our market. But waiting for a random stroke of genius is an ineffective and stressful strategy. The myth of the lone visionary struck by a sudden, brilliant insight is just that—a myth. True innovation isn’t about luck; it’s about process. Generating breakthrough ideas can be a systematic, repeatable activity. By moving beyond passive inspiration and adopting active methods, you can build a reliable engine for creativity within your team or […] The post How to Be Creative as a Team first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise: Almost all leaders today lead in an environment that is ripe with disruptions and ever changing competitive landscape. The challenges of leading in this constantly evolving landscape are very different from that of leading in a stable environment where the current management practices are rooted in. So, if we have to succeed in this new world, we need to change the lens through which we view leadership and management practices. That begs the questions – where can we draw inspiration for the new way of leading. Thankfully, we don’t need to look far. We can learn from Evolutionary Biology. […] The post The Hidden Leadership Skill: Leading for Evolution first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise: Confidence doesn’t always come naturally, especially when you grow up rarely seeing people like you represented in leadership, media, or success stories. In a world where visibility often determines opportunity, learning how to show up fully becomes essential. In this episode of my podcast, we host Sheena Yap Chan, a keynote speaker, leadership strategist, and author, who shares powerful insights on confidence, identity, and visibility, particularly for Asian women navigating personal and professional spaces. Why Representation Matters More Than We Think? Growing up in Canada, Sheena often felt the absence of representation. There were few role models in media […] The post Building The Confidence to be VISIBLE with Sheena Yap Chan first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

In this short narration, Quentin Tarantino talks about the role of a director and it is a classic definition of what we need to do as leaders to become a leader worth following. Very early in his career, he asked Terry Gilliam on what was the job of a director in the making of a movie and here is what he was told – “It is not your job to create your vision, it is your job to have a vision! And it is your job then to hire talented people who understand your vision. You articulate your vision to […] The post What Quentin Tarantino Can Teach Leaders About their Jobs first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Introduction: The Vicious Cycle of Feeling “Stuck” Have you ever felt completely stuck? Maybe it’s a low mood you can’t shake, or a physical exhaustion that makes every task feel impossible. When you’re in that state, it can feel like a vicious cycle you can’t break. But what if you had more control than you thought? The relationship between our psychology (our mind) and our physiology (our body) is a powerful two-way street. How we think affects how we feel physically, and how our body feels and moves directly impacts our mental state. This is fantastic news because it means […] The post How to Trick our Mind and Body to do What We Want first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

Premise The real job of a leader is not decision-making. It is decision capability-building and this can be done by creating better leaders from those that they lead. Bad leaders manage how work is being done, good leaders manage whether the work is being done and great leaders create capacity so that the work gets done. This is possible only when we are able to find ways to train them, to coach them and to get them ready for their journey as a leader. This requires us to give them additional responsibilities and create opportunities to lead as part of […] The post Don’t Solve Problems. Develop Problem Solvers first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.

This is the recording of a live conversation I had with Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag to explore how the principles from the Theory of Constraints can be applied to multi-project environments (Digital transformation efforts) to deliver projects on time, on budget and on spec. She shared insights from her latest book (now available in Worldwide) Goldratt’s Rules of Flow to help us understand how to increase the velocity and throughputs of project deliveries within our organisation. We covered the following topics in the conversation: 1. Introducing the work of Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag 2. Do 70% of projects really fail to achieve their […] The post PBTO: Goldratt’s Rules of Flow – Delivering Projects on-time on-budget and on-spec and driving up profitability first appeared on Leaders Worth Following.