My Writings
Reflections on Life and LeadershipGet Started
Emotional Intelligence
- How to Deal with Your Emotions In The Workplace And Make Them Work?
- Why Our Emotions Can Be Overwhelming? Learn 5 Steps to Deal with Them Effectively
- How To (and not to) Deal with an Emotional Employee?
- The Role and Importance of Emotions in Our Professional and Personal Lives
- Discover 10 Myths and Realities about Emotions, And Change Your Life?
- Do You Know Your Emotional Triggers? And What To Do When You Are Triggered?
- How Can We Overcome Negative Emotions And Create Joy And Fulfilment?
Conflict Resolution
- Understanding Conflicts Better – The First Step to Conflict Resolution
- What Not To Do When Conflicts Happen?
- How to Prepare for a Conflict Resolution Conversation?
- Eight Practical Tips for Making A Conflict Resolution Conversation More Effective
- Focus on Interests, Not on Positions – And Make Every Conversation More Productive
- What To Do If You Can’t Achieve Consensus in a Conflict?
- There Are Only Perspectives, No Truth. And Five Perspectives You Can Use Anytime
Most Recent Articles
The Top Three Tragic Myths Of The Times We Live In
"It was dark and quiet, and it took me a few seconds to stand steady on my feet. Well, that's what happens when you have to get up at 2am to go to the bathroom. But things were going to get worse. Just as I began to walk, I suddenly jumped and screamed. Something was crawling on my feet. It felt like a spider and I reached for the light switch....
How to Ask and Get the Feedback You Need Without Any Stress and Awkwardness?
“I want to give you some feedback.” If you are like most people, once you hear the above statement, your heart will start to beat a little faster, your palms might begin to sweat, and in certain situations, you might even begin to shake. Feedback can make anyone anxious and stressed - not because there is something inherently negative or bad...
How to Give Feedback Effectively? What to do Before, During and After a Feedback Conversation?
Giving good quality feedback is an important skill to have in any organization. Doing so regularly with our peers gives everyone an accurate understanding of how they are doing at work, and what needs to change/improve. However, I have always felt that the importance of feedback and how to effectively deliver it is something that is rarely...
What is Feedback? And The Benefits of Feedback for Your Team / Company You Never Knew?
It is the end of the quarter. And it is feedback season again! Feedback is a word many people dread and it makes them uncomfortable, while for others it is a tool to reflect on and improve performance. Having been on both ends of the feedback spectrum over my career, I want to share today what I think feedback is, and how it can benefit people as...
The Distinction Between Meaningless Activity and Meaningful Actions, And Why It Can Make All The Difference
In today’s age of always-connected devices and nonstop notifications, we all have more to do each day than the hours can fit. Crossing items off the to-do list always feels good and gives one a feeling of accomplishment, but have we ever stopped and asked ourselves - accomplishment towards what? The ‘Busy’ Trap Whenever I have stopped to ask...
Have You Discovered Your Leadership Lighthouse? Why Should You?
A Global World Today, we live in a globalized world which is more connected than ever before, and the movement of people and goods has never been easier. It is driven by economics and money, and it is possible to sit on your couch and order what you want from the opposite corner of the world and have it delivered to you in a few days. Open...
The Role and Importance of Emotions in Our Professional and Personal Lives
When I started working at the age of 21, my manager was only a few years older than me. Both of us being very young and passionate about work, we developed a good friendship. As I completed my first year at work, I sat down with this friend (manager) to discuss my performance. I wasn’t ready for what came next. In the meeting, he was very formal...
Focus on Interests, Not on Positions – The One Tip Which Can Make Every Conversation More Productive
There was once only one orange left in a kitchen and two chefs were fighting over it."I need that orange!""Yes, but I need that orange as well !"Time was running out and they both needed an orange to finish their particular recipes for the dinner. They decided on a compromise: they grabbed one of the large kitchen knives that was lying around,...
What To Do If You Can’t Achieve Consensus in a Conflict?
In the previous four articles, I have written about what conflicts are, what not to do when they happen, how to prepare to solve them through a conversation, and some practical tips to follow during the conversation itself. However, doing all this doesn’t guarantee the result you desire. Conflicts can be complex, and there are times when people...
Eight Practical Tips for Making A Conflict Resolution Conversation More Effective
So you have prepared well (read my previous article), and are walking into a conflict resolution conversation with trust and respect for the other person. You have established ground rules for the conversation, and you know your BATNA. Even with all this preparation, it is easy to get sucked into our emotions and give into reacting impulsively....
How to Prepare for a Conflict Resolution Conversation?
A conflict resolution conversation is one of the most critical conversations in any organization. The success or failure of this conversation will determine how the inherent energy in a conflict will be used, and how the relationship between the involved parties will be in the future. As I have written previously, conflicts have a lot of energy,...
What Not To Do When Conflicts Happen?
We all deal with conflicts in the workplace. In the last 12 years of my professional career, I have had my own share of conflicts. That has left me with some learnings about how to navigate through them successfully. This article is the second in a series of articles. To understand conflicts better, find the first one here. While there are...
Understanding Conflicts Better – The First Step to Conflict Resolution
CONFLICT! Is that a word that scares you? Is that something that makes you run in the opposite direction? Do you wish you had the skills to handle conflicts better? If you are like most people, you are no fan of conflicts and have often been caught up in the maze of a conflict. I certainly have, and I can honestly attest that conflict (or the...
There Are Only Perspectives, No Truth. And Five Different Perspectives You Can Apply In Each Situation
Tom : “I am sorry I am a bit late to this meeting. My previous meeting ran over.” Sara : “I am more worried about the missed deadline on the product your team is developing. Your team is slow." Tom : “It’s not my fault. Two members on my team reported sick last week and I can’t help it.” Sara : “I don’t really care what happened. But I know I...
How To (and not to) Deal with an Emotional Employee
As I wrote previously, every human emotion is valid. However, the story behind them might not be, and we always have the choice of how to respond to an emotion. If we want to master how to deal with others’ emotions, our own emotional mastery is the prerequisite. Studies have shown that emotions like frustration, cynicism, enthusiasm, etc are as...
Don’t Allow Yourself to Use the Word TIRED
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine, who has been a state-level Taekwondo Champion for the state of California. She was telling me about her strenuous training program which she used to follow when she was training. Among other things, the one thing which she told me was that she was not allowed to use the word "tired" even if...
Why We Should Break the Safety Wall Around Us (to be Happy)
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. " - Seneca We all have built 'safety walls' around us that are unconscious to us, and are strengthened over time. They determine what we can and cannot do, what we try and what we don't. Almost all our actions are determined by these...
How to Deal with Your Emotions In The Workplace And Make Them Work For You
Fresh out of college, when I started to work professionally as a 21 year old, I dived into work passionately and emotionally. Not only did I do great work during that year, but I also had a lot of fun with my team, many of whom are still my good friends. I was emotionally attached to the work and the people around me, and I considered that a...
How to Use The Surprising Power of Compound Interest in Life
When I was young my mother used to wake me up 5 minutes earlier than I had told her to and made me study any of my school books before getting ready to go to school. I often used to ask her - “how would studying this for just 5 minutes make any difference?” And she would say - “You will know that by the end of the year.” It took me a few years to...
Five Things A Leader Must Do By Default
In today’s corporate environment, after a few years of doing your job well enough, chances are that you will be asked to step up and lead a team. You trained and studied to be good at your job, and now getting to manage people seems like a reward for a job well done. By promoting the good performers to be managers and leaders, people have assumed...