Tag: Career
-
The blame games we get sucked into
I think many workplaces have the same reflex when something goes wrong. A deadline slips, a production issue appears, a customer complains or a team misses expectations. The immediate reaction is often to find who made the mistake. But many times the real problem is not the person. It is the system producing the behavior.…
-
Readiness is so important
Most delivery problems don’t start during execution. They start much earlier. When we convince ourselves we are ready. Readiness is probably one of the most less talked aspects of delivery. We treat it like a checklist. A few documents, some estimates, dependencies noted and we move forward. But real readiness is not documentation. It is…
-
Did I make the right career choices ?
I often look back at my career and ask. Did I make the right choices? It depends on what I wanted. It was all fun in my twenties. I did some pursuits in my thirties. But I was all the while lost, distracted, confused and directionless. One of my friends also told me this I…
-
Improvement, Planning and Repeatability
Improvement is an interesting word, especially when the change we are talking about takes time. Because improvement is not just something we measure. It is something people should feel. Not just understood, but experienced, a sense that something is moving in the right direction. There will always be naysayers, people who prefer to complain rather…
-
If people hate Mondays, something is broken.
I’ve never fully understood the idea of Monday blues. Monday is a beginning. A reset. A fresh page. And yet, for so many people, it feels like something to endure rather than look forward to. I see it across teams and conversations. People who actually enjoy parts of their work—their colleagues, their interactions, even the…
-
Meetings & Meetings
Have you ever wanted to run out of a meeting screaming at the top of your voice? Okay, that may be a little dramatic. But most of us have sat through meetings where we were disinterested… frustrated… or wondering why we were even there. And if we are honest, we have also been on the…
-
Is all value visible?
Is all value visible? When does value become invisible? And how long can invisible value keep you going? I finished reading Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis last week. I haven’t seen the film starring Anthony Quinn, but while reading, Zorba looked exactly like Quinn in my mind. Some characters do that. They move from…
-
Thoughts on being useful and visible.
It’s an interesting question, especially because we often assume the opposite of useful to be ‘useless’. That’s not true. There is a wide space between the two. In that space, many of us simply exist, present, are involved, visible but not really adding any specific value. None of us can be useful 24×7. And that’s…
-
On Value and Clarity
We often mistake motion for progress. Value emerges when we slow down enough to decide what actually matters. Take meetings, for example. A clear set of action items or even a shared direction for what comes next is crucial. I have been in meetings that felt energizing in the moment, only for that excitement to…
-
Can 2026 be about Value
December 31 is always a strange day for me. It is like turning a chapter or even a new book. While I know I will inherit everything from last year, the good and the bad. Yet I feel January 1 is a new thing and demands more action. Maybe December 31 asks us for more…
Penpositive 