Mukesh Gupta's Blog, page 4

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #20 Rajinikanth

I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual. The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and my work, in particular. Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them […]

The po...

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #19 Rory Sutherland

I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual. The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and my work, in particular. Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them […]

The po...

First Principles Based Leadership – How to Practice Mindful Leadership

Good leaders are students of human behaviour and psychology. In this short video, I share the insight on how our cognitive processing works and how learning this can help us become Mindful leaders. One of the most important aspect of leadership is our ability to choose how we respond to any given situation. Understanding how our cognition functions and where exactly in the process of cognition can we exercise choice has the potential to transform the way we respond to any situation. I was at a m...

First Principles Based Leadership: The Hidden Risks of Data-Driven Decisions

In the past few years, we have seen a huge proliferation of data. With this amount of data being available, the expectation of data driven decision making has peaked as well. However, in my experience, just using data to make decisions is a trap and can lead to some bad decisions. Availability bias The first trap is to think that he data that we have is all the data there is. Most of the times, the data we have is the one’s that is easy to collect, store and make sense of. It is not necessarily ...

Why Deming’s Management Philosophy is More Relevant Today

Premise Edwards Deming has been one of the most influential figures when it comes to management thinking. He is known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan, credited with revolutionising Japan’s industry and making it one of the most dominant economies in the world. There is a lot that has been written about him, his management philosophy and the impact he had while he was still operating. However, there is nothing better than hearing from the man hi...

Mistakes to AVOID in Large Scale Transformation

In today’s rapidly changing world, organisations are constantly looking for ways to transform themselves to remain competitive. Large-scale transformation can be a daunting task, but it is essential for success in the long run. In this video, I discusses four common myths and six common mistakes that people make when leading transformation. I also share advice on how to avoid these mistakes and successfully lead transformations. You can watch the full video here. Myths about Transformation Myth ...

Stop Trying to be Cool

We spend a lot of energy in trying to be cool.. A cool manager, a cool dude, a cool dad or mom or boss. James McCrae has hit a nerve in me with this quote. Instead of trying to be cool (which we maybe or may not), we are better off being nerdy about the things that we love. We are better of being obsessed about the things that we find are interesting and passionate about. This shows our enthusiasm about the thing we love. This shows our true self. We turn up as authentic. And he is absolutely ri...

How to Lead Teams to Drive Innovation, Efficiency, Growth or Transformation

Premise I watched this short video in which HBS professor Linda Hill shares her experience from engaging a Life Sciences company and how they went about building teams and leading for innovation. You can watch the full video here. I have written many times about this topic (here, here, here, here, here, here and on innovation here). As leaders, we need to adapt and change depending on what we are trying to achieve and what our objectives are. Leading for Innovation If we want to drive innovation...

Three Skills We Need to Continue to Improve for Life

Premise There are three things that we need to continue to work and improve as leaders, in order to continue to be an effective leader. These are fundamental in our evolution as a leader and true irrespective of where in the leadership ladder you are at. Believe What we believe have a significant impact on how and what we think is possible. The belief systems are usually sub-conscious in nature and most leaders are not aware of their own beliefs and how they affect our thinking and actions. As l...

First Principles Based Leadership Requires First Order Learning

Premise I read this post by John Hunter, which was originally published in 2014 but is still very relevant. In this blog, he shares one key insight from the work of Deming – managing (or leading) can’t be taught (prescriptive) and needs to be learnt (experiential). First Order Learning Vs Second Order Learning One needs to learn to lead by leading and to manage by managing. We can learn from our own experience (first order learning) or from the experience of those who have gone before us (second...