Maximise Potential

So this year's Time Person of the Year is none other than Elon Musk. TIME says the following in the cover story revealing the magazine's 2021 Person of the Year: "This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edge lord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars." Elon Musk is one of the greatest business icons of the 21st century. With the passing of Steve Jobs he has rightly taken the pole position in the realm of business leaders who are considered visionaries. I read the book on Elon Musk some years back by Ashlee Vance and it is a wonderful inspiring read. I think the lessons I learned from that read and other research still holds good. Here are the lessons I gleaned.  Be in it for the long haul – Irrespective of what our aim is unless we have de...

 As it is often said time is an equal opportunity employer. There are so many time management books and with the advent of technology we thought we will get more control which may not be the case. Here is my A - Z of time management which can help you towards getting the most out of the 24 hours we get every day. I think Peter Drucker said we should teach leaders what to stop than what to get done.  Attention – You get in life what you pay attention to. It is important to pay attention only to the important things to you and ignore everything else. The more attention you pay to the things that matter to you the better control you have over your time. Focus on the wildly important and ignore the rest. Be focused – We all have 100 things pending. We have books we want to read, articles we want to write and multiple hobbies that we want to pursue. However with limited time we need to be focused only on the things that matter. This point does get repeated often but it is the one t...

  The future is exciting for many people but for others it is also a cause for anxiety. With so much talk about Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Internet of Things and Robots who may take over our jobs this is not an easy time. The future irrespective of which era we lived in is uncertain. It is important to remember that in times like these there have always been times like these. I still think the opportunities available to all of us are enormous provided we ride successfully in this era of uncertainty. I have identified the following 16 keys to thrive in the future of uncertainty and take charge of your career. Be abreast of the trends – With the explosion in data, information, technology, change and competition it is absolutely imperative that you ride this wave of change by being well informed on what the future looks like. What you are doing today may not work in another 5 years. One skill which will never become obsolete is the ability to move others and increasing your sa...

 I wanted to take the opportunity to share the books I liked reading this year across various topics like technology, business, success and leadership among others. Most of them are business books which is my preferred genre. Here are the 13 books I liked reading in 2021. At the end of the article I share the books I liked right from 2015 till now. Hot Seat by Jeff Immelt – This is an insider peek into what led to GE's downturn in his tenure. We shouldn't forget he took over GE from the legendary Jack Welch and the day after he took over the unfortunate 09/11 events took place. While history may be very harsh on him I feel we also need to give him credit for the time he led. He gives some solid leadership advice like leaders showing up, persevering in a crisis, solving problems, managing complexity, and doing systems thinking among others. It is worth a read. Think Again by Adam Grant – I have read all of Adam Grant's books and this was an interesting addition to his accomp...