Your style in a meeting – editable word or read only PDF?
When you enter a meeting, what is your approach or mind-set most often? Do you go with a…
Articles
A collection of articles on topics related to leadership and coaching, written by experienced members of the CFI Fraternity.
Reflection to Results
When a coached leader says that the coaching engagement ‘exceeded all expectations and was life altering’ and this is…
The Power to Choose
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand came into the limelight with her compassionate and decisive leadership during…
Hey employees, leave your manager alone!
We don’t need no training programsWe don’t need more pulse surveysNo dark sarcasm around the water coolerTeam, leave…
Are you “headcount” or “employee”?
It appears that these are hard times for some people in some places. Storied corporations with blemishless brands…
Does grey matter
My friend Neeraj Sagar has founded a company whose mission statement is to “retire retirement”. I call it “making grey…
Will Artificial Intelligence replace Executive Coaching?
The latest Chatbot technology called ChatGPT has users all over the world excited and reasonably impressed. A news…
2023, Getting Real, In More Ways Than One!
Hopin, a virtual events start-up (thanks to the pandemic) that raised over a billion dollars in less than…
Story Telling vs Success Theatre
I keep hearing more and more organizations urging that their leaders learn the art of “story telling” –…
Why Employees Don’t Take Ownerships
The term “ownership” is used by leaders and managers most often to describe its absence at a time…
Exit, Voice and Loyalty
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty – responses to decline in firms, organisations and states(1970) is a treatise written by Albert O.…
The Four Labour Market Forces
There are several forces that determine competitive advantage. The labour force is an important determinant of competitive advantage…
An Empathetic View to Generational Differences
As we look at generational differences, is there a broader framework that can be used by each one…
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
In our recent cohort-based learning session with the latest batch of the SheLeads Programme, we invited 5 male…
Getting Over the Networking No-No
“Your network is your net worth!” screamed the poster. Anita took one look at it and wondered why…
Why Employees Don’t Take Ownership
The term “ownership” is used by leaders and managers most often to describe its absence at a time…
Are Your Dreams Big Enough?
In continuation of our series on women leadership based on the research we carried out for the SheLeads…
What Sacrifices Are You Making Today?
It was Tulasi’s 20th annual school reunion in the evening. She was excited about meeting everyone after ages.…
Is there a new way of learning and leading at GE?
GE’s famed Crotonville, started way back in 1956 to grow leaders from within has been put on sale.…
Did you first fill the form?
As an HR professional and consultant, I have spent a while designing forms that employees need to fill…
Learning to travel light
The manner in which we travel bears lot of similarities with the way we wish to live our…
Shedding some sunshine on Moonlighting
A lot of sparks have been flying in the past few days on the subject of moonlighting, specifically…
As you think of retirement
As you think of retirement …You have just a few years left to retire and you have been…
Great rewards, great resignations and grueling layoffs
I am for a few moments putting myself in the shoes of a young employee and taking an…
Managing Perceptions – A Special Challenge for Women Leaders
Managing Perceptions – A Special Challenge for Women Leaders Ms Marin, Prime Minister of Finland is in the…
The rise and fall of professionally unreasonable jobs
The rise and fall of professionally unreasonable jobs A job that offers a certain level of stretch and…
Allowable dishonesties of organizational life
Whenever you meet employees across levels – CXOs to front-line employees and engage them in conversations about culture…
When Did You Last Put Yourself First?
First to wake up, last to eat and last to set her head down to sleep. An Indian…
Are you hard working?
Chances are most of us would say, “of course yes”. I start my work early and end pretty…
When The Clock Strikes Six
Sarita glanced at the clock. It showed 6.30 PM. Office hours were 9.00 AM to 6.00 PM. She…
Listening and the boiling milk
How many times has this happen to you? You are standing in front of the stove to boil…
10 sure signs that you are listening
One of the common behavioural changes that leaders commit to make to their coaches is to listen better.…
How HR and Talent Professionals are Shaping Coaching and Leader Development
I have been engaging with client organisations for their coaching needs for well over 15 years and I…
HR 2020 and Beyond, well, It depends
One of the common jokes that employees and line managers make about HR professionals is this: When you…
Exec. Coaching in India, the right time
As more and more individuals contemplate becoming a coach and more and more contemplate opening institutions to train…
Hot coffee conversations
I read with great interest the bold experiment launched by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks to encourage his…
Seven Conversations that every HR professionals must master
The success of HR professionals depends in good measure on the quality of their conversations with a wide…
Cognitive Empathy for HR Professionals
The CEO has been talking about risks to key talent and the urgent need to do something. The…
Five real problems that concerns our employees today
What are the things that concern our employees today? What seem to be the most common causes for…
Best employers or workplaces
Every year, a clutch of consulting firms routinely release their “much awaited” list of best employers or workplaces…
A Sponsor’s Guide to Coaching
This Guide is meant to help Potential Sponsors of executive coaching engagements help their team members (the coachees)…
Appreciating Before Assessing
Assessment has an important place in leader development, given that it creates the necessary disequilibrium to motivate change.…
Enhancing Coaching Effectivenes
Considering Coaching as part of your leadership development approach? Or perhaps you already have an institutionalized coaching process,…
Coaching & You
Your organization has just offered you the opportunity of working with a coach as a part of your…
Should CHROs be wise or young?
Every time I catch up with my friends who are CHROs in reasonably large organisations, one thing strikes…
Is HR’s tripod structure working?
For years now, many HR leaders have been busy implementing what is popularly referred to as the tripod structure…
Peer Supervision and Support – the CFI Experience
A participant of CFI’s CEO Coach Accreditation Programme was looking forward to his coaching internship to apply the…
Setting up a Coaching Relationship – the Inside Story
This article focuses on some of the ground level issues involved in setting up an effective relationship between…
To ROI or not to ROI!
As in every other profession, we have in the field of coaching, the good coaches and the not…
Appropriateness of Coaching
Those who invest in coaching (like in the case of training), coaching constantly wonder if their investment is…
Building a Coaching Culture within Organisations
As more and more research points out to the impact of managerial styles on employee engagement, companies are…
Coaching for Execution
ABSTRACT Smart CEOs understand the interdependence of strategy and execution and do not get carried away by the…
Cross Cultural Perspectives
A monkey and a fish were caught in a terrible flood and were being swept downstream amidst torrents…
Systems Perspective as a Differentiating Coaching Competency
Will the approach and perspective of a counsellor who is counselling a client who is an adolescent be…
What’s Wrong with Giving Advice?
The Coach is listening intently to his client as the client narrates in great detail the specifics of…
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Coaching
Leveraging the power of Alternative Interventions in Coaching – an NLP perspective The term Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)…
Business Coaching in an M&A Context
Abstract “Mergers & Acquisitions are a business reality among mid-size corporations. In such contexts, entrepreneurs constantly seek coaches…
Transactional Analysis and Coaching
Leveraging the power of Alternative Interventions in Coaching – a transactional analysis perspective As change catalysts, Executive Coaches…
The Anatomy of Coaching Led Change
The ultimate test of a coaching engagement is often the visible change that your client is able to…
Coaching for Strategic Thinking
One of the most common coaching needs is this – to help a leader think and act more…
Why Don’t You Communicate?
You could be a leader, manager, team member or colleague. How do you know if you are communicating…
The Shadow Side of Company Culture
We keep hearing more and more organisations talk passionately about “their culture” and how they wish to preserve…
Coaching for Executive Presence
First things first, here are a few examples of what typically gets addressed under Transition Coaching for executive…
Pre-existing Conditions in Executive Coaching
In the field of Insurance, a pre-existing condition is defined as a health condition that existed prior to…
Coaches as Wounded Healers
First things first. I am not using the term wounded healers in the same way that Psychologist &…
Means Matter – Read the Fine Print
Ever so often, we hear the story of a very successful leader’s career suddenly getting derailed. He or…
Moral High Ground, Emotional Low Road
Have you ever coached leaders who tend to take the moral high ground but do it by ending…
What Developing People Really Means
The ability of any manager or leader to develop the people working for them has always been considered…
How Coach-Coachee Pairing works?
The most important step in setting up a successful coaching engagement is the process of the coachee finding…
The Shadow Side of Coaching Support
Over the years, we at CFI have received several hundreds of requests for coaching support for executives. Most…
Is it the end of the BC (bell curve) era?
I am sure all of you are reading a spate of reports about organisation after organisation announcing their…
Is it time to blow up HR?
For decades the Harvard Business Review (HBR) has shaped global thinking about management. Let’s not forget that several…
Career choices: downshifting or derailment
Downshifting as the very term indicates means moving from a higher gear to a lower gear in a vehicle. Derailment is…
Will acqui-hiring work?
In recent weeks I have been hearing the term acqui-hiring (the practice of buying out a company essentially for its…
Leadership Councils in a Digital World
Every organisation of some standing has some form of a shared leadership platform or forum. These forums are…
Functional Excellence and Service Quality
One of the biggest contradictions that I encounter in the HR profession and function is the perennial gap…
Capital as Punishment
I must start by clarifying that this article has nothing to do with the subject of capital punishment. Thanks…
Can Leaders be made to measure?
Here is a typical (but fictitious) discussion in a talent council meeting in a typical company: You see,…
How are you when you are not coaching?
Coaches are human beings – they did not descent from heaven. Coaches also play several roles in addition to…
The movie Up in the Air explains it all
Ryan Bingham works for an HR consulting firm that specialises in termination assistance – basically firing employees. Ryan…
Too much assessment too little support
If you walk the streets of any of our cities, you will see innumerable scan centres, imaging centres,…
The real problem with delegation: micromanagement or abdication
The ability and inability to delegate at a level that is appropriate to one’s position in the organisation…
Why should your employees go on leave?
Until Valentines day, love was in the air. Soon after, we find that fraud is in the air.…
The problem of setting safe goals
Now is the time of the year when managers sit with their employees to discuss and sign off…
The urgent need for patience
The impatient executive Imagine this conversation between a Coach and his client, a hugely successful but impatient executive.…
What keeps the HR folks motivated?
The song Chingaree Koee bhadake sung by Kishore Kumar for the film Amar Prem raises some philosophical questions. I find one particular…
The story behind those business cards
In the last few weeks my office assistant who is updating my contact list has been asking me…
Leadership councils in a digital world
Every organisation of some standing has some form of a shared leadership platform or forum. These forums are…
(When) does a start-up entrepreneur need coaching?
The original title of this article did not have the parentheses. I hastily added it because I thought…
The brave will invest in development
The world has seen several business cycles, economic ups and downs. In the throes of each of these…
Exec. Coaching in India, the right time
As more and more individuals contemplate becoming a coach and more and more contemplate opening institutions to train…
Applied Self-awarneness
Our first brush with enhanced self-awareness through feedback was perhaps in school when our teachers wrote something about…
Growing leaders from within
From the 38th floor of the St. Regis Hotel the view of Mumbai was romantic. However, the three…
The CEO’s HR Schooling
Every new CEO in today’s world will acknowledge that “people” and therefore Human Resources management is one of…
Altering India’s Doorstep Development Model ……. my wish for 2016 and beyond ……
My wife and I were visiting our relatives who live in a fast developing suburb of Bangalore. Their…
The story behind those business cards
In the last few weeks my office assistant who is updating my contact list has been asking me…
Is Executive Coaching as a Career right for you?
Given my involvement with the field of executive coaching, I receive several calls from professionals who are seriously…
Bridging the Service Quality Gaps
In my post of March 25th, I spoke about the gap between functional excellence and service quality. Using…
Vales values on the wall the hidden stories do tell them all
You are waiting in the plush lobby of a large and reputed organisation to meet someone. As you…
Workman, personnel, human resources or talent?
Talent, Resources, Human Capital – well, you can use any fancy term you wish to, but a Labour Court…
