Scale-up with PK!

CEOs and Founders often reach a stage in their journey where their Leadership Impact seemingly begins to flatten out. The big leaps they made earlier start to wither down. At this level, their leadership impact doesn’t grow by working any harder, but by leading differently; that is by addressing the nuances, the subtler aspects of leadership - in other words, by elevating their Leadership Presence...

High-impact leadership requires a CEO to think differently , mastering different modes of thinking such as Critical thinking, lateral thinking, strategic thinking and so on - and importantly knowing when to use what! For example Critical thinking is about evaluating data, challenging assumptions, and separating signal from noise. Critical thinking is useful when teams disagree on a solution or tra...

For Leaders, Enhanced Leadership Presence means enhanced leadership impact – that enables them to inspire more, and exert influence beyond what’s conferred by formal authority. One could build and enhance one’s Leadership Presence . Being Present, Being Open, Curious, Listening actively, Simplifying things, heightened emotional intelligence, walking the talk, Being Resolute and Resilient contribut...

As a CEO Coach, at times I get asked Why CEOs need a Coach, And how the CEOs and Founders could make use of support from a CEO Coach . Being a CEO is a solitary space - CEOs and Founders feel lonely at the top! Rarely do they get to share their deeper thoughts, feelings and fears with someone; seldom they get a chance to express their original thoughts, out-of-the-box ideas, with anyone. Rarely th...

A significant part of having Leadership Presence is being present – in whole, in every moment, wherever we are, whatever we do. ‘Wherever you are, make sure you’re there’ said Dan Sullivan. One could consciously work on being present. Presence means involvement. Presence means being conscious in the moment. This morning I received a WhatsApp forward that talked about the context of a Pani Puri sel...

Great Leaders standout. They demonstrate leadership features that sets them apart. People get inspired by their thoughtsand their presence.  What makes Great Leaders tick? Research shows there are a few traits that are in common amongst them. I am sharing 4 ofthem today. 1. Leadership Presence: Being present is the first and foremost feature of a great Leader – being there wherever they are! In wh...

Managing one’s energy has assumed prominence in recent times, thanks to a few research findings, papers and books written on the topic. Studies show that effectively managing one’s energy leads to enhanced productivity, fulfilment and positive outcomes. The linkage, the inter-connectedness between the body, mind, emotions and energy is a long established aspect in Yogic sciences and practices. Man...

Scaling-up the business is a dream of every Entrepreneur. Yet research shows only 4% of Business Owners are able to grow and scale-up their businesses. Working with Entrepreneurs and Business owners for the last 22 plus years, supporting them scale-up their businesses , I have observed that Scaling-up is a possibility for every business - if we execute a winning strategy. Am sharing here the 4 ste...

Simplifying can be a game-changer. For a leader, simplifying enhances their Leadership Presence, and thereby their leadership impact. For a scaling-up business, simplifying is a necessity. Simplifying can be practiced at different levels, rather at almost all levels. For example, Simplifying the strategy provides clarity to the Teams. Simplifying the execution inspires action, inspires the teams t...

Recently a Business Leader asked me how’s it different to lead a Scaling up business vis-a-vis a normal growing business? It’s like driving in a highway vis-a-vis driving within the city. A moment of distraction can cause havoc in the highway for self and for others, whereas in the city one may manage to get away with a few dents and bruises. Scale-up requires increasedlevels of focus, attention,...

Providing feedbacks and feed-forwards in an effective way enhances one’s Leadership Presence . Feedbacks and feed forwards are generally offered to correct something, to improve performance, or to highlight something that could be done better. It need not be so always. One could catch someone doing things right, and offer a feedback. And accentuate the positive. Someone asked a leader ‘Why would y...

Often Leaders catch themselves being stuck to the past and past events, finding it challenging to focus on future and move on. Rear-view mirror is important while driving; however Windscreen holds more potential and promise . Being aware of what happened, being alert to what’s coming from behind and the sides is important. At the same time holding a larger perspective, driving the business forward...

Leading a business to perform at optimal level is a continuous challenge for CEOs and Business Leaders. The good news is that today Leaders have multiple support systems, including that of working with a Coach , to create, build, and enhance their leadership presence and leadership Impact. I would like to share 6 significant areas where Leaders could enhance their effectiveness working with a Coac...

Leaders are often faced with the need to have difficult conversations - internally or externally. Being comfortable having those difficult conversations serves them well, and enhances their Leadership Impact. Some of the ways in which one could enhance their effectiveness in difficult conversations are: 1. Choosing the space and the time to initiate and carry out the difficult conversations. Optic...

It’s not where you look at, it’s what you see - Anonymous. As a leader what we see is important; What we perceive influences our approach, attitude, decisions, and actions. What we see depends on how we look at things. For example, what’s the role of ‘brake’ in a car? Whenever I’ve asked this question to people, I’ve received responses such as ‘it helps us slow down’, ‘it helps us to stop the car’...

Fitness is important for businesses too. The business needs to be fit enough to achieve its purpose . For example, People fitness would mean right people are in right roles. Product - market fitness would ensure the business strategy and execution are aligned to the market needs and dynamics. Process fitness ensures appropriate systems and processes are in place. Functional fitness would mean all...

We always are in search for getting the right answers. But often the right answers don’t come and present themselves in front of us. When we ask the ‘right questions’, the chances of getting the ‘right answers’ are high. During the early days of space exploration it was a challenge with ink pens, as normal ink-pens didn’t work in space due to zero gravity. Teams were formed to invent a special ink...

What we focus on, expands.   Whatever we focus on, expands. It’s therefore important what we focus on.   For example if we focus on challenges, challenges seem expanding. If we focus on solutions, solutions keep emerging!   What we focus on, expands. Focus drives actions and outcomes.   As a leader, what should I focus on?   A single answer that fits-all may not exist for this question. Also an an...

Does every team member in our business know what’s expected of them? Are their individual roles clear? Not knowing what’s expected causes hesitation, indecisiveness, anxiety, insecurity and stress to the team members. For the business, it causes uncertainty, chaos, gaps, under-utilisation of resources, and below-par performance. Globally only one in two employees know what is expected of them at w...

Shaping organisation culture is considered one of the most important things a Business Owner does - consciously or otherwise. Organisation culture is invisible, yet felt by all - every moment. It takes time to set-in. Once set, normally outlives the leader who has been instrumental in creating it; Often playing an empowering role in theorganisation reaching its goals. The good news is that as Busi...

The best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing - said Theodore Roosevelt.   It’s the actions that change the world - not the ideas, not the thoughts. Not even decisions.   People become who they are, because of what they do.   It’s interesting that, though many may have similar ideas, thoughts, and many may decide to...

Creating and Keeping Business Fitness is a Key Enabler for Scaling-up . This would mean creating and maintaining People Fitness, Functional Fitness, Market Fitness and avoiding Fat in the belly! People Fitness happens when we have the Right People in Right Roles. Businesses need to manage the current and emerging role requirements pro-actively, nurturing, developing and acquiring talent in a consc...

A lot is said about dealing with Failures. We have also heard 'failure is the stepping stone to success'. Is it so? Amazon's Jeff Bezos points out that failures are broadly of two kinds - therefore to be dealt with differently. 1. Experimental failure - 'When we are developing a new product or service or experimenting in some way, and it doesn't work, that's okay - that&#39...

Leaders face criticism.  Overcoming criticism is one thing, overcoming the fear of criticism is another. Often, it’s the fear of criticism that kills creativity, innovation, and new initiatives. It’s important therefore to deal with the fear of criticism, in a timely manner. How do I deal with the fear of criticism? Aristotle once said, ‘There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say no...

Scaling up is a dream for many entrepreneurs - Yet, research shows only 4% businesses scale-up successfully. Every business has two sides - 'what's inside' and 'what others see'. When we move 'what others see' into 'what Prospects see', magic happens; it paves the way for Scaling-up! That’s about positioning - choosing 'where to play'. When you set up yo...