Life Acumen @ Work Podcast
Vinod Wadhwani is long-time executive coach, who works with corporate leaders to help them in seeking new perspectives, while focusing on tangible benefits to them and their organization. On this podcast, he shares perspectives from the coaching conversations he has had with corporate leaders focusing on the specific leadership challenges they faced in their work life.
How Do I Hone My Persuasive Communication Skills?
Persuasion is not to be seen as tricking or forcing other people to your point of view, it is to be seen as understanding what engages and opens other people up to new ideas and insights.
In Focus
How do you define persuasion?
How does engagement influence persuasion?
What is physical and temporal proximity?
What are some techniques for increasing engagement?
What are some of the behaviors which come in the way of engaging persuasively with your stakeholders?
How to enhance a person’s s...
Why you must build bridges with your boss?
Many middle managers make the mistake of relying too much on their job performance, consequently leave too much to chance and fail to effectively manage their careers.
In Focus
Are modesty and quiet work not virtues in the corporate world?
But doesn’t good performance help you secure your job?
Is there a weak link between job performance and promotion?
Great job performance by itself is insufficient and may not even be necessary for getting and holding positions in the c-suite?
it is imperative to ma...
Why do you feel dissonance despite having career success?
Recent research on people’s life satisfaction by social scientists suggests, that in general, life satisfaction follows a “U” shape. It starts at the upper range in youth, bottoms out in 40s, and then picks up again in older age.
In Focus
Why do you feel anxious despite being successful?
What are some of those specific things that start to get in our heads when we hit the 40’s?
What does your definition of success look like?
Related episode:
My manager is denting my confid...
Is your manager undermining you?
Bad managers are the top cause of unhappiness in the workplace. According to a survey by an HR consulting firm, more than 50% employees leave their jobs to get away from a bad boss. Everyone who’s had a bad manager knows what it can do to your stress levels and job satisfaction.
In Focus
Keeping you in an off-balance state
Passing along second-hand criticism
Intimidation – turning a simple request in to a threat
Shoring your sense of control
Looking to your past achievements
Rel...
How to overcome distraction and regain focus at work?
Is multitasking a strength? Are human beings good at it? Or is this a delusion that majority of us have fallen for?
In Focus:
Where do we start in this distracted world to regain focus?
How can you slow down in a world which takes pride in speed?
What are the costs attached to constant switching?
Does constant switching makes us slower?
How do we fix this urge to constantly switch?
What damage can Internet addiction do to us?
How do...
Making and keeping new year's resolutions!
There is usually a lot of optimism this time of the year as the world slows down and people get time to reflect about what actually matters. Amid this hope what resolutions are people making for the new year and how to keep them.
In Focus:
Why is our attention span decreasing?
A study by Professor Michael Posner at the University of Oregon found that if you are focusing on something and you get interrupted, on average it will take twenty-three minutes for you to get back to the same state of focus. Another study of office executives found that most of them never get an hour of uninterrupted work in a typical day. If this goes on for months and years, it scrambles your ability to figure out who you are and what you want. I believe one of the valuable gifts you can give yourself is focus, taking time...
Why candor in organizations so important?
Candor is not just about telling the truth. It requires openness, sincerity and some degree of vulnerability. Lack of candor is not just remaining silent, it’s deceit by omission, which means that an element of honesty and truth is intentionally ignored
IN FOCUS:
Why many of us give up new year's resolutions?
IN FOCUS:
Many people set personal and professional goals this time of year. Why choose new year to set resolutions?
New year’s resolutions can be as fleeting as fireworks, one study found that about 25% give up after 2 weeks and only about 12% actually achieve their goal. Why is that most of us fail at sticking to new year’s resolutions?
How do we get our new year resolutions become a reality?
What kind of goal should one set to increase its chances of success?
How can one break bad habits...
Is critical feedback important for high-performance?
POINT OF VIEW:
There seems to be a belief among managers that critical feedback is essential to push out complacency and drive performance in employees. But behind this belief we may be overlooking a fundamental question “Should managers point to weaknesses or nurture employee’s strengths to drive performance?”
What is the issue with feedback reviews if they are used to improve performance?
Isn’t it that we humans crave feedback?
If feedback is perceived as a threat, how do managers point to employees when they are not performing well...
