Read to Lead

Never Split the difference by Chriss Voss with Tahl Raz We might not realise or be aware but at some level we all are negotiators. We are always negotiating, with our friends, family, our children and also ourselves. Not many of us realise the value addition this particular skill can bring to our lives. If you are someone who feels that negotiation is difficult and only a select few gifted people are blessed to be good at it, then you cannot be further from the truth. “ Never split the difference ” a book by Chris Voss with Thal Raz is one such book that gives us some of the tools and techniques that are employed by some of the very best negotiators in the world. The author himself who has been a hostage negotiator with the FBI has used his extensive field experiences, where stakes are extremely high to give us a glimpse of how to be an all persuasive person and get our counterpart to say what we want him to say. The methods that have been used in life and death situations hold goo...

    Distance running was always an alien sport to me. After completing my schooling at Rashtriya Indian Military College, I went to the National Defence Academy in 1997. I   was expected to be a super-runner and get medals for my Squadron. Sadly after a few practice cross-country runs, my seniors saw my low potential and I was classified as an average to a weak runner.    I managed to pass through six cross-country competitions in the Academy with much pain after that, vowed to stay away from this painful sport. Call it an attempt to reduce weight or a mid-life crisis, at the age of   37 years, I started running again, this time there was no pressure on me as to how slow or fast I ran, and slowly a 5-kilometre run became 10, and so on. Finally, after almost a year of practice,   I ran my first half marathon in the picturesque town of Mukteshwar with a timing that was not flattering. During the past few years, I have tried to maintain my running sched...

  Photo by Antonino Visalli on Unsplash "Smoking is one of the greatest and cheapest enjoyments in life, and if you decide not to smoke, I can only feel sorry for you."                                                              Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Introduction: This is something that I am not proud of, but the reality is that I have been a smoker for the past two decades. What started as an effort to be stylish, went on to become a full-blown addiction that has cost me my health and finances. Knowing how harmful it is to my health, I have continued to indulge in this vice. There have been times that it has been enjoyable. There also have been moments where I have gone through the motions without even a hint of pleasure. Going on a day without the cancer stick was unfathomable to me. Even when the entire nation was und...

  Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of, you will probably be unhappy all days of your life.”                                                                                                                     Abraham Maslow Introduction: To make good on our true potential is the first duty that we owe to ourselves. We must strive to be better in all our endeavours, whatever they may be. We all would like to be better and continue on our personal journey of self-improv...

  Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash Introduction: Sales and marketing are concepts that usually are associated with business and corporate. In life, however, we are all marketing and selling. The product may or may not be any good or service. Getting the other person to act as we want is a skill that has a huge potential upside for us. We may have any profession, but this particular skill is vital as we move ahead in our career. Influencing is getting someone to see your viewpoint or affecting his way of thinking to bring about a behaviour change. It has always been an art, but Robert Cialdini in his book “Influence" has given us the science behind the art of persuasion. The weapons of influence are consciously and unconsciously at play all around us. The question is "Why do require to study them in the first place"? Firstly, all of us would like to have more influence in our business and families. Secondly, our lives have not kept pace with our external world. ...

  The notion of success is based on the comparison. There is no way around it. Let us accept that we will have to achieve, society's definition of success in terms of money, power, or material goods to feel successful. We have a ton of books and articles that tell us that you need to define your own success. Really!! Find success in your heart? Idealistic statements like "It does not matter what anyone thinks about you; what you think about yourself is what matters" are the staple of many self-help books. Let me invite your wrath by refuting this. We as humans are not designed to be happy, we are built to survive. This means competing for scarce resources. You will have to have something in material terms that someone does not have. This involves competing with others, the more intense the competition, sweeter the fruit of victory. It is as simple as that. It sounds shallow, but this is the ugly truth about success. The foundation of success is built on dissatisfaction,...