Our actions in any given situation are determined by how we perceive the situation. We can all come to very different understandings, depending on what aspects of the situation we choose to focus on and how we interpret what is going on. Ladder of inference is a powerful mental model that explains how we make quick assessments or decisions. Each step in the decision-making process is represented by a rung on the ladder. You start at the bottom, then climb each rung before making a decision an...| TechTello
Some leaders ruthlessly prioritize to ensure important work is not compromised at the cost of urgent actions. Other leaders treat every request as a priority and don’t pay attention to how much something deserves their attention. Attaching a heightened sense of urgency to every request makes it difficult for their teams to get any meaningful work done. Being bombarded with a false sense of urgency makes them operate like a mad powerhouse—people in the team keep running in many different d...| TechTello
Organizations that thrive are run by leaders who see opportunity in uncertainty, who cut through ambiguity, and those who lead with the mindset to gain clarity. Done right, ambiguity can be exhilarating, rewarding, and mentally stimulating. Done wrong, it can be exhausting, emotionally consuming, and even downright demotivating. It’s only by considering different perspectives, asking better questions, and learning from their own systems, leaders can build the curiosity and flexibility requi...| TechTello
Most managers discard the notion that they could be toxic due to a flawed assumption about what contributes to toxicity. The standard list of toxic behaviors is well known. What misses attention are the subtle behaviors that also impact employees' well-being. If you are a manager, open yourself to the idea that your actions might be unintentionally contributing to a toxic work environment| TechTello
Rethink Imposter Syndrome: Build Confidence, Beat Self-Doubt and Succeed Download Chapter 1 of Rethink Imposter Syndrome Book DOWNLOAD NOW Rethink Imposter Syndrome will help you tackle the irrational sense of fear in your head...| TechTello
You will come across people at work with ill-intention—those who try to take advantage of you by acting as a victim and manipulate you into doing things that serve their interests while being harmful to your mental health and personal well-being. Manipulators are hard to spot because with the intention to cheat and deceive, they use tricks that are meant to influence, exploit and control you. They are quick in sensing your weak spots and smart to know how to capitalize on them.| TechTello
Leadership in an organization is meant to be the powerhouse that drives growth, fuels momentum and creates the condition for every team to succeed. But when dysfunction creeps in, instead of being a place where leaders seek alignment on vision, make tough calls with clarity and trust each other's judgment, misaligned goals, hidden agendas, poor communication and unchecked egos take over—trust erodes, progress stalls and critical opportunities slip away. When people in leadership positions c...| TechTello
What do you do when your top performer is also your team’s biggest problem—when they’re smart, driven and effective, but also dismissive, manipulative and downright destructive? On one hand, they’re your superstar. On the other, their toxic behavior builds quiet resentment, leads to rising tension and damages morale in the team. Confrontation is hard, but your job isn’t just to chase performance, but to also draw a line between excellence and harm. It’s to set clear boundaries, ma...| TechTello
Irrespective of how much you’ve prepared yourself mentally, knowing you haven’t been promoted is a devastating experience. You’ve been doing all the right things—working hard, hitting deadlines, delivering results, staying away from conflict, helping others and even staying late when needed. What more do you need to do to prove you’re ready for the next level? You feel stuck, under valued and unappreciated as others seem to move ahead while you’re being stalled in the same positio...| TechTello
Leaders often face moments where they need to balance long-term vision with short-term needs, be decisive while handling ambiguity, combine logic with emotion, demonstrate confidence with humility, encourage creativity and experimentation with strict guardrails and empower their teams while not losing a sense of control. But how are both possible when one contradicts the other? Aren’t they paradoxical? How can they coexist? Leadership isn’t about choosing one side of a tough decision and ...| TechTello
Different moments at work demand different thinking styles—knowing which style to leverage when and being flexible enough to switch when the situation demands it can be the edge that sets you apart. Whether you’re navigating challenges, collaborating with others or have a tough decision to make, learning to think right can be your biggest strength—it can help you spot problems that others overlook, choose an unconventional path over a more traditional approach and lead with clarity and ...| TechTello
How do people in the room feel when you’re around? Do they find you grounded, credible and trustworthy or do you come across as uncertain, inconsistent and uncommitted? Leadership presence isn’t about charisma, power or authority. It’s not about speaking the most, showcasing intelligence or dominating the room to prove you’re in charge. Real presence isn’t loud, showy or forceful. It's quiet strength. It’s the steady tone of your voice, calm of your body language and consistency w...| TechTello
Is your team’s performance going down? Is the quality of their work degrading? Have people in the team gotten into the habit of putting mediocre effort instead of targeting excellence? When you first start to notice signs of trouble in your team, it’s tempting to pin the blame on the team. Maybe they aren’t skilled enough. Maybe they have lost their spark. Maybe they just don’t care. But pause and ask yourself: What if the issue isn’t them? What if you’ve been setting the bar too ...| TechTello
Motivation impacts everything at work—without it people in the team do the bare minimum leading to slow progress, missed targets and poor results. Demotivated people are also highly contagious—they can bring the entire team down with their low morale, lack of enthusiasm and discouraged attitude. Motivation is often misunderstood though. Offering bonuses or other fun-perks like organizing yoga sessions, giving extra time off as wellness days to recharge or organizing ping pong tournaments ...| TechTello
Do we listen to understand or listen to speak. Is it merely listening or a way of learning? This article embarks on my journey to active listening and the profound learning in the process.| TechTello
If you take the time to notice people around you, you’ll find that they all have unique styles in the way they talk, how they work and what motivates or drives them. Each person has a distinct personality that may appeal to you because it’s relatable or bother you because you can’t comprehend the way they think, feel and act. Whether it’s the endless complainer, the interrupter, the credit stealer or the know-it-all, you can’t dodge these personalities at work. They come with the te...| TechTello
Leaders are admired for their intelligence, knowledge, experience and ability to make tough decisions under difficult circumstances, but none of them leave a lasting imprint on those they lead. They’re not remembered for their achievements or the outcomes they achieved, but for the way they shaped culture, influenced others and how they paved the way for others to succeed. True leadership is one that resonates and endures well into the future. Here are the 5 leadership practices that truly ...| TechTello
Leaders are expected to create a culture of excellence where employees strive to push the boundaries of their own self-imposed limitations and unlock their hidden potential. Growing people while growing business is a part of their job because no organization can succeed without growing its people. Managing these expectations isn’t always easy and too many leaders can falter on this path. They may succumb to pressure and act in ways that destroy the morale of their people instead of lifting ...| TechTello
Managers worry about the performance of their team members all the time―who’s doing well, who isn’t performing and what can be done to make them excel? They understand that feedback is the perfect tool to bridge the gap between expectations and performance. This makes some managers overly enthusiastic about sharing their critique―they either speak too much at once or give feedback way too frequently. Too much feedback can feel like drinking from a firehose―it overwhelms your team, d...| TechTello
Do you consciously opt out of the drama triangle and assume responsibility? Learning to shift the dynamics from drama to empowerment is of crucial importance since it moves the culture of the organisation from finding problems to creating solutions, blaming to self accountability, providing destructive to sharing constructive feedback, being dependent on others to taking responsibility for one’s own growth| TechTello
Thinking opposite of what we desire is not natural. Inversion mental model provides an objective way to explore the problem by thinking the opposite of what we seek. Going beyond our limitation requires questioning our existing beliefs and assumptions to uncover new possibilities and establish a better perspective to our original question with greater clarity and understanding| TechTello
Do you believe in a fixed mindset which is constrained by beliefs and thoughts or a growth mindset which finds freedom through learning? While giving up might be easy with fear of failure, it’s those who persevere despite failures, believe in effort and hard work and embrace difficulties and challenges develop new skills and make progress in the direction of their goals| TechTello
One of the most powerful forces at work is teamwork. When team members learn to collaborate well, greater things are achieved—projects are completed on time without compromising on quality, business targets are met which makes the stakeholders happy and the joy and satisfaction from doing impactful work motivates the team to go after bigger and better things. But collaboration is one of the most failed efforts at work. Despite best attempts from managers and leaders, collaboration continues...| TechTello
To do well at work, you need people on your side. People who trust you, listen to your ideas, value your experience and those who want to help you succeed. If you can’t sway people in your direction, if you can’t persuade them to see it your way, all the time and effort you have put into something can go to waste. The ability to influence others is an essential skill to practice and master because the impact you create at work is directly tied to it. Influence also plays a key role in res...| TechTello
How do you feel when you're not being heard—frustrated, annoyed and angry at the other person? Do you feel like they don't really know you or they don't really get who you are? This is exactly how others feel when you don't listen. Listening poorly limits your understanding of others which deprives you from bonding, building trust, learning, growing and most important of all, evolving as a human being. How you listen and respond to others has a significant impact on the quality of your rela...| TechTello
What do we do when things do not turn out as intended? Instead of being curious and trying to learn from the situation, our mind assumes the worst possibility. The negativity trap can prevent us from reaching out to the other person. It can make us distance ourselves from others, avoid communication, collaboration, and ignore opportunities that might benefit us. Applying Hanlon’s razor in such moments can open our mind to seek other views instead of assuming bad intention, shift our perspec...| TechTello
When confronted with information that challenges your personal narrative, are you curious about the new information and use that to update your beliefs or do you give in to confirmation bias and find ways to reject the evidence that contradicts your assumptions and look for information that strengthens your point of view. Interpreting and selectively gathering data to fit our beliefs as opposed to using opposing views to update our mental models is a cognitive bias and it limits how we think,...| TechTello
Should we agree to disagree or disagree and commit? Agree to disagree stems from a negative mindset of right vs wrong, us vs them and can make us adopt dismissive behaviour and ignore the decision. Disagree and commit divulges the importance of commitment despite our differences. At its core, it supports unity, maturity to disconnect our identity from our ideas and support others even when we do not agree to their point of view. It doesn’t hide the fact that we disagree nor dismiss the valu...| TechTello
