This episode of Connecting the Dots is on Journaling. Over the years, I’ve noticed an interesting contrast. Many accomplished leaders credit journaling as a practice that helped them think clearly, improve judgment, process complexity and stay grounded. At the same time, many people want to journal but don’t know where to begin or how to make the practice meaningful. This episode is for the latter. Through insights from guests like Ethan Kross, Tasha Eurich, Daniel Pink, Rich Fernandez, Bill Bur...
May 12, 2026•48 min•Ep. 702
GUEST: Hitendra Wadhwa is a professor at Columbia Business School, founder of the Mentora Institute, and author of Inner Mastery, Outer Impact. His work explores how leaders create meaningful change by first working on their inner world. In this conversation, we explore a different way to think about leadership. Instead of focusing on traits or competencies, Hitendra introduces the idea of activating states and how leadership is often shaped in small, high-stakes human moments. We discuss why le...
Apr 11, 2026•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 701
GUEST: Jennifer Garvey Berger is a leadership thinker, author, and co-founder of Cultivating Leadership. Her work focuses on adult development and how leaders can grow their inner capacity to meet an increasingly complex world. She is the author of Changing on the Job and Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps . In this conversation, we explore why many capable leaders still feel overwhelmed, reactive, or stuck despite their experience. Jennifer introduces the idea of complexity fitness and explains how...
Feb 05, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 700
GUEST: Roopa Kudva is the former Managing Director of CRISIL and the former Managing Partner at Omidyar Network India. Over the last four decades, she has worked across financial services, impact investing and company boards, and now brings those lessons together in her book Leadership Beyond the Playbook. In this conversation, we explore what she has learned from leading at scale, investing in early-stage founders and observing leaders across sectors and generations. Roopa talks about what it r...
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 699
GUEST: Bill Burnett is a designer, educator, and co-author of Designing Your Life. He has worked across toys, technology and academia, and now leads the Life Design Lab at Stanford where he helps people rethink how they build their careers and lives. In this conversation, we walk through his journey from the early days of design to his work with students and professionals who are trying to find clarity in a world that keeps shifting. Bill talks about the power of curiosity and play, the value of...
Dec 12, 2025•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 698
GUEST: Jaspreet Bindra is an author, speaker, and thought leader in the areas of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. In this conversation, we explore his journey from a corporate career to entrepreneurship and his work in helping individuals and organizations build AI literacy. Jaspreet believes that understanding AI is no longer optional, it is essential for leaders who want to stay relevant and human in the age of technology. He shares insights on how AI is reshaping the nature...
Nov 18, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 697
GUEST: Neeraj is the Chair, Asia Pacific at Boston Consulting Group and a key driving force behind Plaksha University, an institution that seeks to reimagine technology education and undertake transformative research to address grand challenges.Neeraj has over 25 years of experience with clients spanning multiple sectors and has worked closely with more than 100 CEOs over the years, across geographies ranging from Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. In this podcast, we explore Neeraj's jour...
Oct 16, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 696
GUEST: Tanmay unpacks the idea of 'skillstacking' - the art of strategically combining our skills to shape the playground we operate in. He specifically discusses about how sketchnoting adds to his flywheel in terms of how he adds value in his work. The Book: Play to Potential - Lead a full life, become the best you (Published by Penguin RandomHouse) is now available to order (1-30 copies) on Amazon - https://qr1.be/29Z6 Published on August 2025. ABOUT THE BOOK: Play to Potential offers a refres...
Sep 14, 2025•24 min•Ep. 695
GUEST: In this episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we explore the multifaceted journey of Vineet Panchhi, a true exemplar of embracing multiple identities. From his early days in Hotel Management at IHM Pusa to successful careers in Sales, HR, Singing, Jingle Creation, Movie Workshop Directing, Internal Communications, and Poetry, Vineet embodies the essence of not being confined by one identity. Learn how he defies the conventional path, demonstrating that our pasts do not have to define our futures....
Aug 29, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 694
GUEST: In this special episode, we feature a candid and insightful conversation with Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder & CEO of Sugar Cosmetics, Mother of two young children, Shark Tank India judge, and a committed marathoner. What began as a thoughtful note of appreciation for the Play to Potential book turned into a rich dialogue on what it truly means to lead a full life. Vineeta shares how the book’s themes—especially around self-awareness, internal compasses, and pacing for the long game—resona...
Jul 29, 2025•27 min•Ep. 693
GUEST: In this episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we dive into a compelling conversation with Sumeet Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder of LEAD, a billion-dollar ed-tech company. Known for his pivotal role in my self-awareness journey since our days at IIMA, Sumeet’s story exemplifies the power of pausing to pivot. Discover how a strategic sabbatical set him on his path and how childhood experiences can hold the key to unlocking future potential. Join us as we explore the journey of an inspiring leader featur...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 692
GUEST: In this episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we feature Sucharita Mukherjee, CEO of Kaleidofin, a FinTech company empowering millions with affordable finance. Sucharita’s story is a powerful example of resilience as transformation rather than simply bouncing back. From her early career at LSR, IIM Ahmedabad, and top-tier banks in London to navigating a personal upheaval in 2008 that led her to co-found IFMR Capital (now Northern Arc), her journey shows the depth of inner work and strategic choic...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 691
GUEST: In this episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we spotlight Soma Vajpayee, an inspiring art-based therapist whose journey exemplifies adapting and thriving through change. From being an IIMA graduate alongside her husband Bhavtosh Vajpayee to moving across various locations over the years, Soma has shown that being a 'trailing spouse' can be transformed into an empowering journey. Her story highlights embracing challenges, inner work, and navigating past demons to align passion and purpose. Discov...
Feb 23, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 690
ABOUT THE EPISODE Midlife is a phase when we find ourselves pulled in multiple directions—across work, home, health, friendships, and hobbies. In this session, Ravi Venkatesan delves into themes from Deepak Jayaraman’s recent book, Play to Potential. The book offers a nuanced exploration of how to unlock human potential—not just professionally but holistically—by embracing life’s highs and lows. Drawing from his acclaimed Play to Potential podcast and his experiences as a coach, Deepak introduce...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 689
GUEST: In this episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we feature Sangeeta Shahaney, an inspiring figure whose life journey exemplifies resilience and intentional living. Daughter of one of India's pioneers in Executive Search, Sangeeta initially chose the path of being a homemaker after marrying a sailor. However, the sudden loss of her husband led her to reexamine her life and navigate a transformative path that culminated in building a successful SAT coaching practice in Pune. Her story is a powerful t...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 688
GUEST: In the first episode of FLAVOUR-ful Lives, we engage with Ravishankar Iyer, a storyteller and podcast host whose journey embodies positivity, simplicity, and the pursuit of passion. Coming from an Indian middle-class background, Ravi’s love for stories began in childhood and set him on an unconventional path. Though he started traditionally—ranking 11th in CA and graduating from IIMA—he made deliberate, sometimes difficult, choices to follow his true calling. With deep inner work, he has ...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 687
GUEST: Ricardo Sunderland is an author and a CEO Transformational Coach with Egon Zehnder, a global leadership advisory firm. In this podcast, we discuss his latest book, "The Energy Advantage, How to go from managing your time to mastering your energy," Ricardo's life’s purpose is to help leaders connect to and manage their energy to become humane leaders. He coaches senior leaders to help them bring coherence to the way they lead, and to help them reach their full societal impact. In addition ...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 686
This episode of Connecting the Dots is on Parenting - something we are all winging. We go to colleges, trainings and leadership development programmes for all sorts of capabilities, but there is none for parenting. In this episode, we learn from Roger Federer’s parents, Nandan, Nilekani‘s parents and many other successful leaders who reflect on their childhood. We also learn from some of the researchers on how we can be mindful as parents. If you have a child 10 years or above, the chances are, ...
Jul 25, 2024•54 min•Ep. 685
This episode of Connecting the Dots deals with Judgment - Making sound decisions amidst complexity. VUCA - (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) is a term that is used to describe the state of the world. Some people use BANI - (Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear, Incomprehensible). Whatever the terminology, it is fair to say that the world has gotten more grey, nebulous and harder to predict. Sound judgment, today, is arguably more relevant than ever. Tune in as we peel the layers on this nuanced ...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 684
This episode of Connecting the Dots deals with STAYING RESILIENT THROUGH QUAKES. We explore what it takes to be resilient as an individual and go on to examine what it takes to create a resilient culture in an organization. Very often, even the notion of resilience is misunderstood. We examine the nuances in what the term means. Is it “bouncing back” to something or using the quake as an opportunity to shape-shift to something else. In the fragile and brittle worlds we live in, being resilient i...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 683
This episode of Connecting the Dots deals with Building Habits that stick . This is that time of the year when your new year resolutions meet the rough and tumble of your life. Having a process that ensures that you work towards your outcomes is critical. As James Clear says, we don’t rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems. We shine the light on how we can all build habits that stick. While this episode is a compilation across many speakers, if you want to tune into ...
Jan 24, 2024•59 min•Ep. 682
This episode of Connecting the Dots deals with BREATHING LIFE INTO WORK. A lot of us, consciously or sub-consciously end up putting work on our pedestal and relegate the other elements of life to a distant second. In this episode, I share some of my learnings (from the 102+ episodes and from my lived experiences) around how focusing on Health, Personal Relationships, Social Impact work and Guitaring have helped me get better at my work! While this episode is a compilation across many speakers, i...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 681
This episode of Connecting the Dots deals with IDENTITY. When we look at issues around transitions, reinventing ourselves and navigating the pulls and pressures of mid-life, the key often is in reflecting on our identity. This episode, we go deep into how we think about Identity and how sometimes, we end up caging ourselves and end up being a prisoner of our own lack of imagination around our identity. While this episode is a compilation across many speakers, if you want to tune into the various...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 680
Welcome to CONNECTING THE DOTS - Episode 3. The first two were on Internal and External Self-Awareness. This one is on Listening! How do we listen to others, ourselves, our heart, our body, our inner voice and much much more. The quality of our listening can have a significant impact on the lives we lead! While this episode is a compilation across many speakers, if you want to tune into the various nuggets around this theme of Listening, you could visit - https://www.playtopotential.com/tags/lis...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 679
Welcome to the second episode of CONNECTING THE DOTS. We pick a theme for every episode and try and look at that topic from multiple lenses. Where appropriate, I also try and bring in my experiences as a Coach and a Sounding Board and from my journey as well. In this second episode, we discuss External Self-Awareness. How do we tune into the feedback that we get from the outside world and become a better version of ourselves? The question worth asking in this context is - How 360 is our 360? Whi...
Aug 02, 2023•42 min•Ep. 678
Welcome to the first episode of CONNECTING THE DOTS. We pick a theme for every episode and try and look at that topic from multiple lenses. Where appropriate, I also try and bring in my experiences as a Coach and a Sounding Board and from my journey as well. In this first episode, we discuss INTERNAL SELF-AWARENESS. Barry Schwartz (Author of Paradox of Choice) states that in a world of abundance, two things happen - 1) Decision-making becomes complex 2) You experience FOMO. Self-Awareness, I bel...
Jul 08, 2023•46 min•Ep. 677
GUEST Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. This quote is attributed to Viktor Emil Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, devoted his life to studying, understanding and promoting “meaning.” Carol Kaufman and David Noble give us practical tools that we can use to make the ‘space’ count. Carol and David have authored Real-Time Leadership - Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High. In the podcast c...
May 20, 2023•1 hr 17 min
NUGGET CONTEXT Carol and David speak about their M.O.V.E framework; M – Mindful, O – Options Generating, V – Validating the Vantage Point, E – Engage and effect change. The key, they say, borrowing from Viktor Frankl, is to create the space between stimulus and response. This is a “sampler” of what a nugget looks like in our podcast. While we have a few nuggets on popular podcast platforms, entire library of Nuggets (Categorised by themes) is available at www.playtopotential.com in the Members s...
May 20, 2023•6 min•Ep. 676
GUEST Stephen M. R. Covey is an American writer and public speaker and the author of the books: The SPEED of Trust, Smart Trust, and Trust & Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash the Greatness in Others. He is the co-founder and CEO of a company called CoveyLink Worldwide and former President and CEO of Covey Leadership Center. He happens to be the son of Stephen Covey, the author of the pathbreaking book - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In our conversation, we spoke about how Steph...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 675
NUGGET CONTEXT Stephen speaks about how he initially focused on the business side of things while his father was the ‘larger than life’ thought leader. He speaks about how, over time, his insights around the high cost of low trust have emerged and how he has found his voice a thought leader over time. This is a “sampler” of what a nugget looks like in our podcast. While we have a few nuggets on popular podcast platforms, entire library of Nuggets (Categorised by themes) is available at www.playt...
Apr 13, 2023•11 min•Ep. 675
