GUEST Roger Federer is somebody who needs no introduction. While, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have overtaken him in terms of the overall Grand Slams won, when there is a discussion about the Greatest of All Time (GOAT), all fingers very often still point to Roger. One could attribute that to his fluidity, his charm on and off court, his longevity, his stable family life, and much more. I had a unique opportunity to engage with Christopher Clarey, a veteran New York Times Correspondent who ha...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 674
NUGGET CONTEXT Chris speaks about how people were talking about Roger’s potential when he was just 13 or 14. He speaks about how Regis Brunet saw Roger in action in Florida and then immediately ran to the payphone to get hold of Roger’s parents back in Switzerland. 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 section...
Mar 23, 2023•6 min•Ep. 673
GUEST Michiel Kruyt is CEO of IMAGINE, an advisory boutique helping executive teams develop future fit leadership and company vision. He had a fifteen-year career at McKinsey and Co, where he was a partner focusing on top team effectiveness, large-scale transformations and culture change. He helped many top teams around the world increase their ability to lead with impact. Michiel has co-founded and led Aberkyn, a change-facilitation firm, now owned by McKinsey. Before joining McKinsey & Co,...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 672
NUGGET CONTEXT Michiel speaks about the arc of his journey and how he shifted trajectories over time and over time his interests and passions shifted from Sales, Marketing and General Management at Unilever to driving Personal Transformation at McKinsey and beyond. 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 section...
Feb 25, 2023•10 min•Ep. 672
GUEST Jeffrey Pfeffer has been teaching at Stanford since 1979. He has Co-Authored or Authored 16 books, the last one being, 7 Rules of Power. He is in the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame, a list that celebrate the all-time greats in the world of Business that are moving the world forward with their original ideas. We spoke at length about his recent book on Power. More specifically, we spoke about the tension between Power and various other concepts that are doing the rounds in “pop wisdom” - Power vs...
Jan 20, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 671
NUGGET CONTEXT Jeffrey speaks about how he came around to studying Power. He also goes on to speak about the kinds of career choices he has made and what he has said No to over time as his Power increased 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.playtopotential.com in the Members section. To understand more about membership benefits suc...
Jan 20, 2023•6 min•Ep. 671
Merry Christmas and Best wishes for 2023! As we wind down 2022, we share the Highlights from the year gone by. If you have been following the podcast, you would appreciate that we are offering the Podcast as a service. All the content is free and there is no advertising on our podcast. If you are deriving value from the podcast, this festive season, consider taking a moment to share your gratitude (by sharing an email or contributing directly) with the chefs who are toiling away in the kitchen. ...
Dec 23, 2022•41 min•Ep. 670
GUEST David has been teaching the landmark Interpersonal Dynamics course (informally called as Touchy Feely by many) at Stanford for over 50 years. He has distilled some of his learnings and insight from these five decades in a recently published book titled – Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues. It is always a pleasure to speak to somebody who has spent decades honing a certain craft. We start with discussing the six markers of an exceptional relation...
Dec 03, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 669
NUGGET CONTEXT David shares 6 markers of what he calls as “Exceptional Relationship”. 1) You can be more fully yourself and so can the other person. 2) Both of you are willing to be vulnerable 3) You trust that self-disclosures will not be used against you 4) You can be honest with each other 5) You deal with conflict productively 6) Both of you are committed to each other’s growth and development. This is a “sampler” of what a nugget looks like in our podcast. While we have a few nuggets on pop...
Dec 03, 2022•10 min•Ep. 669
GUEST Ethan is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. He is an award-winning professor in the University of Michigan’s Psychology Department. His research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He has recently published the book – Chatter. The book goes deep into talking about the voice in our heads and how we can harness it. Through the book he shows that instead of trying...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 668
GUEST Manjari Jauhar is Bihar’s first IPS officer and one of the first five IPS officer in India (Kiran Bedi being the first). After an unexpected turn of events upended the homemaker role her parents had planned for her, Manjari Jaruhar overcame extraordinary odds to become the first woman from Bihar to join the country’s elite police cadre. Her journey is a masterclass in courage, resilience and leadership by a woman who broke new ground and thrived despite being viewed with disbelief and deri...
Nov 03, 2022•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 667
GUEST Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he has sought for two decades to study the drivers of entrepreneurship in emerging markets as a means of economic and social development. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, corporate governance and international business to MBA and Ph.D. students and senior executives. For many years, he has served as the Faculty Chair for HBS a...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 666
GUEST Raghu is formally trained as an engineer with an MS in Bio-Medical Engineering from IIT, Madras, He has been in immersive involvement in questions of human life. He says that three extraordinary teachers mentored him when he was going through a very difficult phase of life, namely, J Krishnamurti, Yogacharya Krishnamacharya and Pulin K Garg. He was intimately involved with them for more than a decade from his late twenties. This engagement not only transformed him, it gifted him with the p...
Aug 25, 2022•2 hr 11 min•Ep. 665
GUEST Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of What’s Your Problem? (Harvard Business Press, 2020), a book on how to solve the right problems. His research has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, BBC Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Financial Times. His work on innovation led HR Magazine to recognize him as a “Top 20 International Thinker”. I believe that we are taught how to solve problems in our growing up years but one of the distin...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 664
GUEST Ayelet Fishbach, Ph.D., is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and the author of Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. She is the past president of the Society for the Study of Motivation and the International Social Cognition Network. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. In the podcast conversation, we start with her journey from the sharing economy of ...
Jun 08, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 663
GUEST Alisa has been coaching startup Founders to grow into world-class CEOs for nearly 20 years. She has recently authored the book - From Start-Up to Grown-Up. Alisa is a guest lecturer at Harvard and Cornell Universities, Henley Business School and the Naval War College. She serves on the board of the Cornell Advisory Council. Her articles have appeared in HBR, Forbes, and Inc and she has been featured as an expert on Bloomberg TV, the BBC World News and in the New York Times. In our conversa...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 662
GUEST Daniel H. Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, published in February. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan’s books have won multiple awards, have been translated into 42 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. He lives in Washington, DC, with his fa...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 661
GUEST Pradeep Chakravarthy is a behaviourist who uses Indian models of L&D to alter behaviour. He has recently published the book - Leadership Shastra which looks at some of the rulers of the past and culls out lessons in leadership and culture. He has written a book - Thanjavur - a Cultural History (2010) and A Road Less Travelled - A Historian’s Guide to lesser known temples in Tamil Nadu (2012). In our conversation, we speak about how Kings and Queens were groomed for their roles, how the...
Apr 06, 2022•58 min•Ep. 660
GUEST Ravi Venkatesan has been on the podcast about 5 years back. In that conversation we spoke about his journey and his transition from Cummins to Microsoft to Board Roles. In this conversation, we dive into his recently published book - What the Heck Do I Do with My Life. Some of the topics we cover include the notion of a punctuated equilibrium and the implication on how we adapt, being intentional about life, cultivating an abundance mindset (irrespective of how much we have), different for...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 659
GUEST Ayse is an accomplished Industrial Designer and has worked with Brands like Herman Miller, IKEA, Amazon and Toyota. She is the author of Design the Life You Love and gives lectures on Design the Work You Love to corporations. She was on the Fast Company’s list of Most Creative People in 2017 and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 people that are likely to shape the future of organizations. Her work can also be found in the Permanent Collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New ...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 658
GUEST Dorie Clark is an American author and executive education professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She has recently published her 4th book - The Long Game - How to be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. Her previous books include Reinventing You (2013), Stand Out (2015), Entrepreneurial You (2017). She completed her Master in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and has had a career in Journalism and as a Political Speech Writer before creating a niche aro...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 657
GUEST Rajiv Vij is a life and executive coach, author and speaker. He works with senior leaders of several Fortune 500 companies and other large organisations across Asia and India and has been a coach to industry leaders. He also voluntarily coaches a number of founders and leaders of social-sector organisations. He is the author of Discovering Your Sweet Spot: A Soul-searching Guide for Creating the Life You Really Want. Prior to finding his calling and starting his coaching practice in 2006, ...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 656
GUEST Harsh Mariwala is Founder and Chairman of Marico, an FMCG giant well known for brands like Parachute and Saffola. He has recently Co-Authored the book - Harsh Realities (Published by Penguin Random House) along with Management Guru, Ram Charan. The book is a story of how Harsh broke away from the shackles of family-run Bombay Oil Industries Ltd, which was a commodities business to set up a professionally run Marico including all the trials and tribulations along the way. Some of the themes...
Nov 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 655
GUEST Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is one of Google’s and Silicon Valley’s most respected leaders. She has worked at various tech and media companies including Google, Amazon, NewsCorp, Yodle and Polyvore. At one stage she was heading Latin America and Asia Pacific in Google in 2008. She is credited with building Google’s presence across 103 countries in LATAM and APAC. She has recently authored the book – Choosing Possibility where she speaks about embracing micro-risks as a process to unlock growth...
Nov 10, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 654
GUEST Lloyd Reeb is a successful real estate developer and owner of retirement housing who made a mid-life transition, looking for greater meaning, joy and impact in his second half. He has had the privilege of investing 20 years helping leaders plan their second half. He helped launch the Halftime Institute, a global team that teach, coach and connect successful men and women in pursuit of significance. Lloyd has taken the Halftime message around the world: speaking, teaching and coaching indiv...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 653
GUEST Harish Bhat is the Brand Custodian of Tata Sons. He has had a ~35 year career at the Tata Group and has held several leadership roles including COO - Watches and Accessories Business at Titan, MD & CEO of Tata Consumer Products, Chairman of the Board at Tata Coffee Limited and more. He is the Author of four books. "#Tata Stories", 40 timeless tales to inspire you. "An extreme love of coffee", an exciting novel about coffee and magic. "Tata Log", inspiring stories from the contemporary ...
Oct 15, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 652
GUEST Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a secondary appointment at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Her research explores ways that insights from economics and psychology can be harnessed to change consequential behaviors for good, such as savings, exercise, vaccination take-up and discrimination. She has also recently authored the Book - How to Change - The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to ...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 651
GUEST Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Amy has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #3 in 2019. She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning, and her articles have been published numerous academic and management outlets Her most recent book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace fo...
Sep 02, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 650
GUEST Over the last year and a quarter, since March 2020, a lot of us have been thrown into this work from anywhere world without any prior preparation. It is like being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool without any prior training. We have had to figure out our own response to the evolving situation. While there has been no shortage of wisdom and webinars, I have been looking for a research backed view to learn from. In that context, I am excited to bring the next conversation with Dar...
Aug 12, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 649
GUEST For many of us, the last time we learned a new skill was during childhood. We live in an age which reveres expertise but looks down on the beginner. Upon entering adulthood and middle age, we begin to shy away from trying new things, instead preferring to stay nestled firmly in our comfort zones. Beginners asks the question: why are children the only ones allowed to experience the inherent fun of facing daily challenges? And could we benefit from embracing new skills, even if we're initial...
Jul 08, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 648
