The 90-Minute Test: How Anand Mahindra Selects Leaders for Strategic Bets
Anand Mahindra uses a 90‑minute unstructured conversation to assess curiosity and decision‑making, forming the “Enable” pillar of the ESEE framework that identifies leaders capable of executing complex strategies without constant direction. This approach has guided strategic bets such as the 2002 Scorpio SUV launch and early investments in electric vehicles, reflecting his “asymmetric risk‑taking” philosophy. The model also drives a culture of conversation, the “Rise” purpose, and a focus on developing polymath leaders rather than specialists. It underpins Mahindra Group’s rapid growth in diverse markets like South Africa.
GeoSurge Founder: Don’t Wait for Permission
GeoSurge, a London deep‑tech AI firm founded by Francisco Vigo, monitors how large language models portray businesses across markets. Vigo, a former pilot‑trainee, emphasizes enjoying work to avoid burnout and stresses that founders must move forward without waiting for external...
Claim the 'Founder' Title After 55: Launch a Business Without Jeopardizing Your Retirement
More older adults are adopting the “Founder” title on LinkedIn, with a 69% jump in 2025 and a 300% increase since 2022. Research shows a 60‑year‑old starting a business is three times more likely to succeed than a 30‑year‑old, and...
Foxy Reveals the Secret to a New Fulfilled Life (Honest)
UK psychologist Sophie Mort cites a new survey of 2,000 Britons revealing that nearly half habitually sit on the same sofa each night and a third repeatedly use the same tea mug. The study finds 95% of respondents consider themselves...
The Puke Paradigm: The Truth About Training 'Till You Crawl Out
Veteran lifter Dave Tate argues that the long‑standing “train till you puke” mantra is counterproductive. Decades of experience show that pushing to the point of vomiting creates CNS fatigue and hampers recovery, turning a perceived badge of honor into a...
Want to Instantly Become a Better Leader? Science Says 3 Simple Habits Will Make You More Influential and Charismatic
A recent Leadership Quarterly study shows charisma fluctuates with circadian rhythms, making leaders more persuasive at their personal energy peaks. Morning‑type leaders are most influential before lunch, while night owls peak later in the day. The research also reveals that...
The Easiest Way To Quiet A Stressed Mind — According To 108 Brain Scans
A new scoping review of 108 neuroimaging studies published in *Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews* shows that brief exposure to natural environments triggers consistent brain changes. Fractal patterns in nature ease visual processing, while stress‑related regions such as the amygdala quiet down....
Ask a Climate Therapist: How Can I Balance My Travel Itch with Guilt About Emissions?
Leslie Davenport, a climate‑aware therapist, answers a reader’s guilt about flying by reframing travel as a source of insight rather than shame. She advises turning the discomfort into concrete choices—longer stays, low‑carbon transport, and trips that support conservation. Davenport also...
For CEOs, It’s Time for a Wartime Mindset
CEOs are urged to adopt a wartime mindset, using scenario planning to navigate heightened geopolitical uncertainty, especially the Iran‑Israel conflict and volatile oil markets. The practice, pioneered by Shell in the 1970s, proved valuable during the oil embargo and is...
AILEEN JUDAN-JIAO: Breaking Barriers at IBM Philippines
Aileen Judan‑Jiao became IBM Philippines’ first homegrown Filipina president and country general manager in 2018, overseeing an 89‑year‑old operation. Her three‑decade IBM career progressed from systems engineer to executive, now steering cloud, AI and security services for clients undergoing rapid...
Nicolette Briscoe Launches Life By Design Coaching
Marketing veteran Nicolette Briscoe has launched Life by Design Coaching, a mindset and leadership practice targeting leaders, founders, and high‑achievers. The service blends unconscious recoding, strategic intentionality, and somatic mastery to replace hustle‑driven habits with sustainable performance. Briscoe also offers...
How Slow Can You Go?
Recent books and essays argue that relentless pursuit of GDP growth accelerates ecological and social crises. Authors like Timothée Parrique and Kohei Saito call for a degrowth mindset, while psychologists highlight the cultural addiction to speed. Mindfulness scholar Andrew Olendzki suggests shifting from...
Self-Doubt: Why Pausing To Reflect Helps Some But Hurts Others (M)
The article examines how taking time for introspection can alleviate self‑doubt for some individuals while exacerbating anxiety for others. It outlines psychological mechanisms such as rumination versus constructive reflection, and cites research showing divergent outcomes based on personality traits and...
Winnie-the-Pooh at 100: This Much-Loved Classic Illustrates How Books Can Boost Our Wellbeing
The centenary of A.A. Milne’s Winnie‑the‑Pooh highlights the book’s role as an early example of bibliotherapy, a practice that began in the 19th century and gained traction after World I. Milne’s wartime experience shaped the gentle, comforting narrative that has soothed readers for...
6 Time-Blocking Moves To Save Your Sanity
Modern knowledge workers are overwhelmed by constant notifications and back‑to‑back meetings, eroding deep‑work capacity. The article outlines six time‑blocking tactics—protecting a morning focus block, batching messages, using transition buffers, theming days, enforcing a meeting‑decline rule, tracking actual versus planned time,...
How to Grow at Work when Your Manager Won’t Give You Feedback
Senior professionals often experience a sharp decline in feedback as they climb the corporate ladder, a pattern highlighted by Amy Edmondson’s research on authority bias and reduced transparency. Without regular input, leaders can lose the reassurance that once guided their...
Our Favorite Management Tips on Leading with AI
Harvard Business Review outlines how leaders can harness AI without overloading staff. It stresses redesigning work for human‑AI collaboration, setting clear expectations, and measuring outcomes rather than tool usage. The article also highlights managing employee anxiety, preventing low‑quality "workslop," and...
The 6 A.m. CFO: How Fundrise’s Alison Staloch Starts Her Day
Fundrise CFO Alison Staloch outlines a disciplined morning routine that centers on sleep, hydration, light exercise, and data‑driven decision making. She begins her day around 7 a.m., skips caffeine, reviews fundraising dashboards, and limits email by favoring Slack and batch processing....
Happiness Break: A Meditation For When You Have Too Much To Do
In a March 2026 episode of *Happiness Break*, host Dacher Keltner guides listeners through a brief meditation designed for professionals swamped with tasks. Guest Kia Afcari, director of Greater Good Workplaces at UC Berkeley, frames overwhelm as a relationship issue rather than...
Freedom of Focus
The article argues that our off‑clock media choices are not entirely free, as powerful platforms and algorithms steer attention toward content that serves their interests. It highlights the psychological toll of doom‑scrolling and the internal narratives that shape our attitudes...
JP Morgan's Justin Nelson on Resilience in Wealth Management
JP Morgan Private Bank’s Justin Nelson, who oversees more than $11 billion for high‑net‑worth clients, stresses that resilience in wealth management comes from embracing calculated risk and honest communication. He makes hundreds of decisions daily, believing that being right more than...
IWD Voices: Hiroko Okita – ‘A Leader Isn’t Merely Someone Who Articulates What’s Right; They Are Someone Who Demonstrates It’
In an International Women’s Day interview, branding executive Hiroko Okita emphasizes that true leadership goes beyond articulating values; it requires embodying rights, justice, and authentic action. She links personal authenticity with tolerance, celebrating diversity and urging organizations to accept multiple...
Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
Higher‑education leaders Marilu Goodyear and Jenny Mehmedovic discussed how intentional mentorship, sponsorship, and cross‑disciplinary insight shape the next generation of campus leaders. Drawing on decades of experience in IT, research, and faculty development, they emphasized tailoring communication to each leader’s...
Five Beliefs and Behaviours Keep Overachievers "Stuck"
Performance strategist Fleur Marks’ new book, *The Overachiever’s Reset*, pinpoints five beliefs that keep high‑performers stuck. She labels them the five Ps—perfectionism, people‑pleasing, proving, performing, and pushing through—behaviours that fuel relentless work but can jeopardise health. After a personal health crisis...
Courage Can Hit Differently For Leaders Of Color
Veteran communications leader John G. Clemons discusses how trust, credibility, and courage differ for Black and Brown executives on the Taking the Lead podcast. He cites Paul Robeson, the Obamas, and Ray Day as mentors and stresses that DEI must be...
A Meditation to (Gently) Interrupt Habitual Reactions
Family physician and mindfulness expert Patricia Rockman outlines a step‑by‑step meditation designed to interrupt automatic, habit‑driven reactions. The practice guides practitioners from posture awareness through breath focus, body scanning, and gentle redirection of attention when the mind wanders. By inviting...
How to Build Good Habits that Last, According to a Navy SEAL
Retired Navy Admiral William McRaven argues that lasting success stems from tiny daily habits rather than grand vision. He promotes simple rituals—like making the bed or completing a morning task—to trigger positive feedback loops, reduce decision fatigue, and build momentum. McRaven...
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The “Just One Song” Method Turned Me Into Someone Who Actually Enjoys Tidying Up
The article introduces the “just one song” rule, a time‑boxing technique that pairs a single music track with a brief cleaning session. By limiting effort to the length of a song, the method transforms an open‑ended chore into a concrete,...
The Emotional Price Of Staying Single Through Your Twenties (M)
Staying single throughout the twenties, a period known as emerging adulthood, can trigger psychological effects that intensify over time. Research highlighted by Dr. Jeremy Dean points to heightened loneliness, reduced emotional support, and increased stress for individuals without a partner....
Young People Are Happier in Sub-Saharan Africa than in the Wealthy West
Sapien Labs’ global survey of one million respondents finds that young people in affluent nations report far worse mental health than peers in sub‑Saharan Africa, where the top five youth‑well‑being scores are recorded. The study links four factors to this...
What It Takes to Execute a Successful Company Turnaround
Peter Cuneo, former Marvel CEO, outlines a repeatable playbook for rescuing underperforming businesses. He stresses that cultural misalignment is often the hidden cause of failure and that diagnosing problems requires listening to insiders. Successful turnarounds hinge on assembling a decisive...
The Psychological Reason We Judge Groups Much More Harshly than Individuals
Researchers led by André Vaz published five studies showing people view themselves as morally superior, strangers as moderately moral, and groups as morally deficient. Participants estimated the frequency of everyday moral and immoral actions for themselves, specific individuals, and collectives,...
10 Simple Mindfulness Practices for Couples That Improve Your Emotional Connection
The article outlines ten easy mindfulness exercises that couples can use to rekindle emotional connection, from daily gratitude moments to eye‑gazing and partner yoga. Each practice emphasizes present‑moment awareness, intentional touch, and active listening, which research links to higher oxytocin...
Sleep Is the New Management Flex
The article argues that sleep, once dismissed as a luxury in startup culture, is now emerging as a strategic asset for leaders. With burnout at record levels in 2026, executives are re‑framing rest as essential infrastructure for decision‑making, creativity, and...
Why Staying the Same Is the Biggest Mistake You Can Make
Voltaire’s warning that “stupid is the man who always remains the same” is reframed as a modern business imperative. The article argues that rapid industry evolution renders static skills and mindsets a liability, while continuous adaptation becomes the true measure...
New Psychology Research Reveals the Cognitive Cost of Smartphone Notifications
A study published in *Computers in Human Behavior* shows smartphone notifications interrupt concentration for roughly seven seconds. Researchers tested 180 university students with Stroop tasks and three notification types—personal, generic, and blurred—to isolate visual, conditioning, and relevance effects. The personal‑notification...
The Unglamorous Power of Routine
The article argues that unglamorous daily routines are a powerful productivity lever. By pre‑positioning items like gym shoes and fixing wake‑up times, the author eliminates decision fatigue and frees mental energy. He links personal habit stacking to lean “standard work,”...
Avoid Digital Distraction With These Mindfulness Practices
The article explains how pervasive digital devices hijack attention through design features like notifications and endless scrolling, leading to fragmented focus and reduced productivity. It presents mindfulness techniques—three‑breath resets, naming urges, and single‑task windows—as practical ways to strengthen reflective attention...
How to Write Yourself Every Day
Write Yourself Every Day (WYED) is a low‑tech journaling method that uses a phone’s voice‑to‑text feature to capture unfiltered inner monologue for ten minutes each day. After recording, the transcript is reread as if it belonged to a fictional character,...
What Happens After You Retire Early? People Who Have Done It in Their 30s Describe Boredom, Identity Shifts, and Second...
The Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement promises freedom through aggressive saving, yet early retirees like Josette Chang, Gwendolyn Merz and Rose Han report post‑retirement boredom, identity crises, and unexpected costs. While they achieved net‑worth milestones and left demanding jobs,...
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Locus of Control and Your Life
Locus of control describes whether individuals believe outcomes stem from their own actions (internal) or external forces. Originating from Rotter’s 1950s theory and later refined by Zimbardo, the construct predicts motivation, stress response, and achievement. People with an internal orientation...
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Situational Leadership Theory
Situational leadership theory, created by Hersey and Blanchard, posits that effective leaders must adapt their style to the maturity and competence of their team members. The original model outlines four styles—telling, selling, participating, delegating—matched to four maturity levels, while the...
Narcissistic Traits and Celebrity Worship Are Linked to Excessive Instagram Scrolling via Emotional Struggles and Fear of Missing Out
A new study in The Journal of Psychology links narcissistic traits and celebrity worship to problematic Instagram use. Researchers surveyed 450 Iranian university students and found that both personality factors increase excessive scrolling, but the relationship is mediated by fear...
How High-Performing Entrepreneurs Design Their Businesses to Prevent Burnout and Constant Chaos
High‑performing entrepreneurs are shifting from relentless hustle to intentional slack. They schedule only 80 % of their weeks, add staff before teams hit full capacity, and treat AI as a time‑filter rather than a task‑generator. By auditing false urgency and delegating...
Do You Really Need Closure?
The article examines the human drive for closure after traumatic events, highlighting its psychological roots and the mixed outcomes of seeking definitive answers. Researchers Arie Kruglanski and Dan McAdams show that while closure can aid decision‑making and emotional transition, it...
Maximize Your Utility: Career, Family, and Time Strategies
The article proposes a utility‑based framework for women navigating high‑pressure periods such as early parenthood, urging them to prioritize long‑term fulfillment over short‑term multitasking. It outlines five actionable practices—defining a personal utility function, ruthlessly prioritizing time, strategic outsourcing, thinking in...
In Times of War, We Must R.I.S.E.
The Mindful Leader team introduces R.I.S.E., a four‑step reflection framework designed to help individuals respond to war, humanitarian crises, and societal polarization with clarity and responsibility. Drawing on mindfulness, Viktor Frankl’s meaning‑making, and Stoic teachings from Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius,...
Not Everyone Has an Internal Monologue
Psychologist Russell Hurlburt, who has studied inner experience for five decades, argues that most people do not constantly engage in an internal monologue. Using a beeper‑prompted sampling method, he found that only about a quarter of recorded moments involve inner...
How I Coped with 40 Rejections – Farzana Rahman, CEO, Hexarad
Former NHS doctor Farzana Rahman pivoted to entrepreneurship, founding Hexarad, an AI‑powered end‑to‑end radiology platform that delivers diagnoses from CT and MRI scans. After enduring 40 rejections, she secured funding and partnership support from HSBC Innovation Banking, enabling rapid scale‑up....
Abandoning Ourselves
The article explores existential regret, linking it to anxiety and guilt, and argues that authentic decision‑making can mitigate its pain. Drawing on philosophers like Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Nietzsche, it shows how confronting mortality and freedom leads to more purposeful lives....