In the late 1980s, the leadership of J.P. Morgan faced a growing problem. The bank was expanding rapidly into complex financial products. Different trading desks were taking risks, but no one could see the bank’s total exposure in one place. Each team understood its own risk, tracked its own positions, and reported in its own […]

In 1934, seeing the growing menace of the Nazis, the Hungarian-born physicist Leo Szilard moved from Berlin to London. Three years later, he moved to New York to teach at Columbia University. Working with Enrico Fermi, he realized earlier than anyone else that the atom could be split and this fission could lead to a

A few years back, Queen Elizabeth hosted a reception in London for the leaders of the G7. As they all posed for a group photo, the mood was a little serious. As you can see in this video, the Queen quips, “Are you supposed to be looking as if you are enjoying yourself?” and the

It seems that there is no escaping Artificial Intelligence. ChatGPT, a Large Language Model (LLM) based chatbot released in 2022, took the world by storm. Technology companies have invested astronomical sums of money in the research and development of AI systems. The world has been inundated with AI products and apps that promise to deliver

In a mentoring session last year, I was paying attention to what my protégé, a manager in a large technology company, was saying. Describing how he felt during a particularly hectic day, he said, “I felt overwhelmed by the many things I had to complete by the end of day; it was like I had

Life doesn’t always go according to plan. A long-standing client drops us like a hot potato. A much-awaited promotion is deferred for yet another year. We are caught in the crossfire of office politics. A “sure win” vanishes. The rules of engagement in our industry change without warning. Our actions, even our innocent ones, come

You are probably thinking, “Wait. What is a post on ‘solitude’ doing in a leadership blog?” After all, aren’t leaders expected to be comfortable around people, know how to talk to them, encourage them and celebrate their successes? In other words, aren’t leaders those who lead people? It turns out that solitude has a significant

For decades, the employees of Boeing had every reason to be proud. The company, founded in 1916, was seen as a model of American engineering prowess. Through regular, robust training programs and stringent quality control measures, Boeing had built a stellar reputation for aviation safety and security. Employees were encouraged to report concerns through well-established

A few weeks ago, when I had finished washing up, I towelled my face with more force than I needed to. I was not mindful of what I was doing – I was distracted by the problems I was facing with a bank account. Even as I finished up, I felt my face burn and

This is a guest-post from Deepika Sekar, a psychotherapist in private practice. In the Cold War era, the Communist Revolution in Cuba, with support from the Soviet Union, was felt to be a dire threat in the U.S. Shortly after his election, U.S. President John Kennedy and his close advisers decided to invade Cuba in