🏆 Best Executive Coach in Asia 2026 (Asia Business Outlook) • The Times of India columnist • 570+ Google reviews ✨
Psychology, Leadership & Coaching Insights
Essays on psychology, leadership, coaching, work and human behaviour, exploring what sits beneath the choices we make, the relationships we build and the lives we lead.
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Life Coaching for Lawyers in India: The Case You Never Argue
Most lawyers who seek a life coach are not failing. They are winning, and paying for it. Dr Krishna Athal on why the legal mind rules its own needs inadmissible, what the evidence shows about lawyers in India, and how to tell whether coaching is what you need.
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Was Taj Mahal Really Built by Shah Jahan? The Evidence, and Why We Doubt It
Was the Taj Mahal really built by Shah Jahan? The evidence says yes, and has for four centuries. Dr Krishna Athal on why the question keeps being reopened, the psychology of the reverse trial, and what a monument can teach you about the verdicts you protect in your own life.
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Lonely at the Top? Read My TEDx Talk on the Applause Gap
There is a kind of loneliness that only arrives after you have won. It is why it is lonely at the top, and why the people who have everything so often feel unseen. Next week, I’ll say this out loud on the TEDxButterfishCove stage.
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Why People Buy Expensive Phones: What the iPhone Duo Price Is Really Selling
Apple’s folding iPhone starts at ₹2,99,900 in India and climbs to nearly ₹4.5 lakh. Dr Krishna Athal on how a price like this is engineered to feel reasonable, why people buy expensive phones they cannot justify, and what responsible buying looks like when money is not the problem.
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Ganesh Chaturthi 2026: The Art of Welcoming and Letting Go
Ganesh Chaturthi 2026 begins on 14 September in India and 16 September in Mauritius. Dr Krishna Athal on how the festival is kept from Mumbai to Flic-en-Flac to the Thames, what the ritual does to the mind, the tenth-day clause, and the practices worth keeping in a heavy year.
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Dharm (2007): Why This Quiet Film Is a Must-Watch in Today’s World
Bhavna Talwar’s Dharm (2007), with Pankaj Kapur and Supriya Pathak, is one of Indian cinema’s great overlooked films. Dr Krishna Athal explains why its portrait of a priest torn between belief and love is a must-watch for anyone who has ever mistaken rigidity for principle.
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5 Harvey Specter Lessons Every Leader Should Actually Learn
Harvey Specter’s confidence is learnable, but not the way fans imagine. Five lessons from Suits on decided confidence, preparation, loyalty, reframing, and the one truth Harvey spent five seasons avoiding.
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Who Is Neem Karoli Baba? The Saint Who Wanted Nothing From You
Who is Neem Karoli Baba? Dr Krishna Athal traces the life of the saint behind Hanuman Ansh, why Silicon Valley kept finding its way to Kainchi Dham, and what a man who gave no lectures understood about the people who came to him.
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Inner Peace Is the New Rich: What the Phrase Gets Right and Wrong
Inner peace is the new rich, says the internet. Dr Krishna Athal on what the phrase gets right, what the research says about money and peace, and why the mind that made you rich is the mind least equipped to make you peaceful.
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Hanuman Ansh Review: The Boy Who Went Looking for His Mother in God
Hanuman Ansh review: Dr Krishna Athal reads the Neem Karoli Baba biopic as a study of grief that refuses to close, the psychology of a film India came to late, and the forwarding address every loss eventually needs.
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Positive Thinking Day 2026: Does Positive Thinking Actually Work?
Positive Thinking Day falls on Sunday 13 September 2026. Dr Krishna Athal on why “look on the bright side” so often backfires, what the research actually shows about optimism, the bright bypass, and how to think positively without lying to yourself.
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What Does an Executive Coach Do for Senior Leaders?
An executive coach is the one professional relationship in a leader’s life with no stake in the leader’s decisions. Here is what actually happens in the room, what a coach is not, and how to tell whether you need one.