Marut Bhardwaj

Leadership thinker decoding power, pressure, and the human edge of leadership.

May 27, 2026

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4 min read

Staying Clean Is Only the Beginning

Here is what five weeks of looking directly at power and politics in leadership has taught me.

Marut Bhardwaj

May 26, 2026

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11 min read

Power and Politics in the Workplace

A synthesis of four weeks of leadership intelligence on what power is, how it moves, who it harms, and how to hold your integrity inside a system that won't always reward it.

Marut Bhardwaj

Power, Politics & the Leader Who Stays Clean

You Can Hold Your Values and Still Survive a Political System

May 20, 2026

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6 min read

You Can Hold Your Values and Still Survive a Political System

The leader who survives a political system without losing themselves has not found a way to avoid the game. They have found a way to play it with integrity. That is a harder skill than either naivety or cynicism will give you.

Marut Bhardwaj

Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time

May 20, 2026

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7 min read

Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time

By Jeffrey Pfeffer (Stanford University) - The leadership industry has been running at full capacity for 40 years. The workplaces it claims to improve have not changed. That is not a coincidence.

Marut Bhardwaj

The Anatomy of Peace: How to Resolve the Heart of Conflict

May 20, 2026

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8 min read

The Anatomy of Peace: How to Resolve the Heart of Conflict

By The Arbinger Institute - Conflict does not begin with a disagreement. It begins with the way you see the person you are disagreeing with.

Marut Bhardwaj

The Black Belt in Leadership: 20 Tested Lessons from the Dojo to the Boardroom

May 19, 2026

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10 min read

The Black Belt in Leadership: 20 Tested Lessons from the Dojo to the Boardroom

By Aslak de Silva - Former CEO, Nordic Business Forum and Selfly Store. World Champion, Hoi Jeon Moo Sool (Michigan, 2000). Coach across four Nordic countries. Co-author, Winner’s Mindset.

Marut Bhardwaj

Power, Politics & the Leader Who Stays Clean

The Best People in Your Organisation Are the Most Vulnerable.

May 13, 2026

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5 min read

The Best People in Your Organisation Are the Most Vulnerable.

The ones who make it work, who delivers without complaint, who does not play games. Those people are usually the first to leave.

Marut Bhardwaj

The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians - and How We Can Survive Them

May 12, 2026

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6 min read

The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians - and How We Can Survive Them

By Jean Lipman-Blumen (Claremont Graduate University) - The question is not what makes toxic leaders tick. The question is what makes followers keep following them.

Marut Bhardwaj

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

May 12, 2026

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6 min read

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

By Robert Sutton (Stanford University) - The question is not whether you can afford to remove a toxic high-performer. The question is whether you can afford not to.

Marut Bhardwaj

Power, Politics & the Leader Who Stays Clean

May 6, 2026

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6 min read

The Real Org Chart Has Never Been Drawn

The meeting is not where the decision is made. It is where the decision is announced.

Marut Bhardwaj

Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

May 6, 2026

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6 min read

Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

By George Stalk and Rob Lachenauer - Competitive advantage is not enough. The leaders who win transform advantage into dominance, and they do it deliberately.

Marut Bhardwaj

May 6, 2026

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7 min read

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

By Robert Cialdini - The most powerful influence is not force. It is understanding the hidden mechanisms through which humans naturally say yes.

Marut Bhardwaj

Every Leader Is Playing Leadership Politics. Most Just Don't Admit It.

Apr 29, 2026

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5 min read

Every Leader Is Playing Leadership Politics. Most Just Don't Admit It.

Political intelligence is not the opposite of integrity. It is what integrity requires to survive.

Marut Bhardwaj

Power and Influence: Beyond Formal Authority

Apr 29, 2026

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6 min read

Power and Influence: Beyond Formal Authority

By John P. Kotter - The real power in an organisation is rarely where the org chart says it is.

Marut Bhardwaj

Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't

Apr 28, 2026

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6 min read

Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't

By Jeffrey Pfeffer - Performance is the price of admission. Politics is the game being played inside.

Marut Bhardwaj

Apr 22, 2026

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8 min read

Rebuilding Trust Once It Is Fractured

Trust is not restored through announcements. It is rebuilt through behaviour, repeated over time, in the moments that cost something.

Marut Bhardwaj

Unleashed - The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You

Apr 21, 2026

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8 min read

Unleashed - The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You

By Frances Frei and Anne Morriss - Trust is built on three things: authenticity, logic, and empathy. When trust breaks down, it is almost always because one of these three drivers has wobbled. The key is knowing which one.

Marut Bhardwaj

Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace - Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization

Apr 21, 2026

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8 min read

Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace - Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization

By Dennis Reina and Michelle Reina - Trust is not a single thing. It is a system of behaviours, each of which must be tended to separately if the whole is to hold.

Marut Bhardwaj

The Advantage - Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business

Apr 21, 2026

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8 min read

The Advantage - Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business

By Patrick Lencioni - The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organisational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders in favour of what I call the smart side of the equation.

Marut Bhardwaj

What Psychological Safety Actually Looks Like

Apr 15, 2026

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14 min read

What Psychological Safety Actually Looks Like

Psychological safety is not about making people comfortable. It is about making honesty possible.

Marut Bhardwaj

Happiness Habits - The Urban Professional's Guide to Good Living

Apr 15, 2026

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18 min read

Happiness Habits - The Urban Professional's Guide to Good Living

By Sriram Sadras - Happiness isn't a grand shift that happens overnight. It's a state you achieve after making small adjustments and creating new habits over time.

Marut Bhardwaj

The Culture Code - The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

Apr 15, 2026

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13 min read

The Culture Code - The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

By Daniel Coyle - Culture is not something you are. It is something you do. The most successful groups in the world are not the ones with the most talent. They are the ones who have learned to send the right signals.

Marut Bhardwaj

Radical Candor - Be a Kick-ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity

Apr 15, 2026

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13 min read

Radical Candor - Be a Kick-ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity

By Kim Scott - Caring personally and challenging directly are not in tension. They are the two dimensions that, together, make it possible to say the hard thing in a way that is genuinely heard.

Marut Bhardwaj

Right Kind of Wrong - How the Best Teams Use Failure to Succeed

Apr 15, 2026

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7 min read

Right Kind of Wrong - How the Best Teams Use Failure to Succeed

By Amy Edmondson - Failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of the path to it. The question is never whether you will fail. It is whether you will fail well.

Marut Bhardwaj

How Leaders Erode Trust Without Knowing It

Apr 8, 2026

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14 min read

How Leaders Erode Trust Without Knowing It

The behaviours that erode trust are not dramatic. They are daily and almost always unintentional.

Marut Bhardwaj