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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 3:28:38 am

When agreement kills growth

In the early stages of building a business, growth is often driven by clarity, speed, and conviction. Founders make decisions quickly, rely on their instincts, and push forward with a strong sense of belief in their methods. This decisiveness is not only necessary, it is often the very reason the business begins to grow. However, as businesses cross certain thresholds, particularly beyond the Rs 5 crore mark, the nature of growth begins to change. What once created momentum can quietly begin...

When agreement kills growth

In the early stages of building a business, growth is often driven by clarity, speed, and conviction. Founders make decisions quickly, rely on their instincts, and push forward with a strong sense of belief in their methods. This decisiveness is not only necessary, it is often the very reason the business begins to grow. However, as businesses cross certain thresholds, particularly beyond the Rs 5 crore mark, the nature of growth begins to change. What once created momentum can quietly begin to create limitations. In many professional environments, it is not uncommon to encounter business owners who are deeply convinced of their approach. Their methods have delivered results, their experience reinforces their judgment, and their confidence becomes a defining trait. Yet, in this very confidence lies a subtle risk that is often overlooked. When conviction turns into certainty without space for dialogue, conversations begin to narrow. Suggestions are heard, but not always considered. Perspectives are offered, but not always encouraged. Decisions are made, but not always explained. From the outside, this may still appear as strong leadership. Internally, however, a different dynamic begins to take shape. People start to agree more than they contribute. This is where many businesses unknowingly enter a critical phase. When teams, partners, or stakeholders begin to hold back their perspective, the quality of thinking around the business reduces. What appears as alignment is often silent disengagement. What looks like efficiency is sometimes the absence of challenge. Over time, this directly affects the decisions being made. At a Rs 5 crore level, this may not be immediately visible. Operations continue, revenue flows, and the business appears stable. But as the organisation attempts to grow further, this lack of diverse thinking begins to surface as a constraint. Growth slows, not because of lack of effort, but because of limited perspective. On the other side of this equation are individuals who consistently find themselves accommodating such dynamics. They recognise when their voice is not being fully heard, yet choose not to assert it. The intention is often to preserve relationships, avoid friction, or maintain a sense of professional ease. Initially, this approach appears collaborative. Over time, however, it begins to shape perception. When individuals do not express their perspective, they are gradually seen as agreeable rather than essential. Their presence is valued, but their input is not actively sought. In many cases, they become part of the process, but not part of the decision. This is where personal branding begins to influence business outcomes in ways that are not immediately obvious. A personal brand is not built only through visibility or achievement. It is built through how consistently one demonstrates clarity, confidence, and openness in moments that require it. It is shaped by whether people feel encouraged to think around you, or restricted in your presence. At higher levels of business, this distinction becomes critical. If people agree with you more than they challenge you, it may not be a sign of strong leadership. It may be an indication that your environment is no longer enabling better thinking. Similarly, if you find yourself constantly adjusting to others without expressing your own perspective, your contribution may be diminishing in ways that affect both your influence and your growth. Both situations carry a cost. They affect decision quality, limit innovation, and over time, restrict the scalability of the business itself. What makes this particularly challenging is that these patterns develop gradually, often going unnoticed until the impact becomes difficult to ignore. The most effective leaders recognise this early. They create space for dialogue without losing direction. They express conviction without dismissing perspective. They build environments where contribution is expected, not avoided. In doing so, they strengthen not only their business, but also their personal brand. For entrepreneurs operating at a stage where growth is no longer just about execution but about expanding thinking, this becomes an important point of reflection. If there is even a possibility that your current interactions are limiting the quality of thinking around you, it is worth addressing before it begins to affect outcomes. I work with a select group of founders and professionals to help them refine how they are perceived, communicate with greater impact, and build personal brands that support sustained growth. You may explore this further here: https://sprect.com/pro/divyaaadvaani In the long run, it is not only the decisions you make, but the thinking you allow around those decisions, that determines how far your business can truly grow. (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

Desperate Depths

Pakistan’s reckless airstrikes in Afghanistan betray its growing insecurity as India’s quiet courtship of the Taliban exposes the bankruptcy of Islamabad’s old Afghan policy.

 

For decades, Pakistan fancied itself as the gatekeeper of Afghanistan - a self-styled ‘strategic depth’ against India and an indispensable interlocutor for the West. But as Pakistani jets thundered over Kabul on Thursday night, targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it was not strength but desperation that echoed in the skies. The timing of the assault coincided with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s maiden visit to India. It revealed how thoroughly Pakistan’s Afghan policy has unravelled, leaving Islamabad encircled by the very monsters it once midwifed.

 

Reports suggest the strikes were aimed at killing Noor Wali Mehsud, the TTP chief who has led the group since 2018. Mehsud, who cast Pakistan’s post-9/11 alliance with America as an act of apostasy, has since become Islamabad’s most implacable foe. The TTP’s relentless attacks, like the ambush on October 8 that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers, have transformed Pakistan’s western frontier into a bleeding wound. For years, Islamabad sheltered the Afghan Taliban even as it hunted the Pakistani version of the same movement. That schizophrenic policy has come home to roost.

 

Dangerous escalation

The airstrikes mark a dangerous escalation in what has become an undeclared border war. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, long regarded as Pakistan’s ideological protégés, now accuse their former patrons of violating sovereignty and aiding the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), a mutual enemy.

 

Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, thundered in parliament that Islamabad was “paying the price of sixty years of hospitality to six million Afghan refugees with our blood.” The rhetoric conveniently omits who invited the serpent into the tent. Since the 1980s, Pakistan’s generals have used Islamist militancy as a tool of foreign policy. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) cultivated the mujahideen to fight the Soviets, later midwifed the Taliban, and turned a blind eye to al-Qaeda fugitives. It also engineered jihadist outfits against India, from Lashkar-e-Taiba to Jaish-e-Mohammed. The state became so entangled in the jihadist web that it could neither dismantle it nor escape from it.

 

The Taliban’s victory in 2021 briefly seemed to vindicate Pakistan’s long game. As American troops withdrew in disarray, Islamabad celebrated the return of its clients to Kabul. But the rejoicing was short-lived. The Taliban, now masters of their own house, proved unwilling to act as Pakistan’s proxies. They refused to curb the TTP or hand over its leaders. Instead, they asserted Afghan independence in rhetoric and diplomacy, most notably by courting India. That is the deeper sting in Islamabad’s latest tantrum.

 

Strategic overture

Muttaqi’s visit to New Delhi this week, where he met Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, marks the highest-level contact between India and the Taliban since 2021. India, which lost billions in infrastructure projects after the fall of the previous Afghan government, has moved cautiously by offering humanitarian aid, reopening a technical mission in Kabul and quietly exploring security cooperation. The Taliban’s condemnation of a recent terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people, further signals a pragmatic recalibration. In this new diplomatic choreography, Pakistan is the odd man out.

 

Islamabad’s strategic paranoia is understandable but self-inflicted. For years, it viewed Afghanistan not as a neighbour but as a backyard to be controlled through pliant rulers and extremist proxies. That imperial delusion is now collapsing under its own contradictions.

 

Domestically, Pakistan is in disarray as its economy teeters on bankruptcy and its frontier regions seethe with insurgency.

 

The fallout of the airstrikes bombing will not be contained by borders. Afghanistan may retaliate through proxies or by loosening restraints on the TTP. That could drag both countries deeper into a cycle of insurgency and reprisal, with civilians as the inevitable victims.

 

The irony is bitter but deserved. For decades, Pakistan believed it could manipulate jihadists, control Afghanistan and outmanoeuvre India. Today it is reaping the whirlwind of its own duplicity.

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