Naveen Narayanan's Podcast

Motivation feels powerful, but it’s unreliable.

In this episode, I share a deeply personal reflection on why consistency beats motivation every single time. From New Year resolutions that fade to long days where showing up feels hard, we explore why real progress is built through discipline, systems, and non negotiable habits.

I also reflect on the mindset of Kobe Bryant and how relentless practice and repetition not emotional highs shaped greatness. Through my own 30 day content challenge, I saw firsthand how consistency doesn’t just produce results, it builds competence, efficiency, and a stronger iden...

What does it really mean to future-proof an organization in 2026?

In this episode, Naveen Narayanan challenges the idea that technology or AI alone can secure the future. While trends will continue to evolve, organizations that endure are those that can separate signal from noise and stay relentlessly focused on what truly matters — customer value.

The conversation explores why chasing trends is risky, why there is no “magic switch” solution, and why sustainable performance comes from building the right systems, people, and culture around value creation. Naveen also shares why clarity in strategy, alignment of objectives, and co...

Profit Leadership was not born in a classroom or a consulting framework.

It was born in a crisis.

When COVID hit, many organizations that were profitable just months earlier suddenly faced deep uncertainty. Cash flows tightened. Demand vanished. And the fascination with tools, certifications, and frameworks quickly faded.

In this episode, I share the personal story of how that moment reshaped my thinking on continuous improvement and leadership. I reflect on what truly matters when survival is at stake, how years of systems thinking were distilled into clarity, and how the concept of...

Why do well-intended consulting and transformation efforts often become more complicated than they need to be?

In this episode, I share a candid reflection from inside the management consulting profession — not as criticism, but as a return to first principles.

I explore why consulting emerged in the first place, where overcomplication tends to creep in, and how tools, jargon, and presentations sometimes distract from what actually creates value. I also share what consistently works in real organizations: clarity, simplicity, and a strong bias for action.

This conversation is for leaders, consultants, and transformation pr...

In this episode, I step away from frameworks and tactics to share a simple story from my childhood. Growing up in a quieter time, with deep relationships, unhurried evenings, and meaningful conversations at home, shaped how I think about life, leadership, and work today. This is a reflective episode about simplicity, presence, and the lessons we absorb long before we realize we are learning them.

What really drives success in organizations?

In this episode, Naveen Narayanan shares three foundational principles at the heart of Profit Leadership: clarity, capability, and consistency. Drawing from years of leadership and transformation work, along with a personal story of creating a gamified habit system for his children, he explains why behavior rarely changes through pressure and how better system design leads to sustainable results.

You’ll learn how clear goals, continuous learning, disciplined execution, and simple gamification can help teams stay engaged, focused, and aligned without burnout.

This episode is...

In this episode, I reflect on something I’ve observed repeatedly over the years: most businesses don’t fail overnight. They decline quietly, even when everything appears to be going well on the surface.

I share five silent challenges that slowly hold businesses back, including comfort-zone thinking, misconceptions about talent, limiting paradigms, loss of learning, and the tendency to wait before improving. These issues rarely show up in financial reports, yet they often determine the long-term fate of a business.

This episode is for business owners and leaders who want to move beyond firefighting, rediscover ambi...

In this episode, we explore a subtle but powerful barrier to progress in organizations: blocking statements—those immediate reasons we dismiss new ideas by referencing past failures. When leaders and teams default to “we tried that before,” innovation dies before it begins.

We unpack how these statements shape organizational culture, restrict creative thinking, and stop initiatives before they even get a chance. I also share real-world reflections on how leaders can shift mindset, create psychological safety, and give new ideas the space they deserve.

If you want to build a culture that genuinely embrac...