Leading with Pain

Pain: the final frontier. It is the four-letter word that conjures up debilitating movement and the need for stasis. Pain can cause a powerful ripple, or fully cripple a person.

Pain is detected within our body as it is on our skin. Superficial pain is usually manageable, however, deep-rooted pain, manifested in the major muscles and joints of the body can impede our physical and athletic outcomes. Consider the lactic acid ‘burn’, albeit temporary, can cause our muscles to fatigue, cramp or stop moving altogether. By the way, lactic acid is not the enemy, for it can be converted into more energy when there is more oxygen supplied to the bloodstream.

How can we manage our pain?

1)  Through conditioning: deal with pain by getting used to it.

2)  As long as it is not sometime organic, and caused by disease, you learn to cope with it.

3)  Slow down our pace; take a break if necessary.

4)  Shift the focus of the pain to something else.

5)  Pre-empt it, with nutritional means.

6)   Use the pain to stay alert and lucid. Pain can be a process of self discovery.

7)   Use mantras and self-talk to focus on other aspects of your condition.

If you want to be an Ironman, you got to toughen up. If it were that easy, everyone would be an Ironman! The discomfort of waking up early to train and the rigorous long mileage covered, serves to build personal courage, tenacity, resourcefulness and resilience.

Here’s a piece on how hot coffee and love lost are similar in the part of the brain they influence.  

Leadership Lessons: How do you cope with the pain of disappointment? How do you lead those who violate your trust? How do you break bad news to another? 

You Have to Assert Yourself Sometimes To Earn Your Way

Assertiveness is the ability to express, to others, what is important to you. It can reflect your ability to lead. If you help another person amplify their need to be noticed and recognized, then your assertiveness becomes a useful quality. When you assert yourself, you are less likely to be overlooked. Be unassertive, and you may lose out and suffer in silence.

If you wish to express yourself, you will need to communicate aloud and with energy. Flaccid attempts to communicate merely expresses a lack of commitment, lack of clarity and confidence. Lead with energy that is associated with optimism, hope, enthusiasm, passion, consideration, and care. People are attracted to these powerful magnets.

On the other hand, over-assertiveness conveys being over-bearing, domineering, selfish and bossy. Few people respond positively to people who focus mostly on themselves. There are enough personalities who resort to bullying others around to get their way. They fail to realize that they need to sell their ideas, and earn the buy-in. They, eventually fail in their putrid attempts to influence and lead.

Express your wants, needs and desires yet stay mindful and aware of how your energies impacts and affects others. Be respectfully assertive. Be assertive and sensitive to other people’s responses and needs, too, and you will get your results.

Spartacus: Leader Among The Slaves

This is a slight departure, again, from hardcore corporate life and hardcore endurance sports. I watched the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and derived viewing pleasure from it.

If you have watched the 1960 version, led by Kirk Douglas and directed (albeit in a director-for-hire only role) by the late-Stanley Kubrick (of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame; as well as Dr Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange), this is an extended version of it. Plus, this 2010 version runs 13 episodes with enough Mature-Audience material to make you blush (if you watch it with family). There is little compromise by way of artistic intentions and execution; like Kubrick in most of his work (save, ironically, of course with Spartacus, circa 1960).

So, what is all about? Circa, 70 B.C., a Thracian soldier is arrested by Romans and trained as a gladiator for the amusement in the arena. The slave-gladiator, defies odds and death, to emerge victorious and popular among the mass. Motivated by his personal mission, he, subsequently, leads the other gladiators when he stages an en masse coup that topples the gladiatorial school and its cruel master. Well, at least, up till the finale of Season One.

The acting is very good, with little-known, lead actor Andy Whitfield playing Spartacus convincingly. He ably supported by a motley cast of credible and seasoned actors including Lucy Lawless (Xena: The Warrior Princess) and John Hannah (The Mummy trilogy). Despite the CGI-enhanced scenes (recall the film, 300) the action scenes are gory, realistic and violent. In a sentence, Spartacus has elements of Caligula, 300, and Gladiator. This is definitely not a family-night-in series, although you can be fooled by the rock soundtrack accompanying the heart-stopping, action sequences. There is an ample flesh-fest and coarse language to make you feel sheepish. This is the trend (in-your-face gratuitous nudity, violence and coarse language) in mainstream television/cable TV series in the past decade, and reflects shows like Sex In the City, Californication, True Blood, Entourage and Rome.

Like most of Hollywood contract work, the series was shot in New Zealand. The thriving film industry – with springboard project, The Lord of the Rings trilogy – is held buoyant and healthy with Spartacus: Blood and Sand, among many other projects. The significant Kiwi cast of athletic actors and extras add to the authenticity and action-genre of this mega-series. This is a highly physical series, as the gladiator-actors have to stay in prime shape for the intense choreography with sword and shield. Unfortunately, Season 2 is now up in the air, as British actor Whifield may be leaving the show because of serious health issues. It will be a pity as he is a leader who is both face and front of this new series. We hope that he makes a complete recovery.

Is There A Geek Behind The Leader?

Barry Buchanan is a satirist and cartoonist. His artistic expressions draw a smile to my face, however his observations are his strength. I think satire is the bridge between reality and the theatrical. There are humorous moments in our daily vignettes as can be read in the cynical comic strip, Dilbert.

I admit I am an ignoramus when it comes to techie things – writing this phrase is a dead giveaway about my technological incompetence. It took a long while before I could put my bike together on away-races. I was motivated to do it myself after my powers of influence and favours ran out. Talk about what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (or skillful)!

I am a geek, and so are you. When you consider the profundity of your knowledge within the ambit of your hobby and pastime, you are a geek! We are experts in our leisurely pursuits, for we chase after it. When we start speaking in the tongue of a technophile, we are expressing our brighter side. Who isn’t fascinated with talking about their passions? If you are passionate about your profession and are knowledgeable about it, you are a geek.

A geek is an enthusiast. If you enjoy working with customers, you are a geek. If you enjoy bicycles (and are into bike porn), you are a geek. Ozzie Osbourne bit off the head of a bat (by accident?) during a 'live' performance, so he is a geek (in the carnival sense). If you are familiar with geeks and all things geeky, you are indeed a geek!

Geeks spend hours on their hobbies; does that make work a hobby? Are we suckers for punishment? Sounds like a masochist’s slogan. I still hear cries of dismay when I announce to my colleagues that I’ll be doing yet another Ironman race; my family has resigned (and redesigned) itself to the fact that it is part of my neurosis. I am a neurotic with my abundant share of idiosyncracies and idiotic behavior. Within the triathlon community, I feel normal. Among the blind the one-eyed is king. Hey! I was influenced by idiots!  And I graduated with first-class honours for being an idiot – I just don’t know when to stop (or at least, I pretend I don’t).

Want to track your triathlon races worldwide? Go to AthLinks. It has your race records and history for you to claim. Quite a few fellow bloggers are already on its free membership.

Endurance sports are hard things. Mastering an instrument is a hard thing. Doing my chores is a harder thing. When was the last time you attempted hard things? Michael Ray Hopkin (incidentally, a 3:30 marathoner) blogged about doing hard things and the relevance of supporters, and I actually set my marathon PB as a result of our conversation.

Are you a geek or meek? I suppose that we have a bit of both in our composition. Who shall inherit the earth?


Illustration of DontFeedTheGeek.com by: Krishna Sadasivam the cartoonist behind the excellent www.pcweenies.com

Lead Your Team With the Basics

Managers and supervisors are who they are because they modeled from their predecessors. However, some of these on-the-job, behaviors cannot be tolerated and condoned, as they are out-dated and inhumane.

If you are a volunteer leader, make sure that motivational factors like the basics are delivered. Nobody can work indefinitely without fatigue and boredom setting in. Do take care of your staff’s meal, drink and bathroom needs. Ensure that there are periods of rest for staff; schedule this in, and rotate the staff.

You may flog a staff with ridiculous demands at work; you certainly cannot with a volunteer as they can quit any time. If a full-time staff or contract staff leaves your team, your team may be short-handed.

Banish your thoughts about the roles of superiors and subordinates – this is outmoded and arrogant thinking. Nobody needs to kowtow to you, and act subservient just because you have the label of ‘superior’ on the performance appraisal form. Submissiveness and servant-like behavior limits people’s potential to perform at their best. It also constricts their thinking and creativity to solve problems.

Review your beliefs and values about treating people. You cannot violate universal values like fairness, care and consideration without facing the consequences. Treat people the way YOU want to be treated, and your will stand out as a leader.

Powerful Branding & Brand Leaders

One of the most enduring and top-of-mind brands in the world has to be the Olympic Games. Revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896, the Summer Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece was the first installment in this series of once-in-four-years, international games that fondly honours the Greek Games – today known as the Olympic Movement.

Brand extensions came about with the Olympics Winter Games, Paralympics and now, the Youth Olympic Games. The latter coincides with the Winter Olympic Games that has taken place in Calgary, Lake Placid, Nagano, Torino, and Vancouver in 2010.

Singapore won the bid to host the inaugural Singapore Youth Olympic Games (SYOG) from 14-26 August 2010. The athletes will range from 14-18 years and participate in 26 sports. The core values that athletes will imbibe and imbue are Excellence, Respect and Friendship.

Leadership Lessons: Baron Coubertin was an initiator of the Games. He gathered a tribe large enough to sustain his legacy for another 110 years. He was also an unsung brand leader for conceptualizing the Olympic brand: logo, ideals, and values. Brand extension was an obvious derivative of the successful brand, and brand following.