The Currency of Wisdom

How do you actively develop your wisdom?

How often do you seek your wisdom of hindsight? That is, your inner-eye that helps you reference your future decisions with your past.

On the one hand, we experience self-talk like 'once beaten, twice shy', 'I should have listened to my gut feeling' and 'rash decisions'. On the other, you may have appreciated moments like 'Eureka!', 'my intuition talked to me' and 'I was fortunate/lucky'. We can attribute our success and failures to being acutely attuned to both our senses (sensitive, sensible) and our intuition (sixth sense, gut feel, instinct).

Learn From Your Failures
There is a truism that we can learn from our mistakes and failures. How exactly does one learn from disappointing results? Unguided, we may wallow in self-pity and become depressed. With the right internal lenses, we can filter out the emotions to attain the filtrate of 'good stuff'. These include lessons that we may apply at the next decision. What to avoid, be mindful of, cognisant about - we can apply this to our next business venture, relationship, and commitment. Sports-coaches remind us to write our thoughts and feelings while they are freshly-imprinted in our minds. We can review our results, and make adjustments in our planning and preparation for future attempts.

Learn From Your Successes
When you achieve a new milestone in your life, reflect over what you enjoyed about it. Ponder over how you would achieve your results and performance differently next time. Which values did you learn from your success? Humility, patience, consideration, respect, trust, care, and many more. What did you add to your character in your success? How can you build on your abilities, and expand and extend into your capabilities? Wisdom from our success can help us become confident to 'dream bigger for longer'. We can enter the realm of personal excellence and mastery, as such.

Leadership Lessons: How do you draw on your wisdom? How often do you convert to your currency of wisdom? How do you apply it to your decisions in business, socially, as well as in your personal relationships? Add to your wisdom. Observe, reflect, extract, from your experiences and use it for your learning and application.

Trust Your Base

Trust your base. I don't mean the 'bass', and treble.

Your base is your foundation. In endurance sports, your base is your 'aerobic base'. It is one of the main engines that drives your ability to 'go far and long'. Yet, the aerobic engine is shrouded in misnomers and confusion.

To build your aerobic engine, let's review the mathematics of heart-rate. Using Phil Maffetone's approach: 180 minus AGE is your Maximum Heart Rate. Never exceed this, when building your aerobic foundation. Even if you have to slow down, and walk, keep committed to this heart-rate limit. Once your heart-rate falls at the same intensity of work, you can then step it a notch higher. The main goal and intention is to teach your body to be more effective in using fat as a main source of fuel. Today, the popular term is applying the ketone-diet. You can train on an empty stomach, or breakfast-free. I use Bullet Coffee (with coconut oil) to run up to 2 hours or ride up to three hours.

Your aerobic base will buoy your anaerobic system, or higher-intensity workouts. It will also relieve stress on your body, reducing the chance of injuries, sleep better, and recovery faster.

Leadership Lessons: Return to basics. Maintain 'Beginner's Mind'. Learning and re-learning can be useful, whether you are a specialist, expert, consultant, teacher or champion. There is something to be gleaned from each experience, perspective and result.

Pace Your Way To A Faster Run

With running-mate and pacer, Melvin How in Gold Coast Marathon 2013.

The difference to earning a new PB/PR in your running, may be more than just more training. Your choice of race, climate, and use of pacers can make a big difference in slicing minutes off your time, and finishing strong.

In my best races, I almost followed a pacer. The pacers are either the officially-appointed ones, or those I designated to follow - my friends.

In 2013, I was pacing with my friend Melvin How for the early part of the Gold Coast Marathon, until his injury side-lined him. He still held a decent pace and an honorable finish. I earned a PB and BQ, thanks to his early fast-pacing. We were holding a 4:30min/km pace, and both aiming a Boston Qualifier (BQ).

This year, I followed the official Gold Coast Marathon Pacers, until the 2km mark, where I had to pee. Costing me precious minutes, and losing sight of the 3:15min/km pacers, I had to catch up with familiar faces. I designated them (in my mind) as my pacers, and kept up with them until my pace led me to overtake them. A few of the F1 Runners from Singapore kept me company for parts of the first 21km. My occasional running and racing-buddy, Andrew Cheong was my other pacer, who I kept in my gun-sight for most of the 42.195km. I was concerned about holding my mild lead of less than one minute over him. This year, my focus on slopes and hills gave me more confidence over the mild rolls of the Gold Coast. 

Thanks, pacers for egging me on!

Leadership Lessons: Be broadminded to run with faster runners. Ask permission to stick closely with these pacers. They can give us a massive psychological boost. The Gold Coast Marathon Pacers are so accurate that they guide you through to your potential PB. They also actively cheer you on, with positive energy and explicit encouragements. It is perfectly fine to follow them. Followers can prosper!

Lean Startups & Bartering Relationships (Part2)

In a continuing series on business startups and entrepreneurial ventures, we discuss the relevance of Relationships.

B) Bartering Your Way To Results

Bartering may seem like 'old school', yet it is one of the backbones of business success. The 'Law of Exchange' is as old as trading, sales, and reciprocity. 

One of the considerations of bartering is that it can be informal, and kept 'off the books'. Because, it is an 'exchange' of service-for-service, or product-for-product, or service-for-product, or product-for-service, you can be flexible with how you calculate your 'costs'. You can barter your editing services for a new business website for advice on accounting and submitting tax forms. You can barter a workshop on business writing for a participant's spot in a business seminar. You can trade your coaching services as a personal-trainer for accommodation in a residential-apartment overseas (when you are on vacation or a business trip). Write an feature article for a website, and in turn enjoy shared readership.  

Tied in to this process of bartering, is the Law of Reciprocity (as observed by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D.). You can reap massive benefits by leveraging on professional and personal relationships (more on this later). This may also pave the way for co-branding, partnering, co-sponsorship, and alliances.

Leadership Lessons: Bartering is about exchanging, and not taking advantage of anyone. You can trade products, services, and even opportunities to maximise progress of your business and vocation. Consider how you barter sensibly and with sensitivity. Sometimes, paying for the service or product is much 'cleaner' and without attachments and encumbrances.

Lean Startups & Bartering Relationships (Part1)

Being self-employed, and a 'free agent' for the last 15 years, I have been asked questions pertaining to start-ups and sustainability. Here are my thoughts distilled over the years for those who are thinking seriously about taking that quantum leap of faith into self-employment. 

To start your own company, and launch it, you can start lean and still be mean. Key considerations are:

A) Have 12 Months of Salary

In case things do not work according to plan, you have a year's worth of savings to tide over your overheads. These include purchase of capital expenses (notebook, work-station, peripherals), operating costs (rental, staff salary, software,licenses, taxes), business expenses (transportation, travel, accommodation) and developmental costs (education, seminars, courses, books, DVDs, EBooks). Do your 'books' according to a simple plan of Input/Output, or Cost/Income. Learn about basic Accounting, if you will, as it is important to be compliant with taxation laws and enjoy prevailing tax reliefs and start-up benefits.

Now, this window of 12 months gives you an 'out', in case things do not pan out for reasons. You still have a sense of relevance and 'recency', as you have not been too long 'out in the cold'.

Leadership Lessons: Plan to succeed. Success comes with planning and working your plan. A 12-month bank of salary gives you an assurance that you can manage your current lifestyle or alter it. What endurance sports can teach us are values of patience, optimism, determination, persistence, and purpose. I used 'The Art of The Start' by Guy Kawasaki as a working manual, and it has useful orientations for business start-ups and entrepreneurial approaches. 

Preparing For Your First Ironman Triathlon (IMWA), Part 4

Leadership Lessons From: John ‘Cookie’ Cooke, Perth-based lawyer and committed endurance athlete – 8-time Ironman finisher (5 X IMWA).

IMWA is a great race for the beginner. But like any Ironman, it is an endurance race and it is about preparation. The next six weeks is crucial and, hopefully, they would have had a solid block of training behind them. I think a 4-5 month preparation is necessary. In no particular, order my quick thoughts:

The key suggestions, now, are to do at least 2 long rides of 5-6 hours and some long runs.

Start planning and writing down a nutrition-plan and practise it. Work out how many calories and electrolytes you will need with hydration, and practise it. Be flexible to test it against a very hot day and a very cold day, although for the past few years IMWA has been a warm day.

A Singaporean, John races in IM Singapore 70.3 when he can.

Do practice some open-water swims. Most triathletes still have issues with the swim leg, and I still need to get a lot of practice in the ocean before I am comfortable.

Basically, the more preparation you have the more you will enjoy the race, and the faster you can go without bonking.

In terms of the mental side, like any problem that needs to be solved, do not focus on the whole problem (race) for it can be daunting for any first-timer. It is a long race, and so just start to think and even visualize the different legs, how you plan to start in the swim, and where you are going to position yourself. In the ride, visualize riding, getting into a routine of eating and drinking, and trying to maintain a pace that is suitable.

John completed the challenging Ironman Lanzarote, Spain in 2011.

Where possible, always drive through the course for the bike leg. Get your bike serviced, before the race and make sure you have all the equipment you need. Make a checklist.

Most of all – enjoy the experience. Too many participate because it is on their bucket list of things to do. Whilst the race is important and finishing is important, it is the training, and the day itself that enlightens us about testing our self. Each race is different, and how we react will be different, too. Have a Goal A, Goal B and Goal C. Set targets that are realistic and achievable. The aim is to finish, and then to get a PB in each leg, if possible.

Preparing For Your First Ironman Triathlon (IMWA), Part 2

Leadership Lessons From: Kevin Siah, Perth-based Acountant and talented triathlete.

Kevin (in blue) races just ahead of Kona-finisher Wong Ah Thiam.

Hi Enrico, very honoured to give some input.

IMWA 2012 will be my 6th Ironman, and 3rd one on the same course. The swim being – out and back – along the jetty is relatively straightforward. However from previous experiences, there are not many buoys to mark the course and there can be some pretty big swells in the water. First-time participants just have to keep calm and keep swimming, gauge their distance from the jetty every now and then, to ensure they're swimming in a straight line.

The bike course – although very flat – is not an easy one, as it is open to winds; and, the constant pedaling and posture can take its toll later in the course. A good strategy will be not to get too excited and go out too hard in the beginning. Also keep your nutrition topped up. If it is the same as last year, you can only access your special needs on the 2nd and 3rd lap. But there are plenty of food/drink stations every 20km, or so.

Kevin is highly disciplined to do his preparation, and thus performs very well.

The run course is along the coast so, again, could be impacted by winds. There would be food/drinks stations every 2km or so, but no sponges though. The local crowd really embraces the event – they'll set up tents with music to cheer you on; some even use their garden hose to cool you down. It's always been said ‘It all comes down to the run.’ Whatever discomfort or fatigue you experience, the key is to keep on moving. If you have to slow down or walk, do so with purpose i.e. when going through a food/drink station, preventing a cramp, etc. Remember, the faster you get moving, the earlier you will finish!

Preparing For Your First Ironman Triathlon (IMWA), Part 1

Leadership Lessons From: Clifford Lee, Kona-Finisher (Ironman World Championships) 2012 & 14-time Ironman finisher

Mahalo Enrico!!!

The theme for this year's Kona is 'Aa Na Maka O Na Aa'. It means 'The Sparkling Eyes of My Roots'. It's a meaningful theme to remind us of our roots! No matter how successful you are, think back on how you started...think about your roots.

The Voice of Ironman, Mike Riley.

On 2 December, this will be my third Ironman Western Australia. I completed the first two in 2006 and 2008. Initially, this was a standby race if I didn't make it to Kona this year. Since I had to suffer a DNF (Did Not Finish) in Ironman Texas 2012, due to an accident on the bike leg, I will be doing this race. This would be my 20th time at the start-line. On successful completion, it will be my 15th Ironman; a goal I set for myself back in 2006, i.e. to complete 15 IMs by age 45. I am on-target.

As you would have known by now, I take my sweet time for each IM except for those with 16-hours cutoff times. *Laughs* I do swim in my office, on alternate days, to cushion bike and run sessions. I joined my colleagues in the SAF healthy lifestyle runs every week, except when I have to cover longer distances.

For bike training, I rely on Mandai-LCK loops and my Desaru, long-haul, rides. I must say those Desaru rides contributed to many of my IM successes, including the recent Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. As an average-man-on-the-street, this is what I can do for my IM adventure, bearing in mind that I am a single parent with two great kids to focus on. Ironman Western Australia 2012 will mark a temporary end to these endurance adventures. There will be no more races in 2013, as my son is having his PSLE examinations. But then again, I do have some urge to do one more IM, say end-2013, when my children’s exams are over.

To me, race day is really just a day of experience. The experience you get is really how much preparation you have put in: Setting aside organisation efficiencies. Great experiences from an Ironman race are absorbed only by a clear and steady mind. A good and clear steady mind comes from good race preparations. I do a lot of mental rehearsals before each race. I familiarized myself to the race location and course, via satellite pictures and street pictures. I study weather (temperature, and wind directions) and course elevations prior to each race. These are useful tips to prepare your race in the right direction.

Do not listen to people who scare you about the course. Trust your Inner-Self. Trust your training preparations. It will be a fair ending, if you have put in the requirements. Good luck!!!

The Last Moments Matter

When I play the online word games of ‘Scrambled’ and ‘Word Hero’ on my android phone, I notice that I can squeeze out up to three words in the last five seconds. What leads to these last ‘bursts of fire’? How do I manage to wring out words at whirlwind speed at the eleventh hour?

Perhaps it is the adrenaline pumping, as I compete against the timeline. Being an endurance athlete, I am familiar with working against the clock when I aim for personal best (PB) timing. The watch gives you a sense of your timing, speediness and ability to work within a self-created crisis. It is like our ability to sprint over the finishing-line despite being fatigued or cramped.

It could also be attributed it to my sense of competitiveness. Not so much against a friend, or an unknown adversary – more about beating myself against a benchmarked score. The limits determine your limitation. Either you believe you can beat the score by associating words from the random assortment of alphabets. Sometimes, it takes us almost the duration of the game to realize new words. The confusion makes way for clarity.

Leadership Lessons: How often do you challenge yourself against the clock? How much can you squeeze out of your packets of time? What was the most that you produced within a short period of time? How did it feel to accomplish a lot more than you imagined?

Drawing From Your Experiences

What does it mean when somebody says ‘learn from experience’ or ‘sharing your experience’?

Learning from your experience builds awareness, introspection, and wisdom. If we make an active and concerted effort to reflect on what when right or wrong, we may benefit when something similar occurs in our future. Otherwise, we haven’t really learnt the lessons from our failures or non-starters.

You can extract the abstracts (i.e. lessons) by constructing a framework of success. Find out what works, and test it out in your existing model of effectiveness. Even in intangible things, we can mine them for their relevance. Our abstracts can matter more than pure wealth. That is why many of us pursue our sporting passions and enjoy our sense of achievement and fulfillment. Each celebration, achieved goal, milestone, and award received raises our sense of personal importance, confidence and self-esteem. These abstractions do matter or else they become pointless.

Leadership Lessons: How can you share somebody’s experiences? Unless you were involved in a similar or the same experience, it is still subjective. If we are not careful, we may end up speaking in clichés – like spouting out-dated idioms and proverbs. When adopting best-in-class practices, do that which has worked and continues to work well. As long as you continue to benefit from a process, keep doing more of it until diminishing returns set in.

Teams Dynamics Matter In Talent Shows

The recent addition of female performers, Demi Lovato and Britney Spears was a wise decision for TV talent show ‘The X-Factor USA (Season 2)’. The younger, feminine energy of established recording and performing artistes balanced the mature, producers in the form of L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell. Each of the panel of four judges has their own credibility, based on their respective capability, interests and capacity found in their own competencies. Judging on a talent show is fairly new to both lady judges. L.A. Reid draws upon his experience from his recent, and first season of X-Factor USA, and Simon Cowell is the most experienced as he created this show, and heads the team of judges. He is also the blunt, barefaced, critic notorious in ‘The American Idol’ which he led since its inception; he left the series in the last season.

Team dynamics is about the energies of team members during their interactions with each other. In most cases, this will involve some degree of conflict due to professional and personal disagreement. The dramas are part of the allure of television reality series. That is why the adventure reality-series, ‘Survivor’ is into its 25^th installment (in The Philippines). Audiences enjoy the tensions ad turmoil fraught of dramas so that they may engage their own informed conclusions about each character and personality of the contestants. Drama, leaks, gossip, rumours, tension, shenanigans and scandals attract viewership, and are part of the measure of success. Boredom leads to poor ratings and the cancellation of shows. Simon Cowell was quoted in Wikipedia as saying: 'The new panel will be dynamic and will work really well with the changes...'

Furthermore, this series will draw upon the endurance of each judge, as it is a long-drawn process that includes critique, selection, mentoring and more selection. Decision-making will move from team to individual to audience. Each judge will be placed on a slide, to be examined under a microscope of scrutiny.

Leadership Lessons: How well do you work with/in teams? How do you manage and lead other people’s teams? How do you integrate and interact within a team? What is your biggest challenge when working in a team, and how do you attend to it?

What’s The Next Big Thing?

After racing in endurance challenges for the past eight years, I occasionally experience hearing that ‘voice in my head’ that suggests ‘what’s next?’ I have heeded it, and wondered what, if I so choose, would be my NEXT challenge?

Challenges are mainly goals that we assign ourselves to, with the intention of achieving or completing them as soon as we can. Our Bucket List may involve more time, and may include ‘nice to have’ things. Challenges are more deliberate because one we set our minds to them we would have to comply with our conditions to attain them.

Many Ironman triathlon finishers move towards off-road triathlons, trail running, marathons, ultra-marathons, long-distance open-water swims (OWS) and charity-based challenges (most distance covered in 24 hours). They make the shift due to boredom and the routine of discipline, and so apply that discipline elsewhere. This allows them to re-charge their bodies and minds from the grueling lifestyle of enduring physical training. A proper period of rest away from prolonged routine can rejuvenate us. Even injury gives us an opportunity to take stock, and review our inventory of wants and needs.

Leadership Lessons: Seek your next challenge. Uncover those that you ditched away. A challenge is a goal with a deadline. Reduce procrastination. Create enough reasons for moving forwards towards your dream. Make your challenge compelling enough to stay focused on. Above all, practise, rehearse and train for the challenge.

Pen Your Ideas Into Interventions & Initiatives

It is, probably, a truism when it is expressed that ‘the largest things started by being small’. We were once kids, and we grew up. Some companies also progressed from good to great.

Ideas come and go, rapidly and prolonged. It would be opportune just to capture some of these down on paper (or a digital pad). You need not be so extreme to write every dream down on your notebook strategically placed on your bedside. Ideas morph into reality through a series of steps, sometimes serial and other times, sideways and sidestepped. By visualizing these ideas into words or pictures, you gain a better sense of what these latent ideas may become. Let these ideas come to be!

When you review your chicken scratches from years ago, you may rejuvenate a few initiatives: a business plan, a dream trip, creating a new connection, re-establishing existing relationships, or presenting a proposal. Before we can mark out our existence or territory, we will need to make our mark on a page. Motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins wrote his life-plan on the back of a map. The Virgin logo was drafted as a signature on a paper-napkin. The all-in-one, self-contained, beer-brewing unit by WillliamsWarns was thought and talked through in many conversions. How do you brew commercial quality beers within your own home? Put a master-brewer and a few engineer partners together and realize your diagrams and blueprints.

Leadership Lessons: Start small. Build it up from them. Write your ideas down for copyright reasons, and for your own recognition.

Drawing Inspiration Around Us

I have been watching snippets of the London Paralympic Games 2012 on television. I have been amazed and inspired by the depth of competition, and extent of competencies demonstrated by the athletes.

There are numerous categories for some sports. Each athlete works around his/her disability. The physically-challenged athletes are not handicapped, especially when they perform as well as able-bodied ones. Some have limited use of their limbs, whereas others rely on their sense of touch and sound. I have, initially, watched the Games wondering which are their disadvantaged. After a while, I stopped guessing and started enjoying the drama of athletic competition. These Games are some of the major highlights of human abilities and capabilities.

I am smitten by their raised sense of consciousness, heightened sense of competition, and enhanced hunger to be their best. These Games are not about physical disability, but rather about sports spread over a larger canvas of human possibility. Every effort counts. Their results reflect on our dreams, hopes and aspirations. We can share in their joy, jubilations, frustrations and disappointments. We share in their emotions and engagements. Thank you athletes for helping us raise our personal bars of ‘higher, stronger and faster’.

Leadership Lessons: How do you gain your inspiration? What are you most inspired by? How do you engage with your own inspiration? How do others draw upon you for their inspiration?

Listening In to Conversations

Active listening is a useful set of skills for capturing the interests and needs of a person. Language comprises surface structure and a deep structure. A ‘chair’ is a piece of furniture when we describe concrete thinking, and ‘chair a meeting’ is an abstraction (of a set of behaviors). The deep layers of language require us to listen attentively and acutely, so as not allow abstract reasoning to escape from our awareness.

Active listening is a soft skill, fraught with the risk of confusion, vagueness and ambiguity. If you do not ask questions, you may be misled by the ebb and flow of the conversation. If you drift into boredom, you may miss chunks of useful information presented or hidden in the jetsam and flotsam of a person’s language. Pay attention also to the body language of doubt, confusion and emotions inherent in their manner. Look, and be able to ‘see’. Observe, identify with, and detect signals and cues. Work off responses and feedback.

Leadership Lessons: How often do you practise active listening? How astute and accurate are your listening skills? What can you glean from pedestrian conversations? How close do you keep your ears to the ground of your organization?

The 10-Minute Challenge

These are ways to raise your heat-rate, and ‘drive’ home a point. Daniel Pink wrote 'Drive' and shared that tribes (like-minded people) can band together (for 20-30 hours outside of their work-time) to produce valuable work, only to give it away. Why do professionals behave like that? 10 minutes is as much time as you have to do ‘stuff’. It helps dispel extended moments of procrastination (that ‘thief’ of time). Here’s what you can consider to lead yourself in a short span of your time:

1)    Learn new words. Play a few games of ‘Scrambled’ or 'Word Hero' with others (compete). (This are ‘Boggle’ applications on Android phones).

2)    Clear the thrash from your office and kitchen. Physically, move and re-move them, permanently.

3)    Clear your files. Thrash useless, out-dated material. Hoarders, this is 'thrashing' therapy time.

4)    Arrange and organize your office.

5)    Write a 10-minute article (like this, and edit it for relevance; write from your heart, then head).

6)    Update your software.

7)    Send out birthday greetings, and personalized messages.

8)    Stretch major muscle groups.

9)    Plan your week, and re-prioritise your schedule.

10) Consider doing an act of charity or faith.

Desperately Seeking Advice

What happens when you face a rut in your professional life?

Coaches or mentors can be useful allies when we hit our plateaus in our performance. They can assist us in building our potential by nudging us forward. They function best by shifting our perspectives to usefulness and relevance. Productive conversations with your coach orientate around how we can move from our current state, to a future ‘expected’ state.

Effective coaches will ask questions that help us reflect on our condition. They lead us into our future with our visions of achievement. Skills-wise, they give us feedback that corrects our techniques and approaches, so we earn more ‘bang for our buck’. They help us move from ‘define’ to ‘refine’. Once we achieve our objectives, they disengage from the process of coaching. This relationship is about building independence and inter-dependence, and not dependency.

I have sought the assistance of coaches for my triathlon training, especially in swimming and running. My physiotherapists and sports-doctors are also my coaches, in that they provide consultation on which movements to do or avoid for my rehabilitation. I also seek the counsel and advice of business mentors on developing my consulting and performance audits businesses. The relationships are different, but similar in process and outcomes: to achieve my best in my performance and build my capability, capacity and interests.

This working relationship relies on a maturity that presupposes that you (being coached) are open, broad-minded and receptive to learning.

Leadership Lessons: How many coaches do you have? How do they assist you specifically in your competencies? How do you respond to your coach’s feedback when you need correction?

Rebuilding The Foundation Piece By Piece

You can tear down a building yet leave behind the foundations? The foundation stone is the starting point of a building. Once you lay it, it becomes the origin of a house. When you get injured, your body breaks down in order to prepare the raw materials to rebuild itself. Little is wasted, and cells are constantly being deconstructed so as to reconstruct new cells and tissues. Our bodies are conservative and creative in how it manages its energy systems and nutrients.

Having been injured for a few weeks and finally having it diagnosed, I am thick in the midst of healing my foot. My stress fracture is contained for now, while I refrain from high impact-based activities (like running) in order to let the fractured bone seal up and become stronger. I am disciplined about doing my rehabilitation exercises, for complete inactivity will mean a loss of aerobic fitness and muscular endurance. I have refocused on energies on strengthening my core, supporting muscles of my foot, and low-impact aerobic activities (riding and swimming). I am gaining muscle mass and feeling stronger in my limbs. My swim strokes are more certain and I am activating the correct muscles for each specific sporting activity.

I will be reevaluated in five weeks’ time. I have renounced my chance to race in Berlin, but will assume the role of spectator. I will not take the risk of injuring myself again. Instead, I intend to return stronger and fitter to running. I have a good chance to do the Singapore Marathon, and train for next year’s Ironman triathlon. With my strong and reliable foundation of consistent aerobic and endurance training, I am sanguine about my recovery.

Leadership Lessons: How do you respond to an over-haul of your body? How do you reinvent yourself? How much patience do you exercise in the rebuilding process? How constructive are you when you are reconstructing yourself?

Leadership Values Gleaned From The Sports of Decathlon

I was watching the ninth leg of the decathlon of the London Olympics. It focused on the javelin. The best performance was about 76 metres while the weakest bordered around 50m. The differential is quite significant and is evidence of the comparative strengths of each decathlete in each of the 10 events: three jumps, three throws, and four runs. One weak link can affect the whole chain of performance, through over-training or under-training.

World record holder Ashton Eaton (USA) won gold (8,869 points) in the decathlon, while American teammate Trey Hardee picked up the silver. Cuba's Leonel Suarez claimed bronze and was 346 points behind Eaton.

Decathlon legends Bruce Jenner (USA) and Daley Thompson (UK) were regarded as the ‘Best Athlete In the World’ when they each broke world records. The cumulative points for all 10 disciplines describe the overall performance of each competitor. Thus, they attempt to score as many points as they can for each sport however good or better they are. Often, the decathlete has a few pet events that they capitalize on. What shows up clearly is if they are better jumpers, throwers or runners. Therefore, the extreme difference in distances (100m versus 1,500m) tests the limits of running for each decathlete. Each sport involves long hours honing the skills and techniques required for each discipline. Therefore, it is a grueling sport where total time spent to train can be enormous. When considering sports like biathlon, triathlon, Modern Pentathlon and the decathlon – there is so much to do to display ‘higher, faster and stronger’.

Leadership Lessons: How much hardship can you endure? When in a long-term project, how do you remain patient and committed to completing the task? Do you focus on enhancing your strengths or doing your best in all your abilities and competencies? How often do you address your competencies, or lack of it?

Creating Future Leaders In Students

'I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.' – ALBERT EINSTEIN

Teachers have an unglamorous profession if their sole purpose in their lives is to educate students. They have been unfairly compared, and the adage ‘Those who can’t, teach’ suggests that these educators are despised for their efforts. In spite of the plethora of education that most students graduate with, they may not graduate with honors. That is, they are educated yet not functionally ready.

Education prepares you with skills that are useful, to a large extent. Yet, if education is merely the pursuit of pure knowledge and a certificate to prove you can past examinations successfully, then it has failed in its purpose. If the student learns, and continues to learn, then perhaps education has succeeded. Continuous learning and clever application are the major goals to seek. Learning is not a destination; it is a journey.

Beyond providing a suitable environment for learning, the teacher’s purpose is to share their passion for learning. They encourage the best out of students, so as to excite them to explore possibilities, engage in useful conversations, ask profound questions, challenge their thinking, and build their confidence as future adults. Rote learning has its relevance once learning has been achieved.

Today, we know that ‘Those who can, also do teach’. Universities recruit former-executives to deliver its post-degree programs; they deliberately add relevance to the theoretical basis, to convince students of what has worked, and can work. The roles of teachers include selling and marketing; they have become pitchmen for subjects. The competition for students’ attention leads to teachers having to become more versatile and competent in the area of influence. After all, leaders help create future leaders through the many leadership lessons that emerge through engaging conversations. It does not have to limited to classroom sessions, but also through sports, recreation and uniformed groups.

Leadership lessons: How do you bring the best out of your students? How often do you engage them in conversations of worth?