How Do We Live With Rigour In A Time of Pandemic? (Part 1)

Caveat: These opinions are entirely my own, and I share my perspectives with those with a sense of optimism and adventure. If we can't be hopeful, what's the point?

Over the weeks, I have been collecting perspectives from senior managers, entrepreneurs, and employees. The common thread is: Everyone is struggling in their own way and braving their private battles. We are faced with threats to our way of life, both work-wise and leisure-wise. The disruptions and chaos that has ensued may lead many to and review and revise the way we think. Here are three key areas to ponder over, and we will go into detail, shortly.

1) Working From Home (WFH): This is inevitable, and the flexibility of working one-day-weekly from home has expanded into a lengthy period of home-based work. This is no different where educators have to, occasionally, teach from their homes via webinars, and the like. WFH may be the ‘New Norm’ as we have to figure out how we can work best in-separation. In my interviews, many managers believe that their staff are, probably, working more productively in this situation. There seems to be more focus and concentration when employees are at their desk, whether conducting a project meeting, or attending an online workshop. When you exclude traveling time to/from work, and ‘water-cooler conversations’, the working day is better spent.

2) Competencies and Skill-sets: It would be opportune to begin planning strategically (firstly for yourself, then for your team) what your career options are. How much of your Job Description and Job Scope will change? Which skills may become obsolete? Which skills will be valued more? Which new skills will you need to adopt? If your profession and vocation runs the risk of becoming obsolete, or easily replaceable with digitalisation then which parallel professions do your current abilities and capabilities allow you to migrate to? If you were, unfortunately, subject to furlough and were laid off, what can you do to pitch yourself for your next job opportunties? Rest assured that if you have specific and endearing skills and are unafraid to venture into new pastures, you may shorten your incubation time before your next employ. Skills like selling, influencing, instructing, relationship, counseling, communication (reading, writing and mathematics, however up-sized and expanded) and negotiating, may still augur well for most industries and businesses. Now, if you are open to the ‘dirtiest and deadliest’ types of work, these will require specific training and an aptitude/appetite for such labour. You will also need to ‘fit’, and ‘fit-for-duty’.

3) Activating Your Values: What does this mean? You, often-times, hear the need to be resilient, enduring, agile, and creative. What do these values entail? Which knowledge, skills, behaviors and mindsets will you need to develop to keep you valued as an employee? Our DNA – core values – when aligned with a company’s can open doors of opportunity for us. In relationships, we need to build mutual trust and respect. We need to develop the tacit experiences and wisdom to work in/with teams? Our ability to manage conflict, confusion, distortions of the important messages, and rising expectations are points of consideration. Applying your knowledge is more valuable than gathering data and information. Almost anyone with access to the Internet can source information, but connecting to sources and resources require more than touching the keypad. We will need to remain connected with customers, partners, and collaborators and be able to appreciate the myriad ‘touch points’ that connect us with purpose and poise towards our collective future.  

I leave you with these considerations. Meanwhile, stay safe, be healthy, and decide to be diligent and discerning.

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.

The Values In Customer Relationships

Values matter. When somebody violates our values, we become alert and cognizant of that. Even the insurance industry realizes that it is about promoting the values of ‘being sure’, ‘certainty’, ‘being insured’, and ‘assurance’. Having stated that, what about continued business that focuses on ‘reassurance’? What can we do to ensure that our clients think and feel assured about their buying choices and decisions?

Nobody likes to feel foolish about his/her buying decisions. Yet, we occasionally do fall prey to clever advertising and marketing. How can we bypass these unpleasant experiences and create new and pleasant ones for them? How can we assist our clients to feel more valued about this worthy relationship with us? Endear and endure to create responsively useful relationships, instead of reactively ‘fearful’ ones. Create reliability, responsiveness and a sense of responsibility. Give value, and add more value. Your purpose behind your value offerings matter, too. Do this well, and your customer will be reciprocal in his/her relationship with you.

Create your own personalised, conversational scripts. Instead of sticking rigidly to a prescribed speech or spiel, write your own dialogue. Speak from your heart. Be heartfelt and thankful for their business. Be arm but avoid raising temperatures. How would you provide advice and counsel to a person you value and care for? How would you create attention and make your sharing session an attractive one? Once you meet this criterion, clients are more likely to attain, and attain again. That is the process of ‘customer loyalty’.

Entrepreneurs As Marathoners

If art imitates life, then, does life imitate art?

Many active sportspeople, especially those in endurance sports, seem to also be highly-driven people in their professions and vocations. They demonstrate qualities and values that are mirrors of national and professional athletes.

A business project may be viewed and treated as a race. When developing the business, the entrepreneur or businessperson plans and executes the plan, with timing and precision. Little is left to chance, if one is to ascertain success. Values engaged include endurance, persistence, determination, innovation, passion, diligence and discernment. These values help sustain your business, for they support your motivation, providing the energy to reach your goals.

Be in business for the long run. Be a marathoner. Keep going.

Holding Back and Being (A) Patient

‘If it hurts – stop – and think about slowing down.’

It’s been harped and haloed as a harangue: Be patient. Patience is a virtue.

Patience is a useful value, especially when one activates stubbornness. My stubborn streak is born of knowledge and experience. So, I get opinionated when it comes to certain subjects of my expertise. I am obstinate when it comes to taking my advice, sometimes. In this case, I allowed myself to listen to my advice uttered by a professional (with inherent credibility).

I have initiated medical proceedings: I had my sports injury accessed by a sports doctor at the Changi Sports Medicine Centre. I appreciated my new doctor’s battery of diagnostic testing which isolated a possible cause. Because I have a low arch, and I pronate my feet a fair bit, I have strained a muscle in my lower-leg. To assure myself, I opted to do an MRI of my foot this afternoon. Hopefully, after my MRI images are looked at, I can be clear and exact about my condition and attend to it.

Meanwhile, I will lay of impactful activities so it will be mostly swimming and cycling. I will begin physiotherapy work on my foot next week. Podiatry is another option I may to consider. When you age, and partake in strenuous sports activities, your body undergoes specific changes including posture and supporting muscles. Muscle imbalances are common afflictions that can be managed with dedication and discipline.

Two months more to Berlin Marathon and I will have to bid my time until I fully recover, which may be before or after this crucial race. Better to be fully healed than exacerbate my uncomfortable situation. I strongly my base aerobic fitness will back me up, once I can resume more weight-bearing activities, especially running. I hope to hear good news next week, and I stay optimistic and hopeful.

Meanwhile, exercise safely and be patient about your gains.

Teamwork and Teambuilding Efforts

As a facilitator, I have been asked if I conduct teambuilding. My response: yes, I conduct teambuilding events. Can you help my build my team? My unreserved answer: no, I can’t.

There are limitations to teambuilding activities. You own your team. You have built your team. You can do more to enhance your team capability. Teambuilding events and activities provide a platform in which to challenge an organic team, to allow it to express itself distinctively, through its team dynamics and team values. No facilitator, worth his/her weight in integrity, can help build your teams. What they may do is, facilitate discussions around the team, with the team, to explore and build on their collective competencies and potential. Through astute observation and acute clarity, a facilitator can bring into your awareness what is working, or not within your team.

Team engagement involves participation and involvement. You want to engage as much of both from members. You want to activate functional dynamics instead of dysfunctional dynamics. You want your team to focus on useful behaviors, team values, and healthy relationships. High-performing teams avoid the energy-sapping efforts of ‘office politics’. They focus on seeking solutions instead of only shame-bringing problems. They regularly indulge in productive conversations, and they create experiences of worth. They feel valued as individuals and as professionals. They believe that you are fair, equitable and impartial in your decisions and delegation.

Build as much value as you can when in your team. Engage in synergistic collaboration, and collaborative synergies. Your team can then face any challenges that comes it way with a sense of optimism, purpose and clarity.

Listening To Your List

We have written about using lists and even designing our own Bucket List. What else do we need to know about the listing of important tasks and priorities? Even Santa Claus’s list has been audited annually for any inconsistencies and miscreants. Do the crime, and do the time.

Have you considered your internal list? That is the list that we all subscribe to, now and then. This list includes our: dreams, aspirations, wishes, values, doubts, worries, unhappiness, and suspicions. We need to manage this internal list, which can upset our equilibrium of our mental health, confidence, spirit, and trust in our world. What bothers you most in life? What are you struggling with? Which aspects of your achievements are you most proud of?

Listen closely to your list. Sometimes, our mind reminds us to listen in to our ‘list of demands’. It is natural to be selfish for some moments in your life, and take care of yourself. Even caregivers, parents and nurturers need to take good care of themselves. Submit, occasionally, to your list of TLC and WIIFM and you may be in a heightened state of capability and performance. Celebrate your success. Learn from your defeats, failures and disappointments. Develop wisdom. Write your philosophy and wisdom out, and articulate with others.

Have a private chat with yourself, and review your list. And, listen closely to it.

How Do You Fail? Gracefully, Or Disgracefully?

‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall.’

How much of this is true? If you consider it as a test of physicality, size does matter when you multiply it by the physical laws (force, acceleration, magnitude, direction). Size times gravity = OUCH!

The OUCH Factor. How painful is it? From ‘I can live with it’ to ‘bearable’ to ‘excruciating pain’. When we make mistakes, how do we recover? How can we learn from our mistakes? How will we really know if we have learnt from our transgressions? How do you make amends? How do you seek forgiveness when you have betrayed somebody’s trust?

Somewhere down the relationship chain – us and another person – are a collection of values and beliefs. When we violate a value, whether it is a shared or unique one, we may create friction, doubt, and distrust. Values have value. Honesty may not be the best policy for single-minded, prejudicial and discriminating people. No amount of facts or affectations can easily shift a person to another perspective or paradigm unless he/she makes a deliberate choice and decision to step aside of themselves. To put it in grandiose terms, ‘time to get your head out of your backside!’

Love him, or hate him, triathlon professional and champion Macca articulates his approach to failure with distinction.

How do we stop ourselves form falling or failing? Perhaps, a better question would be: How do you bounce back when you fail and fall?

Grin, Grind and Grunt

I have ridden on my turbo-trainer four times this week, totaling eight hours since Tuesday. Not the best place to ride when you have good weather, but way safer than riding on congested roads filled with temperamental riders and drivers. It is during these long and hard, indoor, rides that my mind has to work tough to not surrender to the discomfort and pain. It is also through sessions like this, that I ask questions and reflect on values like patience, persistence, determination, tenacity, commitment, decisiveness and diligence.

Working hard and putting in effort, can take its toll on our mind and body. Our brains are easily distracted, so any opportunity to deviate from our conscious awareness and sensation is a welcomed relief. Pain versus pleasure: easy choice isn’t it? Down play one, and crank the other one up.

When you prepare for an examination, nearly complete a stretched-out project, or even a sports race you can draw deeply upon your reserves. By reserves, I mean your energy, mental stamina and psyche. Recall what it felt like at the end of your examination period – what did it feel like after you completed your task? Did you feel drained and relieved? You just wanted to sleep over it, or just do something recreational.

Part of the grind is to keep doing the hard yards, engaging your discipline, and activating your resolve. Persist in your goals, and you will develop strength of character especially when it comes to marathon projects and tasks. You grin quietly to yourself as you go about your task. You may grunt as long as it activates your energy systems to help you through your grind. Grind out your best results, and perform to the best of your ability.

Sometimes, a ride on a turbo-trainer or climb up a long flight of stairs can be edifying and refreshing on one’s being.

Strengthening Your Weak Points

‘Training for strength and flexibility is a must. You must use it to support your techniques. Techniques alone are no good if you don’t support them with strength and flexibility.’ ~ BRUCE LEE

In Bruce Lee’s book ‘The Art of Expressing The Human Body’, the late-great martial artist was lauded by his wife, Linda Caldwell-Lee: ‘The greatest talent Bruce Lee brought to realizing his dreams were intelligence and curiosity, dedication and perseverance, and focus.

This book shares Bruce Lee's complete strength and conditioning workouts, including how he developed his muscularity, speed and agility.

Weaknesses, by definition, can be a potential source of distress when these cripple you. Athletes learn from painful experience, that weaknesses need to be addressed early during rehabilitation or training, or they manifest themselves as major disappointments. A weakness limits us, and prevents from reaching our full potential. It can impede, restrict and affect range of your movements. Thus, our flexibility is curtailed and we care sidelined by injury, resistance and immobility. The same goes for the responsiveness of others to our behavioral weaknesses and inflexibility.

Photo-credit: Runevent Shots (Catching up from behind my pack: Weeks of strength-sessions on the saddle seemed to give me a salient edge)

I have shared with you how I have focused on my two major weaknesses in recent years: my swimming and my riding. Focused attention on correcting my swim techniques and specific strengthening drills/workouts seems to be addressing my concerns when I am in the water. With specific strength training, I have begun to enjoy a higher average speed, as well as fresher legs on the run. Strength gains come fast or slow, depending on your current level of conditioning. Some make incremental gains while others experience exponential gains.

Photo-credit: Runevent Shots (Here, I am seen leading my pack in Sunday's TRI-Factor Cycling race)

How you strengthen your weakness also reflects on the strength of your values: purpose, resolve, commitment and determination. As you consciously exercise your body to become stronger, you are in effect strengthening your mind and spirit to strengthen these values, and your character.

Are You the Hunter of the Hunted?

In 2009, Craig ‘Crowie’ Alexander chased the lead pack during the marathon leg of the Ironman World Championships in Kona and found his victory. He patiently ran as he sliced of 40 seconds per mile, as he found his true place in the race. In 2010, Andreas Raelert, finally, caught up with Macca during the last few miles of the marathon, only to be spent. Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack applied mind games with him, and beat him up the hill and won his second world title in Kona. My friend, Tobias Frenz overtook a former-professional rider at the 300K mark of the double-Ironman race in Abu Dhabi. Tobias won, back-to-back, the single and double-Ironman races held on two days!

There are both positive and negative connotations of being a hunter. If you are the hunter, you will be managing your pace so as to overtake any stragglers or competitors? In running, you make your pass, increase the lead, and hold it. Unless the overtaken runner challenges you, it means that they have conceded the pass to you (until the next opportunity). A hunter can also be perceived as combative, militant or threatening as he is seeking the bounty. Legal bounty-hunters assist the law with search-and-arrest of criminals. Sales professionals and top legal-eagles focus on the ‘closer’. To be able to ‘close’ is to be able to successfully influence the panel of decision-maker to ‘buy’ into the concept or contract.

The hunted, is pursued by the relentless. They will be eyed as a 'prize', and the fitter and faster runner will make his move upon closing in on you. You can prevent it from happening, by increasing your pace, and applying tactical interventions that are offensive or defensive in nature. Last Saturday night, for the first two kilometres of the 21K of the Sundown Marathon, a female runner ran closely with me. As I shifted ground, she followed opting to run side-by-side with me. Instead of shrugging with mild annoyance, I elected to shrug her off by increasing my pace. My watch showed 9:30 for the first 2K's, which exceeded my initial pace. Thankfully, I held this pace for most of the remaining 19K's in case I was further hunted. In my second-half of the race, I overtook 32 runners and was overtaken by three others. Pretty good returns on my investment, if I may say so.

To be hunter or the hunted requires values of patience, persistence, endurance and tenacity. If you surrender too soon, the game is over. If you insist in chasing, the game is afoot. Set your values alight, and trail-blaze your way to the finish-line.

Other times, what is hunted is not the position, it is the timing or ranking. Beating your personal best time may mean qualifying for the Boston Marathon or the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Whatever your intellectual, physical and emotional investments, your holy grail may be worth the price of purposeful pursuit.

Leadership Lessons: How are you making yourself sought after as a valuable resource? How often do executive search professionals (headhunters) call on you? How do you make yourself the hunted in your field of pursuit? How enduring are you when chasing your dream, or dream job?

Which Character Stands Out?

A colleague of mine describes her online profile as the ‘ENFP’ type; which gives away a lot of information if you appreciate the relevance behind the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) profiling instrument. There is much to glean from a person’s operative manual if you appreciate ‘Personality Types’, preferences, motivations and styles.

A current online poll urges readers to vote for their favourite character in the current Marvel Studios (formerly Marvel Comics) film ‘The Avengers’. It stands, at this point in time, that the leaders are Ironman and ‘The Incredible’ Hulk. Hawk and Black Widow who are not superheroes rank at the bottom, whereas Loki (Thor’s adopted brother, Loki who possesses extra-terrestrial powers is also companion to the former two).

What defines a character? Which inventory of indicators or measurements fleshes out a fictitious or real character? I personally enjoyed Stark/Ironman who is human, excessively intelligence and artfully narcissistic. Here is a ‘superhero’ that is living on borrowed time (shrapnel near his heart that can move and kill him), who has experienced an epiphany, and is determined to pit his annoying intelligence, humongous wealth, and cutting-edge technology against the Bad Guys. Each superhero has his/her demons with a personal point to prove, while attempting to exorcise their demons through good deeds. Dr Banner/Hulk clearly has anger management issues and has utilized a plethora of strategies to prevent another ‘incident’ that can be punitive for the taxpayer and town council.

Leadership Lesson: When selecting and recruiting staff, what are your criteria of choice? How much of a person’s initial character matters to you? Which values of theirs are you attracted to? Can you clearly discern between confidence and arrogance? 

Tax Time & Doing The Sum of All Things

I have enjoyed an enriching experience and lifestyle, running my own consulting and training business for the past 13 years. I would have not have expected to last so long, and gone so far. In business ‘dog years’, it feels much longer. Yearly business statistics sadly indicate that 70 percent of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) fail to survive their first year. It gets progressively harder with each successive year of existence, with the changing economic climates. Thus, integrating a robust business strategy, complete with branding and marketing strategies, and synergistic collaborations, are keys to sustainability of most long-term business.

Doing taxes has been a mild annual challenge for me, for I recall as a salaried staff my accounts department used to complete the task for me automatically. I now forfeit that privilege (and co-dependency), and instead, have to calculate my company’s profitability each year before the 18 April (online filing) deadline. It would be lovely to enlist a certified accountant to do one’s books, yet depending on your scale of business transactions and employee strength this would be an affordable privilege.

Filing taxes (and filling forms) is based on many personal and business values such as integrity, transparency, honesty, clarity, and commitment. One needs to exercise discipline when making declarations. Silly mistakes can be costly. If taxes are part of building a country’s infrastructure and sense of security, then it is a useful and relevant task as an employed person. Perhaps, accounting can teach us a sense of accountability that goes beyond punitive practices. We are the sum of our collective experiences, relationships, education and skill-sets. Be mindful when to be calculating, calculative and making calculated decisions.

Fourth from left: Wilson (with cupped chin)

Wilson Ang, who works in the polytechnic sports department, is featured in the news. This Ironman finisher (and former-national water-polo player) is a very good spokesperson and represents his profession well.

Which Life Skills Will You Need To Stay Employable?

Is education important in life? Yes, however it is not critical. Relevant and useful skills are. Education does not, necessarily, translate into learning, and transfer of knowledge.

There is so much information out there, but how much of it is knowledge. Knowledge is power, so it has been said. How much knowledge do you possess? Of this, how much will be relevant to your value in the future?

Is experience important? Yes, only if it is related to your profession. Is working in a company about experience? Perhaps. Too many aging workers take length of service as experience, and they can be sadly mistaken. Unless they develop their skillfulness, resourcefulness, confidence and clarity of thought, they are merely practising loyalty to a job, or their company (or is this dead?).

We are not getting younger, and the young will push us to the back of the queue. Unless of course, you possess and apply skills that reflect your competencies, experiences, values and resourcefulness. Tweak your character. Respect others. Recognize them. Reassure others when appropriate. Build relationships instead of destroying them.

Which life skills do you possess? Which life skills will guarantee your existence? These will include: Interpersonal skills, written communication, influencing skills, presentation skills, conflict management, creative problem solving, decision-making skills, motivation, managing meetings, and leadership skills.

An openness to learning, staying broadminded, being involved and participative with others – these are useful attitudes to one’s profession and colleagues. What you know, who you know, and who knows you: these are properties worth developing in your human assets and capital. Be a lifelong learner. Actively apply what you have learnt. Be relevant. Be valuable. Be worthwhile. Make it worth your while to stay employed.

Arm yourself with skills, and capability. Forewarned is forearmed.

Have I Told You Lately That I…

Athletes enjoy earning their badges of honour after each race. The finisher t-shirt and medal are evidence of their achievement. It recognizes the runner, swimmer, cyclist or triathlete of what they have accomplished. Thus, you may see a new wave of fashion comprising finisher-tees flooding the malls on weekends. Few people would dare ask you if you ran the marathon, or walked part of it when you wear a t-shirt that boldly states: ‘Finisher of 42.195km’. It’s your shirt, and you earned it!

Employee recognition is a crucial aspect of managing and leading teams. It is a simple way of building rapport with people in your organization. It connects you with the staff who deliver behaviors that those around them appreciate, however may be passive to acknowledge. Recognition is also a universal value that many of us can live with. It is the precursor to reward and, sometimes, its substitute.

Some suggested ways of bringing out the ‘glow’ of your staff and colleagues are:

1)    Catch them doing right (instead of looking for blame). Do it as on the spot. It reinforces useful behavior.

2)    Describe these behaviors of worth to your staff during their one-on-one, quarterly interviews/reviews with you.

3)    Selectively send out personal memos of praise to staff.

4)    Share stories of their successes to staff at meetings. Identify behaviors of worth.

5)    Post case studies of performers on your corporate Intranet.

6)    Openly celebrate team successes. Make an announcement, ring a bell, or blow a whistle.

How else do you brighten up your staff’s day? How do you activate their inner glow?

Connect The Dots When Lean Times Are Ahead

As I suspected months ago, the early signs of lean times are showing. The economy is slowing down – just read the national indicators for trade and industry, global news, and online patterns of behaviors.

What do you do when times are hard? Make hay while the sun shines. Strike while the iron is hot. Sharpen your saw.

System thinking teaches us to think in details as well as in big picture. The ability to chunk up, and chunk down helps us connect some of dots behind us, as well as ahead of us. Steve Jobs said in 2005 that he could connect the dots behind us, however we can lay down some of these dots ahead of us. The world is scattered with dots, some of these are obvious and others elusive. We need to learn how to lay a path to our future using some of these dots. These dots include our reference points such as our milestones, experiences, capabilities and relationships.

If the Six Degrees of Separation is a theory to be considered, time for us to reduce this deficit with active connectivity. Give yourself a kick on your butt. Nudge others around you out of their stasis. Waiting is a deathtrap waiting to be sprung. Activate whatever you fear the most. Scare yourself into admission instead of submission. Time to stop denying, and start doing.

Being broad-minded and open-minded is part of our education. Stop being one-sided and bias through your profession and organisation. Information flows on many levels and platforms, so we need to source, track, use, and evaluate it. Too much information can confuse, so we need to sort it and ourselves out.

What endurance sports have taught us are the values of patience, determination and persistence. Also, it is about preparation for a purpose, and executing a plan to perfection. These things help us connect the dots to our dreams, goals and aspirations. Becoming lean is part of the process of becoming fit and attaining athletic excellence. Fattening up before a race can help us retain our strength and power. Being lean can help us move faster, and even accelerate.

Leadership Lessons: Study patterns around you. Make mental connections. Seize opportunities to connect with others, although respectfully. Stop selling to your family and friends. It can still be business as usual, if you apply uncommon sense. Perhaps moving salmon-style, we can reverse the flow of the inevitable. Buck the trend by doing different things. Denounce the naysayers who have no track record of progress or achievement. Marry theory with practice and a sense of pragmatism. Keep lean, stay lean and be strong.

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.

Just Having Fun

This afternoon, I conducted a teambuilding session for leaders in education. It was a short session that emphasised, among other outcomes, having fun.

Having fun - sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? How do you have fun? Is it about playing games, and having a few laughs? What is having fun all about?

What we learnt at the end of the session - when I had them reflect on the experience - was that fun was a welcome addition to a working day. Having fun could mean: learning a new skill; solving a puzzle; realising that there are other creative ways to solve the same problem; enjoying a joke; or discovering that we shared similarities.

Having fun may boil down to making a choice. If you decide you want to have fun, you probably will. Fun involves emotions that make you feel good. Don't we want to feel good? Sure, you do. We can feel good by giving or receiving a compliment. We can encourage somebody to do more, because we express that we believe in them.

When you have fun, time appears to go by quickly. It involves values like passion, enthusiasm, curiosity, and intrigue - and these make us more alert, and interested in others.

So, go ahead - have fun at work, and at play!

Leadership by Charity

‘It is better to give than receive.’

This morning, I decided to sign up for yet another charity cause. In the Ironman Korea 2006 edition, I raised about US$400 for Standard Chartered Bank’s Save A Sight charity initiative. I was delighted that I had enthusiastic supporters who nudged this process along for me.

Sometimes, it just feels naturally good to do something beneficial for others. There are many values we can activate from being charitable. These include generosity of spirit, abundance, care, consideration, recognition, passion, trust, faith, choice, wellbeing, choice and collaboration. Each value connects with another, and they can be combined to create even stronger and robust values. That is why values can be spread, promulgated, propagated and acquired.

Acts of kindness are about being thoughtful. When someone says to you: ‘It’s the thought that counts!’ it means that you have expressed values that are considered thoughtful. Fundraising has always been a popular way of expressing our values that assist others to live better quality lives.

When you select the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand as your charity to fundraise for, you can be sure that every single dollar you raise will be used to ensure people with Cystic Fibrosis lead a physically active life, something that is essential to preserve their lungs.

Children affected by Cystic Fibrosis need all the help they can to breath easier. Breath4CF was established to help families meet the cost of their children's physical activity needs and to ensure that their quality of life is enhanced and prolonged. Breath4CF grants funds to people with CF for gym memberships, entry fees, lessons, sports equipment etc, in fact Breath4CF will help towards any physical activity for a person with Cystic Fibrosis, that produces a health benefit.

If you would like to make sponsor my charity for the Ironman New Zealand race, please do so at my fundraising web page.

Already, Terence Ng has pledged $1 for each kilometre I complete in the swim, ride and run. The children thank him for his $226 [wink]. Thank you for reading.

What is Your Coat of Arms?

I learnt this exercise years ago, and the idea of doing it was revived by this:

Essentially, a coat of arms signifies your family shield. On each quadrant of the shield, you draw a symbol that best represents you. In the coat of arms of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), what do you identify?

Once you have designed your (artistic abilities are unimportant, as you can delegate) departments or personal coat of arms, consider the following:

How do I live up to these values?

What can I do to identify with these dimensions?

How can I be identified with these guideposts?

Bear your coat of arms, and charge forth in your lead!