Leadership – Leadership from the front.

#39 How to live powerfully, to inspire others do as well.

So I have always been in the opinion that I need to live in a certain way, an image to impress on people. And sometimes it does achieve some measure of success and other times it does not. The truth is, that I am impressive, God has created me to be a certain way in order to understand people and as a result be able to lead them. Leading was not always that easy for me, as growing up I was fat, immigrant kid that nobody understood. But I was always given a certain much of respect, always, so when encountering disrespect was so rare I could listen the times it has happened in one hand, so amazing, fair.

The most important thing to do is look in your mirror and think fully completely and be entirely certain that what you are doing is 100% sure that is what you are supposed to be. If you can do that, standing there bare naked, showing that you are where you are right now, and what you are made of.

Ask yourself if you can follow you.

If you can answer that in the affirmative, then you are well on the way to being a success when leading men and women, you have faith in yourself, unshaken because that is what your people are asking for. If you fall by not being faithful, in God, in your wife, in your children decrease your power turns. They are looking at everything you do so when you fucked up they can use you as an example for them to do wrong as well.

Be the person you will follow yourself into death.

Your Canadian Brother

Christian

#37 The word you sow

So you might be frustrated with your situations at work,and in the end I suggest the only thing you have to frustrated with is yourself. You cannot separate with what you have done with what occurs. If you are a poor leader in your workplace and you get a shitty perform evaluations etc. I am sorry to say look at yourself. How are you guiding people, how are you feed backing people, how are you leading.

The truth is that simply, look at yourself in the mirror.

Your Canadian brother

# 31 which type of river are you?

There are only so many ways that people wander through life, here are three and at the end I will tell you why I wander the way that I do.

1) The first person is a winding river that hollows out the landscape and finds the easiest routes around the softest ground curling on itself and eventually making it to its destination. The winder, or wanderer, does not let any occurance divide its path, it may not know where it ends up but it knows it is a river and its one job is to deliver what is at the source, to the final destination.

2) The mountan creek. This person is always trickling along as snow, ice, water runs off higher surfaces into its depths. The creek though, may sound like a pussy, it has its strength. When torrential rains occur, or when the spring ice melt happens the creek can turn into a carnivourous maniac wiping out everything in its path. The creek or brook most of the time is calm and steady it becomes overwhelmed and if you are in its path there is not light for you, yet.

3) The damned river. Water has many excellent properties that make it useful, and one of its uses is power generation. Stopping the winding river, or creek can swell the banks of the flowing river, flooding landscapes and creating reservoirs to satsify the needs of the population. What the river loses is its power as a result, only a minute amount of energy is left over on the other side of the dam. Do you let other people dam your energy? For use by themselves?

I say, there is a time and place for all of these rivers; but do not be afraid of your power in the mighty landscape of life.

Your Canadian Brother

#27 make time, all of your time is your own

The world is designed to ensure that your time is occupied. Much of what you do on a day to day basis is keeping yourself busy. I can speak from my own experience on this fact. When I was young and my mind had a few less cracks in it than it does now I would turn to breaking things, for fun. The physical act of breaking something and the consequences of that act, realized immediately or in a few days time felt great. Although probably not always intentional and probably a sign of larger issues all of this was done as a way to occupy my time. We are all skilled and professional time wasters, how do we overcome this.

1) Start with the things you don’t want to do. There are things we put off because we would rather not. Think of the pile of dishes on your sink, or the counter. Think of the laundry basket or the garage. There is always and will always be the pile of books you meant to read on the shelf or next to your bed waiting for the right time. In all cases you are putting these things off because you dont and wont recognize the immediate benefit of these things. You trap yourself in unfinished projects because the satisfaction of a finished project provides a different emotional reaction, one that permits the start of a new project, very different than having many threads dangling in the air instead of tying one knot before moving onto the next.

2) Say no, there has been nothing more damaging to my social life than saying no. I am sure I have missed countless opportunities to be social, or to become a different person by saying yes to things. However tehere is not much more time that I cherish than being able to reflect on my own abilties, skills and challenges without the added social influence of having other people assess my mistakes on my behalf. Take the time to yourself that you need to grow as a person, you will earn this right at some point because you will eventually be alone. Do no fill your time with things you would rather not do. Say no.

3) Break things. I have a colleague who feels like they are hated, specificially because they are making more work for their superiors with the actions they are taking to make sure that their subordinates are well looked after, in some cases by saving the day at the lowest level has earned them a nasty reputation at the higher eschelons because it is not the way that things are typically done. I can say, break things, be extra ordinary, and make sure that people feel your wake as you appraoch, and pass and after you pass. They will be upset and their worlds may turn, but dont be a dingy, be a massive ship that respects the speed limit when it must but in the open ocean does not, look back.

Your Canadian brother.

#25 three things you must do for extreme success

It is really easy to give up. We have all heard that before and seen its effect in our lives here are a few things you should do to not give up and force yourself into success.

First you must realize that the road to success is long and most people run out of gas or get off at an exit before realizing the final destination. There are constantly distractions that take your eyes off the prize, the world has been designed to vie for your attention and make sure you are seeing what it wants you to see instead of allowing for your focused attention to enable your extreme success.

If you decide to take an exit you may still be wildly successful. Like a tree branching in all directions the worlds highway has a huge amount of opportunities at every gate, you will struggle however the perseverance down your particular road will be what makes you successful. Chose a path and do not look back, there is nothing there for you to see.

Details matter more than generalities, are you able to throw around your weight for an effect or do you permit yourself to have a small sphere of influence due to fear? There is not much that you can do if you do not believe yourself able to do it. Focus on the details. When is the last time you made sure that you labeled every one of your possessions, If I asked you if you knew where each of your belongings was would you be able to tell me? You would be surprised and I know the answer is no.

Keep fighting the good fight, and deliver.

Your Canadian Brother.

#23 the movement class lesson five – back pain

Hey, look behind you, no not behind you, behind-you. When you think of your back do you think of an impressive set of shoulders or maybe your latissimus muscles, your butt? Well, you’re all right but this surprisingly complicated area of the human body is interesting. He’s made it easy with this one and broken down the muscles in the back into three;

The superficial group, which holds the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboid minor and levator scapulae. The intermediate group known as the respiratory group is a combination of serratus muscles and the deep group which are all of the wildly useful muscles that control and balance the movement of your spine.

The multitude of systems that are present in the back provide support to the head and thorax, and the ribs which are attached to the back. So before you reach for your ibuprofen and decide that your back hurts too much to do x and y, keep reading.

Pull it, In my experience there is no better cure for back pain than prevention. A strong and healthy back will get you through the hard times and will ensure that you remain healthy for a long time. The back responds to pulling thing, so pull yourself up, pull something up, or pull yourself through the water and develop the muscles that keep your spine safe.
Twist, the spine is not necessarily meant to twist and I don’t advise you to watch one youtube video and become a yogi but putting your body through the paces with regular movement supporting your back in less than regular movements, will be best. A burpee is tremendous, next time try two.
Get up, there isn’t a practice more regulating than walking, I understand you are probably reading this and you are either on the subway looking down, or on your computer looking down, you’ll never see that goose coming… Walking chest out and take up space, look up and balance your spine on your pelvis like you are holding an egg with a spoon, notice the torque in places it should not be and stretch.

You’ve got this, the pain of failure defeats never trying at all.

Your Canadian Brother

#22 Disobedient subordinates

I have had the pleasure of working with hundreds of people at this point in my career, and all have relativelty been the same person. They each look at one another to establish the standards for themselves, they try their best not to stand out, and all secretly hate themselves. Meet three employees and how to deal with each one of them here.

1. Testing you. If your subordinates are trying to get under your skin by not doing what you ask from them, or managing to do the bare minimum to get by you are probably being tested. It is up to you to decide how you will treat the situation that is facing you in the form of disobedient subordinates. Your reaction or in-action will both be taken personally, be recieved negativley and will potentially benefit the institutuion, otherwise that employee might just quit. However, as a leader you must do something.

2. They are bored and can handle more responsibility. The second type of disobedience stems from boredom, and I think I fall into this category. However bored employees can be just as dangerous as the lazy. They will find discontent where there wasnt any and they will sow seeds that you will find later after they have passed your managment. Keep these employees fed and watered give them more work than they can handle, they will hate you for it, but they will appreciate you for the opportunity.

3. The outright no. There are people who I have worked with who simply do not give a shit about the company, or their peers, or their own selves they show up because they have an obligation that they cannot get out of and they have to pay for something because that is where they are in their lives. These employees are not dangerous, but they are not productive and if you can pay someone else to do their job better, faster, and be an active member of your team, take the plunge and find a role for them where they drive themselves up the wall until they are ready to play.

#19 knock knock, look inside

I can prescribe humanity as being bombarded by information left right and centre, in seeking a path everyone is using different maps. We have all strayed so far away from trusting the people we used to in the past and now turn elsewhere for people that agree with us. Gone are the singular doctor, lawyer, spiritual leader of the past and welcome the day of experts around the world.

Turn it off.

Turn on your spirit, and look inside.

Read. Find an author and read, by filling your days with information from people that you are unsure about. Consuming from sources you mostly agree with you are getting a part of the picture, the more you can grow from others the better off you will be.
Meditate. I don’t care what your meditation is, whether sitting there, walking, in your bed with your eyes closed, introspective reflection will reveal to you what is actually important, to you. You can be as outraged as you want at whatever you want, but if you cant move like a human because you are so disconnected from your self, you wont be able to act when the time is required.
Exercise. Like meditation, and determining what is important to yourself, being physically prepared to take on the harms that require your attention will require you to know, understand and improve your physical capabilities as a human. I have plenty of posts on how-to exercise so check those out.

I’ve believe in you, with no doubt.

Your Canadian brother.

#15 what is your legacy

As leaders, it is our duty to continuously perform planning for our successors. Every time an email rolls across your inbox and is quickly turned into a later problem we put our future selves and our successors in a less privileged position. Putting off work, doing the same work twice and leaving it to someone else to handle are examples not of procrastination but of a dangerous rainfall on the side of a compromised slope.

Mudslide.

There are of course three steps to take to tackle what you are confronted with.

Confidence. Hang it all out there, take all the doors and roof off and as you scream down the highway see what falls off, until you are lean and mean and agile you will make it to your destination without losing too much.
Aggression. Demand respect and demand peoples ear, if you are consuming time to explain things twice or guide someone down a path that they are just not getting, you are wasting your time. Be aggressive with your time, be aggressive with your words.
Recognition. En mass people are dis-satisfied for not being recognized for their hard work, or perceived hard work. People will groan and gripe about not being recognized. You as a leader must quickly and deliberately recognize your people for their accomplishments, not only will it make them work harder for you, it means you have led them well.

They are simple steps, but easy as one-two-three, and you can accomplish them, I have no doubt.

Your Canadian brother.

#13 the movement class lesson one – walking

The movement class will be a series because movement is the most important thing you can do for yourself.

There are just as many ways to move as there are people there are on earth, one of these methods will suit you best, I have no doubt.

One, walking.

Walking is the act of locomotion generated by picking up one leg, putting it to one side of your body and allowing the momentum of your body to lead yourself in the direction of the displaced leg. Before toppling over like a table that has lost a leg, the other leg is put into action and a step is completed. There are countless ways in which the act of walking can improve your life. But classically, you will not remember more than three.

Primordially, it is what makes you human.
Circulation. Whether it be an improvement in blood circulation due to an elevated heart rate, or the physical effect of the tearing and subsequent healing of muscle tissues, walking is the catalyst of all of your biological processes, and can quickly indicate to you where you may have a deficiency.
You can not do it wrong. Walking is non strenuous and low impact the act alone can not take you farther from your goals, being built into your code you are supposed to walk.

Do it, for half hour or more each day, you can do it, I have no doubt.

Your Canadian brother.