If You Like It, Sneeze It!

The power of the Tribe to influence can be enormous. Consider 'word of mouth', that form of communication 'behind your back' that may make or break you.

Reputation is part of your brand. Who you are, is reflected in your character, persona, style and presence. How we communicate ourselves to others, describes our set of beliefs, values, attitudes, perceptions, and judgements. Certainly, our behaviors are a mirror to who we are for they reflect our inner 'self' to an outward audience. For instance, wearing your sponsors is an attempt to promote the 'duality' of relevance for both advocate/ambassador and brand/sponsor. The relationship is one of collaborative partnership and alliance. 

Promoting ultra-triathlons (IUTA) and my sponsor Jabra on a Channel News Asia featurette.

When I went to Kona for the Ironman World Championships, I wore my Jabra colors with pride. I extended my support for the brand and its Bluetooth-enabled devices by wearing their race-attire in several more Ironman races, and my first Boston Marathon (2014). Channel News Asia interviewed me for that landmark event there, and my sponsors picked up on that in my Singapore interview on 'Ironmen and Ultra-Triathlons). I roped in my friends, Triple-Deca Iron-Triathete (that is 226km triathlons X 30 days) Wayne Kurtz from USA, and Singaporean Deca-Iron Triathlete (10 X Ironman over 10 days), Kua Harn Wei, PhD to be part of this experience and interview. I was informed by my friends, neighbours and family of the first telecast and subsequent re-runs. The 'reach' was highly positive, and I earned a sponsorship for this year.

How thoroughly do you think when you post on Social Media? Have you considered the implications and ramifications of your rants and raves? When you 'tick' on a 'LIKE', or make a 'Comment', what are, in effect, wanting to say. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, when another disagrees with us.

How do you influence for your Tribe? How do you show support for each Friend, Follower, Member, and the like (no pun intended). When a Follower 'Retweets' or 'Favourite' your post, how do you 'return the favour'? Do you read one of their shared 'links'? Do you provide a response or recognition? Giving encouragement to a 'newbie' can be empowering. Sharing a personal tip, nugget of your wisdom, a quotation can translate into future mileage of extended influence. Being charitable, or not as asking for something in return can be a deeply satisfying feeling. 

Leadership Lessons: How do you build you reputation? How does your Tribe spread your influence? How do you live up to your reputation? What are you doing to add value to your Tribe of followers and supporters? How do you apply the Law of Reciprocity?

Sneezing for an author's new e-book

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?

Circa 2012: Leadership Now

‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning!’ ~ Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now

To lead is to influence. When we influence others, we are taking the lead. So, be influential.

With the epic failure of corporate leadership in developed countries, we are responsible for reviewing, rethinking and reconfiguring leadership.

Leadership has succeeded. Leadership has failed. The balance sheet does not look encouraging. Where leadership is expected to be clear, committed and competent, instead we perceive confusion, indifference and incompetency.

Do you question the ludicrousness of corporate leadership where an enticing package awaits those who resign or who are asked to resign? Shame on the promoters and perpetrators of ‘false’ leadership! Resignation is such a cop-out. Real leadership expresses itself with diligence, discernment and decisiveness. Stick to your guns, and not gun the stick!

The values of leaders need to be audited: Not only by others, but also by themselves. Is conscience a static thing? Do moral codes stay the same way? Is character a measure of a leader? Who measures the fibre, values, beliefs, behaviors, pre-judgements, instincts and perceptions of leaders? Certainly not only by the experts or the impertinent.

Questioning leadership is not about being perched on a moral high horse. It is the right and obligation of followers to challenge authority at times. Blind obedience and allegiance may be counterintuitive to support for a leader. Leaders build capability in their people. They support, encourage and engage followers. They do not exploit them for selfish ends.

Leadership Lessons: Be your own leader. Lead with your values. Lead with your head, heart and hands.

Does Peer Pressure Power Your Communication?

Peer pressure can be an overwhelming thing when you are a teenager. To belong to a group, and to carve out your identity you bow to the team’s ideals and rules. Socially, peer pressure or majority-ruled actions determine if you are in, or out. The Inclusion/Exclusion principle operates, whether we like it or not; either we are in, or we are out.

In adulthood, peer pressure can be a positive force of influence. Directed and led properly, this style of influence can engage others outside of the circle of influence. Also, he impact of peer pressure will be determined by choice. The more choices we have, the more flexible we are. Other people’s influence can be only so effective when we lack choices, and thus cannot decide on our outcomes.

Social running groups are a recently emerging phenomenon. Neophytes join these clubs, which offer basic instruction on endurance running; they progress gradually until they complete their first 10K race. These groups are Tribes, and they propagate and promote their cause with alarming enthusiasm and fervour. Peer pressure can act through mass participation of a local or overseas race.

The same goes for those who seek extraordinarily longer distance, and across varied and challenging terrain. These foot races carry the subscribers through mountain trails, desert, man-made structures and water. Having stated the challenging conditions, those who complete relish in their sense of accomplishment and achievement.

Who says peer pressure can be all that bad?

Leadership Lessons: How often do you cave in to peer pressure? Where are your sources of peer pressure? How often do you rally these sources of peer pressure to assist you in building value, such as acts of charity and altruism?

The Idiot’s Guide to Spreading Influence

Years ago, I joked with multiple-Ironman finisher, Walter Strach, III that ‘I was influenced by idiots’ to do triathlons. At that time, I was not aware of the impact that it would have on me, and others. We laughed about it, but little were we to know the enormous impact that these hardcore triathletes would have on us. Six years on, we have completed almost 20 Ironman races between us. I also allowed myself to be influenced to do the Hong Kong Marathon next Sunday.

Today at class, I reconnected with an executive who is a half-marathoner and asked about his progress. Another of his colleague enquired about heart-rate monitors (HRM) and HR zones. Another, an American bought a pair of Vibrams Five Fingers when he was in Chicago for vacation. I was surprised at how inexpensive these shoes were there. Given time, we can assert our influence in mysterious ways. Leaders who walk their talk, and talk their way through to others, may be laying the road to possibilities and choices.

This evening, I ran 21K at about a 5-minute pace in my new runners: The Newton Gravity shoe (size 13), which is a neutral performance trainer. I decided to take it easy after the 11K hard run two nights ago. I bumped into Crazy2Tri runners, Ivan and Michael, who were kind enough to encourage me on. My nutrition was water from the public tap, and two packs of High5 energy gels. I limped slightly home, and was pleased I had no blisters or chaffing of my feet.

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.

Leaders and Storytelling

‘Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a…and they lived happily ever after!’ The end.

That opening statement and closing statement of a fairy-tale is the formula for a trance-like journey into the child’s imagination. The world of myth, fantasy or make-believe is critical to our human thinking and its faculties. To be creative, we need to imagine possibilities and make connections to what is with what could be.

The diversity of blogs featured on this site reflects on the relevance of their stories. Without stories, our lives would be different and, perhaps, hollow. Stories give us an opportunity to shift mental and emotional gears. When we hear a story, we respond to it in ways that are certainly not ingrained in routine, the mundane, and mental tunnel vision. Consider the popularity of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Even lunch-hour chatter can be healthy. Having lunch and tea are rituals; we have to eat and drink. Having your nutrition on the ride and run is crucial to your success in completing the endurance race or training session. Post-training session with runners, cyclists and swimmers include food, and stories about races and racing experiences. Everybody has a story to tell. Listen to them. It warrants your attention and may yield insights. It also melds minds with its subtle influence. Think of how you help convert novice runners into more serious, and even elite runners; short-distance triathletes into long-distance triathletes.

Build a library of war stories. As a coach, compile stories of what went well, and went things went wrong. Collect stories about the history of your company. Recognise the founders and the pioneers. Nike was built about the stories about Coach Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine. Sir Richard Branson’s exploits with BA paved the way for Virgin Airlines.

If you are keen to explore corporate stories, you can read more about Anecdote.

These guys [L-R: Aristol, me, Mervyn, Reeves & Roger] have - between them - numerous war stories on being corporate leaders, and participants in international long-distance races. You are welcome to shoot the breeze with us and find out how to embark on YOUR JOURNEY!

New Quips on the Blog

New blogs by amateur triathletes surface everyday without restraint or record. I am happy for my predictable and persevering company. The richness of these writers’ stories, plus the insights and wisdom integrated into them, make them highly readable even for the merely curious or digitally-pedestrian.

I am not such a stickler for structure or style, as I am for heart. The heart of the matter is, it takes guts to write and courage to share it with the world. Most blogs have their shade and hues of narcissism, idiosyncracy, self-aggrandizement, criticism and critiques. My favourite blogs are conversational, non-judgemental, and often insightful. I learn more from my frequent interactions with the writer. I feel connected to their experiences, observations and interpretations. I don’t necessarily agree with them all the time, yet they make me ponder over my opinion. I feel that my time is well spent reading their thoughtful content.

‘First, write with your heart. Then, with your head!’ ~ Finding Forrester.

I am pleased that there are, indeed, blogs that serve the abject purposes of educating, teaching and sharing. Sure, some blogs and websites are designed for commerce – bloggers want to promote products and sell them (since they may be actively pursuing passive income or own Work-At-Home businesses). Yet, there are many ways to create such impacting influence. Robert B. Cialdini, PhD proposed six such principles in his landmark book, Influence: Psychology of Persuasion.

As my confident friends, bloggers and writers will say: ‘The more, the merrier!’ Keep writing. Keep influencing.

Here are a few blogs worth your time: TRI 4 LIFE YOU, ME & TESKY TRIATHLON TRAINING DIARY

They posted today their cause and tribute to people - we matter because others matter, too.

[Title adapted from a famous boy band in the 1990’s with one original member, now a serious A-list actor.]