Learning Opportunities

I have been a little less active posting and on my LinkedIn account lately. Spring has come with many new opportunities for me to learn and gain new experiences.

For starters, I have my black belt test in Taekwondo coming up at the end of May. The lead up to this has been many new responsibilities in the club - teaching beginners classes, leading warm ups, acting as referee for sparring matches, and, of course, my own training. My instructors have at least given me ample warning of the test structure - 2.5 hours of non-stop gruelling paces that include drills, full contact sparring (without protective gear), defence against multiple attackers, live knife defence, technique demonstration, board breaking, patterns, and of course, grappling.

Already, just in preparation I have learned two lessons:

1. Focus - in the face of intense challenge, if I allow myself to be intimidated, I cannot succeed.
2. Life hurdles - there is never a good time for anything. Life will always offer many examples of why you should quit, give up, or postpone. "Do it later, things are busy now."

I also have become the team manager for my son's premier developmental league soccer team. I have been learning a lot of the administrative end of leading a team, plus training the goalie to push his skills up a notch. This whole soccer part of my life takes up seven evenings a week. One game per week, 2 practices, plus administrative paperwork, plus additional training for my son in a special elite academy.

My experience in working with a group of young kids in a more serious level of sport has given me two lessons:

1. The power of words - while all people generally acknowledge that children are sensitive to words, they typically believe, wrongly, that as adults, they are no longer affected by words. People... period - are affected by words in powerful ways. Sincere praise can motivate an individual to push harder, run faster. Harsh criticisms can crush the spirit of a person and drain their energy and motivation to even try.
2. If you aren't enjoying playing the game, don't. It is not about the most goals, the most cars or money, or position in the organisational chart, its about whether you enjoy what you are doing and making a positive impact on the team (society in general).

Finally, I have been given an Acting Director role of a unit of Business Analysts. This has come with many great learning opportunities and the chance to put to practice many of the things that I have already studied and researched on leadership. Some of the lessons so far, include:

1. Direct reports are more likely to respect you if you also respect them
2. Staff were hired because of their strengths - leverage those strengths, rather than simply pointing fingers at their deficits
3. Staff want a leader that will stand up for them and sincerely keep their best interests in mind
4. Don't make staff do anything you wouldn't do
5. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Some of these lessons I am learning, I can see broad application for even in community economic development. In fact, CED requires a lot of leadership principles and skills. Adapting what we learn through a variety of sources are important.

Happy learning everyone.

Ken