Here’s the second in an occasional series of “Friday Gold” wisdom nuggets mined from the web.
Enjoy!
Gold: The Art of Manliness
This post appealed to my sense of fair play and to the power of inspired team work. Check out Denzel Washington’s words to his football charges on the fields of Gettysburg.
(Way back in teen years I was a military history buff and spent many hours reading ACW books and painting hundreds of small metal soldiers, cannons and cavalry in colours of Blue and Gray. Oh happy days!)
I haven’t explored the rest of this site but it’s on my manly list of interesting topics.
Silver: Twelve Rules For Self-Leadership
I recently came across Rosa Say’s blog and this post stands out as a great launch pad for anyone exploring their career options and possibilities. There’s certainly room here for experimenting with one of the rules each week - and in 3 months you would have them all covered and maybe built considerable momentum.
For those actively pusuing a career change, I also like that you don’t have to “burn your bridges” in one full cycle - you could incorporate some or all of these rules (I like “guidelines” even though I did write a post about my own “just five rules” recently!) at an off-the-radar level i.e. do what you are comfortable with and see how it goes after a month or two.
Rules 8 and 11 light a fuse for me so let’s see what happens over the coming months working with these two in mind.
Also check out Rosa’s Flickr page from her blog - I so want to go back and run along some of those beaches! (But need to get out before 6am because when the Hawaiian sun meets my pale but sweating Irish skin, I come out in the most agonizingly itchy heat rash!! May have to make do with a short break in Guam - much closer to Japan and no real time difference.)
Bronze: Humor Power
Anyone who can turn humor into a wonderful career path gets my attention. Check out John Hinde’s About Me link and notice how his speaking skills and professional experience are artfully backlit with humor and magic! (Maybe I’ve got Norwegian joke genes in me too as I really chuckled over the tagline below his home page photo …)
- Mark McClure
One Comment
Aloha Mark, thank you for the pointer to Talking Story. The way you’ve suggested using the twelve rules is a great way to go; since I originally wrote this I have heard from several people who’ve turned it into a monthly leadership charge within their work teams - does make it more collaborative and fun!
And Mark, come on now, no wimping out - I am sure Guam has a charm all its own, but you’ve got to come all the way to Hawaii for the real deal! One word my friend; sunscreen!
[Rosa,
I think you're right about applying your rules within teams - they might also work well as part of a monthly group coaching theme!
Guam? Yes, it's kind of a weekend getaway destination from Tokyo and I've enjoyed some lovely early morning runs there. Plus no 17 hour time difference!
Hawaii was strange. I've been there before without problems probably because my better half sprayed me with sunscreen before going out. Alas, that one time I went down to the pool around 5pm without any protection to splash around with my daughter. (The pool guy was even trying to sell me some 'expensive' screen but I ignored his hard sell - silly me...) Later that night I woke up with an incredible burning rash over most of my torso and back - my face and legs were fine.
Couldn't sleep a wink and it lasted most of the 10 days there - though the crazy itch went away after a few days of treatment.
Went to a local Doctor who prescribed some creams and the advice that from now on I would always be liable to that type of reaction if I went out unprotected in Hawaii for even a few minutes.
So when I make Hawaii again I will be easily recognizable - just look for a mummy-type creature jogging in New Balance shoes lol! Actually, it was a very painful lesson and I so wish I had bought that 'expensive' cream from the suave pool-side guy.
Mark]
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