Understanding Visceral Fat

WARNING: The following contents are very important, but may cause you to lose appetite.

A friend of mine shared this video online and it caught my attention immediately. It's a topic that I'm quite particularly passionate about - visceral fat.

What Visceral Fat Does To The Body (The Doctors)

One thing leads to another, I found another related video which shows physical evidence of damage caused by visceral fat to our internal organs.

How Excess Fat Affects Organs

Now I can really appreciate the strategy and action steps that I have been taking to battle these adverse effects of visceral fat.

In this case... I DON'T THINK IGNORANCE IS BLISS !!!

Using the Pinnacle to Do Something Greater Than Yourself

When you reach Level 5 in leadership, instead of basking in the glory and respect you earn from your team members, you should make good use of your position at the Pinnacle as platform to do something greater than yourself. Here are some suggestions outlined in the book:

#1 - Make room for others at the top

• Every time you develop good leaders, they gather more good people to them.
• As a result, the organization grows and it requires even more leaders.
• This cycle of expansion propels the organization forward.

#2 - Continually mentor potential Level 5 leaders

• Leaders with high potential will only follow leaders who are ahead of them in terms of ability, experience, or both.
• If you don't dedicate time mentoring them, they will go elsewhere to find a Level 5 leader who is willing to mentor them.

#3 - Create an inner circle that will keep you grounded

• A good inner circle can help Level 5 leaders to avoid the pitfall of swelling ego and arrogance.
• A good inner circle tells the leader the truth about themselves - not what the leader wants to hear, but what the leader needs to hear.

#4 - Do things for the organization that only Level 5 leaders can do

• Level 5 leaders have a platform from which they can lead and persuade. Leverage it to add value to others.

#5 - Plan for your succession

• The number one problem in organizations led by Level 5 leaders is that they stay too long.
• Plan to hand off the baton of leadership when you are still running at your peak, not when you have begun to slow down.
• Plan your succession and leave before you feel you have to.

#6 - Leave a positive legacy

• Recognize that what you do daily, over time, would become your legacy.
• Decide what you want your legacy to be.
• Understand that your legacy is the sum of your whole life, not just snippets.

There are not many people who are gifted to become a Level 5 leader. If you happen to be among the gifted ones, be sure to make good use of your special gift to create a lasting legacy and make the world a better place with good leaders surrounding people.

How to Develop People

If you want to understand what is leadership essentially about, reading these 3 powerful sentences by Dr. John C. Maxwell sums it all:

"Only leaders can develop other people to become leaders. A well-intentioned person with no leadership knowledge and experience cannot train another person to lead. Theorist who study leadership without practicing it cannot equip someone to lead, any more than a cookbook reader who has no experience in the kitchen would be able to teach someone how to cook."

If you're in Leadership Level 4 developing other people in your team to become leaders, you may find these few tips useful:

#1 - Recruiting - find the best people possible

• Have a clear picture of who you are looking for. Recruiting a nonleader to be developed in leadership is like asking a horse to climb a tree.
• Use the 4 C's when looking for potential leaders:
• Chemistry - If you don't like the person, you won't be an effective mentor to him or her.
• Character - You won't be able to develop someone whose character you do not trust.
• Capacity - You need to assess a potential leader's capacity in stress management, skill, thinking, leadership and attitude.
• Contribution - Recruit winners who contribute beyond their job responsibilities and lift the performance of everyone on their team.

#2 - Positioning - placing the right people in the right position

• Identify each person's strengths and weaknesses, see how they can fit the needs of the team.
• Help them discover and build upon their strengths, that's where they have the most potential to grow.

#3 - Modeling - showing other how to lead

• As a leader, you will reproduce who you are.
• Have your mentee beside you as often as possible so that they can learn how you think and act in various situations.

#4 - Equipping - helping others do their jobs well

• The five-step equipping process:
• I do it.
• I do it and you are with me.
• You do it and I am with you.
• You do it.
• You do it and someone is with you.

#5 - Developing - teaching them to do life well

• When you're leading and developing someone, assess the person's weaknesses and wrong thinking to strengthen and help him to succeed.
• Challenge them in the areas of their lives where you see that they need improvement.
• Support and help them navigate through life's difficulties.

#6 - Empowering - enabling people to succeed

• Help people to see what they can do without your help, and releasing them to do it.
• When you believe in people, you motivate them.
• Hold people accountable with goals and deadlines. Without accountability, people drift.

#7 - Measuring - evaluating those whom you develop to maximize their efforts

• Games aren't won according to what the coach knows, but what the players have learned.
• Measure people's learning based on how independently they are able to function without your inputs.

Being good at developing people will increase the growth of your organization as more leaders are born within. If you don't develop people, you'll be the only one carrying the burden of growing your organization.

Multiply Your Value A Hundredfold

I'm very motivated by this piece of literature below by Og Mandino. It reminds me of the unique potential in me which I have yet to multiply to serve a greater purpose. I hope it triggers the same thoughts and feelings in you.

Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

I am liken to a grain of wheat which faces one of three futures. The wheat can be placed in a sack and dumped in a stall until it is fed to swine. Or it can be ground to flour and made into bread. Or it can be placed in the earth and allowed to grow until its golden head divides and produces a thousand grains from the one.

I am liken to a grain of wheat with one difference. The wheat cannot choose whether it be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice and I will not let my life be fed to swine nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by the will of others.

Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

To grow and multiply it is necessary to plant the wheat grain in the darkness of the earth and my failures, my despairs, my ignorance, and my inabilities are the darkness in which I have been planted in order to ripen. Now, like the wheat grain which will sprout and blossom only if it is nurtured with rain and sun and warm winds, I too must nurture my body and mind to fulfill my dreams. But to grow to full stature the wheat must wait on the whims of nature. I need not wait for I have the power to choose my own destiny.

Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

One grain of wheat when multiplied a hundredfold will produce a hundred stalks. Multiply these a hundredfold, ten times, and they will feed all the cities of the earth. Am I not more than a grain of wheat?

Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.

Everyone of us has a unique potential. Have it not been multiplied to serve a greater purpose (just like the wheat which grows to feed cities), it would have gone wasted hiding inside us (just like the wheat which is fed to swine), or not fulfilling its full potential (just like the wheat which is ground for bread).

I urge you to discover your unique qualities and learn how to multiply it!

How to Make the Most of Production in Leadership

Leading people is not just about having a position in an organization or cozying around with your team. A good leader would also strive to deliver results while maintaining healthy relationship with his team. If you ever have the opportunity to lead your team and get to Level 3 together, here are some things which you can do to make the most of it:

#1 - Understand how your personal gifts contribute to the vision

• How your gifts and abilities can be used proactively to further the vision of the organization.
• Know where every person adds value, define each team member's area of contribution and figure out how they can work together to make the team most effective.
• It starts from you - if you want your team to be good at what they do, you need to be good at what you do.

#2 - Cast vision for what needs to be accomplished

• Fuzzy communication leads to unclear direction, which produces sloppy execution.
• Productive leaders create a clear link between the vision of the organization and the everyday production of the team.
• Help people define the success of the vision.
• Help people to commit to the success of the vision.
• Help people experience success.

#3 - Begin to develop your people into a team

• Team members should complement one another.
• Team members should understand their mission.
• Team members should receive feedback about their performance.
• Team members should work in an environment conducive to growth and inspiration.

#4 - Prioritize the things that yield high return

• Learn not to only get a lot done, but also get a lot of the right things done.
• Stay in your areas of strength (where your efforts yield the highest return) and out of areas of weakness (where it cripples you).
• Try to hire, train and position people in such a way that
• 80% of the time they work in their strength zone.
• 15% of the time they work in their learning zone.
• 5% of the time they work outside their strength zone.
• 0% of the time they work in their weakness zone.

#5 - Be willing and ready to be a change agent

• To be a effective change agent, find common ground between you and your team, instead of pointing out differences between you and them and convince them to change.
• Look for common ground in vision, values, relationships, attitude, communication.

#6 - Never lose sight of the fact that results are your goal

• Know that results always matter, no matter what the situation is.
• Be accountable for your productivity no matter what.

Practice these and lead your team towards increasing productivity of your organization!