One recent article from the FT weekend magazine caught my attention. Its title is ”Talent Management – What can we learn from football?”
This lesson is pertaining to managing successful football teams in Europe. Though I don’t agree 100% with all the points raised, it has generated some inspiring thoughts.
Here is the first half of the key points:
1) Big talent usually comes with a big ego. Accept it.
2) Look for big egos that have “got over themselves”
3) Single out and praise those who make sacrifices for the organization
4) The manager shouldn’t aspire to dominate the talent
5) Ask the talent for advice – but only for advice

It did not realize how important the quality of one’s voice is until my friends told me the following 2 stories.
1) A young lady in her mid-20’s has difficulty for being taken seriously at her work place even though she is knowledgeable in her field because she talks like a 12-year old girl.
2) Another lady has quite a nasal voice put some people off because she comes across as a nagging woman even though it may not be the case.

I am not a voice expert, but I think having an unprofessional voice can be a disadvantage. It is the subconscious of audience that one is fighting against and that is difficult for the audience to change.

I have had a few setbacks on friendship recently.
Despite the disappointment and let-down, there is a lesson to be learned.
To sum it up in a bit of a cliché phrase, there are “50 shades of friendship”.
To elaborate, I think managing one’s expectation is important. We all live within certain parameters of our own expectations.  One should bear in mind that friendship is not binary; rather it is closer to a spectrum with “best friends” and “total strangers” at each end.  In addition, we also need to bear in mind that reciprocity is not a necessary condition. Furthermore, the perception of friendship between the 2 parties may be very different.  Last but not least, friendship is a journey and there will be ups and downs.

So I told my very good self, “Hang in there and smile, Raymond!”

Viv Thackray suggested the following four steps to develop a growth mindset.

Follow these four steps to develop a growth mindset:
Step 1: Learn to hear your fixed mindset inner dialogue, typical fixed mindset comments that you might say to yourself are,“Maybe you don’t have the talent?” or “You’ll fail, so why bother?”

Step 2: Recognise that you have a choice in how you respond to such criticism, challenges or setbacks. The choice is yours, you can maintain a fixed mindset or adopt a growth mindset.

Step 3: Talk back to your fixed mindset inner dialogue with a growth mindset voice. A typical growth mindset response to a criticism might be, “Most successful people had failures on their way” or “If I don’t try I automatically fail.”

Step 4: Adopt a growth mindset approach by committing to:
* take on the challenge wholeheartedly
* learn from your setbacks and try again
* hear the criticism and choose a growth mindset response, your mindset is up to you

By chance, I came across some interesting information on Positive Psychology posted by Viv Thackray, a positive psychologist and trainer in London.
Mindset is a simple yet groundbreaking idea from the field of positive psychology. Psychologist and world renowned mindset expert, Carol Dweck, has spent decades researching achievement and success. Dweck’s research reveals that we all possess either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. It’s possible to have a growth mindset in some areas of life and a fixed mindset in others. Mindset has a profound effect on motivation to learn.

Those with a growth mindset believe:
* intelligence, talent and ability are just the starting point, with effort they can be developed
* we are capable of improving all areas of our lives by developing our strengths
* failure hurts but isn’t defining
* the effort and process of learning are enjoyable
* you can always learn from setbacks and use them to develop
* successes are to be celebrated

Those with a fixed mindset believe:
* intelligence, abilities and talents are fixed and cannot be changed
* success is created by innate talent
* success = superiority
* effort makes no difference to ability
* failure is all defining and results in a fear of being judged
* people with a fixed mindset have less ability to bounce back from setbacks because they believe failure defines them

It is obvious to me from the start that the life of a life coach (ironically) can be difficult. Over lunch with a friend who went to a coaching discover day confirmed that it is quite a competitive field. In addition, quality differentiation is very difficult as it is dominantly based on soft skills and qualification is not uniformly regulated in the industry.

Despite that, I still think it is important to pursue one’s interest and follow one’s heart. I still have not decided what to do after my coaching qualification. However, to me, the journey has started and my heart will lead the way.

Tonight I attended a classical music concert at a local church as part of a neighbourhood festival called Islington Proms. Even though there was not a big group of audience, the two young talented musicians performed as if they were at the Royal Albert Hall (a major concert hall in London), doing their very best. There is a good example to demonstrate that we should always do our best regardless of the importance of the task at hand.

At the presentation, Mr. Alastair Campbell also emphasized the importance of support network in preventing the emotional downward spiral and facilitating the recovery from low point in life. Similarly, in the journey of learning and personal development, having support and “a pat on the shoulder” can make a big difference in the outcome (success or failure).

Continuing on the presentation from Alastair Campbell on mental health, one key element he identified among great leaders is resilience.
In short, it is the ability to rebound from adversity and become stronger. He added that it is at those moments of one’s life that one is really tested and leaped into greatness.
Excellent point indeed!

Last week I attended a presentation by Alastair Campbell, the former head of communication when Tony Blair was the Prime Minister in the U.K. He candidly shared his experience of overcoming alcoholism and depression. He mentioned that we all have mental health like our physical health. Similarly, some have better mental health than others. In addition, mental problems don’t just affect homeless and poor people. We all, to a certain extent, are exposed and faced with issues (big or small) with our mental health.