Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you and yours! I hope this edition of the Champions Brew makes it to your table or desk as you get a chance to relax and create memories this Christmas season with people you love.
The Champion’s Brew is a weekly assembly of material I am reading, listening to, or watching that is designed to equip and call you to uncommon leadership. I often add my own little spin based on my takeaways and would love your input as well. Any of the points especially impact you? Drop me a note at [email protected], or comment on the blog to keep the conversation going! I believe you will discover that the format is not only useful, but also that you can consume it within the time it takes you to enjoy your daily ‘brew’! Become a member of the Champions Brew Nation by subscribing here!!
Here is your weekly drink of what I have been reading and experimenting with to help me to:
- Exercise Daily: This time of year, we are enjoying the holiday cheer, the peanut butter fudge, egg nog and more. It gets us thinking:“next year, I am going to exercise more!” So, how much should we really exercise? Dr. Gabe Mirkin has some pointers for us from one of his recent newsletters that has some good suggestions:
- His general recommendation in the article was that healthy people should exercise daily. “every healthy person should try to exercise every day. You will gain a much higher level of fitness by “stressing and recovering, ” where you exercise more intensely on one day, feel sore on the next and go slowly until the soreness is gone, then try to pick up the pace again.”
- Some of the data from the article was fascinating as well:
- The Copenhagen City Heart Study found that those who exercised 2.6 to 4.5 hours per week were 40 percent less likely to die over the next 25 years than the less active people (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, August 17, 2021).
- Surprisingly, those who worked out more than 10 hours per week lost some of that advantage, but were still better off than the less active people
- Another recent study following 2110 people for almost 11 years found similar results (JAMA Netw Open, 2021;4(9):e2124516). Those taking at least 7000 steps per day had a 50 to 70 percent lower death rate than the more sedentary group, but taking over 10,000 steps per day did not increase that advantage.
- AND, more is NOT always better.
Dive deeper into this article here
- Work Hard & read More: Leader Standard Work – A term that I use in coaching and consulting that identifes: “What a leader needs to do, when they need to do it, even when they don’t feel like doing it, SO THAT the leader can do what they want to do, when they want to do it.” A recent blog post by Catalysis outlined 4 Tips to Make your Leader Standard Work ‘work better’:
- Set up visual controls – Have a scorecard to let you know if you are winning or not
- Include the Purpose of the activity – I may have put this point first. Start with ‘why’. Define why you need to do the activity, even before you decide you are going to set up a visual to measure it.
- Connect with your personal development – Include activities in your leader standard work that will help your whole person development… not just your work activities. There could be reading habits for personal development, your exercise, your date nights, etc.
- Connect with others’ Leader Standard Work – Learn from others. Share your Leader Standard Work with another leader and compare what works well and what doesn’t work so well. There may be teaching moments you have that help you to improve your daily, weekly, and monthly habits.
- Quote: Leader standard work is “the glue of the lean management system that can help keep your organization’s transformation journey in motion” – Didier Rabino
What you need to do:
Call to Action: Do you have your own Leader Standard Work? If not, now may be a good time to start as you move into a new year. Need help getting started? Drop me a note at [email protected] and I will share a template with you that can be a catalyst for your personal development.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Champions Brew. If you enjoyed it, I would appreciate it if you would share it with a friend who might enjoy it as well and ask them to subscribe! I will make sure they automatically get this email every week.
Also, the Uncommon Leader podcast is growing! The latest Episode (#018) is a great conversation that compliments last week’s Champions Brew about an end of year reflection process. Click HERE for a list of the episodes of interviews I have done with Uncommon leaders. It has been enjoyable for me, and I know the guests will add value to you as well!
Until next time, go and Grow Champions!
2 Responses
Merry Christmas eve to you, John, and all of you reading the Champions Brew. I found it very interesting today and the part of my standard work that I never veer from is the time I spend for my own personal health and fitness. I know there’s a gap there I need to work on – that will be a new year challenge. But the bigger challenge is that now being post-surgery (a big success), I have to learn the less is more (BooHoo). I won’t be able to exercise for another 2 weeks and after that, it will be slow progress getting back to my usual more strenuous activities in the following couple months. It will be my time to look at other areas where I can become more disciplined in my LSW, ie. those projects.
Now it’s time to enjoy being with family and enjoying the holidays – pain free! Cheers
Barbara, thanks for reading and commenting. I am glad to hear your surgery was a success. Rest well and I look forward to seeing your improvements in 2022!!