Live your life

Henry David Thoreau is famous for saying to live the life you have imagined, but many of us are not sure what actually means. How does one decide what kind of life they want to live? What steps need to be taken in order to live that life? What if the life you want runs counter to norm? I believe that living your dream life starts with your values and principles. When you determine what is important to you, it becomes easier to craft your life.

When determining your values, you need to think about what you personally want. While this seems like an easy, logical step, it can be anything but. It can become very complicated to sift through your thoughts and feelings about money, relationships, location to live in, type of career you want and spiritual decisions. To help improve the process, start by making a list of the things that are important to you. 

Once you have a list you can look it over for consistent themes and narrow it down further. This list can then serve as a foundation for writing a personal mission statement or manifesto.

Review your list and write your principles into a series of action steps that reflect those values. At the end of this exercise you should have a page or two that you can use to evaluate the opportunities in your life. Those that are in line with your values can be acted upon, those that don't can either be passed over or changed to meet those values. When you take the time to really think about what is important to you and what life you want, you can create a framework that guides your decisions to  improve and amplify your life. 

This paper reflects who you are and who you want to be. Like anything, it can change over time and there may be some corrections, but when you know what you stand for and the mark you want to leave, your life takes on more meaning. 

ACL prevention

New research came out today touting the effects of the FIFA 11 exercises. These exercises were developed to address ACL injury prevention in young female athletes and have been validated a few different times. This latest research confirms the efficacy of incorporating this type of training into your routine.

The key to injury prevention is neuromuscular training, which is the fancy way to say performing exercises properly. Learning how to move correctly improves your efficiency, decreases energy leaks, improves performance decreases risk of injury.

Typical ACL exercises involve strengthening the hamstrings through Nordic or Russian Hamstrings, Straight leg deadlifts and ball curls, learning how to squat properly with your hips back and knees over toes, not coming together, single leg squatting and lunging, core strengthening through planks and side planks and cutting drills that focus on keeping your foot under your base of support and not outside of it.

To learn more about ACL prevention talk to an athletic trainer or strength coach with experience in developing ACL exercises.

Further information:
http://f-marc.com/11plus/home/
http://www.sportsmedres.org/2014/12/fifa11-improves-performance-and-reduces-injuries.html#more

Posterolateral corner injuries

When an athlete ruptures the ACL or PCL in the knee, there is a risk for a posterolateral corner injury. This is more common in contact injuries, or with a force applied to the anteromedial aspect of the tibia. When the posterolateral corner is injured, it can affect the stability of the knee and have poorer long term outcomes if not addressed.

The posterolateral corner is composed of the LCL, popliteus tendon, capsule, biceps femoris tendon and lateral gastrocnemius tendon. An injury to this area results in tearing or those structures that cause the tibia to sublux posterior to the femur.

When assessing the knee, and the posterolateral corner, look for an increase in external rotation at 30 degrees of flexion. You can also assess for rotary instability of the knee or for posterior displacement by abducting the hip and externally rotating the tibia. A depression over the lateral aspect would lend credence to the involvement of the posterolateral corner.

Injuries to this area can result in greater instability of the knee. Even if the cruciates are reconstructed, leaving the posterolateral corner can result in graph failures and early onset of OA and degeneration of the menisci. There are different surgical approaches to fixing the posterolateral corner that would involve discussion with a surgeon.

When assessing your athletes with a suspicious mechanism, remember to check out whether the posterolateral corner is involved to aid in treatment and rehabilitation decisions.

Online etiquette

The digital age that we are currently in has definitely made the world smaller and communication easier, but also somewhat impersonal. It is easy to get caught in a habit of having your online persona clash with your personal one. 

When someone writes an article/blog or posts a video, picture or other form of communication it is important to respect it. You do not have to agree with them, and part of the digital age is open dialogue, but do so in a professional manner. No one likes to see threads of people attacking and antagonizing others. Keep your responses short, constructive and polite. If you wouldn't say what you write to someone's face, then don't write it. 

When someone posts an article, they are sharing their thoughts and ideas with others. If they have done their reaearch, this should be in a persuasive manner. It takes courage to write and put yourself out there, so be respectful. Engaging with them can help clarify points and reach new perspectives. 

If your posting something use the mom rule. Do not post anything that you would be embarrassed about if your mother saw. This will help you make smart decisions in your posts. 

I have seen quite a few posts that do not follow simple etiquette. If you want to be seen as smart and articulate, then proof all your posts and comments first. Make sure that it is what you want to say and that it elevates the conversation. Adhering to those guidelines will improve your online persona. 

Marketing

Between my graduate coursework and my taking on more marketing responsibilities at work, I have come to realize how vitally important marketing is to an organization. Before learning more about it I did not fully grasp this importance and was ineffective in my ability to market the programs that I was in charge of. While I thought the programs themselves were good, they were not advertised properly where the potential customers would see and become excited about them, which led to lower sales.

This leads me the first thing I learned; marketing is customer focused. Advertising is sales focused with the result being to buy the product. But, marketing is placing the product in front of the desired customer and having them see at it and realize this is what they were looking for. It is geared toward the wants, needs and desires of the customer.

The typical marketing plan consists of understanding the P's, product, price, placement and promotion. While these are very important in helping to understand what the product is and what the value is to the organization, it is not necessarily meeting objective number one. The P's are indeed important, but need to revolve around the needs of the customer and therefor meet the needs of the organization.

Understanding your customer involves a lot of work. There are a lot of people available to see your product on any given day, but how many of them are potential customers? You need to know where they live, what the competition is and how you are different. It is important to engage with your customers to learn what they want, need or desire and then deliver it to them. Trying to dictate to them what they need is advertising, and not successful in the long term. Communicating with them about they actually want creates a deeper bond and establishes brand loyalty.

Be wary with how you utilize social media. Social media has made it easier than ever to engage in dialogue with your customers and learn more about them. It can also be very tempting to place a lot of advertising and promotions on social media for your customers to see. If your posts are routinely advertisements, your customers will start to tune you out. Instead, use social media to develop a greater overall picture of your organization. Incorporate educational material into your posts so that your customer can learn more information that is valuable to them. This leads them to see you as the expert. Incorporate some personal information and fun into your posts. Social media is personal and it allows your to showcase your personality. This helps your customers see the real people behind the organization. If some of the posts are fun, the customers feel that they are missing something if they are not engaging with you. Once they start to see that your posts are fun, education and personal they will respond better when you do place that product advertisement  or promotion in front of them. First, develop a relationship to learn about their problem, then place your product (or solution to their problem) in front of them.

Good to great

I just finished reading 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins and I learned quite a bit. It was pretty interesting to discover the results of their research on what made some companies thrive and others stagger. The following is what I learned when I completed the book:

Great companies have Level 5 leaders. I know that this has been studied by numerous people since the book was published, so I won't belabor the point. Concisely, level 5 leaders come from within the organization and use that understanding to drive forward growth. They focus on establishing a great team and a culture of discipline that allows the people in the organization the ability to thrive. They focus success outward and channel failure inward.

 Great companies focus on their people. They hire the best people they can find and give them the flexibility within their culture to be great. Good people are self motivated and driven for success and the challenge for the leader is not to motivate them, but not to de-motivate them.

Great companies face the truth. When companies look to determine the potential for growth it has to be done in a truthful manner that really takes into consideration the total environment. Great companies understand themselves, their product and the business landscape and they do not enter the field if they cannot be successful.

Great companies focus on developing a hedgehog concept. This concept is the simple truth about what their business is: what do they do better than everyone, that they are passionate about and that fits their economic ratio? The energy is focused into this concept with extreme discipline to achieve success.

The economic denominator is the ratio by which great companies determine their success. It varies depending on the company, but can be profit per customer, profit per customer visit, profit per purchase, etc. Each decision is graded on how well it fits this ratio.

Great companies are not made overnight, rather it is the accumulation of their drive and discipline over time that leads to continued success. Great companies focus on the process: get great leadership, get great people, face the truth, and create a culture that leads to consistency over time to produce outstanding results.

From a management standpoint, we can learn that in order to have a great product we need a great team with a common vision for shared success and the discipline to do what needs to happen to make it a reality. If the vision is line with the abilities of the people, the available resources and the discipline to maintain the course then greatness is indeed possible. This is true of large national and international organizations, small local businesses and athletic teams. If the pieces have been thoroughly understood and placed together then they will achieve greatness within their realm.

From an investment standpoint, if you are able to identify those unique companies that have been able to curate their hedgehog concept and be consistent over time you will find an opportunity to beat the market by far. These companies produce returns that are far superior to the general market and their competitors, so including them in your portfolio will increase your holdings.

Business planning

You have probably heard of the adage ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’ or the proverb of the 6 P’s Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. The moral of both of them is that by taking the time to plan ahead of time can help with a crisis later on. A crisis may not always be averted, but having a framework in place makes it easier to manage when they do occur.  Taking the time to write a business plan is a very important step and failing to do so will lead to a crisis later on.

A business plan does not necessarily have to be a long complicated document, but it does need to put your business idea down on paper and identify the purpose of the business. It should cover the following:

• The customer
• The environment and market conditions the customers reside in
• The strategy of the business including its structure and function
• The financial feasibility of the business including all costs to build it

This document then serves as a reference for the decision making process. When deciding what avenue to grow the business or how to adequately spend your time, this plan helps to align your end goal with the steps needed to get there. If something does not fit with the strategy of the business then choose something that does.

It appears that one of the reasons businesses struggle is they either lack a coherent plan, or they veer away from that plan. There was  a reason the business was started and getting away from that vision may not prove profitable. If the proper effort is put into identifying the current and potential future market position and determining the avenues for generating revenue, and hopefully profit, then the business should be in a position to achieve its initial objective (assuming that the vision is realistic and attainable). By changing direction without a plan in place, there is less of a certainty of future success.

It is very important to take the time to really think about the business, why the business exists and who it exists for and then trying to identify the markers for future success. This process of thinking through what the business is helps to clarify the mission and objectives. Putting the time in up front will save a lot of time, and money, later.

Effective communication

One of the most common causes of work and personal relationship struggles is communication. I know you have undoubtedly heard on numerous occasions that communication is vital for success, but it bears repeating. The ability to communicate effectively with all of your stakeholders will improve your leadership ability and overall success.

Communication requires a two way exchange of information: a sender and a receiver. In this model, there are several ways for communication to breakdown; the sender can fail to send the communication, the receiver can fail to receive the communication,  or the receiver may not be decoding the communication message properly.

In the first scenario, the sender fails to send the communication. This is when someone does not initiate the communication process: no verbal, nonverbal or written communication exists. In this case, there is no message for the receiver to retrieve and therefore, cannot be acted upon. Always make sure that if you say you will do something, follow up with it and let the other parties know.

The second scenario is the receiver not receiving the communication. This may happen due to interference in the communication medium: crash of the server, distracted surrounding when listening, different language. This is the case when the receiver is not readily engaged with the sender and is not getting the message correctly. To fix this, make sure that you are readily engaged with the sender and able to decode the message properly.

The third scenario regards decoding the message. If the sender sends a message to the receiver and the receiver gets the message, but does not decode the message accurately then there will be a lapse in communication. The prime example of this is when the receiver hears what they want to hear and neglects the rest of the communication. They got the message, but did not properly translate its meaning. To help with this always speak back the message to the sender to confirm accuracy, or ask the receiver to repeat back what you have asked.

Communcation is vital to the success of relationships and businesses. In order to communicate effectively try these tips:

• Communicate whenever somebody other than you needs to know something. People like to know what is going on if it affects them
• Keep the message clear and simple. This makes the message shorter and thus harder to be misunderstood
• Actively listen to understand the full meaning. This avoids distractions and focus on the sender
• Repeat back what is said to confirm understanding of the message

Taking the time to make sure that the messages that are sent and received are the same will go a long way to creating better understanding among groups and build a foundation of trust.

Long term athletic development

There is some buzz in the athletic performance and strength and conditioning industry regarding 'long term athletic development', but what exactly is that?

The main process behind LTAD is the realization that youth athletes have a lot of years to play sports, grow physically, socially, and emotionally and develop skills at each stage in their athletic career. A lot of current programs, for all ages, promise quick results, fast gains and reaching your peak in a short period of time. LTAD involves taking a step back, looking at the athlete as a whole and developing a process to make them a better athlete globally.

In order to achieve ongoing results, you first have to know the athlete. What their goals are, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, how they move, how they perform exercises and what is the process in which to create global improvement. This global improvement is not geared toward one sport. Playing a single sport does develop motor skills, coordination and specific movements for that sport, but it can also limit total development of the athlete and stunt their potential. An athlete that only plays soccer can be predisposed to hip injuries and never develop any throwing skills or quick start and stop skills that could improve their game and make them better athletes.

LTAD is the foundation used to make athletes better athletes. It involves a systematic program to introduce exercises, progress those exercises and tie those exercises into a sport. Many programs focus on only one facet of a program and neglect the other pieces. There are speed schools, agility classes, core classes and strength programs for athletes of all ages, but few places take all of those components and put them together in a larger framework to create well rounded athletes: that is LTAD. It is understanding that athletes need a combination of strength, power, speed, reaction, acceleration, deceleration, agility, endurance and recovery and then creating a program that systematically addresses each component in an organized manner to deliver consistent results over time. Does this mean that a youth player will experience significant growth in 6 weeks? No. It means that the youth player will develop a foundation for ongoing engagement and learning that will lead to improvement and growth this year, next year, the year after that and so on.

The best way to have healthy, happy athletes is to expose them to different sports and challenge their ability to improve in a consistent manner over time.

Choosing a system

As a strength coach working with teams to improve strength, speed, agility and conditioning I quickly learned how important it was to develop a system in order to make my life essier and my programs better.

When I first started out I would write each workout a day or 2 beforehand and give only minimal thought to the other sessions. It did not take long to learn how much more work it added since I had to look at what I did last time, decide what to keep and progress, what to introduce and what to phase out. My lack of work up front turned into a lot of work later.

Once I had more than one group or team I was training it became imperative to develop a system for what I wanted to accomplish. My approach then became to talk with the player and coaches to develop the goals for the team and then the time paremeters I had to work with to work toward achieving those goals.

The fitness industry abounds with different programs, philosophies and ways of doing things. As you learn more, progress professionally and train the same types if clients you start to have your own way of doing things. This way of doing things that you adapt starts to form the framework for your system. I believed in training athletes how to move more efficiently, develop body weight strength and power and get quicker, faster and more fit. Once I knew this, I began to put a system in place to achieve my goals and replicate it with other teams and groups. 

The most important factor I learned in developing my system was that it had to be easy for me to teach and easy for the players to learn. I do not necessarily believe that there are bad systems (although some may be better than others) but there is bad implementation, both in teaching it to athletes and them learning it. 

I believe that this is the most critical favctor in creating a system for business, training and life. It has to be easy to teach and easy to learn. It will change and evolve over time as you learn new things and make adjustments just like any other good program, but if the foundation is not strong then no matter how much you learn you will not effective. 

Your system is a reflection of you: your philosophy, values and personality. When you create it as a reflection of yourself you will improve your ability to implement it. 

6 E's of personal leadership

While working with teams I noticed that I was not always successful in creating the environment that I was looking for. As I took a step back to look at how I behaved and the goals I was trying to establish I came up with my 6 E’s of personal leadership.

Envision: Think about the direction to take the team based on your assessment and discussion with the individuals and coaches.

Empower: Create ownership of the task at hand so that the team wants to achieve it. Involve them in the decisions so they know what the plan is and that their input is valued.

Engage: Connect with each team member as an individual. Ask about their day and get to know them. Develop a personal relationship with the individuals and the team.

Encourage: Push them to achieve more. Know what their limits are and get them to push those limits so they set new ones. If they are always comfortable they will not improve.

Energetic: Always bring your best self every day. Be happy and excited to be there. Energy is infectious, both positive and negative. Positive energy creates a positive environment.

Enthusiastic: Complement the little things and support everyone. Be their cheerleader as well as their coach. When things are not going as planned it is easy to get down, but turn it around and work for something greater. Small improvements make big changes over time.

I encourage everyone to take a step back when working with teams to evaluate how things are going. When you notice patterns in your, and others, behavior, come up with a way to change it. 5 E’s works for me, what will work for you?

Knee pain in runners

Anterior knee pain, or knee pain over the front of the knee, is a very common malady with runners. It generally results from too much strain being placed across that joint by the quadriceps taking too much force on impact. While this injury can be very painful and limit the ability to run effectively, it is generally non-surgical and can be treated and prevented.

Strengthening the hips: Increasing the strength of the glute muscles aids in force production and force absorption that decreases the stress on the knees. Perform band walks, bridges, bird dogs and proper squats/lunges to strengthen the hips.

Strengthening your core: Core strength helps with maintaining your hip alignment and posture. When you tire, your body is not maintaining form and other muscles have to work harder. Perform various plank variations and bird dogs to increase your core strength and endurance.

Running mechanics: Having your form assessed can see if there is anything wrong with your gait that is predisposing you to knee pain. There are also numerous books and blogs about how to improve your running gait. There are a few consistencies: run at 90 steps per minute, this means decreasing your stride length and increasing stride frequency. Along with this is landing with your foot under your hips which puts you in a good position to push off again.

Ice: Ice after a run can help calm down any discomfort.

Monitor your volume and intensity. Training too hard too quickly is a sure fire way to end up in pain, so make sure that you increase gradually.

Working on strengthening up the chain helps to increase strength and decrease impact across the knees. Add these in to your routine and your pain should decrease.

New Power

Social media is bringing about a new paradigm in the realm of power: a transition from the typical Institutional view of power, to a larger, participation driven influence. With this change comes the struggle to adapt to the changing atmosphere. How can companies maintain their influence in this new era?

Power used to concentrated in the hands of a few. These institutions had the knowledge and used that knowledge to get customers to come to them. In the shifting world, knowledge is shared across networks, increasing the collective knowledge of all. This shared knowledge takes power away from the Institutions and makes it harder for them to use their typical sales approach of 'come to me'.

Even though the Institutions are making changes in an effort to adapt by creating social platforms and trying to engage with customers, they are struggling to do it effectively. These organizations need to focus on their customers and the influence they can have upon them. Engaging on a platform is not enough, they need to have a central theme, show value to their customers and provide a forum for ongoing discussion. When the Institution is able to actively engage with their customers in this new use of media, they will be able to expand their influence and garner greater power.

Reference
Heimans, J and Timms, H. (2014, December). Understanding 'new power'. Harvard Business Review.

Hip flexor tightness

I was talking with a  friend of mine who is having hip pain and wondering what to do for it. She has been seeing a practitioner for active release, but is not sure what to do on her own to help keep it from being too tight. Tight hips are a common malady in the population since so many of us sit throughout the day which puts our hip flexors in a shortened position. In order to restore normal motion focus on these things:

 

Strengthen the glutes: your muscles act as opposites, so if your hip flexors are tight it means your glutes are not tight enough. Focus on bridges, squats and lunges to strengthen them.

 

Reverse lunge with overhead reach: I really like this one for stretching the quads, hip flexor and abdominals. Perform a reverse lunge and reach both arms up as high as you can and hold for a few seconds, then switch legs. Perform 3-5 reps each.

 

Kneeling stretch: get into a half kneeling position and reach your same arm as the knee on the ground in the air, push forward and raise your foot for a greater stretch. Hold for 60 sec.

 

Self-release: Get into a half kneeling position and apply pressure over the hip flexor then lean forward at your hip to relax the muscle and then extend your hip and sit up straight to increase pressure. Perform 2-3 sets of 10 reps.

 

Value of Marketing

I just read Theodore Levitt's Harvard Business Review article "Marketing Myopia" where he argues that every industry used to be a growth industry at some point in its history. He explains that companies go through similar life events; growth, maturity and decay and that without adapting to the world around them, companies die.

He believes that there are no growth companies, rather, companies take advantage of growth opportunities, and the better a company is able to identify those opportunities, and exploit them, leads to its growth and survival.

Companies need to spend more time looking outward and not be as focused on what is happening inward. This allows them to understand their customers; their wants, needs, and desires and then place their product in front of them in a manner that meets those needs. Companies that focus inward only work on trying to create the next big thing or to develop their product that they then try and get customers to like and buy. But, if they never understand what it is that they want, they leave themselves open to stagnation and competitors who deliver superior products.

In order to understand the customer, companies need to develop a relationship with them and engage in meaningful dialogue. This has never been easier than in the era of social media where customers expect companies to be available. A company is now able to reach their customers (or at least the percentage of their customers that use social media) and perform their own market research. They get instant feedback on their products, what is liked, what is not liked, what they wish it did, and in turn bring that information to their product developers and challenge them to make it better. This new, and customer inspired, product is then brought out for consumption and the process can begin again.

In order to avoid the declining stage of a company's life, it needs to be aware of what is happening in its environment and adapt accordingly. The old adage 'adapt of die' is very true in business. In order to stay relevant and maintain their customer base, business have to create products that customers want, improve the product over time and adapt to what the market shows.

Evaluations

When it comes to evaluations, don’t wait until the end of the year to have yours. People need ongoing encouragement and check ins to ensure that they are improving what was talked about and waiting for a yearly review will not be in anyone’s best interests. To make the review process more smooth have more ongoing discussions to prevent any problems from surfacing later. No one likes surprises when they could have learned about it, and changed it, earlier.

 

It is also important to remember that what gets measured gets changed. If you have an employee with a poor attitude, but who performs well and the only that is measured are sales, then they will probably not change their attitude. If the attitude needs changing, make it a larger part of the weighted total.

 

Set specific goals. Make sure to really get to know the person, what their job is, what they think their job is and what goals they have. Use this information to customize their job description to accurately reflect them as an individual. Then, set specific goals for them to achieve and measure that progress on an ongoing basis. When people feel that they are understood and involved in the process, they are more likely to succeed.

 

Align their personal goals with organizational strategy. Once their job has been customized to reflect them and you know what their personal and career goals are, you can put that in context to the larger strategy. Work with them to see how their performance interacts with the organization. This can create better engagement and make them feel more valued in their role when they see how it relates to the bigger picture.

 

The review process is not meant to be done only once or twice a year. It is a time to really discuss the job, the concerns and work together to solve problems on an ongoing basis. As people and relationships grow, so too should the process. Waiting until the next review to let someone know how they are doing is not going to improve trust, efficiency or success for anyone. Getting to know people, their insights, their values and their goals and working with them consistently will have a positive impact on everyone.