Archive for the 'Leadership' Category

5 Helpful Tips to Help You Retain Important Information

It’s widely believed that our memories get worse at we get older. However, whilst it is true that the aging process causes changes in our brains that can mean that it takes longer to learn and recall information, we shouldn’t mistake this for true memory loss. It is normal to forget things once in a while as we age. But, however old we are, there are many things we can do it in our day-to-day lives to help keep our brain working at full capacity.

Here are five ways to help keep your memory sharp:

Sleep

Sleep is proven to be one the most important factors in having a good memory. It is during sleep that our brains perform the consolidation processes required to do things such as moving remembered events from short term to long term memory. Lack of sleep may cause issues with retaining new information and even make you struggle to recall information laid down in the past.

Research also suggests that getting a good night’s sleep before learning is also very advantageous, since sleep deprivation can affect our brain’s ability to memorise and consolidate any new information. Remember, before your next class, seminar or training day, try to be well-rested, as it will help you more than you think.

Exercise

Studies in human brains show that regular exercise can improve our memory. Fitness amongst older adults has even been shown to help to slow the decline of memory. Exercise is also helpful with spatial awareness, which will also improve your spatial memory. Spatial memory is the storage and retrieval of information within the brain needed to plan routes and to remember where objects are located.

The health benefits to exercising regularly are well known and documented, but regular exercise is shown to improve other cognitive abilities besides memory, so whilst you’re improving your health and your memory there are many other benefits.

Meditate

Regular meditation increases blood flow to the brain, which in turn strengthens the network of blood vessels in the cerebral cortex. This reinforces our memory capacity. A particular study has indicated that meditating for just 20 minutes a day boosts memory and concentration. Meditation can particularly help working memory, which stores information temporarily for short term use.

Research shows that participants with no experience in meditation can improve their memory recall in just eight weeks. As meditation also helps with concentration, it has been shown to improve test scores.

Test Yourself

Testing yourself can help your ability to retain information, since any re-visiting and repetition of a subject will always help to embed the knowledge. Ask a friend to test you or see if there are any online resources that will check your knowledge

Doing this you can consolidate your knowledge of a topic or area and transfer your learning to long-term memory, which will happen if you continue to actively use the information. As a bonus, it also helps you know what you don’t know and to determine which areas you need to revisit.

Write it down

Writing down new information is a practice that many people use to retain information. This works because writing by hand turns on parts of the brain involved in learning and memory. Taking notes by hand, rather than even using a keyboard, may boost how well new information is retained.

Studies have shown that writing notes by hand is much better for long-term memory of ideas, or conceptual information. This is vindication for all of us who have ever said “I remember it better when I write it down”.

If you need anymore help with work-life balance, Infero has Time Management and Stress Management Courses in these areas.

Article: Leadership Competencies pt.1 – Passion In Star Wars Leaders

“Passion is the genesis of genius.”
— Anthony Robbins

 

Surely you noticed that people who really succeed in their career or life have a strong passion for what they do. From the ancient time we were fascinated by the great leaders – from Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates – just a few of those who has had the passion and achieved their vision. I am sure you personally know ‘passionate’ people around you.

 

Passion is one of the competencies a great leader whether in professional career or personal life, and the first topic of discussion in our blog.

 

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All copyrights for image belong to Disney and George Lucas Film.

 

All great achievements start with passion. Passion is an intense emotion that shapes the very core of who you  are and the choices you make, whether your inspirations are coming from spiritual, intellectual, political, economic, social, or technological reasons. When you wake up in the morning and all you think about is the thing you want to create, then you are passionate about it.

 

For a leader, passion is a key element; once they have this powerful feeling, they become unstoppable. And even when things turn bitter, and difficulties and challenges take over, this does not crush leaders because the love towards what they do takes over any negative emotions. This ‘fever’ lets them overcome any difficulties and move towards their ultimate goal.

 

In Star Wars, passion is perhaps the most controversial subject between the Jedi and Sith.

 

Sith believe that everything starts with passion – they embrace it, and their Code sums this up in the following verse.

 

“Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through Passion, I gain strength.
Through Strength, I gain Power.
Through Power, I gain Victory.
Through Victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.”

 

Jedi on the other side do not believe in passion. Here is what they think of it.

 

“There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force. ”

 

It seems like that fundamentally if you have a passion for something then you turn to the Dark side. Sorry the creators of the worlds of Star Wars – I do not agree. I could never understand the dilemma in the most culminating moment in the 1st Star Wars Trilogy – the battle between Luke and his father the Darth Vader. I could never understand why he could not fight back, as he believed that fighting back will make him turn to the Dark side and become like his father. It feels that Luke was driven by fear of not becoming the ‘baddy’. What about fighting in the name of love and friendship – to save his sister, to save his friends from an imminent death?

 

Perhaps humans are more complex than Siths or Jedis.

 

Perhaps we can embrace both sides. Mother Theresa was a passionate woman whose passion was to help those less fortunate, and she certainly did not turn to the Dark side. So as Gandhi, who practiced nonviolence whilst fighting for independent India. And that does not include only missionaries or political figures but also entrepreneurs. By 2013 Bill Gates donated $28 billion of this fortune to his charity to fight poverty and improve healthcare, and continues his donations. In our human world if you want to achieve the great, you certainly need some passion.

 

What are you passionate about? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Article: Introducing Leadership Competencies in Star Wars

J.J. Abram’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens burst into cinemas last month like a force-choke out of hell, smashing most sales records as surely as the Empire smashed the rebels on Alderaan.

 

The remarkable cinematic success was exactly what the Star Wars franchise needed, and was a glowing confirmation that Disney’s purchase of LucasFilm in 2012 for over $4 billion was the right move.

 

I loved the film and everyone I’ve spoken to who has seen it so far agrees.

 

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Prior to me seeing the movie, over the Christmas holiday, I took the opportunity to have a Star Wars marathon for the first time since the second trilogy came out a decade ago, and it reminded me how much Star Wars characters impacted us. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and others have taken their place in our memories, much like James Bond or Superman have done over the decades. However, I believe the Star Wars’ characters remind us of the people we need in every season of our life and their certain characteristics are those which healthy leaders intentionally maintain.

 

So let’s look at Leadership Competencies in Star Wars. Why? Because it is more fun that way.

 

I’ve realised that writing about all of them in one long article, could be very discouraging to read, so instead I separated them in nine blog instalments which will be rolled out over the course of 2016 and will each focus on the importance of a particular competency of leadership: passion, humour, courage, integrity and trust, energy/vitality/enthusiasm, building a team, setting priorities, creativity, and vision. The idea behind this is to identify and define these components of character.

 

Our first blog will look at the Leadership Competency: Passion. This is perhaps is the most controversial subject in Star Wars between the codes of Jedi and Sith.

 

Stay tuned. I’ll look forward to your comments, challenges and opinions along the way.