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Pickleball: A Powerful Metaphor for Leadership Development and Team Building

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In the world of sports, some activities transcend their recreational value and offer unique insights into other aspects of life. Pickleball, a rapidly growing racquet sport, not only provides fun and fitness but also serves as a remarkable metaphor for leadership. This article explores how playing pickleball can be an ideal tool for leadership training and team building within businesses.

I. Agility and Adaptability:

One of the key qualities of effective leaders is their ability to navigate challenges with agility and adaptability. Similarly, in pickleball, players must swiftly adjust their strategies based on their opponents’ moves and court dynamics. By experiencing this dynamic nature of the game, leaders can understand the importance of being flexible and quickly adapting to changing circumstances, thus improving their decision-making skills in real-world scenarios.

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The Unfortunate Tale of Amazfit's Poor Customer Service

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In today's highly competitive market, exceptional customer service can make or break a company's reputation. Unfortunately, not all companies prioritize providing satisfactory support to their customers. One such company that has failed to live up to customer expectations is Amazfit. As a loyal customer who has purchased multiple products from them, I have recently experienced their abysmal customer service firsthand. In this blog post, I will share my disappointing encounter with Amazfit and shed light on the various issues I encountered along the way.

Chronology of Events:

In July 2020, I eagerly purchased two pairs of ZenBuds through the AmazFit USA Indiegogo campaign. One pair was intended for myself, while the other was meant for my son, who was experiencing significant difficulty sleeping. Due to personal reasons, my son ultimately decided not to use the ZenBuds. As a result, one pair remained unopened and stored on a shelf, until March 2023 when I stumbled upon it while tidying my office.

Having been pleased with my own pair of ZenBuds, which I had been using without any issues, I decided to sell the unopened pair on eBay. To my surprise, the item sold quickly, and the buyer, Charlotte, later contacted me requesting a refund due to connectivity issues with the left Bud. Despite my eBay terms stating no refunds, I agreed to help her by contacting Amazfit's customer support on her behalf.

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LinkedIn Audio will slowly diminish . . .

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. . . unless being able to record them is made available very soon.

I have been hosting a weekly and now bi-weekly show since July 2022, called Social Audio Community Chat, based on my LinkedIn group with the same name.

I’ve loved hosting these rooms and have had wonderful people join in with me and chat about their journey with Social Audio whether on LinkedIn or somewhere else, like Clubhouse, Twitter, Wisdom or other platforms.

It has been an invaluable experience of learning and growth, the mastering of creating LinkedIn Audio Events, promoting them and inviting attendees all takes time and effort.

But what is my outcome for all the effort? 

Well, one of my outcomes was to master the process and have a format for creating and hosting LinkedIn Audio, which I have pretty much achieved. The second outcome obviously was to heighten my own profile, make new interesting connections and most importantly share some knowledge and experience.

One of the speakers that joined us, Jon Tromans, introduced me to the BBC mission statement, ‘Inform, Educate and Entertain’, which I am now using as our strapline for our bi-weekly Audio event. Thank you Jon and great chatting with you via LinkedIn Video Meeting recently.

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Pickle What?

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That’s the reaction by most when you mention the word Pickleball. Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the USA with more than 4.5 million active players. That’s an awful lot of Pickleball being played each week.

Boredom was what got this sport started in 1965.

Three dads living on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, came home one summer evening to find their children complaining that there was nothing for them to do. So, they found a net, a Wiffle ball, some ping-pong paddles, and created a game on an old badminton court that the entire family could play together.

It was a hit.

Over the next year, the three friends worked together to develop a set of rules, formalise the court layout, and introduce a larger plywood paddle that was good for striking the ball. And they decided to call it pickleball. (The name’s origins remain a matter of debate. Some believe it was named after a dog. Others say it’s a reference to a “pickle boat,” a thrown together boat made from the leftover rowers in crew races.)

Pickleball is a fun sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Played both indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net. Two or four players use solid paddles made of composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, over a net.

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Transform Yourself with Storytelling

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When clients asked me to create one for them and they gave me their scripts, I held my head in my hands in despair. The scripts were boring and were basically adverts. They said, here’s my product or service, please buy me.

I know the purpose of any advert is for people to buy a product or service of course I do. But unless you have thousands or millions in your budget to use the hammer on a rock method, you can repeat your advert daily until it has been hammered into your prospect’s brain. The brain being the rock which eventually will develop a huge dent to make the information (ad) stay there forever or at least for a very long time. But this is an expensive and a very time consuming method. I'm not saying it won't work and most small businesses (my ideal clients) don't have deep pockets to be able to afford constant advertising.

You’d be better off sharing a story. Let me explain why. You and I learnt about stories as soon as we were born. We couldn’t speak or maybe even understand what these people around us were saying but we learnt to make sense of their noises and expressions. It’s how we learnt body language. We then also learnt that when our tiny body was hungry we could make a very very loud noise by crying which almost immediately made the food (mother’s milk) come to us. Just like a delicious takeaway.

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My brother is homeless in the Netherlands, is it his own fault?

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A few weeks ago (in June) I received messages from my family in England that our oldest brother, Steven who lives in The Netherlands, had become homeless. We didn't know whether it was true or not, my own brother homeless?! I volunteered with Crisis in the UK for several years and my instinct from having done some support work and learning about the homeless, is that he needed to get professional help. He was asking us for money, the messages coming through were that he was sleeping in his car with his dog.

Seriously can this really be true in a rich Western nation like The Netherlands? Surely they look after their citizens, they wouldn't allow someone to be sleeping rough in their car at his age? I know the UK is awful at looking after the homeless, but The Netherlands? Surely they must be much better, it turns out not. They have a huge homelessness issue there too.

Anyway, I was persistent in my suggestion that he should seek a homeless shelter and get professional help. Homelessness is a very complicated and involved scenario. It was a shock to us of course and although we were aware that his marriage had broken up, he definitely had not kept us posted on the events that then followed. We still really don't know how it has all come about.

He turned 70 on the 24th June 2022 which means he must receive a state pension, wouldn't that be enough to pay some rent? Clearly not.

Steven hasn't always been honest with the truth, so there's always been a doubt in the back of my mind whether this was one of his stories or he was actually telling us the truth.

It wasn't until he shared an article from a Dutch online newspaper that I realised it was in fact very true. My heart sank, I had doubted him and it was true after all.

What can I do?

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LinkedIn Social Audio Events

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Let me start by making it crystal clear that you will only be able to host a LinkedIn Audio Event if you have 'creator mode' enabled. However anyone is able to join a LinkedIn Audio Event and joining events together with creator mode enabled is a really great way to ensure that you get the ability to host LinkedIn Audio earlier than most.

Once 'creator mode' is on, LinkedIn will eventually and automatically provide you with the ability to host a LinkedIn Audio event. There's no timeframe on how long this will take, I had creator mode on for months and only after attending several LinkedIn Audio events and checking daily did I notice that 'Audio Events' was enabled. I received no notification and there was no indication that I had gotten the feature. Now I have LinkedIn Live, Audio Event and Newsletters as part of my Creator Tools.

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The Social Audio Revolution

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Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, not mentioning the 'C' word, Social Audio is possibly the newest social media innovation of the the current 20's.

You may have heard of Clubhouse, their meteoric rise to being THE social audio go to platform and the beauty of being focused on just that, nothing else, no distractions, no other innovations, just social audio, means they were the market leader, the innovator and solution of choice. They refused many takeover bids and even one by Twitter, which reportedly was for $4 billion yeah that’s billion with a B. Why didn’t they take that I wonder? Personally you must be slightly mad not to.

I was late into the Clubhouse, it’s been a while since I played golf so nobody gave me the nod and wink. Never mind I did set up a profile, it was easy to do and simple. The whole platform was simples, yeah I say was, because with all social media products the engineers complicate the hell out of it. It’s not so simple anymore and then the surprise why the drop off?

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The Pinnacle of Leadership reveals itself in War!

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In my lifetime I have only been impressed with leadership a few times. The 1st time was in my first job in London and he was my second boss in that company. I've never forgotten him, he shaped my confidence in work. I've had many bosses in my employment career, which lasted 28 years and I can confidently confirm they were all a major disappointment to me, I'm sorry to say!

As I have grown older, I start to notice world leaders and let's be frank, I don't know about you but I haven't seen or witnessed many impressive world leaders. Now I'm more politically aware, so I subconsciously compare world leaders and politicians to one and other, I also automatically compare them against my own values without even knowing that I'm doing it and of course I judge them.

The 2nd time, many years later I was and continue to be impressed by Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister.

And now I am pleased to report that my 3rd leader of choice is the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Loneliness

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The dog was barking non-stop in the neighbours garden, it was drowning out the slow hum of traffic in the streets, nobody was attending the dog's needs or request for attention. Maybe it was lonely, locked up in the garden with no way back into the house? Who knows why it was barking and all of a sudden out of nowhere there is a shout from a man, I can't quite make it out, it sounded like he wanted someone to do something about the non-stop barking of the dog. It sounded like "sort you dog out" or something like that, but of course I could have made that up, it didn't help, the dog continued and maybe it sounded like it even got a little louder after that man's shouting.

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How Facebook (ab)uses your mobile number!

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I am receiving quite a few notifications on the Facebook mobile app (although I don’t look that often), asking me to do something with my mobile number, well I didn't think I had it on there, in fact I don’t have it on my profile, but in researching further I discovered it’s there in the background, stupid me. More about that in a bit, but first a few things to share for context.

I am not a big fan of Facebook and I am very suspicious of Mark Zuckerberg. He is exactly the same as any dictator who has ever lived and lied his way into becoming a billionaire, just think about it.

Facebook had 2.912 billion monthly active users as of January 2022, placing it 1st in ranking of the world’s most ‘active’ social media platforms. Nearly 3 billion people on the globe have happily shared their email and very likely their mobile number with Facebook. This data that we have so willingly shared is a forever unlimiting goldmine for Facebook, it’s shareholders and it’s advertisers. Facebook’s monthly active users equate to 36.8% of all the people on Earth today. I call that a pretty big dictatorship!

They (Facebook) have been accused of so many data crimes, but have never been prosecuted and nobody has gone to jail, okay they’ve had a few minor fines, which basically was pocket change for them. You can read the whole timeline of their crimes here: A timeline of trouble: Facebook's privacy record and regulatory fines, by Guild ~ 4 August, 2021

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Mind the Gap

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This popular phrase was made famous on the London Underground. If you use the Tube for your commute every day, you probably hear the words "Mind the Gap" many times each day, possibly every time your train stops at a station.

It's a pretty simple phrase and we all know what it means - reminding passengers to watch out for the gap between the train and the platform on the Underground, which to be fair can be quite big sometimes.

The origins of "Mind the Gap" on the London Underground dates back to 1968. It came about all because it was discovered that an automated message made much more practical sense than station attendants and drivers having to warn passengers all the time.

If you have ever travelled on the London Underground you will undoubtedly have heard it.

There is another meaning for this phrase in my own dictionary and all because I am reading a book titled the Gap and the Gain, co-authored by Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy. It claims to be the High Achiever's Guide to Happiness, Confidence and Success. I'm not 100% sure about that massive claim, but it has changed my thinking considerably.

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Boris The Bully

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I'm a Dutchman living in the U.K. now for almost 45 years. When I arrived I was a teenager and teenagers aren't really into politics. Once I turned 18, I have never been able to vote in general elections in the U.K. because I am not a British Citizen, despite the fact that all the policies, laws and behaviour of politicians have affected my personal and working life in the U.K.

My father got the whole family a permanent residence permit back in 1978 and despite having that and thanks to Brexit, I still had to apply for the EU settlement scheme, bizarre, I did and of course I was accepted.

The only place I can cast a vote is during local elections, which usually are a big waste of time and I'm getting very close to not bothering any longer.

I rarely comment publicly about politics, although I have been doing in the past few years. I guess when you are moving into the Autumn of your life, you take more notice of the news and are more sensitive to a sense of what's right and what's wrong. The sense of what's right and wrong gets instilled into us usually by our parents and the impact of growing up with siblings. I could probably write a book about the "unfairness" I believed I experienced when growing up as a twin and comparing what my twin sister used to get, in terms of clothes, presents and even our Birthday cakes, yes we each had a different cake! Of course when you're a kid you believe that your siblings always are treated more favourably compared to yourself.

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Your Mind is Conditioned in The Gap

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Last year I discovered "Dependent Origination", a Buddhist teaching. During my mindfulness enquiry I came across a podcast episode on the Ten Percent Happier podcast, I highly recommend it. On it was Andrea Fella of the Insight Meditation Center, Redwood, California, USA.

Listening to her being interviewed I could have sworn that she was almost shouting, well at least talking at an elevated pitch to try and get the concept of Dependent Origination across. I was thinking, wow this person is quite aggressive, actually I'm not sure if I want to listen to this, but I persisted as she was talking about matters I had never heard of or understood, except to say that after a while I started listening so attentively that I needed to learn more and investigated Andrea further. She was obviously 'shouting' for a reason and that was for ME to pay attention!

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China! Maybe they have sorted Social Media addiction?

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I have no idea where China is with Social Media/Big Tech, but I gained a bit of an insight by listening to an episode titled “A fresh take on Tech in China” on the podcast ‘Your Undivided Attention’, which features Tristan Harris, who Co-founded Humane Tech and starred in The Social Dilemma. Do check out these two websites.

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast
https://www.thesocialdilemma.com

I first came across Tristan via an awesome Ted Talk, “How a handful of Tech companies control billions of minds every day”.

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Oh LinkedIn Help, know thyself!

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I have been observing the fact that LinkedIn Polls are taking over our newsfeeds. I was guilty early on, got massive engagement on a few polls, but it led to nothing, just like most posts these days on Social.

I saw the flood of polls flowing into my newsfeed and soon realised that everyone now knows that polls get a lot of engagement and they're all going berserk!

Beserk: Out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied.

I posted why it is actually so popular, it's no accident:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6868989560437645312

So, after experimenting for a week, by unfollowing every 1st level connection that posted a poll and muting them when they commented on other polls (2nd level), the amount didn't reduce. I must have unfollowed/muted at least 100 people, but it has made no difference whatsoever. I am absolutely convinced that LinkedIn's algorithm prioritises polls in our newsfeed. You may wonder why? Well, it's simple really, more eyeballs means more active users on the site, which they can promote to advertisers, because adverts are one of the biggest moneymakers for LinkedIn, as it is for most social media platforms.

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Spam Report 4: Reporting Tools

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Since my counter spammerism journey, which I started at the end of March, I have managed to find many look-up tools to uncover mail servers, name servers, domain registrars, IP addresses and much more. This has allowed me to email directly to the owners of the mail or domain servers and report the abuse.

This has had very mixed results, I have to say, some will engage and get back to you and others you just don't hear anything from. It hasn't deterred me though, I knew I would learn more about spam and how it is constructed, the types of offenders and how the internet is basically flawed. Anyone who is persuaded to invest into Bitcoin derivatives I wish them luck. I can't imagine anything worse then having my money tied up in the flawed internet. Blockchain or not, how can you possible believe that when the Internet is basically flawed you would secure your hard-earned cash inside of it.

Anyway back to reporting tools. Sending direct emails to abuse@ email addresses is not really delivering the kind of results I was hoping for and then on top of that, there's one specific type of email that is, for me at least, impossible to identify its origin, mail or domain. This type of email are usually the ones that suggest that there's a bucket load of money waiting to be claimed by you, you know the ones, I should be a triple billionaire by now and of course I am not!

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Dear Beneficiary Dead or Alive

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We all receive spam emails, some are by legitimate spammers, you know the ones that add you to a list, where we can track down the email server they used and in some cases even unsubscribe, although that could be risky too.

And then there are the famous African inheritance emails, the ones that are usually untraceable and the only thing we can do is add them to junk and delete them. After all this time on email I am still astounded that tech companies have not been able to deal with these spam emails. We can send people into space, but we can’t stop spam emails.

Anyway this is probably the best one have received in quite a while. First of all they are offering me a fairly modest inheritance amount and secondly the subject line addresses me as either ‘Dead or Alive’. Seeing as my company name is Staying Alive UK, I couldn’t resist sharing it.

Not only is it addressed to ‘Dead or Alive’, it also asks me to confirm ‘if your are still alive’, which made me chuckle a lot.