Deep See With Bilal

Even though I'm a Liverpool fan, I have to admire Sir Alex Ferguson. He managed the English soccer club, Manchester United, from 1986 to 2013. During that time, he won the league a record 13 times, which was considerably more than the next most successful manager of an English club: Liverpool's Bob Paisley, who won the league six times. In total, he won 38 footballing trophies  - which on some measures makes him one of the best coaches of any sport of all-time.

So what was the secret of his success? Based on interviews of him and on his own writings, I've found a number of traits that stood out. On this podcast, I discuss them. They include his desire for constant renewal, a strong work ethic, prioritising the team over individual stars, focusing on the next win, being decisive, obsessing about football and sheer passion. 

I hope you find this helpful. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Deep See With Bilal”. Also, make sure to rate and review this podcast and enjoy! 

Bilal

Recently I’ve had my head stuck in old books of wisdom like the works of Plato, the bible and the Bhagavad-Gita. I thought I’d extract lessons from these ancient texts that could be useful for the hyper-modern world of today.

It really did jolt me awake. What stood out were the constant exhortations not to be so self-centered. This touched me because I think I’ve fallen into the trap of over-focusing on me, whether it’s finding health hacks, optimising my productivity or finding personal happiness. It’s all about me, me, me and not about others. In this podcast, I summarise some of the key lessons and describe how we can rebalance our lives to think more about others.

For more detailed notes click here. 

I hope you find this helpful. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Deep See With Bilal”. Also make sure to rate and review this podcast and enjoy! 

Bilal

Over the years, I’ve had good managers and bad managers and I myself have been a bad manager and a good manager. Through these experiences, I’ve found the advice of Peter Drucker the most transformative. Drucker was one of the first management gurus, and his 1967 book “The Effective Executive” has to be the best management book ever written. 

On this podcast, I’ve going to run through the key elements from his approach that made a difference for me and share Druckers insights on important aspects of corporate life.  I talk about his 5 core practises for becoming super effective executive:

Know where your time goes.

Focus on outward contribution.

Build on strengths, not weaknesses.

Concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results.

Make effective decisions. 

For more detailed notes click here and here

I hope you find this helpful. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Deep See With Bilal”. Also make sure to rate and review this podcast and enjoy! 

Bilal

In this episode, I will highlight some of the useful life tips I’ve picked up from various books over the years. Here are 11 quotes that capture the tips:

 Demote the importance of email. Your inbox is other people’s priorities (Craig Jarrow, Time Management Ninja)  

To make networking successful, follow up is everything (Jayson Gaignard, MastemindTalks).

Scaling requires grinding it out and pressing each person, team, group, division or organization to make one small change after another (Robert Sutton, Hayagreeva Rao, “Scaling Up Excellence”) . 

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do (Dale Carnegie, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”)

Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, your ninety minutes a night [of reading] are chiefly wasted (Arnold Bennett, “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day”). 

The acid test for creativity is simply stated: has the domain in which you operate been significantly altered by your contribution? (Howard Gardner, “Five Minds for the Future”)  

Keeping things “just in case” indicates a lack of trust in the future…Good things cannot easily come into your life if you block the flow of energy by persistently clinging to outdated clutter (Karen Kingston, “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui”) 

Judging is what the mind does, I discovered. But what you can begin to do is write your judgments down and question them. That will give you a sane and happy life (Byron Katie, “Who Would You Be Without Your Story”). 

Great presenters have the ability to tell you something you already know, in a way that gives it new and more powerful meaning (Jon Steel, “Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business”).

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do (Timothy Ferriss, “The 4-Hour Work Week”).

“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think” (Patrick Lencioni, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). 

Hope you find this helpful. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Deep See With Bilal”. Also make sure to rate and review this podcast and enjoy! 

Bilal

It’s one of the seven deadly sins and in some traditions it’s thought to be the   root of all evil. In this podcast, I delve into envy. What it is, how it affects us all, and how to curb its impact.

I talk about the six causes of envy: egotism, arrogance, fear, ambition, loathing of people and vengeance. I also discuss four cures to envy. For detailed written notes, click here. 

 

Hope you find this helpful. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Deep See With Bilal”. Also make sure to rate and review this podcast and enjoy! 

Bilal

I’ve worked in so many teams over the years at all levels. What’s interesting is that some teams have operated really well, while others have been truly dysfunctional.

Perhaps the best work on this is that of Patrick Lencioni. He describes how teams suffer from 5 dysfunctions,  they

lack trust

fear conflict

lack commitment to decisions

avoid holding each other to account

do not pay attention to team results.

He sees this a pyramid starting with trust at the base and inattention to team results at the apex. In this podcast, I run through these and how to correct for them. For more details beyond the podcast you can read my blog on the teams. 

Bilal

How many times do you hear of a work initiative, company plan or government project that fails and you think it was obvious that was going to happen? Think government projects to upgrade IT systems or building new transport links or think company plans to go digital or break silos. 

In this podcast, I discuss a technique to overcome bad decision making. A method that Noble prize winner Daniel Kahneman recommends. 

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and enjoy! Bilal.

We all worry about sleep, so I was very lucky to interview Professor Adrian Williams one  of the world’s leading experts on the subject. His credentials are impressive. He began his pioneering sleep research at Harvard the late 1970s, then at UCLA. In the mid-1990s, he set up of the one of the UK’s first comprehensive sleep services at St Thomas’s hospital and in 2010, King’s College, London appointed him as the first substantive Professorial Chair in Sleep Medicine in the UK. 

In the interview, we run through why we sleep, the consequences of the lack of sleep, the stages of sleep including Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or dream phase. We also get practical. We talk how long we should sleep, wearable tech, jet lag, the impact of caffeine, alcohol and sleeping pills and how to get a good nights rest. By the way, make sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Here are the timings [mm:ss] for different sections of the interview:

Why do we need to sleep [1:42]

Lack of sleep similar to being drunk [3:43]

How much different animals sleep. [4:08]

Human's sleep requirement is 8 hours. Impact of genes [4:41]

Consequences of lack of sleep [5:26]

Impact on neuro-cognitive functions [5:36]

Impact on cardio-vascular/sympathetic system and resultant  high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes issues [5:54]

Night shift workers as real-world case of sleep deprivation [7:02]

Large section of society is shift work related [8:01]

Morning larks vs night owls [8:40]

Sleep delayed syndrome. [9:35]

Hunger and sleep. [10:25]

Society has lack of sleep, which leads to obesity [11:20]

Non-REM and REM sleep. The 90 minute cycle. [12:10]

Non-REM and its restorative effects. [12:30]

REM sleep rewires brain [12:51]

Stage of night when REM and non-REM sleep occur. [14:05] 

Skin repair and non-REM sleep [14:30]

Dreaming [15:03]

Best time to wake-up [15:35]

The (pre-industrial) natural sleep timings [16:42]

Exercise helps sleep [18:22]

Siestas [19:49]

Catching up on sleep [20:57]

Cannot bank sleep.[22:17]

Wearables sleep tech [22:30]

Future is non-wearables tech [24:03]

Caffeine and sleep [26:15] 

Alcohol and sleep [27:44]

Sleeping pills [28:20]

Melatonin [28:59]

Melatonin helps overcome jet lag [29:46].

How to overcoming jet lag [31:00]

Age and sleep [32:10 ]

Traffic accident, sleepiness and time of day [34:35]

Sleep disorders/apnea [35:45]. 

Snoring as sign of sleep disorder [37:08]

Top tips to get good sleep [40:00]

I recently watched Captain Marvel, which introduces the final new superhero before we get the last Avengers movie – Endgame in late April. It’s great entertainment but also continues the metaphysical or God theme that been running throughout the Avengers movies, especially around the idea of the Infinity Stones and the villain Thanos.

In this podcast, I weave the stories together to describe how the Marvel Universe and by extension the modern world understands the meaning of God. You won't hear this take on a Marvel movie anywhere else!

Young people often ask me for advice, and over the years I've refined my thinking on what to say. I've ended up on 5 pieces of advice that would make the biggest difference and I wish someone had given them to me when I was young:

1) Get a mentor.

2) Learn, learn, learn

3) Understand the false god of money

4) Give charity  

5) Run towards pain

In this podcast, I discuss each in detail and even though I said this was advice for my younger self, it would apply to all ages.