Kashbox Coach Note: Leadership Development
Are you reaping the rewards of journaling?
Leaders face an ever-demanding role as the business climate continues to speed up to counter threats. The pressures of superiors, stockholders, and customers don’t give you much time to catch your breath. Responses must be quick, and choices must be smart.
Have you experienced this in your attempts to run an organization? Expectations of you never diminish. In her 2016 Harvard Business Review article, Want to Be an Outstanding Leader? Keep a Journal, Nancy Adler puts it succinctly: “Extraordinary leadership requires seeing before others see, understanding before others understand, and acting before others act.”
You strive to do this, but how can you initiate critical thoughts and keep them fresh under such circumstances? Wise leadership requires careful reflection of evolving ideas and feelings that may be forgotten from one day to the next. Mental processing is difficult enough without the distractions of the everyday pace.
Adler states that many leaders have found the answer in keeping a personal journal. Initially, this may seem banal, but research and many leader testimonials support the benefits of this personal practice.
Making the Effort
Journaling captures thoughts and ideas that can be revisited. Difficult feelings can be worked through, and tough concepts can be further examined. Consider journal entries as bookmarks in a volume of important thoughts whose pages are constantly turning.
Journaling prevents important mental notes from being lost and improves thinking. Setting aside time to journal quiets your mind so you can think more clearly. Research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health concluded that settled brains are simply more effective at processing and problem-solving.
Additionally, research sponsored by the National Institute of Health found that replaying experiences in our minds is a great tool for learning. Journaling allows you to relive thoughts or feelings and reflect on them. Identifying these in your journal is a critical way to learn about yourself and the world around you.
Dan Ciampa, author of Right From the Start: Taking Charge In a New Leadership Role (Harvard Business Review Press, 1999), believes that the best way to learn is to keep track throughout your day of what went well and what didn’t. You can glean from your successes and mistakes. Most importantly, you can determine how to adjust and improve. All this requires quiet reflection. Making the effort to journal on these things is well worth it.
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Making a Routine
Many leaders attest to the benefits of writing their journal entries by hand. Electronic entries can be more efficient, but slowing down to manually write helps with processing thoughts. It eases the tension.
Consistency is key. Schedule your journaling time at a set time of the day and make that your commitment to yourself. If you journal once a day, the best times are before or after your day begins. Ten to fifteen minutes is all you’ll need. It’s much more difficult to squeeze this into the middle of an already busy day.
Another reason to journal on off hours is to avoid being interrupted. Do it in private. Again, the idea is to reflect on significant thoughts. You won’t be sharing these things with anyone — this is only a safe world for your eyes.
The best journaling is spontaneous and transparent. There’s no need for proper grammar or spelling. Be honest with yourself. Let the thoughts flow freely. The more candid you are, the more you will help yourself. Don’t use this time to judge or criticize yourself. Make it a positive time to learn and grow.
Making It Meaningful
Journaling is most productive when you ask yourself questions that provoke deeper thoughts as you attempt to answer them. The questions should cover a variety of grounds and be asked regularly for maximum benefit. Feelings, observations, concerns, and satisfactions are certainly a focus.
Positives
Adler suggests leading your reflection time with some positive takeaways:
- What was I thankful for today?
- What did I do well today?
- What did I learn today?
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The answers to these help build a positive mindset. They’ll boost your confidence and productivity.
Self Awareness
- What made me laugh today?
- What made me upset today?
- Did I act in an unfortunate way today?
- Did I feel successful today?
- Did I disappoint myself today?
- What inspired me today?
The answers can improve your emotional intelligence by assessing your responses to circumstances. This will help you deal with feeling better and shape your character for maximum effectiveness.
My Leadership Development
- How am I leading?
- What do others think of my leadership development?
- Am I reflecting my personal values?
- Am I supporting my organization’s values?
- Were my people better off today because of me?
- What are my current thoughts about my leadership development?
Answers to these can assess your impact and how it can be improved.
My People
- Who needs my attention?
- What might my people be feeling about making them the way they are?
- What techniques worked with my best people?
- What techniques didn’t work with those who concern me?
- Who has been consistently dependable / non-dependable?
Answers to these will shed light on how to manage talent better.
My Goals
- Did I get closer or farther from my goals today?
- What can I do differently?
- What should my priorities be?
- Are my goals still appropriate?
- What is the purpose of my work?
- What fulfills me?
Answers to these can help you get in the best personal direction.
Don’t undervalue journaling in your leadership development. Resist the temptation to drop your diligence or cut your routine. Practice patience. The effects are long-term, but they can be amazing.
Let purpose-driven journaling refresh you and help you find a level of enjoyment you may be missing in your work. If you prioritize it, you will eventually wonder how you got by without it.
Creator of the KASHBOX: Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits
Helping You Realize Your Potential
I help people discover their potential, expand and develop the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve a higher degree of personal and professional success and create a plan that enables them to balance the profit motives of their business with the personal motives of their lives.
