Week in Review, Leadership and Journal Blogging

Last week Friday, I made the conscious decision to shift my focus from weekly reflections to daily reflections for my leadership program. At the end of the day, I enjoy journaling or writing my thoughts down more than taking what amounts to a survey. I was feeling survey fatigue when it came to the regimented weekly reflections.

This week has been a success in this regard: I wrote three journal entries and found myself centered on the work during the times I was writing and reflecting as well as more able to recall what moments of value occurred on a daily basis.

As someone who is naturally introspective and constantly trying to improve myself, filling out a form is merely symbolic, which is why I believe it led to fatigue. The following things are highlights from my ruminating during the week:

• My supervisor believes that while a leadership journey may be personal in nature, the outcomes should be shared; I wrote last Friday on this, thinking about the fact that in my personal opinion, there are a lot of things that we humans internalize that should be socialized. Being a good leader or a good supervisor or a good community member takes a constant loop of trial, error, and feedback. Without the involvement of others, there is no way to see problems, make change, and grow toward lasting improvement.
• My leadership focus for the past few weeks can be summed up in two questions: should I be the person doing this and am I the only person who can at the moment. Coupled with weekly schedule and task reviews at the beginning and end of the week, I have found that at times, I am the only one who can do a given task within my team for now, but the fact that I question it is a step in the right direction. If the answer to #1 is no, pause and ask #2. If the answer to #2 is yes, perhaps a well-reasoned follow up is simple: “Why?” The answer to the question of why may show you a strategic move to assist in enacting change.
• Decision-making can be a form of renewal; my present is not defined solely by your past decisions, my past decisions do not define the decisions I make today, and my past decisions do not define my future if I am willing to change my approach today. So I may not always be the best husband, father, employee, supervisor, or leader, but  single occurrences of difficulty don't have to define my next steps because good leaders adapt and update their approach in times when something isn't working. Renewal in this situation is focused on levels of motivation to change, but I am sure there are other ways to read and experience it.

So today, I asked the questions, shared my experiences, connected to a colleague, and decided to prioritize work now that will have a lasting impact on a common workflow. Not all of that can be called strategic, not all of it can be called necessary, but on a Friday, it feels good to close out the week with a feeling of completion.