15 minutes.
It’s not a lot of time.
But leveraged strategically, 15 minutes invested in self-leadership once or twice a week could begin to jump start your leadership to the next level.
Self-leadership requires a reliable system of:
- Self-examination,
- Reflection, and
- Action
Leaders require the discipline to examine their actions and motivations with ruthless honesty. They require a method to reflect deeply on the implications of that examination, and then they need the fortitude to turn those reflections into concrete, growth-oriented action steps.
Tall order.
How can you do that in your own leadership?
It can begin with 15 minutes.
For close to 20 years I have invested about 15 minutes once or twice a week in strategic self-leadership that has produced significant results.
Here’s what I’ve discovered.
1. Maintain a weekly personal record of your leadership
Since the mid-90’s I have maintained a leadership journal, in which I regularly examine such questions as:
- What is the best leadership I made this week? What made it strong?
- What is the worst leadership decision I made? What made it weak?
- Where is my leadership struggling?
- Where is it gaining traction?
2. Reflect on previous entries
Whenever I update my leadership journal I start by reading what I jotted down one year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and 15 years ago.
Some call this obsessive, if not downright nerdy. But reflecting on my leadership journey has been a key component of my own growth.
3. Hold yourself accountable to make changes
It’s no use having a leadership epiphany if you’re not going to translate those “a-ha moments” into action.
I do that by jotting down what actions I am committing to make as a result of my reflections. Knowing that I will be revisiting my leadership journal in a few days time is a powerful motivator to carry through on my commitment.
As I noted in an earlier post, there can be tremendous spiritual benefits to this practice too.
Give it a shot.
It might be the most strategic 15 minutes you invest each week.
How do you self-leadership from an ideal into a practice?
