Personal Log – 002

This draft is a little late.  Due to the hecticness of last week, I wasn’t able to get my dedicated Monday night time.  So…

Week two – I’ve failed already.

But failure is where we discover our true character and how we react in the face of failure is telling of our resilience.  I want to be more resilient.

This week has been filled with adventure as my organization sent me to a three day Leadership Dynamics workshop… and what I learned was amazing!

Ever heard of conscious leadership?  Neither had I.

I’ve heard of being aware and conscious of your behaviors and all the self-development, psychology talk that is in the entrepreneurship space, but this was a bit different.

Day 1 – Introspection:

We received 360 feedback and reviewed our Strengths Development Indicators and a couple of other models of our motivations and how that works with the motivations of other.  Very interesting stuff.  Turns out I’m a mix of all three nature and supposedly very flexible.  But that same strength is my weakness because at times I’m indecisive and/or I can’t stay focused… hold on my dog is wanting to go out…

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Day 2 – Triggers:

We covered analysis of our behaviors and what happens to us when we react to specific circumstances, people or things in general.  There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and we looked at what 6 year-old Alex was really thinking when he gets pissed off by some guy cutting him off on the highway and driving 5 miles per hours after!!!

And its not just getting angry.  Apparently, there’s all sorts of invisible scripts going on that we’re not aware of and as we work through these exercises, I had a couple of eureka moments.

Day 3 – Conflict Resolution:

Finally, we started covering strategies on coping with conflict.  We talked about resiliency and how to improve it via physical exercise, preparedness, breathing, etc.  Really good stuff.  And also how to deal with the psychological games that people play in the work place or in life in general.

Am I a better leader because of all of this?  Too early to say.  I know I learned a lot from this, but it’ll be a daily challenge to implement some of what I learned.  I’m excited to share with you guys this experience and I might get into some of the exercises and training in more detail in another post.

That’s my time for today.  Cheers!

-A