Blog Posts worth noting for the week
This week was little crazy to say the least. I am traveling for work, hopping from one country to another every 2 days. While it sounds really fun (it is most of the time) it is really exhausting. The natural balance and sleep schedule get completely messed up. On top of it the expectation is (not sure if this is of others or myself,
2 Warning Indicators
Each week I learn more and more how important it is to take care of myself. To be a good leader, to be a good mother or a wife I need to feel good. When I am sick or down I tend to be crabby and at times difficult to deal with. Therefore, the quality of my well being is crucial element for quality of my outputs. So to start of I created 2 very simple and easily recognizable dashboards.
Dozen Meters
The project this week is quite interesting. Instead of talking about leadership metrics of sorts we are focusing on tool and meters around our house (in my case limited to a hotel room I have resided in the last 2 days in London). We were to focus on what these meters measure as well as what metric units and scales are used to represent the measurements in. Lastly, the scope of the projects requires reflection on personal use of these meters and meaning or impact they have in our own lives.
As I read the book Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan I was delighted to find a resource for leadership in a corporate setting that I felt familiar with. I didn’t feel like a fish out of water! The author talks about 5 stages of personal and team leadership most commonly found in corporate world and other workplaces such as institutions of higher education and other establishments operated by large groups of people. The reading was easy to navigate.
There are 2 locations I’d love to visit. One is within the realm of possibility, the other one probably not so much. But one can dream! And no it’s not the moon or the outer space. I do love the idea of looking back in on earth but am terrified of such far distances, infinite heights and small contained spaces.
The first location I would love to visit is the newly build Panda Solar Farm in China.
Is your gas tank half full or half empty? My stand, it’s refillable!
It’s hard to believe that 5 full weeks of classes have already gone by. To sum up my feelings about this time frame I will re-quote a quote by Leo Babauta which one of my fellow MASD cohorts Whitley Mike quoted in her last blog post:
“The more you learn, the more you see there is to learn.”
Turning Tables!
I am really enjoying my weekly assignments and exploring different resources and references in quest for my own leadership style. Last week I blogged about blogs and this week I’m tasked with blogging about my fellow classmates and their reflections. Whilst the processes of reading everyone’s posts I realized that some of the same names keep popping up to the top of my list. Their witty voices and use of visuals in presenting their personal goals are somewhat aligned with mine,
This week’s challenge was quiet interesting. The class was introduced to notion of creative process and what it means to get $#!T done or make things happen. Two main resources we used was this pretty cool lecture on creativity by John Cleese. It is little dated, but is content still very accurate and applicable to today’s needs. Which makes this resource pretty valuable and timeless.
The second resource was the book called Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky,
I’ve been thinking more and more about leadership. What does it takes to lead? How do we measure leadership? Do leadership skills and habits ebb and flow? How often do we monitor progress? How often should we evolve and adapt? How do we learn and grow while we lead others? Well, I don’t have an answer for any of my own question but I do see myself reflecting more and more. I do however choose to stay with my metric and rating systems format because I do believe there is something to be said about consistency.
At this point in my journey I can’t really tell how much progress I’ve made in being a better leader. It does feel like the time and perspective are changing but I’m still in the same place in life. Then I look back just 3 to 4 short weeks ago and I can see a distance between the person I was at the beginning of this journey and the person I am becoming. While I am not able to confidently say I have it all figured and mapped out.