Thanks L.A., for helping me find my way around this blogging site. Where to start, this has been a pretty full on week for me with different things going on. Thanks to Anne's blog on finding balance, I need to re-evaluate my prioritise and make time to exercise. It is the one area in my life that I find challenging to maintain. Ken, you are right about it being a matter of prioritising, so I need to look and see how I can find a balance here. From doing the Enneagram test and getting confirmation that I strive for perfection, maybe that is an area that I need to focus on and put things into perspective in order to make time to exercise. It is not easy though as it is important for me to prove to me that I can succeed. It is one of the main reasons as to why I went back to school, to prove to myself that I am university material. But on the other hand, my body is not happy with all this sitting, it is moaning. So it is important for me to find that balance, lets see how this week pans out!
Amanda and Brendan, thanks for a great class and a great exercise. It was interesting to see the different scenarios that came out of that. I guess our team missed the point about being so creative as to build a whole different world, they were very creative scenarios. Our team seemed to be the only team that worked within the realities of this world and I think if we had spent more time on combing the 3 items together to create a 10 year plan instead of spending too much time on individual ideas of what you could use those 3 items for, we would have become millionaires.
I hope the class enjoyed Wendy's presentation. I was impressed with the fact that she could stand up there for an hour and ad lib her speech. It is one of my goals to eventually be able to stand up in front of a group of people and be able to speak without reading from my notes. I think you have to really know your stuff to be able to do that.
Some of the interesting points that I got out of her presentation were; taking the time to reflect on yourself, understanding what you like, what you don't like, who you want to be, what you want to achieve. This message has come to be a couple of time now, Micki mentioned the same thing on the importance of self-reflecting. I guess we all know this at some level, but actually spending the time to really figure all that out, is not something I have spent much time over. Now is the perfect time for me to start doing that as my kids are up and on their way and don't really need me anymore, so it is my time to re-learn who I am, I am not just a mum.
- I loved her comment about reducing stress by "under promising and over delivering". I think that is a very wise insight and important to know so that you don't set yourself up to fall.
- Understanding your boundaries, that goes hand in hand with what I was just talking about finding balance and prioritizing. I know that I have to work hard to succeed, I also know that my body needs to be taken care of as well, so I have to re-evaluate my priorities and find a healthy balance that works for both areas. Maybe that means lessening the demand I put on my school life.
- Respect, trust and generosity, these sound like common sense, but until you are actually faced with a situation where you have to either work with someone who has different values or has the opportunity to get the job you wanted, it is not so easy to be gracious or respectful.
These are great tools for building strategic leadership skills. Has anyone had time to take a look at the web site of the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance organization? In case anyone is interested, April 13th at the Community Centre in Parksville there is a session taking place where businesses from all over the island will be coming together to collaborate, communicate, network to share resources and information. Check it out http://www.viea.ca/index.php?page=80
Hi Fran,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for bringing Wendy in to chat to us about her own leadership experiences. I liked what you took away from it, and I agree with them from my end. Some other things that stuck with me from that class were the following:
- Adaption is key - a necessity. I totally agree. There are people I know that are excellent leaders in a certain situation, but when it comes to other circumstances with new people and new surroundings, they don't lead with as much authority as usual. Adapting to the new situation will allow for the leader to learn and to lead his or her followers in an effective way. And sometimes adapting to the new situation will mean that you are not fit to lead at that particular time, which is fine, just as long as one adapts to it and goes forward.
- You are always visible; people expect things and look for things from you - you're constantly being watched. Well said. I completely agree. It can be very intimidating being put in that position, but it is something that we as leaders need to comprehend, otherwise we'll lose our followers' confidence in us.
- Conflict isn't going away - you'll have to deal with it. Very true. No brushing under the rug in a leadership role. We must come clean and face our demons up front in order to succeed.
Looking forward to reading your posts in the future, Fran!
Yes, thanks Fran for bringing Wendy in! It was nice to get her perspective on leadership.
ReplyDeleteThe "perfection" thing can be quite an inhibitor of success.
I would encourage you to focus and not be so concerned about balance. As a student it's quite difficult to be "balanced". I do think you can focus on wellness as well as your studies. Again the "perfection" thing can get in the way.
I hope you've "proven" to yourself that you can succeed. It's certainly evident to me that you are successful, especially in your studies. I would encourage you to celebrate that.
You're a very good writer Fran! Very easy and enjoyable to read.
Thanks!
Ken
Fran, I also really enjoyed Wendys presentation Thank you! The ideas I liked are
ReplyDeleteWhen she said we need to make a 10 year plan on what we want to achieve in our personal life, social life and in our education. I plan on doing this. She also suggested we put what we don't want to do. Sometimes this really helps to clarify what we want.
I also really liked the trust, respect and generosity too. This is a good rule for life!
I also liked her comment about being able to see the big picture and the steps to get there. Sometimes I find it hard to see the big picture!