Comments on: Leadership Caffeine-An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind

By: The Leader's Daily Reminder List | BuildingBetterLeaders™

The Leader's Daily Reminder List | BuildingBetterLeaders™ — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:22:50 +0000

[...] I expressed my opinion on the ineffectiveness of making annual resolutions in January in a recent Leadership Caffeine post entitled, “An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind.” [...]

By: Meredith Bell

Meredith Bell — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:45:35 +0000

I absolutely believe parents and teachers can help children create greater self-awareness. But it requires adults who are themselves self-aware and possess the necessary maturity. It’s hard to teach something you don’t know…

Also, that kind of teaching takes time and patience. We get busy in the doing of things at home or in the classroom, and some of these life-lesson teaching moments pass us right by. I’ve been both a parent and elementary teacher, so I know the demands, but we have opportunities every single day if we have our eyes open.

By: Art Petty

Art Petty — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:44:21 +0000

Cathy and Meredith, thank you both for your thoughtful comments. I had not heard the “Someday Isle” description before, but that fits so well for too many people in life and in the workplace.

Meredith, I love your addition of “everyone” to my encouragement for continuous self-improvement. Of course, as we both point out, self-awareness is the issue. Without inviting the nature/nurture debate from readers, I do wonder if we can begin to encourage and teach the benefits of self-awareness as parents and even in our education system, instead of waiting until everyone hits the workforce and hoping that they magically become self-aware.

Thanks to both of you for reading and commenting! -Art

By: Meredith Bell

Meredith Bell — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:28:34 +0000

Excellent points, Art. As I reflected on your words, I was thinking that self-improvement needs to be the goal of every person in an organization, not just leaders. The questions you posed could be considered by every level of employee because no one works in isolation. Of course, leaders set the standard so they need to be keenly aware of the impact they have on others. The sad thing is that only a small percentage of people are willing to do the work; many hope everyone else will change to better suit their desires – and get frustrated when they don’t.

The key, as you point out, is self-awareness – a willingness to look within to examine our attitudes, beliefs, assumptions about ourselves and others. ASKING is so important to help us keep our perspective about ourselves accurate since we often don’t see ourselves the way others do.

Thanks for a thought-provoking post.

By: Cathy Shaughnessy

Cathy Shaughnessy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:36:23 +0000

Thank you for this timely post. It can be so easy for all of us to become permanent residents of “Someday Isle” (Dennis Waitley – I think). The real question is, What are you doing now, in this moment, to move you closer to where you want (need) to be? You’ve captured it!