Seventy-Eight Behaviours for Managers and Leaders

This morning a colleague invited me to fill in one of these anonymous 360-degree feedback forms. Being so acutely aware of my own “development points” I never really feel qualified to feed back on other’s professional behaviours, but people seem to keep asking me! While ticking the little boxes I had to work at staying focused, instead of becoming self-conscious of my own imperfections brought to mind by the questionnaire!

Even though my aim is to “downshift” and escape the corporate environment (often one of the most challenging environments in which to develop these behaviours) I will always have to be able to collaborate effectively, and will always want to behave in a way that is constructive and respectful of those around me. It still struck me that the list is a pretty thorough and proven memory aid for achieving that. Here is the list:

Links

Meditation 101: How to Start from Think Simple Now

The Secret to Self Loving from Think Simple Now

Productivity: resist the urge to multitask from Urban Monarch

Hidden Anger: How Your Journal Can Help You Let Off Steam in a Healthy Way from Living By Design

Oxfort Cognitive Therapy Centre

Thoughts – Monday 17th March

• Circadian rhythm experiment going well but stayed up too late last night.
  • Fri: start … sleep 19:15
  • Sat: wake 06:30, sleep: 8:30
  • Sun: wake 4:15 then doze on and off to 6:20, sleep 22:15 (45 minutes later than planned)
  • Mon: wake 6:50 with alarm, sleep 21:45 (hopefully)
  • Could use capturing sunrise/sunset figures alongside these to identify any correlation
  • Received reply from Dr Wozniak about circadian rhythms and mental alertness, needs a proper read to make sense of it
• Today wasn’t good for the soul
  • Tried too hard to “carry on regardless” which actually just delayed release of work stress and delayed return to productivity. Work fears became focused (unhealthily) inwards as personal professional doubts, which then clouded everything. Could use active focus on externalising more.
  • Research funding position is slightly bleak. Long term research path will need to be identified early to tackle this. It probably doesn’t need to be a concern at this stage; look far enough down any country road and you’ll find a tractor.
• Will it be possible to “stick it out” until next year? Need to monitor decreasing resilience to upset (such as today) and waning patience; this isn’t a test, just a means to an end. There are others.
• Would like to meditate more, would like flat to be tidier
• Still managed to squeeze in a morning walk and jog through the woods and half way around the playing field; a good start to my first work-day under the circadian rhythm experiment.
• Haven’t decided whether notes like this are better here or in my paper notebook, we’ll see.