WHAT ARE YOU AWARE OF?
WHAT ARE YOU NOT AWARE OF?
In the middle of change, the most radical thing a leader can do is pause.
Not to opt out. Not to slow down. But to see more clearly — yourself, your team, the moment you're actually in.
This is a simple weekly practice built on a single insight: awareness shapes attention, attention shapes meaning, and meaning determines the quality of every decision and action that follows.
If you want to lead with more wisdom — in transformation, in complexity, in the moments that matter most — this is where to start.
Why journaling? (And why it's not what you think)
Journaling is not a relic of a quieter era. It is one of the most potent leadership development practices available to you — and one of the most underestimated.
We tend to trust thinking. But writing activates something different. It slows the mind enough for deeper patterns to surface. It creates a record of your inner movement over time. It prepares you for wiser action in a way that thinking alone rarely does.
Ten minutes. Paper. Pen. Twice a day if you can. Once if that's what you have.
That's the whole technology.
The core practice
Set aside at least ten minutes — ideally at the same time each day. Before you write, sit quietly for a minute or two. Let the question land. Notice what wants your attention, not what you think should have it.
Then write. Without censoring. Without organising. Without worrying about whether it makes sense. This practice is for you — honesty matters more than coherence here.
At the end of the week, find someone you trust and talk through what emerged. A colleague, a friend, a coach. The reflection deepens in conversation.
Questions to work with:
To begin — return to these as your anchor questions each week:
What am I most aware of right now — in myself, in my team, in the wider context I'm operating in?
What is asking for my attention that I have been avoiding?
To go deeper — choose one when you're ready:
Which would you rather be: a mirror or a window — and what does your answer tell you about how you lead?
Describe your leadership as an aspect of nature. What does that reveal?
In this moment of change, what do you know in your heart that your mind hasn't caught up with yet?
Describe a recent moment of clarity — however brief. What made it possible?
What has this period of turbulence disturbed in you? (Disturbance is worth attending to — it is often the signal that growth is near.)
A note on what you might discover:
Over a week of this practice, leaders typically notice one or more of the following:
Patterns of thought or behaviour they hadn't consciously named. New awareness of what they are carrying on behalf of their team. Questions they hadn't known were worth asking. Answers that arrived unbidden. And occasionally — a disturbance. Something unsettled. Something true.
All of it is useful. All of it belongs.
Want to go further?
This practice sits within a broader framework for building the inner conditions that allow leaders and teams to thrive through transformation. If you're curious about that work, explore The Resilience Layer → or get in touch →