Why Every Leader Should Journal: Insights and Benefits

One summer, I was researching for an article and came across a thesis that used journaling as a research tool for self-discovery among youth football coaches:

A leadership discovery: enhancing Finnish youth football coaches' Effectiveness through the Transformer Research Project

In this study, journaling was used as a tool rather than the primary outcome. As I read through the article, the benefits of journaling became abundantly clear.

THE BENEFITS of Journaling for Leaders

Having worked with many coaching clients over the years, I have frequently recommended journaling as a powerful leadership development strategy. Journaling involves taking time to reflect and write down your observations about how you show up in different situations.

Given the widespread lack of self-awareness in leadership, journaling is a crucial method for documenting your thoughts and feelings about your experiences. It serves as a record of your emotions and thoughts on any given day across various circumstances.

Here are my top five reasons that every leader should journal:

1. Self-awareness: Leaders need to reflect on how they present themselves in different contexts and what triggers their emotions. Despite how well we think we know ourselves, reflection can always reveal something new.

2. Managing Stress: Writing is an excellent way to reduce stress levels. Visual journaling, or what my second-grade teacher Mrs. Carlson called “drawing,” can be even more effective. A 2010 study by Amanda Mercer found that medical students experienced reduced stress and anxiety when they kept a visual journal.

3. Gaining Clarity: When faced with complex issues, writing or drawing can help sort things out. Taking time to clear your mind and put your thoughts on paper or a tablet can clarify your decisions.

4. Prioritizing: Life can get hectic, especially in our Western world, where leaders often struggle to prioritize. Journaling helps you focus by writing down what’s important. It serves as a metaphorical stake in the ground, providing a reference point.

5. Controlling Impulses: Journaling gives you a place to reflect before acting. Before agreeing or committing to something, I turn to my journal to avoid impulsive decisions. It’s a crucial tool for deciding which projects to accept or decline.

A Personal Revelation:

A few days before Father’s Day that summer, while reviewing the aforementioned article, my kids ended up gifting me a journal for Father’s Day. But not just any journal—it was called StoryWorth.

Here’s how StoryWorth works:

• Every week, you receive an email prompt to write about a memory from your past.

• You reply to the email to journal, writing as much or as little as you want. I typically write two or three paragraphs.

• These entries are saved, and you can eventually turn your journaling into a book. After 52 weeks, you could have a cherished book of memories.

The Top Reason ALL Leaders Need to Journal:

Your leadership story IS worth reading.

Your Story Is Worth Reading

Happy June! A few days before Father’s Day back in June one year, I was doing some research for an article and I came across this thesis that used journaling as a research component for self-discovery in youth football coaches.

A leadership discovery: enhancing Finnish youth football coaches' Effectiveness through the Transformer Research Project

While in this study, journaling was a tool and not the primary outcome, I realized as I glanced through the article many of the benefits of journaling came through very clearly to me.

Benefits of Journaling for Leaders

As I have worked with my coaching clients over the years, I have recommended this leadership development strategy to so many of them. Journaling is nothing more than taking some time to be reflective and to write down how you observe yourself showing up.

Because the lack of self-awareness is so prevalent in leadership, journaling is a key way to document what you think and how you feel about what is going on in your world. It really can be used as a stake in the ground to preserve your thoughts and emotions on any given day across a number of circumstances.

These are my top 5 reasons that every leader should journal:

1. Self-awareness: Leaders need to be reflective of how they show up in different contexts and what triggers their emotions. No matter how well we think we know ourselves, we can always learn something new upon reflection.

2. Managing Stress: There is nothing like writing when it comes to lower levels of stress. Perhaps even better than writing is visual journaling or what Mrs. Carlson, my second-grade teacher, would have called “drawing.” In a 2010 study with medical students, Amanda Mercer found a reduction in stress and anxiety when medical students kept a visual journal of how they were feeling.

3. Gaining Clarity: I find that when I am faced with issues that have multiple inputs and layers of complexity there is nothing like writing or drawing to help me sort things out. Just taking the time to clear my mind and put it on paper or my tablet really helps me to clarify what it is that I am even having to decide.

4. Prioritizing: Life, especially in our Western world, can get really crazy with so many priorities that some leaders find it hard to decide to turn right or left. Journaling can help you prioritize what is important and to stay focused because you have it written down. You put a metaphorical stake in the ground and now have something to come back to.

5. Controlling Impulses: A key benefit of keeping a journal is having a place to go to before you act. I like to just go to my journal before I agree or commit to something so that I have the ability not to be impulsive. My journal is an important place I turn to before I say yes to a project that I should be saying no to.

Mind-Blown

Recall that it was a few days before Father’s Day when I was reviewing this article I mentioned above. Then Father’s Day happened. And for Father’s Day, my kids bless me with, you guessed it, a journal.

But not just any journal. This one was called StoryWorth. As an orientation, here is how StoryWorth works:

• Every week you get an email journal prompt to write about a memory from your past.

• All you do to journal is reply to the email you get. You can write as much or as little as you want on the topic. Usually two or three paragraphs in my case.

• These journal entries are then saved for you and you can eventually turn your journaling into a book if you want. At the end of 52 weeks, you could have a book of memories to cherish for years to come.

At the top list of reasons that leaders need to journal: Because your leadership story IS worth reading.

5 Performance Killers We All Face and How to Deal with Them

My wife and I were faced with a tough decision a few months ago. 

Now, you have to understand that I have the cutest granddaughter in the world. I know some of you out there have grandkids too, but let me tell you something right now…not one of them is cuter than mine.

The problem is that we live in Florida and she lives in Ohio. I think you see the issue now. Grandma and I just don’t get enough quality time with that cute little bundle of joy. When she says, “Come on, Grandpa, let's go play with toys…” my heart melts like butter in a skillet.

So, we were talking with some friends about our problem and they said, “Why don’t you just move to Columbus?”

Fair question. Here is my response:

1. Don’t want to move

2. Hate winter

Then our friend said, "Why don’t you live in Ohio in the summer and winter in Florida."

My knee-jerk reaction was, “I am not old enough to be a snowbird." However, the more I thought about it and the more we talked the more it sounded kind of cool.

So, we decided to buy a small, inexpensive little condo in Ohio. We talked to my financial team who convinced me that because interest rates are low I should borrow some of the money for the condo. This sent me into a bit of an emotional “fight or flight” moment. I really don’t like borrowing money. It is the invasiveness of the process that just turns my stomach: I actually got an email from one of the lenders asking to validate my accounts to prove I was not a money launderer or terrorist. 

Intellectually, I get it. This is the world we live in, but now I have to prove I am  not one of these things for someone to do business with me. When I questioned the banker he blamed it on the Feds.

And some of you still think having the government in healthcare is a good idea. Really?

That is when I realized I have some performance anxieties.  Nothing I need to see a psychiatrist about (at least I don’t think it is that bad,) but there are times when my performance is not as good as it could be. 

When my financial advisor said that I should get a small mortgage on the condo, my flight or flight kicked in, so I did what any good coach would tell their client to do, and sat down to journal my feelings. I also did some research on this idea of emotional distraction and performance.

My Journaling Results

So the first thing I did was to sit down and document what I was feeling. This was not difficult and I came up with this list in under five minutes. It was amazing to me when I sat down and just wrote it out what happened.

1. Not smart enough. I had this overwhelming feeling like the bankers and loan people would ask me questions that I wouldn’t know the answer to.

2. Weakness. What if this was a bad decision and someone criticized it along the way?

3. Rejection. What if they said I didn’t qualify?

4. Asking for help. The more people who know I am taking out this loan, the more people who could see me as incompetent. After all, Kim and I have really avoided debt for most of our marriage.

5. Power gradient. I felt like I had to do everything I could to please the lender so they would approve me.

The Research

In 2002 Kaiser and Kaplan did some research on distortions in performance caused by what they called “sensitivities." These sensitivities are things that have happened to us in our past that now affect how we perform in the present. What they describe in their research that I didn’t realize in my journaling is that there is an underperforming and an overperforming reaction. 

So for example, if a leader gets into a situation where they feel “Intellectually Inadequate” or what I termed “not smart enough," if they respond by “doing too little” they might not contribute in meetings, but if they “overdo it” they might work extreme hours to over compensate for the inadequate feeling.

How About You?

Think about a decision you are going to make soon or a place where your performance is not where you want it. Pay attention to how you are feeling. Do you feel:

1. Not smart enough

2. Weak

3. Rejected

4. Dependent

5. Powerless

If you have these feelings, are you overcompensating or under compensating? Some of these feelings might run very deep and the cause can stem back to your childhood. 

Sitting down with a journal and analyzing your feeling and understanding them might help you be able to overcome any compensation you are experiencing and put a plan in place to overcome the anxiety.

By the way, I was able to answer all the lenders' questions. It was not that difficult of a process and we should close on our condo this week. I can tell you one thing, being close to my grand baby is going to make any performance anxiety I was dealing with totally worth it.