Since the fellowship started my understanding of my leadership has  changed because of the amount of self reflection.  I have a better understanding of my strengths, my trigger points and how my actions affect others.   The biggest thing I have come to understand is because of my position and power dynamic my actions can have a greater impact that I intend them to have.    I also understand that timing, reflection, and processed communication increases my ability to learn, grow and ultimately lead.  I have been blessed with so many great people around me and this fellowship has also opened doors and given me access to may people I admire and would like to emulate.  I also understand although I do not want to be anyone else, there is an array of characteristics that I want to develop and are present skills of mentors and coaches of mine.
Focusing on myself has been challenging but enlightening.  I understand that in the past, I often looked at how things affected me, but not how they affected others.  I was and still am somewhat focused on getting things done.  By focusing on me, or my actions, I found I have better communication, understanding and desired outcomes from people I work with.  I am better able to empathize, related and communicate.  Understanding the world is about relationships, and communication is a key to building relationships to ensure the intent was delivered or taken.     So focusing on my leadership, especially holding myself accountable to be present, prepared, non reactive helps me lead and be productive in not only my work but personal activities.
I realize that self care is very important in my ability to lead. First, I look at my overall health.  Making sure you eat, rest, play are all key to your physical and mental well being.  When your body is not right, not only are you sometimes unavailable, you can also be easily agitated, slow to process, and even lazy.  When you take care of yourself you also reduce the amount or chances of resenting people or jobs because you are not sacrificing your own well being to make them successful.    Being a high performance type of person and an ex athlete where you pushed everything to the limit makes it hard to understand in everyday life because the body does not give the same clear signals to stop or slow down.   When properly condition, rested and happy I found I could always do more in a better fashion.  At the end of the day this is important because many of the self care activities simply make you feel good and happy and life should be about being happy.