The big idea: A leadership lesson only sticks when you write down a specific moment, say what it means and commit to one thing you will do differently.
In 60 seconds
- A journal entry has three parts: one specific moment, the lesson in your own words and one thing you will do differently.
- Write a moment a friend could picture, a lesson with a why and an action you can check next week. Slogans fade.
- Look back every few weeks. Tag themes, check your past actions and write your top three lessons on the inside cover.
Do this: write one dated entry a week, about 15 in all, and finish with a look-back that lists your top three lessons.
How a strong journal entry works
Your leadership journal is a weekly habit: 10 to 15 minutes to write down one leadership lesson while it is still fresh. The lesson can come from class, from an executive visit or from the rest of your life: a job, a team, a club, a practice. After about 15 entries you have a record of what you learned and what you changed.
What happened
One specific moment: who, where, what was said or done. Enough detail that you could picture it again in five years.
Test: could a friend picture the scene?
The lesson
One sentence in your own words about how leadership works, with the why or the when.
Test: is it more than a poster slogan?
What I will do differently
One concrete action you will take, tied to a real moment coming up.
Test: could you check next week whether you did it?
A weak entry
- “My manager was a really good leader today.” Good how? Doing what? You will not remember.
- “Communication is key.” True, and it tells you nothing you did not know before.
- “I will try to be a better communicator.” No action, no moment, nothing to check.
A strong entry
- “At Tuesday’s shift change, the charge nurse asked a new nurse, ‘What is one thing you are unsure about?’ and waited.” A person, a place, a quote.
- “People admit gaps when a leader asks a specific question and waits, because ‘any questions?’ is easy to answer with no.” A lesson with a reason.
- “In Thursday’s team meeting I will ask each teammate which slide they are least sure about, and wait five seconds.” An action you can check.
Write it by hand
The syllabus suggests an inexpensive paper notebook. Writing by hand slows you down enough to think, and a notebook is easy to flip back through. Keep it legible, for your sake and your reader’s.
Lessons are everywhere
Watch other leaders and watch yourself. A supervisor who handled a mistake well, a captain who lost the room, a project you led that stalled: all of these count.
Where the three parts come fromWhat? So what? Now what?
The structure is a version of a widely used reflection model often credited to Rolfe and colleagues: What? (describe what happened), So what? (make sense of it) and Now what? (decide what you will do next). Nurses, teachers and coaches use versions of it because it moves you from a story to a change in behavior.
Most weak entries stop after “What?” They describe an event and never say what it means or what you will do about it.
A simple entry templateCopy this into the front of your notebook
- Date and source. Class, executive visit, mentoring session, work, team, campus, home.
- What happened (3 to 5 sentences). One moment. Who, where, what was said or done, and how people reacted.
- The lesson (1 or 2 sentences). “Leaders who… because…” or “When…, …” In your own words.
- What I will do differently (1 sentence). “Next time I…, I will…” Name the moment.
- Optional: a question I still have. Good material for a mentoring session or your field interviews.
Leave the bottom few lines of each page blank. You will use them when you look back.
Good prompts when you are stuckTen questions that start an entry
- Who handled pressure well this week? What exactly did they do?
- When did someone lose a room, a team or a meeting? What happened right before?
- What did a leader say that you wrote down? Why did it stick?
- What decision did you watch someone make with incomplete information?
- When did you lead this week, even a little? What would you redo?
- What feedback did you get? What part stung, and is it true?
- Who made someone else look good? How?
- What did an executive guest or alum do in the room, not just say on stage?
- Where did a team you are on get stuck? Who got it moving again?
- What did you change since last week’s “do differently”? Did it work?
How to look back across entriesA 20-minute review every few weeks
The journal pays off when you read it as a whole. Every four or five entries, take 20 minutes:
- Check your actions. Reread each “do differently” line. In the blank lines below it, write “Did it” or “Did not,” and what happened.
- Tag themes. Give each entry one or two tags in the margin, such as feedback, trust, decisions, pressure, listening, conflict, culture.
- Count. Which tags keep coming back? A theme that shows up four times is telling you what you care about, or what you keep struggling with.
- Write a one-line pattern. “Three times this month I saw leaders slow down before a hard decision. I tend to speed up.”
- Pick one action for the next stretch of weeks and put it at the top of your next entry.
Near the end of the semester, do one final pass and list your top three lessons on the inside cover. Those three lines are what you will remember from this course in ten years.
Try it: Journal Entry Coach
Tool · BUAD 417
Journal Entry Coach
Draft an entry in three parts and see what to sharpen first. Nothing you type is saved or sent.
- 1Draft
- 2Sharpen
- 3Copy
Your lesson
Rating for each part
Put it to work: your Leadership Reflection Journal
The Leadership Reflection Journal is a graded BUAD 417 deliverable. Starting in the first weeks of the semester, you write one entry a week, about 15 in all, each taking 10 to 15 minutes. Entries can come from class or from anywhere else in your life, and can be personal reflections or observations of other leaders. A handwritten paper notebook is suggested. Check Canvas and the syllabus for the due date.
Set up the notebook
Buy a plain paper notebook (nothing expensive). Copy the five-line entry template inside the front cover.
Your deliverable: a notebook ready for week one.
Pick a fixed weekly slot
Choose a 15-minute slot you will keep, such as right after Thursday class or Sunday night. Put it on your calendar as a repeating event.
Your deliverable: one entry every week, no catch-up batches.
Write the three parts
What happened, the lesson, what you will do differently. Draft in the Journal Entry Coach if it helps, then write it by hand.
Your deliverable: a dated entry with all three parts, written legibly.
Close the loop
At the start of each entry, check last week’s action. Did you do it? What happened?
Your deliverable: a “Did it / Did not” line under each past action.
Look back before you submit
Tag themes, count them and write your top three lessons on the inside cover.
Your deliverable: about 15 entries plus a short look-back you can explain out loud.
How the journal feeds your other workInterviews, presentations and mentoring
- Field Interview and Presentation: the questions you write at the bottom of entries become conversation questions for your admired leader and your Smith GLS alum. Their answers become new entries.
- Team Presentation 2 (Leader’s DNA): compare your own lessons to the patterns in your book category. Where do they match? Where do they differ?
- Mentoring session: walk in with one question from your journal that you care about. It beats a generic question every time.
- Interviews after graduation: “Tell me about a leader you learned from” is a common interview question. Your journal is full of answers.
Before you submitCheck your journal
- [ ] About 15 weekly entries, each dated.
- [ ] Each entry has a specific moment, a lesson and an action.
- [ ] Entries come from both class and life outside class.
- [ ] Past actions are checked off with “Did it” or “Did not.”
- [ ] Your top three lessons are written on the inside cover.
- [ ] Every page is legible.
- [ ] No confidential information from guests, employers or classmates.
Go deeper
Back to all BUAD 417 topics · Next: Executive Presence: Showing Up Like a Leader
Part of BUAD 417 Executives in Residence, taught by Lane Morris, PhD, in the Smith GLS human-centered leadership program, toward the Human Centered Consulting Certificate.
Frequently asked questions
What is a leadership reflection journal?
A leadership reflection journal is a weekly habit of spending 10 to 15 minutes writing down one leadership lesson while it is fresh. In BUAD 417 it is a graded deliverable of about 15 entries, ideally handwritten in an inexpensive paper notebook. Lessons can come from class, executive visits or life outside class, such as a job, team or club.
How do you write a good leadership journal entry?
Write three parts. First, what happened: one specific moment with who, where and what was said or done. Second, the lesson: one or two sentences in your own words with a why or a when. Third, what you will do differently: one concrete action tied to a real upcoming moment that you could check next week.
What is the What? So What? Now What? reflection model?
What? So What? Now What? is a widely used reflection model often credited to Rolfe and colleagues. What? describes what happened, So what? makes sense of it and Now what? decides what you will do next. Nurses, teachers and coaches use versions of it because it moves a person from a story to a change in behavior.
What is the most common mistake in reflective journaling?
Most weak entries stop after describing the event and never say what it means or what the writer will do about it. Other mistakes include slogans like "communication is key," vague goals like "try to be better," summarizing a whole week and writing ten entries the night before they are due. Zoom in on one moment per entry instead.
How do you review a leadership journal over a semester?
Every four or five entries, take 20 minutes to look back. Mark each past action "Did it" or "Did not," tag entries with themes such as feedback, trust or decisions, count which tags repeat and write a one-line pattern. Near the end of the semester, list your top three lessons on the inside cover.