How I’m coming to love blogging

To be honest, the only reason I’m writing this entry is that Sandy McMullen, who I’m getting to know through twitter, tagged me in her article on how she loves blogging about personal development, written as part of Typepad’s “I love Blogging” initiative for Valentine’s Day. (Blog entries, unlike roses, are not perishable, so they don’t have to be on time.)

I focus on leadership sculpting, helping people strip away the non-essential so that their own leadership can shine through to the world. Knowing themselves better helps with the shining process. I use the Enneagram as a model of personality to get to know myself better. My own Archetype in this system, the Nine, has a deep-seated belief that nobody is really interested in what they have to say. So, although I enjoy writing, the idea that people are interested in my opinions takes getting used to.

Another aspect of this is that I underestimate the power of my opinions. I attended a project management conference near Frankfurt last week. A discussion on how to help virtual teams work better together had veered onto its usual path of “if only we had better technology and more high-tech support for telephone conferences…”. After listening for a while, I just said, “the best technology in the world will just help you to a higher class of suffering – you need more to focus on the dynamics in the team itself” (it sounds pithier in German!). It turned the conversation.

Blog entries don’t need to be plentiful, just have something to say. And not always be important; some days we’re all grateful for something kooky and light and fun. Like Barack Obama speaking in Swabian (a local dialect) at his local residents’ association meeting.

I confess to being allergic to chain letters in any form, so I appreciated it, when Sandy asked me if she might tag me for this post. However, I won’t be tagging onward. With one exception. If you read German and like like to read about feeling better and being in contact with yourself and your body, head over to Nora Rauch’s wohlerleben blog.