Help me write a leadership journal entry about [EVENT OR PERIOD]. My role and team context are [ROLE AND TEAM CONTEXT]. The facts I observed are [OBSERVED FACTS], and the relevant decisions, conversations, or actions I took are [MY ACTIONS AND DECISIONS]. The impact or feedback I have so far is [IMPACT AND FEEDBACK]. My current concern is [LEADERSHIP QUESTION]. Separate observable facts from my interpretation and from assumptions about other people’s motives. Do not diagnose, label, or speculate about a team member. Where information is incomplete, identify the question I should ask or evidence I should gather. Write a journal entry of 700 to 900 words with these sections: 1. Situation: a neutral account of what happened and the stakes.
2. My leadership choices: what I did, what I avoided, and the rationale I had at the time. 3. Impact: likely effects on delivery, trust, clarity, workload, or inclusion, clearly marked as observed versus inferred. 4. Reflection: 5 probing questions that test my assumptions, power dynamics, communication, and decision quality. 5. Next actions: three concrete actions, each with an owner, a date or trigger, and the intended observable outcome. 6. Conversation plan: a short outline for one follow-up conversation that invites the other person’s perspective without making promises I cannot keep. Keep it candid but professional. Do not invent quotes, feedback, performance concerns, legal conclusions, or HR policy. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if a required input is missing. Before answering, check that each action follows from a stated fact and that the entry does not turn uncertainty into a claim about someone else.
Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [EVENT OR PERIOD] | Name the leadership event, meeting, decision, or period you want to examine. | The week after we moved the customer-support backlog into the product team’s sprint. |
| [ROLE AND TEAM CONTEXT] | Describe your role, team scope, and any relevant working arrangement. | I lead a 9-person product team that works with a separate 6-person support team; we plan in two-week sprints. |
| [OBSERVED FACTS] | List what happened in concrete, verifiable terms without interpreting motives. | Support logged 47 unresolved tickets on Monday. I added 12 tickets to the sprint without removing planned work. Two engineers said in standup they were unclear which work could slip. |
| [MY ACTIONS AND DECISIONS] | Describe what you said, decided, deferred, or did during the situation. | I announced the change in Slack, assigned ticket clusters in the planning board, and postponed a prioritization meeting until Thursday. |
| [IMPACT AND FEEDBACK] | Share measurable effects and direct feedback, identifying its source where possible. | Three planned stories missed their Wednesday milestone. The support lead said customers received slower updates. One engineer said the context switching felt avoidable. |
| [LEADERSHIP QUESTION] | State the decision, pattern, or concern you want the reflection to help examine. | How should I balance urgent cross-team work with a team’s existing commitments without creating hidden overload? |
How to use
- Write down facts and direct feedback before pasting the prompt; keep interpretations separate.
- Replace every bracketed field, especially the actions you personally took or did not take.
- Check that proposed actions have a real owner and trigger, then add them to your normal operating system.
- Follow up with: “Turn the conversation plan into a 20-minute agenda with neutral opening language and questions only.”
Variations
Decision review
Use this after a consequential decision with uncertain results.
Review a leadership decision I made: [DECISION]. The context and options were [CONTEXT AND OPTIONS], the evidence available then was [EVIDENCE], and the outcome so far is [OUTCOME]. Separate decision quality from outcome quality. Produce a one-page decision record: assumptions, tradeoffs accepted, dissent or missing perspectives, early indicators, and a date to revisit. Recommend questions to ask, not motives to assign. Do not create facts or retroactively claim the decision was obvious.
One-on-one prep
Use this before a sensitive but routine manager conversation.
Help me prepare for a one-on-one with [PERSON OR ROLE] about [TOPIC]. Facts I can responsibly discuss are [FACTS], their stated perspective is [THEIR PERSPECTIVE], and the desired outcome is [OUTCOME]. Create a 30-minute agenda with a neutral opening, open questions, listening prompts, clear expectations where appropriate, and documented follow-up. Avoid clinical labels, assumptions about intent, promises about compensation or employment, and advice that overrides HR policy.
Team retrospective
Use this after a project, sprint, or incident.
Create a fair retrospective for [TEAM] after [PROJECT OR EVENT]. The goal is [GOAL], known facts are [FACTS], and participants include [PARTICIPANTS]. Produce a 60-minute agenda, a pre-read template, and a board with prompts for outcomes, process, handoffs, decisions, and experiments. Focus on systems and conditions rather than blame. End with no more than three experiments, each with an owner, measurement, and review date. Do not invent root causes.
Tips
- Write facts in timestamped, observable terms before reflecting; “the deadline moved twice” is more useful than “the team lacked ownership.”
- Separate an adverse outcome from a poor decision process, because good decisions can face uncertainty and poor processes can occasionally get lucky.
- Use journal actions to create observable changes in meetings, decision rights, workloads, or communication—not promises to “be more strategic.”
- For performance, conduct, discrimination, compensation, or employment concerns, follow your HR and legal processes; a journal can prepare you for a conversation, not decide the case.
FAQ
Should I journal after every meeting?
No. Use it for recurring patterns, high-stakes decisions, conflicts, and moments where your role materially affected clarity, trust, or workload.
Can I paste private feedback into AI?
Use only tools and settings approved for that information. Remove names, customer details, and sensitive HR information unless you have explicit authorization.
How do I make the reflection actionable?
Require each next action to have an owner, an observable outcome, and a review date or trigger. If it lacks one, it is still an intention.