Leaders Life Report and Sharing Results of Choices and Decision-Making

Recently David Brooks of New York Times called out to readers over 70 to send him a Life Report. He wants to share these with readers, especially the young, wholeadership life report for succession planning and good decision making wonder about life’s lessons. Think about this in the context of the leadership at your own company. Do your young employees know the life stories or lessons of your leaders?  Would it help them to know of a challenge a leader faced when s/he was moving up the ranks? What about a mistake s/he made that she learned from? How did s/he navigate a setback that was personal or professional? The more personal and human the story to show how they navigated good or bad decisions, the better!

Brooks explains how we’re starved for learning from others’ self-reflection and how seldom we actually do our own self-appraisal:



Brooks then describes some of the life reflections he read about from elderly former Yale graduates who ruminated about their careers, marriages, behavior and life passions. For example, there was the guy who worked for the same company his whole life and never took risks. Or, the guy who wished he had moved to Australia 25 years ago.

The most exciting essays were written by the energetic, restless people, who took their lives off in new directions midcourse. One man, who was white, trained an all-black unit during World War II, was a director of the pharmaceutical company that developed The Pill, and then served as a judge at an international court at The Hague. ‘Career-wise, it was a rocky road,’ another wrote, ‘but if diversity is the spice of life, then mine resembled hot Indian curry.’  Nobody regretted the life changes they made, even when they failed.


And, Brooks adds, “…for almost all, family and friends mattered most.”

When we hear of “succession planning” or values-based leadership, it really helps when we have real life examples of how people before us navigated these waters. It doesn’t determine how the young will make their own decisions but it sure does help to know of the choices people faced and whether those choices wound up making them happy.  We’ll be looking forward to what is shared in the New York Times around Thanksgiving but for leaders, if you want to share your stories: personal or professional,  what worked or what didn’t and the lessons learned, we’d love for you to share them here.

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