Over the last few days, I’ve been emailing colleagues at work with a strange request:

“Can you think of 5 words to describe me?”

Am I doing this because I’ve lost the plot? Am I fishing for compliments? Did my emails get hacked?

Actually, no.

As part of my 15 month Coaching Apprenticeship, I’ve been asked to complete a tool called a Johari Window. This is a simple model for understanding how you come across to others.

Do you want to try it yourself?

If so, all you need to do is think of a bunch of adjectives that describe you. Then ask your friends, family and mortal enemies to share some adjectives to describe you too.

Then you compare the lists. 

The words which overlap are the parts of you that you share freely. The words you've chosen but other people haven't are the parts you're protecting or self-editing. And the words other people chose that you didn't choose are the habits you can't see and the strengths or weaknesses you haven't spotted.

A fascinating exercise it is too.

So fascinating, in fact, that I’ve decided to do it all over again in this newsletter.

Only this time I’m not completing a Johari Window. I’m completing a Johari-e Window.

That’s right. It’s a Johari Window all about my daily emails!

If you’d like to take part, here’s my request:

Hit reply and send me a few adjectives you think describe my emails well.

I've written down ten adjectives of my own and locked them in Fort Grundy’s master safe, hidden in a recess behind an oil painting of great Aunt Mildred. But if you share your words with me, I'll crack the safe open and share mine with you.

Ultimately, I’m curious to find out how you see my emails. And maybe you’re curious how I see my emails too.

If you’d like to share your words, I’d love to hear them.

That’s it for today

To fulfilment, 

Tom