Fly Like An Eagle

I know, I haven't blogged in a week. Hell, I haven't seen a newspaper, watched tv and barely had time to sleep. Total sleep time this week not counting last night was less than 10 hours. 10 HOURS! Throw in poor eating and hydration and no exercise and my body and mind are completely beat up.

So what happened? I was invited to attend participate in The Krystal Eagle Course in Chattanooga. Since 1999, Krystal has invited selected individuals with advancement potential to participate in this small leadership training class. We started Monday morning and ended Friday afternoon. The Class day ran about 11 hours and then we had a homework which consisted of reading, writing and creating group and individual projects that had to be presented the next morning. Our homework only took about 8-9 hours per night!

I thought the Marines were the only ones to mentally break you down to make you stronger.

The class was well structured, topics were appropriate and insightful and the instructors exceptional. Part of our homework task each night was to complete a topic feedback form as well as a Leader Feedback form for our Team Leaders. The Team Leader and Groups switched up every day.

We finished yesterday. Our group presentation was well received and finished up at 50 minutes. Speaking in front of a group every day certainly made me a better public speaker. After all the groups were done, we had one more class, a self evaluation and then an individual evaluation of our weekly performance, done by the three instructors. I was pleased that my evaluation was very strong, and even better that I received it from my bosses boss.

We started to get things wrapped up around 1:30 with Graduation. We were called up individually, received a plaque, diploma, shirt and watch and then had our pictures taken with the instructors. After everyone received their diplomas, they announce the TOP EAGLE award winner. The class voted on who they thought performed the best, the TOP EAGLE award. The class vote, plus the instructor vote, plus the results from your leader feedback form were the deciding factors. I was very thrilled to have been selected. Being recognized by your peers after a long, hard week was a great way to cap things off.

It was a long, difficult week and one that I would happily do all over again. Just give me plenty of time to rest and recover!