A few weeks ago, in one of my leadership programs, a client spoke with his peers and shared that the biggest change for him has been incorporating reflection into his weekly practice.
“I used to think reflection was fluffy; now I know it isn’t”.
Taking the time to shift environment, to a park he loves, with the space to think and work through ideas and more strategic work, has shifted the way he shows up and reduced his perception of being out of control with work. The practice gave him perspective and steadiness.
Reflection often gets confused with wellbeing. Something soft that you do when you plan a once-a-year retreat or journal gratitude. For many, of course, reflection can help wellbeing. However, I believe reflection is essential to executive readiness, and part of responsible leadership and action. More importantly, it can create the space needed to rise out of the weeds and calibrate and focus on what matters most.
When the pace is frenetic and unrelenting, leaders often leave the most important things unexamined. How you think; the leadership identity you wish to embody; and the impact you aspire to versus your reality in practice.
That’s because working on ourselves is the one thing on our to-do list without a deadline.
Reflection can start with self, but it doesn’t end there. It can be exploring that gut feel moment in a meeting that something wasn’t right, or a tension that is slowly escalating and needs addressing before it haemorrhages time and energy.
I was reminded recently at the Jim Henson exhibition at GOMA in Brisbane. “Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of Jim Henson Company”, that it can also be the capturing of ideas.
“Never Waste a Good Idea” was a panel on display that promoted Henson’s principle and practice, of revisiting past ideas for inspiration. This led to the evolution of key characters such as Big Bird, Grover and Cookie Monster.
Reflection should be constructive, focused and purposeful. For example, one client focused their first quarter on who matters most. They used reflection to notice who was getting most of their attention as a leader, which gave them the opportunity to calibrate relationships and align more with where their attention should be.
Reflection in this deliberate way supports forward momentum, rather than just dwelling on all that went wrong, which is rumination.
Relentless pace means perspective can be lost quickly. For this reason, reflection needs to be deliberate and captured in some simple way. Jim Henson's discipline of never wasting a good idea is an example of this. Perhaps for you too, it could be a notebook dedicated to ideation, a space on your iPad to sketch, or even voice notes you record on the fly.
Reflection can be deeply simple and cerebral. Asking yourself, “Where was there friction this week?” is a simple, ongoing reflection ritual a business school mentor, Matt Church, introduced me to. It can bring your attention to where it is needed. More importantly, it helps you notice it and convert that into a small change in habit or mindset.
For executives faced with complex work, reflection is a chance to examine what matters most when the pace is pushing you around. Pausing to reflect intentionally, can be in-the-moment, a ritual daily, weekly or a more extended practice. The key is that it leads to action, a shift in mindset, or some kind of change for the better.
Reflection isn’t “time out from leadership” or your work; it is a key discipline and essential to executive readiness.
After your next important strategic meeting, decision or difficult conversation, it only takes a few minutes to explore three questions, adapted from Donald Schön’s work on reflective practice, to get you clear on context and next steps:
What happened that surprised me? (the gap of expectation and reality)
What assumption of mine shaped my response?
What is my next move? (an experiment, something small and reversible; asking a question, revisiting a decision etc)
For a team, the same applies. Fifteen minutes to capture:
What are we noticing?
What are we assuming?
What will we do more of, less of, let go of or preserve next week?
If you currently feel time is in charge of you, how might you incorporate reflection into your working discipline to keep perspective and lead in context better? I would love to hear the practices that work for you.
