The Most High-Leverage Performance and Potential Tool Leaders Under-Utilize
Just about every executive I work with would say (or has said) one of the following to me, their team, and/or their investors:
“We are a learning culture; we see mistakes and failures as learning opportunities.”
“We prioritize ‘Growth Mindset’ in hiring and promoting our people.”
“We emphasize risk-taking and trying new things and are not afraid of failing.
They emphasize their commitment to learning and growth because they know they are essential for innovating and remaining competitive, particularly in today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business landscape. Yet, there's a disconnect. When I ask these same executives about incorporating reflective practices into their routines, many executives respond with blank stares. I have even received an eye-roll or two.
Why is Reflection Overlooked?
1.) The Business vs. Personal Development Divide: Concepts like reflection, introspection, and contemplation are accepted as crucial to personal development, but are seldom seen as integral to business success. In traditional business paradigms, these are often dismissed as 'soft' or 'self-helpy'.
2.) The Challenge of Reflection: Our culture prioritizes constant action, making reflection, which requires stillness and introspection, uncomfortable for many leaders (and humans).
3) Operationalizing Core Values: Most companies are skilled at defining their culture and core values but fall short when it comes to actually integrating them into their day-to-day operations.
While these may seem like valid reasons to put reflection on the back-burner to focus on hitting KPIs, growing sales and the business – these are actually excuses that can hinder reaching your goals.
The Impact of Reflection on Performance
Endless studies validate the power of reflection. For instance, gratitude, a skill that requires reflection (and is also often dismissed as “woo-woo” by business leaders), has been studied at length. In fact, over 10,000 studies have found that a simple gratitude practice can help one sleep better, be more creative and productive and feel more optimistic and less stressed.
Another study found that employees who reflect for 15 minutes at the end of each day perform 23% better after ten days than those who don’t.
(The above is why I challenge all of my clients to find another way to improve performance by this much over a two-week period… So far, none have.)
So why do leaders and executives avoid this key performance tool? In my opinion, it’s because reflection often makes us uncomfortable, even when we understand the benefits.
Our culture, and specifically our work culture, is all about hustle; about moving fast to keep up with the ever-changing business landscape. But reflection requires us to slow down in order to eventually speed up. It requires us to forgo the dopamine hits of DOING, for the stillness of BEING. For many leaders, this presents a challenge. For those that struggle with stillness or pausing, the first leadership unlock will simply be to work on presence and mindfulness.
In addition, many of us find excuses to avoid reflection because it can make us feel bad about ourselves and leave us feeling vulnerable and/or defensive. A number of leaders I have coached have told me that they just don’t have the luxury of sitting around and looking back. More often than not I have found this dismissiveness to be Code Red for “I am avoiding self-reflection because it is uncomfortable.”
One client actually shared with me, “I have no problem making the time to look back at the numbers and the metrics, but assessing my own emotions and behaviors? That’s hard, scary stuff!”
If you have a less than positive response to committing to a reflective practice, spend some time investigating what is driving that for you. If ready to start taking actionable steps toward building your practice, keep reading.
Embracing Reflective Practices: The Work Starts with YOU
Successful leaders I've observed incorporate reflection into their daily, weekly, and monthly routines, assessing their performance, behaviors, and alignment with personal and professional goals.
At its highest level, reflection is about mindful thought. Self-reflection, in turn, is about slowing down and consciously examining your own thoughts, feelings and behaviors for the purpose of learning and growing. This requires consistently making time to analyze and assess how you showed up for yourself, your team, and your company overall. Self-reflection helps you gain perspective and make meaning of your actions and experiences and also helps uncover new possibilities for being and doing.
Reflective Questions: Reflection can range from evaluating specific actions or projects to broader inquiries about leadership style and personal growth. Questions might include evaluating what actions contributed to success, identifying unproductive habits, or aligning actions with core values.
Here are some specific reflection questions from a former CEO client, Shivani Siroya who is the Founder & CEO of FinTech company Tala.
What efforts/actions/people have contributed the most to my results?
What efforts/actions/people consumed my time and energy but didn’t lead to results?
How could I have been more focused and productive?
What habits have been essential to my happiness, productivity, and energy?
What can I learn from blindspots or unforeseen events that presented themselves?
Take note that the questions you reflect on do not have to be static. For instance, a reflective practice can include questions aimed at helping you assess specific skills and/or ways of showing up as a leader. Once you make the desired progress, you can swap the questions for other areas for learning and growth. In this way, you are building a self-accountability and coaching process into your calendar and helping yourself build a very high-leverage habit.
Some examples:
How much time did I spend listening vs. speaking?
Was I mostly directing and telling or asking and co-creating?
Was I mostly on offense/proactive or defense/reactive?”
How was I aligned/not aligned with my values and purpose this week?
What negative, fear-based thoughts or limiting beliefs did I catch myself having this week?
Self-reflection should also ALWAYS take place at the end of the year. I find so many of my clients kick off planning for the year ahead - both personally and for the company, without having spent a considerable amount of time in reflection. That is why we have our clients complete this work :
1. What were my greatest successes and accomplishments?
And what did I learn from them?
2. What were the biggest challenges or difficulties I faced?
And what did I learn from them?
3. What good or bad decisions did I make this year? Why?
4. What would I have done differently? Why?
5. Where did I spend too much of my time? Not enough?
6. What brought me happiness? What brought me fulfillment?
7. What brought me sadness? What brought me anger?
8. What am I most grateful for? Who should I thank?
9. What did I learn about myself this year?
What else did I learn this year?
10. How am I different this year from last?
Building a Reflective Habit
The key to effective reflection is finding a process that fits your style and schedule, whether it's journaling, digital note-taking, or reflective walks. Making reflection a regular practice enhances in-the-moment awareness and facilitates growth.
Promoting Reflection in Your Organization
As a leader, your commitment to reflection sets the tone. Talking about the how reflection is foundational to learning and growth and, importantly, sharing some ways it has helped you personally and professionally can help drive buy-in. Below are some exercises to consider for building reflection into the day-to-day of your organization:
Operationalize 1 success / 1 learning / 1 gratitude and/or Rose/Bud/Thorn into one of your end of week meetings
Schedule and execute monthly, quarterly, and yearly 'Look Backs'
Incorporate The Navy Seals' After-Action Review (AAR) for project-based team learning
The Big Picture
Effective leadership is rooted in self-discovery, self-awareness, and self-mastery. Reflection is a catalyst for these processes, enhancing mindfulness, curiosity, flexibility, and confidence. It also empowers leaders to ask meaningful questions (“great leaders ask great questions”), fostering a culture of growth and continuous improvement.
Remember, as a leader, your role extends beyond personal growth; it encompasses nurturing the growth of your team and cultivating an environment of continuous learning and development. Embedding reflection into your leadership approach is not just beneficial; it's essential for fostering a culture of growth and learning that thrives alongside your business.