This is a guest post by Dana Peck. Dana serves as a professional learning consultant and is owner of Vantage Point Inc., a company that provides a full spectrum of learning, consulting and coaching solutions to assist organizations in achieving their goals aimed at excellent internal and external customer relations, sales and employee development. You can contact Dana via email
I, like many of us, find myself very involved in football this time of year. As I viewed a recent game and watched a “time out” called early in the first quarter, it occurred to me that “time outs” are very important for various reasons. The particular time out I’m referring to was called in order to review a play on the field. As I watched, I thought—wouldn’t it be great if as individuals and leaders we took more “time outs” to review the plays we execute everyday in our work lives?
The pace of our busy world doesn’t always encourage us to take that time for reflective thinking. Many people find themselves acting or reacting during most of the day. Some of us may not be inclined to spend much time on self-reflection. That’s unfortunate, because research indicates the skill of self-awareness is an essential first step toward maximizing leadership effectiveness. Self-awareness can improve our judgment and help us identify opportunities for professional development and personal growth. Self-awareness requires “reflection time outs.”
Becoming self-aware is also vital to improving interpersonal effectiveness and self-trust. Most of our behaviors are natural for us. We aren’t fully aware of the impact these behaviors have on others. This leaves us with “blind spots” that others don’t want to mention to us because they don’t want to hurt our feelings, they are afraid of a reaction from us or they just don’t care. Through self-awareness we learn how our actions—both positive and negative can affect other people, our decisions, business results and so on. Self-reflection requires energy, courage and the dedication to do it.
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world … as in being able to remake ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi
The journey of true success and lasting leaderships begins with the inward journey. James Arthur Ray
Action Points
Reflective thinking is part of critical thinking and involves analyzing, evaluating and making judgments about an experience. It requires continual examination and evaluation of our behaviors, beliefs and assumptions.
Tom Griffen, VP of Organizational Learning at U.S. Cellular has been quoted as saying,” One of the most important leadership behaviors that defines success is the ability to take time to engage in reflection.” That suggests we should commit to setting aside dedicated time for self-reflection. Make this a priority. Ask yourself thought provoking questions.
Capture your thoughts and take action based on what you discover. Questions that you may want to start with could include the following:
- What have I done well this week? What have I not done so well? What learning can I gain from this?
- When did I feel awkward or out of sync this week? What caused this? What insights do I have about this?
- What can I do to be more proactive in my own development?
- What “baggage” do I need to deal with in order to move forward?
- What projects or persons do I tend to ignore or do I need to spend more time serving?
- What am I continuing to do out of habit or laziness?
- Are there aspects of my personal development that I’m ignoring out of fear of change or lack of knowledge?
- Am I fostering productive relationships with others?
- Do I still enjoy what I’m doing? If not, what can I do to increase my enjoyment in my chosen profession?
- Do I bring additional stress upon myself? If so, how can I decrease or eliminate it?
Dr. Stephen Covey says, “Reflection means honestly and accurately assessing our total effectiveness and using every means available to gain a clear picture of where we are as opposed to where we want to be.” Additional ideas to consider in your quest for greater self-discovery and growth are:
- Asking for feedback
- Keeping a reflective journal
- Completing self-assessment questionnaires and exercises
- Reading or listening to self-development information
- Finding a coach or mentor
Human beings are complex and diverse. As such, we have the unique ability to consciously evaluate our results, behavior and paradigms. This gives us the unique ability of self-awareness and reflection—a distinct advantage on any playing field.
