The Importance of Reflection

The importance of reflection on good leadership cannot be overstated, but it is one area that is often overlooked or let slip as the pace increases.

Effective leadership benefits from the feedback loop that reflection provides to continually develop and grow. It involves self-awareness, introspection, and continuous learning to help you grow as a leader and improve your team's and your business's performance.

So what is reflection in business, and why is it so often overlooked? Why do many either avoid or de-prioritise the benefits that it can bring?

What is reflection in business?

Reflection in business is the practice of creating a quiet environment to contemplate the various aspects that shape your leadership and the outcomes of your decision-making.

It is about finding the time and head-space to review and appraise your approach honestly. It's time to think about what you might want to change or what you'd like to do more of and where you get your greatest energy and joy, which is generally where we perform at our best.

Reflection can help you identify things you'd like to delegate to allow you to focus more on others. It can also help you identify wins that you hardly noticed in the pace of the week. It can help you create a pattern of continual development.

Creating a habit of reflection is also about helping your team to grow and develop by encouraging them to take a step back and create space to reflect, supporting the organisation to naturally learn, be accountable and take action.

Why is reflection important?

Reflection is vital to effective leadership, helping to inspire self-awareness and improved decision-making. Taking time to honestly appraise your leadership, review your decisions and actions, understand your impact, and recognise your learning and progress is a helpful tool for developing you and your business.

Reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses, values, and leadership style is essential to helping you understand the emotions surrounding your approach.

It can unearth your primary stress triggers and enable you to learn to cope with these and manage their outcomes, developing a more resilient approach for you and your team.

It can enable you to identify and manage your emotional response to specific triggers and to learn to manage the crucial interpersonal relationships in leadership.

This emotional understanding, which comes from taking time to reflect, helps develop a better team dynamic. As a leader, it allows you to identify and support the different personalities that make up a successful team.

Reflection can stop you from continuing to do more of the same while expecting a different result
Reflection can also inspire a culture of more accurate goal-setting based on your team's capacity, allowing your team to adapt more effectively to market conditions and fostering a culture of continuous learning.

How to make reflection part of your routine

Create a reflection habit

Creating positive change requires establishing good habits. So, it is essential to build a routine around your reflection. Find a time that works for you, whether that is 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of the day to set yourself up nicely for the day ahead or wind down to be present with your family and friends.

Or 20 – 30 minutes at the beginning or end of the week to take a more holistic approach to the week ahead or to switch off for some time at the weekend. Pick a time and place when there are no emails or phone calls or a set time at the end of the week when you are in a comfortable space and have time to gather your thoughts.

Creating a routine and committing to the time is essential, whatever time suits you.

Getting away from the day-to-day stresses gives you time to consider your business in its entirety and reduces the need for firefighting.

You may find a walk in nature is a good opportunity to reflect, switch off, and benefit from nature - just remember to capture your thoughts on the way or when you get back.

Develop your reflection structure

Developing your structured approach to your reflection requires an individual assessment. You will know what is relevant to you and your business. However, it is vital to have structure when reflecting on your performance to build longer-term success and positive change.

The change from ongoing reflection does not happen overnight; it takes time, effort, and focus to achieve your goals.

Here are some suggestions for an end-of-the-week reflection:-

• What's gone really well this week?
• What's gone less well, or were my biggest challenges this week?
• What have I done not to face the same challenges again?
• What have I learnt from my successes this week?
• How will I embed these?
• Who have been my biggest supporters and collaborators?
• What I'm most grateful for this week?
• A key focus for the week ahead
• What will I do to have more great moments next week?

If you tend to ruminate or beat yourself up a bit when you look back, try sticking with the positive questions only for a few weeks to see if that helps

Balanced honesty

You need to be really honest with yourself for this to be effective and work for you. The success of any reflection relies on you providing a balanced review of your performance in relation to your goals to help you move forward.

The work balance is critical. Being overly critical of yourself is just as detrimental as taking an unrealistically optimistic view of your performance.

So ensure you are honest and fair with yourself to get the best results.

Write it down

People often miss this element of the process, but it is so important.

Firstly, it acts as a release for all your thoughts, getting them out of your brain and down on paper. It frees up space in your mind, especially with growing negativity, helping you to be more present when you're with people in the moment with a less busy head

Secondly, recording your reflections lets you map progress and understand where gains are made. Your objectives and goals will evolve and change as you develop, and documenting the highs and lows helps you to stay on track and stick with the process. This also helps when you face a similar challenge in the future and helps you to build resilience

Growth mindset

Reflection is an essential element in developing a growth mindset. Modern leadership relies on having a growth mindset, where perceived failures are treated as temporary setbacks on a longer journey of success and where every bump in the road can be used as a learning opportunity.

Reflection brings the perspective that helps you to develop this mindset and gives you the tools to achieve it.

The value of reflection

Reflection is an essential process for any leader's development and one we strongly advocate.
It helps build self-awareness and emotional intelligence, enabling better decision-making and problem-solving. Reflection also develops greater resilience in the face of mounting pressure, allowing you to confront mistakes and properly celebrate wins.

If you'd like to learn more about reflection and how it can work for you, contact us below, and let's start the process today.