From early roles, leaders are taught to invest where they can generate a positive ROI - results that indicate the contribution of time, talent or money paid off. Reflection can feel like staying in the center of the goal and missing the action. The goalies just feel better when they “do something.” The same is true of many leaders.
#MORNING REFLECTION PROFESSIONAL#
A study of professional soccer goalies defending penalty kicks found that goalies who stay in the center of the goal, instead of lunging left or right, have a 33% chance of stopping the goal, and yet these goalies only stay in the center 6% of the time. Like soccer goalies, many leaders have a bias toward action. Some become so defensive in the process that they don’t learn anything, so the results are not helpful. Most leaders quickly dismiss the noted strengths and dislike the noted weaknesses. Don’t like the results. When a leader takes time to reflect, she typically sees ways she was effective as well as things she could have done better.The process can lead to valuable insights and even breakthroughs - and it can also lead to feelings of discomfort, vulnerability, defensiveness, and irritation. Don’t like the process. Reflection requires leaders to do a number of things they typically don’t like to do: slow down, adopt a mindset of not knowing and curiosity, tolerate messiness and inefficiency, and take personal responsibility.
Maybe that’s why I haven’t been doing it.” After five minutes of silence, he said, “I guess I don’t really know what you want me to do. To help him get over this barrier, I suggested he take the next 30 minutes of our two-hour session and just quietly reflect and then we’d debrief it. One executive I work with, Ken, shared recently that he had yet again not met his commitment to spend an hour on Sunday mornings reflecting. So, if reflection is so helpful, why don’t many leaders do it? Leaders often: A study of UK commuters found a similar result when those who were prompted to use their commute to think about and plan for their day were happier, more productive, and less burned out than people who didn’t. Research by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats in call centers demonstrated that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about lessons learned performed 23% better after 10 days than those who did not reflect. For leaders, this “meaning making” is crucial to their ongoing growth and development. This meaning becomes learning, which can then inform future mindsets and actions. Reflection gives the brain an opportunity to pause amidst the chaos, untangle and sort through observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning. The most useful reflection involves the conscious consideration and analysis of beliefs and actions for the purpose of learning. But the kind of reflection that is really valuable to leaders is more nuanced than that.
The hardest leaders to coach are those who won’t reflect - particularly leaders who won’t reflect on themselves.Īt its simplest, reflection is about careful thought. Inexperienced leaders? Senior leaders who think they know everything? Leaders who bully and belittle others? Leaders who shirk responsibility? When people find out I’m an executive coach, they often ask who my toughest clients are.
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