How to reflect effectively for yourself and with your teams
The summer season is a wonderful time to focus on reflection, whether this be for yourself or with your team. As the longest day of the year has been and gone in the Northern Hemisphere and the second half of the year begins, it's a great time to reflect on those achievements, accomplishments and intentions that you set out for the rest of the year.
The practice of reflecting has huge benefits - it can boost confidence and productivity, and it can increase your own awareness of your behaviour whilst giving you the opportunity to identify patterns regarding your accomplishments. With this in mind, we can remind ourselves to think of reflection as the opportunity to ‘keep up with yourself’. To ensure we are showing up and integrating actions into our lives, which help us to achieve our goals.
Research by the Harvard Business School demonstrates the importance and impact on those who dedicate time to reflect. With “employees who spend 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about lessons learned, performing 23% better” than those who do not reflect.
In order to integrate reflection effectively for yourself and with your team, we can:
Set aside time for reflection
Begin reflective conversations with a theme. This could be a reflection of the year so far, an acknowledgement of achievements and accomplishments.
Be conscious of reflecting in different ways. Does your team reflect effectively when walking outside in side by side conversations and, or does mind mapping have more impact, or journaling? Exploring together with your team different ways of reflecting can be a revealing conversation in and of itself, highlighting different practices and learning from each other.
Finding formats for reflection that suit you and your team can make a great difference. Here are some possible ways to experiment with.
Reflecting on your own behaviour
1) Walk and Talk
Dedicating time to go for a paired walk and talk with a trusted colleague or friend gives you the opportunity to reflect on the year so far. It can be beneficial to ask each other questions to prompt reflection and actively look for opportunities to help each other going forward.
2) Journaling
If you prefer to write or take photos of your actions, achievements, and accomplishments, you can use a journal to document these. You can refer back to this when reflecting, to notice the changes in and around you.
3) Mind Mapping
Creating mind maps to reflect is a great way to view patterns and connections between what you've been doing (your achievements) and who you are being (your accomplishments). For example, creating a six month mind map to write down your achievements and accomplishments each month is a great visually appealing way to identify patterns in your behaviour.
Reflecting with your team
Reflecting with your team can be done at its best when you are together - in person with increased emphasis on having a day of reflection. To reflect effectively together I suggest some of the following:
1) Gather your team for a social activity.
It can be as simple and straightforward as gathering everyone together for something like a picnic - and then using this opportunity for reflection and conversation.
2) Working away day.
Dedicating time for reflection through a working away day can be beneficial to allow open and honest conversations - especially within green and woodland spaces where colleagues can feel more relaxed.
3) Walk and Talk.
Encouraging your team to participate in side by side conversations whilst enjoying a walking route can be a great way to reflect. You can ask open questions to prompt curiosity from the people you’re walking with.
The act of reflection is more important than ever, as leaders have an increased societal responsibility to create a culture of belonging - one of which creates a sense of community, even when colleagues are working from home. It’s important for leaders to find ways to connect with their teams in person, as these conversations matter more than ever, when reflecting.
Recently, I co-led the Marketing Leaders Programme alongside Martin Borrett from Accenture Song. Within this programme, one of the speakers Mark Curtis, Head of Innovation and Thought Leadership at Accenture Song, spoke about ‘designing a workplace for the intangibles’. This can be defined as the experiences those have when part of a belonging culture.
Within organisations a belonging culture can include informal learning from others, asking for help on small tasks when working from the same place, or going for a coffee with someone to discover something you didn’t know about each other. All of these activities can be completed most effectively with in person meetings rather than on Teams or Google Meet. That said, there is so much we can do now in a remote setting!
Further Learning
To delve deeper into the practice of reflection, there are some wonderful books which outline further principles and methods of integrating reflection into your leadership and team schedule:
Step Back - How to Bring the Art of Reflection into your Busy Life by Joseph L.Badaracco
This book suggests some great principles for integrating reflection into your daily life through a number of principles, discovered from interviews with busy executives. He discovered that people who do reflect don't do it in extended periods or on their own, they do it in the 'cracks and crevices' of their everyday life.
Reflective Practice - by Janet Hargreaves and Louise Page.
As the title suggests this book is all about the practice of reflecting and helping leaders to develop their reflective abilities. Full of fantastic exercises, and answers to questions like 'Why reflect?' It is a great resource for leaders and professionals in any area of life looking to integrate reflective practice into their work.
Dedicate time for reflection in your workplace
If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch today for a chat. As a Leadership Partner, I’ll partner with you and your Executive Team to encourage reflection and build a culture of care and connection. Please, do get in touch for a conversation to explore opportunities.
For more key insights into leadership and the power of conversation to open up inclusivity, diversity, and equity, sign up to my newsletter here.
