The Mirror To Excellence: Unleashing Your Potential Through Self-Reflection
Three methods to get you started...
Self-reflection is a powerful tool for leaders because it allows you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and your impact on others. This understanding can then be used to improve your leadership skills, make better decisions, and build more effective relationships.
A study published in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies found that leaders who engaged in regular self-reflection were more likely to be seen as effective by the people they were supporting. The study also found that self-reflection was positively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
One of the key tools of a coach is their ability to reflect back (gently) what the coachee is communicating; be it verbally, non-verbally or a mixture of the two. Indeed, when we’re coaching, these moments of reflection are often the most pivotal.
Coaching is valuable precisely because it provides you with someone unbiased to hold a mirror up to your life in a neutral way (avoiding our tendency to see the most-flattering versions of ourselves).
That said, you don’t need a coach to help with self-reflection. Indeed, there are a vast number of self-service tools in this space. We’re sharing three to kick you off…
Year Compass
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
Journaling Prompts
Year Compass
One of our favorites is Year Compass. Many years back we thought about putting together something like this for our clients but, when we found Year Compass, we felt the makers had already nailed it. This free, open-source, fillable booklet (you can choose paper or digital) will help you look back on 2023 and push you to dream bigger for 2024.
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
If you want to go the more analytical route and you like models, you might want to check out the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. This is particularly useful when you want to get clarity on what you learned from a situation.
Journaling Prompts
Most people have tried some form of journaling. Whether you do it for a short period or more regularly, research has shown that it improves your mental health.
For some fresh prompts and ideas around journaling, checking out some of the excellent resources from digital journal creator, Day One.
It isn’t always easy to make space for reflection but we encourage everyone to carve out at least 30 minutes in their calendar every so often for this purpose (regardless of what tools / support they reach for). So please do invest the time in yourselves and we’ll see you next time with more thoughts on leadership, managing people and team health 🎉.