A commitment to reflection may be the most difficult and important trait of all effective leaders. Leadership, according to psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, requires a high level of “emotional intelligence”: he speaks of three abilities that distinguish the best leaders: “self-awareness, which both lets you know your strengths and limits; self-management, which lets you lead yourself effectively; and empathy, which lets you read other people accurately. You put all those together in every act of leadership.” [see: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/09/15/daniel-goleman-on-leadership-and-the-power-of-emotional-intelligence/]

Goleman’s idea of leaderships has ancient roots. “Know thyself” was written in stone above the ancient Greek Temple at Delphi, the place where heroes traveled to seek wisdom from the gods. And what did they learn at Delphi? Mostly this: the wisdom you seek isn’t outside of yourself but inside, and wisdom doesn’t begin with answers but with simple questions. Leaders are often so busy with juggling multiple tasks that they don’t take time to do the most important thing of all to improve their leadership: reflection. Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School studies the power of reflection to improve performance. Her research suggests that taking just 15 minutes to reflect upon a task afterward leads to significantly greater levels of productivity. Reflection is powerful.

"I don't see a lot of organizations that actually encourage [leaders and employees] to reflect—or give them time to do it," Gino says. "When we fall behind even though we're working hard, our response is often just to work harder. But in terms of working smarter, our research suggests that we should take time for reflection." [see: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7509.html]

Gino’s colleague at Harvard Business School, Teresa Amabile, agrees about the importance of reflection for leadership development. Leaders need “to constantly prioritize, to figure out what is truly important, what they can forget about, and what can they push to the back burner in order to reduce time pressure,” she says [http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/08/slowing-the-work-treadmill/]. Time-strapped leaders need to work on the important stuff, such as aligning strategy and culture, and delegate the less important stuff to others. Doing this important stuff begins with self reflection.

Leaders need to understand how they are spending their time, if those time investments are moving their organizations forward in a way that’s consistent with their strategic vision, and what changes should be made along the way. Robert Kaplan of Harvard Business School believes strongly in the power of self reflection. His seminal book, “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential,” is a great template for the kind of rigorous self reflection leaders should be performing.

Kaplan’s series of questions forces leaders to determine whether they have strategic clarity and have effectively communicated that clarity within their organizations so people are focusing energy on things that matter and drive value. Kaplan asks leaders to review their actions and determine whether those actions align with their key priorities. “When someone asks you to spend time on work that doesn’t match your key priorities,” says Kaplan, “the right action is probably to say no” or to delegate. Kaplan also asks CEOs to solicit feedback from their subordinates as part of a fuller self assessment process.

Leaders can become isolated, notes Kaplan, and have limited access to feedback: they “may not realize that their direct reports have constructive advice regarding specific changes they need to make to improve their leadership effectiveness.” While soliciting this feedback can open you up to stinging criticism, it can also enable learning, which is essential. Again, you may believe you are matching your actions to pursuing the organization’s key priorities, but your subordinates may disagree and suggest changes. You may believe you are communicating effectively, but your reports might have a different perspective. This is worth hearing and discussing.



Time for reflection may be the last thing on your to-do list, as other priorities crowd your busy agenda. But taking the time to pull back on the day-to-day stuff and reflect upon whether your efforts are truly aligned with your organization’s long-term vision may be the wisest investment of your time. The questions you ask during this self reflection may be tough, and understanding the answers tougher still to hear, but this process will allow you to make the necessary changes to get you and your organization on track to long-term growth. And you don’t need to travel all the way to Delphi to do it.