Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes
Reflection Leadership really came about from the five years I spent in the classroom teaching leadership to MBA students. The approach I took with my students was that the class be about each of them individually. Instead of making the course about the different leadership theories put out by academics, I was more interested in the marriage of the academic leadership publications with the plethora of popular leadership publications, many of which are steeped in the self improvement area.
At the beginning of each course, I warned the students that the course would be focused on them and they would be learning about leadership by reflecting and learning about themselves and their own leadership traits, abilities and attitudes. Each class and almost every student fully engaged in the process. Many said this was the hardest class they had ever taken because they were forced to really look deep within, which can be hard for all of us.
Through the weekly class discussions and my additional research, I came away with an understanding that leadership has as much or more to do with the leader as an individual than it does with the organization or the followers. I am convinced that truly effective leadership begins with the ability of the leader to reflect; on themselves, their followers, their organizations and the environment around them. So was born Reflection Leadership.
A little about the author Tom Glover…
Over the last 15 years, I’ve been working with, researching and teaching about organizational dynamics, including obtaining my Master’s Degree in Organization and Management. Focusing mostly on leadership, my passion (and I don’t throw this word around loosely) has been understanding what makes one person a phenomenal leader and the next person just mediocre. While I have always considered myself to be a leader, I find it incredibly fascinating that as a leader / manager I don’t always practice what I preach. You know the old saying, those that can do, those that can’t teach!
I’ve had what I like to call three separate work lives so far: I was a banker for 13 years, I was a nonprofit executive for 10 year and I’ve spent the last 7 years working in higher education as a faculty member and academic project manager. I’ve also worked off and on as a self-employed management consultant in the past 9 years. Oh, yeah and there was that 9 month period that I spent as a fish monger, which explains a little bit why I was so enamored with the whole FISH! movement a couple years back.
