Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes
Welcome to the inaugural post for the Reflection Leadership blog. I started this blog as a way to both share my thoughts and ideas about leadership and to get your help in developing a clearer understanding of the complexities of what I call Reflection Leadership.
Spending the last fifteen years really looking at leadership, I’m convinced that the key to effective leadership is how well the leader is able to stop, sit back and take the time to reflect. Reflect on what is really going on: with those who are following, with the organization and it’s systems, and with the environment external to the organization. But most importantly, the leader needs to be able to take the time to reflect on what is going on with his or her own self.
Call it discovering one’s self, self understanding, meta-cognition; call it anything you like. To me the key to effective leadership (and more importantly the key to organizations being able to achieve amazing things) is the ability of leaders to be able to practice Reflection Leadership.
Posts in the near future will lay out my thoughts on the major concepts of Reflection Leadership, sharing things that leaders and aspiring leaders can do to help them become more reflective leaders. From there, each post will address additional topics that fit as part of each of the major concepts. Along the way, together we can share what things have worked and not worked as we try to create our own Reflection Practice.
When I have applied for various teaching positions I’ve been asked to provide my “teaching style” or “teaching philosophy”. My answer is that my style in the classroom has always been participatory. I hate the idea of being the “sage on the stage”, probably because I have always taught so called “non-traditional students”; those that have years of life and work experience. I have always enjoyed being in a participatory classroom because I get to learn along with the students. Which is a big reason why I decided to start this blog, so that I can share AND learn more about Reflection Leadership.
So as we go through this journey together, I really do welcome your comments and direct email. I can be reached by email here. You can also follow this blog through RSS feed or email subscription. You can also follow on twitter @rflectionldrshp, I truly believe that sharing our combined knowledge will make all of us more effective leaders.
