We need to review our progress and reflect on our actions regularly. As we do, we will discover multiple things.
Mellody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, shared impactful reasons for looking back during her MasterClass teaching on strategic decision-making. Her insights are powerful as they will make us realize the value of reflection.
Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash
3 Ways Reflecting Helps You Move Forward
1. Reflecting allows you to understand what you need to keep doing:
As you look back at what you’ve accomplished or, maybe, failed to accomplish, you can see the things that have worked. Perhaps it was the new initiative to use AI technology to uncover potential payment issues or bring in three new team members to handle the overwhelming workload. You may notice that your decision to spread out and delegate work to underutilized employees has also helped.
You won’t notice what you need to keep doing if you don’t look back to see if it worked. Find out what you need to keep doing.
2. Reflecting allows you to understand what you need to stop doing:
Well, if you can understand what you need to keep doing by reflecting and looking back, you can also discover what things you need to stop doing.
You may have launched a marketing campaign that hasn’t shown a return on investment. The marketing campaign may need to be stopped or tweaked. You may have started using technology that hasn’t panned out. Look back and see whether you should continue using it.
Reflecting will not only help you determine what to continue doing but also help you realize what to stop doing.
3. Reflecting allows you to access what you need to start doing:
Now you know what you should keep doing. You also understand what you should stop doing. Reflecting will help you do one more thing: access what you need to start doing.
As you reflect, you can see what areas need a little more attention. You may discover you need to start training and equipping your people with better education or better equipment. You may understand why people are so burnt out and you create a wellness program your employees can take advantage of.
Reflecting will give you the insight to understand what to start doing.
Pause To Reflet
It’s time to pause and reflect. Look at your organization. How’s it doing? What’s the financial performance been like? How is the corporate culture? How are you feeling?
When you pause to reflect, you’re able to get a better picture of the organization and the people you lead. You’ll begin to see activities you need to continue doing, activities you need to stop, and activities you need to start doing.
Don’t run yourself ragged to the point you don’t have time to reflect. As you take the time to reflect, you’re going to discover the actions you need to take to make your organization a success.
