Reprint Published On March 21, 2017 Article Managing

Reprint H03jnjpublished On Hbrorgmarch 21 2017articlemanaging You

Reprint H03jnjpublished On Hbrorgmarch 21 2017articlemanaging You

REPRINT H03JNJ PUBLISHED ON HBR.ORG MARCH 21, 2017 ARTICLE MANAGING YOURSELF Why You Should Make Time for Self- Reflection (Even If You Hate Doing It) by Jennifer Porter This document is authorized for use only by Phenekia Morgan in WMBA-6601-2/MGMT-6101-2/WMBA-6601B-2-Managing First Things First2020 Summer Sem 05/04-08/23-PT4 at Laureate Education - Walden University, 2020. MANAGING YOURSELF Why You Should Make Time for Self-Reflection (Even If You Hate Doing It) by Jennifer Porter MARCH 21, 2017 When people find out I’m an executive coach, they often ask who my toughest clients are. Inexperienced leaders? Senior leaders who think they know everything? Leaders who bully and belittle others?

Leaders who shirk responsibility? The answer is none of the above. The hardest leaders to coach are those who won’t reflect — particularly leaders who won’t reflect on themselves. This document is authorized for use only by Phenekia Morgan in WMBA-6601-2/MGMT-6101-2/WMBA-6601B-2-Managing First Things First2020 Summer Sem 05/04-08/23-PT4 at Laureate Education - Walden University, 2020. At its simplest, reflection is about careful thought. But the kind of reflection that is really valuable to leaders is more nuanced than that. The most useful reflection involves the conscious consideration and analysis of beliefs and actions for the purpose of learning. Reflection gives the brain an opportunity to pause amidst the chaos, untangle and sort through observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning. This meaning becomes learning, which can then inform future mindsets and actions. For leaders, this “meaning making” is crucial to their ongoing growth and development.

Research by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats in call centers demonstrated that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about lessons learned performed 23% better after 10 days than those who did not reflect. A study of UK commuters found a similar result when those who were prompted to use their commute to think about and plan for their day were happier, more productive, and less burned out than people who didn’t. So, if reflection is so helpful, why don’t many leaders do it? Leaders often: • Don’t understand the process. Many leaders don’t know how to reflect. One executive I work with, Ken, shared recently that he had yet again not met his commitment to spend an hour on Sunday mornings reflecting. To help him get over this barrier, I suggested he take the next 30 minutes of our two-hour session and just quietly reflect and then we’d debrief it. After five minutes of silence, he said, “I guess I don’t really know what you want me to do. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been doing it.” • Don’t like the process. Reflection requires leaders to do a number of things they typically don’t like to do: slow down, adopt a mindset of not knowing and curiosity, tolerate messiness and inefficiency, and take personal responsibility. The process can lead to valuable insights and even breakthroughs — and it can also lead to feelings of discomfort, vulnerability, defensiveness, and irritation. • Don’t like the results. When a leader takes time to reflect, she typically sees ways she was effective as well as things she could have done better. Most leaders quickly dismiss the noted strengths and dislike the noted weaknesses. Some become so defensive in the process that they don’t learn anything, so the results are not helpful. • Have a bias towards action. Like soccer goalies, many leaders have a bias toward action. A study of professional soccer goalies defending penalty kicks found that goalies who stay in the center of the goal, instead of lunging left or right, have a 33% chance of stopping the goal, and yet these goalies only stay in the center 6% of the time. The goalies just feel better when they “do something.” The same is true of many leaders. Reflection can feel like staying in the center of the goal and missing the action. • Can’t see a good ROI. From early roles, leaders are taught to invest where they can generate a positive ROI — results that indicate the contribution of time, talent, or money paid off. Sometimes it’s hard to see an immediate ROI on reflection — particularly when compared with other uses of a leader’s time. This document is authorized for use only by Phenekia Morgan in WMBA-6601-2/MGMT-6101-2/WMBA-6601B-2-Managing First Things First2020 Summer Sem 05/04-08/23-PT4 at Laureate Education - Walden University, 2020. If you have found yourself making these same excuses, you can become more reflective by practicing a few simple steps. • Identify some important questions. But don’t answer them yet. Here are some possibilities: â—‹ What are you avoiding? â—‹ How are you helping your colleagues achieve their goals? â—‹ How are you not helping or even hindering their progress? â—‹ How might you be contributing to your least enjoyable relationship at work? â—‹ How could you have been more effective in a recent meeting? • Select a reflection process that matches your preferences. Many people reflect through writing in a journal. If that sounds terrible but talking with a colleague sounds better, consider that. As long as you’re reflecting and not just chatting about the latest sporting event or complaining about a colleague, your approach is up to you. You can sit, walk, bike, or stand, alone or with a partner, writing, talking, or thinking. • Schedule time. Most leaders are driven by their calendars. So, schedule your reflection time and then commit to keep it. And if you find yourself trying to skip it or avoid it, reflect on that! • Start small. If an hour of reflection seems like too much, try 10 minutes. Teresa Amabile and her colleagues found that the most significant driver of positive emotions and motivation at work was making progress on the tasks at hand. Set yourself up to make progress, even if it feels small. • Do it. Go back to your list of questions and explore them. Be still. Think. Consider multiple perspectives. Look at the opposite of what you initially believe. Brainstorm. You don’t have to like or agree with all of your thoughts — just think and to examine your thinking. • Ask for help. For most leaders, a lack of desire, time, experience, or skill can get in the way of reflection. Consider working with a colleague, therapist, or coach to help you make the time, listen carefully, be a thought partner, and hold you accountable. Despite the challenges to reflection, the impact is clear. As Peter Drucker said: “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection, will come even more effective action.” Jennifer Porter is the Managing Partner of The Boda Group, a leadership and team development firm. She is a graduate of Bates College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an experienced operations executive, and an executive and team coach. This document is authorized for use only by Phenekia Morgan in WMBA-6601-2/MGMT-6101-2/WMBA-6601B-2-Managing First Things First2020 Summer Sem 05/04-08/23-PT4 at Laureate Education - Walden University, 2020. Applying what you learn to your personal and professional experience is perhaps the best way to retain new information. One way to do this is to add to a regular, ongoing reflection that asks you to apply this new material. Throughout this course, you will be asked to reflect on the week’s material and respond to a prompt in a Professional Reflection. Read through the Porter article, listed in the Learning Resources, for more information on self-reflection. You will submit these reflections each week within the same document. In other words, you will continue to build your Professional Reflection as part of one Word document, inserting new headings for each new weekly prompt. Each heading should specify the week and the name of the assignment. Note: In addition to responding to the Reflection prompts each week, you are expected to provide any surprises you learned in the week’s Learning Resources, Discussions, and/or Assignments. In this first Professional Reflection, you will create a 5-Minute Pitch. Imagine that you are hoping to move into a management position that has become available in your organization. How do you determine what is important to share in this short amount of time and what you can leave out? Consider how you would like to present your case to the hiring manager, especially why you would be the best candidate for the management position. You know the hiring manager is very interested in learning about your management philosophy and will likely ask you to summarize the most important skills that you believe managers must have. In addition, you should be prepared to explain the reasons why you think that managers succeed and fail. To prepare for your Professional Reflection: · Consider what you believe are the most important characteristics managers possess and why. · Reflect on the extent to which you have these characteristics. · Reflect on your management strengths that you discovered as a result of your self-assessment in this week’s Discussion 2. · Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially: · Achievement Unlimited [Achievement Unlimited]. (2010, August 18). Management skills – Why managers fail [Video file]. Retrieved from · Horstman, M. (2016). The effective manager. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. · Chapter 1, “What is an Effective Manager?” · Chapter 2, “The Four Critical Behaviors” · Wiseman, L. (2015, October 2). New managers: Embrace your rookie status. Harvard Business Review. · Document: Professional Reflection Assignment Instructions (PDF) To complete the Professional Reflection Assignment , compose a document that addresses the following ( Note: There are two sections to this Professional Reflection – your 5-Minute Pitch and your synthesis of what you consider to be the most important things that you learned this week): Based on what you have read and discussed this week, what would be the most important elements that you could share with a hiring manager in the limited 5 minutes she has available to talk? With this in mind, develop a script for your 5-Minute Pitch as your first professional reflection that cohesively addresses the following: · After synthesizing the Discussion Board posts with this week’s resources, identify the three most important attributes—skills, behaviors, and characteristics—of effective managers and why you have selected these attributes, based on what you believe managers do. · Evaluate the extent to which you think you have the characteristics that managers possess, along with examples that illustrate these characteristics. (Remember, you are developing a script to make a case about why you would be effective in a new management role.) · Explain how you anticipate this knowledge will help you be an effective manager. · Delineate some specific reasons as to why you believe that some individuals are more successful as managers and others are not. Explain your reasoning. To what extent do the characteristics that you outlined contribute to success or failure? · What strategies will you use to continue to develop your skills and knowledge of your own strengths as they relate to your management success. What will you do (and not do) to ensure that you are an effective manager? Following your 5-Minute Pitch, respond to the following, in which you: · Explain whether your opinion about management characteristics has changed as you examine this week’s Discussion posts from your colleagues. Describe the ways in which your thinking changed. If you did not change your thinking, what aspects of the Discussion further informed your position? How do you think that seeking input from others can impact your thinking? · Summarize the three most important things that you learned this week—from the Learning Resources and Discussions—about management characteristics or your own strengths and weaknesses, including why you selected them and how you will apply them to your role as a manager. This may include anything that surprised you. Be sure to support your Professional Reflection using this week’s readings or other credible and relevant resources. You may also include quotes from the weekly Discussion that you think support your 5-Minute Pitch. General Guidance: This week’s Professional Reflection submission should be about 1 page in length (remember the goal is to have a 5-minute speech, so you need to be succinct).

Paper For Above instruction

Managing oneself through effective self-reflection is a vital skill for leadership development and organizational success. Jennifer Porter emphasizes that leaders who refrain from self-assessment hinder their growth, and the process of reflection involves deliberate thinking about one’s beliefs, actions, and their impact. Strategies such as scheduled reflection time, asking pertinent questions, and seeking feedback are essential tools for cultivating this habit.

This paper interprets Porter’s insights and explores how self-awareness through reflection leads to better leadership outcomes. It begins by discussing the importance of reflection, supported by research indicating that reflective practices improve performance, productivity, and well-being. Examples from call center studies and commuter research demonstrate that taking intentional time to reflect can boost efficiency and happiness.

The paper then analyzes barriers leaders face in engaging in reflection—such as lack of understanding, discomfort with vulnerability, and biases toward action—and offers practical approaches to overcoming these hurdles. These include setting small goals for reflection, choosing suitable methods, scheduling consistent sessions, and leveraging the support of colleagues or coaches.

Furthermore, Porter advocates for embedding reflection into leadership routines, emphasizing its role as a foundation for continuous learning. The article underscores that effective managers possess key traits—such as self-awareness, humility, curiosity, and openness—and that cultivating these traits through reflection can significantly improve managerial effectiveness.

In conclusion, fostering a dedicated reflection practice, supported by intentional strategies and self-awareness, contributes not only to personal leadership growth but also to organizational excellence. As Drucker aptly states, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection,” highlighting the importance of integrating reflection into the management mindset, and reinforcing the ongoing journey of developing leadership competencies.

References

• Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G., & Staats, B. (2016). Why leaders should embrace reflection. Harvard Business Review, 94(6), 24-26.
• Porter, J. (2017). Managing Yourself: Why You Should Make Time for Self-Reflection (Even If You Hate Doing It). Harvard Business Review.
• Amabile, T. M., et al. (2018). Progress and positive emotions at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(4), 497-513.
• Wiseman, L. (2015). New managers: Embrace your rookie status. Harvard Business Review.
• Horstman, M. (2016). The effective manager. Wiley.
• Gino, F., & Staats, B. (2015). The positive effects of reflection on performance. Harvard Business Review.
• Drucker, P. (1999). The Essential Drucker. HarperBusiness.
• Amabile, T., et al. (2010). How progress fuels motivation. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), 1073-1087.
• Harvard Business Review. (2015). Management skills – Why managers fail. Video.
• Walden University. (2020). Managing First Things First course materials.