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“Every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled. … Only when you have substantial ’slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’ Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” – Dov Frohman
Making time to reflect and think is a critical leadership practice. In its simplest form, reflecting is just thinking about what happened. It’s the process of thinking about and examining what we’ve experienced, how we reacted and what changes we need to make to become more effective.
There are few people who make a conscious effort to learn from their experiences and fewer still learn from their mistakes. This is because reflection is not an automatic process for most people. Most of use make our way through life simply reacting to circumstances. To be effective leaders must make reflection a regular practice.
“Leaders like everyone else, are the sum of all their experiences, but, unlike others, they amount to more than the sum, because they make more of their experiences.” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead
A simple way to start the practice of reflection is by asking questions, questions about how we feel, about the results we are getting in our life, and what we can do differently to get different results. For example, find a quite place where you are not going to be disturbed then, take an issue that’s important to you, and ask yourself the following questions:
- What happened?
- What was I trying to achieve?
- What went well and why?
- What didn’t go so well and why?
- How did it affect me?
- How did it affect others?
- What were the consequences (positive or negative) for myself and others?
- What could be done differently next time?
- Would this change improve the consequences?
“Reflection is asking the questions that provoke self-awareness” – Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader
As leaders much of our success is dependent on the way we think. Given this, it’s important that we schedule regular time-out to reflect on how we are behaving, how we are thinking about a situation and what adjustments we might need to make to improve our effectiveness. When was the last time you spent reflecting on an issue that is important to you?
Technorati Tags: Leader, Reflect, Leadership, Reflection, Management, Business, Experience, Learning
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I love this post and totally agree. I posted similar thoughts previously.
http://www.ronedmondson.com/2008/12/intangible-and-unproductive-time-is-valuable-in-leadership.html
Thanks for sharing! Love you blog.
I love this post. Do you know why? Because, like you said, alot of leaders out there say that they are too busy to reflect and learn from their mistakes. But they are missing the point. If they reflect and learn from their successes and failures (from which they will learn more) then they are actually investing in themselves. They are investing in themselves in order to make themselves a better leader! And, as a better leader, they will have more time to do what? Reflect and become an even greater leader!
If you don’t have enough time in the day to invest 10 minutes into developing yourself, then you are the one who needs it most since you are obviously doing something wrong. Just remember the Nike commercials and “just do it.”
-Kyle
Thanks for this. I lead workshops on stress and time management and use the concept of “slack” a lot. Both in terms of time to deal with what “comes up” and time to contemplate and let creativity arise.
Al the best form Brighton,
Mark
http://integrationtraining.blogspot.com/
Great post! Too often, particularly in small companies, leaders thrive on the adrenaline rush of always being busy. If they get a lull during the day, they don’t know what to do with themselves. Setting aside a regular time each day to reflect on the business can only help a business meet the challenges of the economy and the marketplace.
Great post! I would add that the unscheduled time will only work if it remains off limits – as it usually fills up quickly with… unscheduled meetings. Many argue that they “do not have the time”. It’s hard but it should be done: just block off ‘thinking time’ on your schedule! I also struggle to keep my appointments with “thinking time” – found out that for me it works best when combined with solo exercise… good for your body and you mind! Plus being on the water by myself makes pretty hard to be disturbed by calls, emails, or people “just popping-in’…
Awesome Post, I just love this every person should sit aside from work once in a while to do an important thing called self realization, this is something which is beautifully explained in this post.
I’m not sure that 50% is the right number, but I do agree that a percentage of a leader’s day should be focused on introspection / reflection. With the speed of business, the mind needs time to “unpack” daily events and help a Leader learn to respond rather than react. In addition, it may prove helpful to somehow gather open and honest feedback on one’s performance in an attempt to gain a 360 degree view of one’s impact as a Leader!
Thanks for this article!
George,
Being an entrepreneur myself, I always ensure that I have atleast an hour for myself every day, but for the past few weeks I am struggling to stick to this practice due to lack of time. Your article couldn’t have come at a better time, it reinforces my belief that its worth spending the time for self introspection.
Thanks
Right on. It is so hard to convince leaders that this is an critical to their overall success and that of those that they lead. You have to put the oxygen mask on yourself before you can save anyone else.
Thanks for bringing it up!
I couldn’t agree more. I try to incorporate “down time” to digest, reflect, and integrate training content in every program I design and deliver. (usually with a few leading, open-ended questions to keep the content incubation focused) This same approach in the real-life job is just as important, if not more so, to enable “smart” transfer of what has been experienced into improved performance later.
Others’ comments on the appropriate amount of time (50% or whatever), needs to be answered by every individual. Needs vary, but we owe ourselves due-diligence to block out and use this time as described above.
Very true but there is much much more than self study!!
A leader leads people; who need continuous evaluating and training.
A leader is going somewhere: and needs to plan. Like Yogi Berra said, “You have to be careful, if you dont know where you are going, you might not get there.” That means understanding where you are and what will it be like when you “get there”. What kind of tools and employees will be needed, now, along the way, and when you get there.
I found that, in the middle of the night, my body could rest and my mind could wonder without interuption, most nights for 2 or 4 hous.
It paid off; I am now 82 years old, healthy and working on problems.
I totally agree with the fact that leaders need to spend time reflecting and planning rather than doing. However, where we differ is that reflection needs to be scheduled so it isn’t overlooked or superceded by the less important things.
I’ve read that time management experts recommend that we reserve 20% of our time as unscheduled in order to take care of the things that always come up outside of our control. To me, that leaves time for the unexpected while also allowing us to plan to reflect in a way that is meaningful and without distraction.
Thanks for making me reflect!
like they say, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there..” A time for planning and introspection/reflection will do well in the direction one is heading..
very interesting and thought provoking article, thank you.
X C
This post is provocative but I disagree very much with the 50% suggestion. The big challenge for managerial leaders, whether in government or business, is how to effectively use their limited time to manage the ‘things’ (eg, planning, budgeting, coordination) while leading their people. And on top of that is how to keep some sort of semblance of work-life balance.
My experience of 30 years in the workforce, both as a manager and non-manager, has found that you do need to set aside reflecting and thinking time, but that you also have to be disciplined on how you manage yourself. This applies equally to how you make yourself accessible to your staff. There is certainly no one solution that fits everyone; each leader has to find what works best for him or her. But 50%? No way.
Hi Jim,
Whilst I may agree that 50% is a big ask. However, the point is too much time allocated to management tasks, means less time available for the leadership tasks.