Reflecting

I'm currently reading, "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr. This post will be very short - really just a question.

The American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, once said, "We do not learn from experience ... we learn from reflecting on experience."

As a leader, do you periodically take time to reflect on your experiences? If you and your team have just finished a project, has the entire team taken a moment to reflect on the project, what they learned, what went wrong, what went right? 

If you're not periodically taking time to reflect - how are you ever going to learn from your mistakes - or what you're doing right?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Leadership Lessons From Hal Moore

This week's leadership lesson is inspired by the move, " We Were Soldiers ", starring Mel Gibson. The movie is based on a real life battle during the Viet Nam War. Mel played Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Calvary. On November 14, 1965, Lt. Col. Moore, and 450 of his men, were dropped by helicopter into the la Drang valley. They were immediately surrounded by around 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Thus began the first full-fledged battle between U.S. and North Vietnamese soldiers. Over the next two days U.S. soldiers were killed but they inflicted around 1,200 casualties and forced the Communist forces to withdraw. The movie, and the battle on which it was based teaches us 10 leadership lessons:(You can read General Moore’s  book .) Be head strong. when the setbacks come (and they will), a leader picks themselves up and keeps moving forward. There's always a way. Either you find one, or you make one. If you think you might fail in a giv
Read more

The Golden Circle

Today's tip is very short - just a link really. Simon Sinek is a British-American author, motivational speaker, and organizational consultant. You can find many of his talks on YouTube but I want to direct you to his TED Talk that, in my opinion, "launched" him. It's called "How great leaders inspire action" and he introduces the concept of the "Golden Circle". The talk is less than 20-minutes long and I think you'll find it eye-opening. You can find it  here .
Read more

Coaching people in difficult times

This post comes from Marcia Reynolds, author of, “ Coach the Person, Not the Problem ”. As leaders, we know how difficult it can be to lead people through difficult times, through times of radical change. As Ms. Reynolds says,  “ Emotions shape our reality more than facts and trend charts. The less we know for sure, the more we imagine the worse and believe it exists. ” When people’s worlds are being turned upside down, it’s hard for them to eliminate fear and focus on facts. It’s difficult to get them to focus on solutions and moving forward. These four practices though can help tremendously: Listen to their story  - This isn’t about you, it’s about THEM. So be patient, don’t judge, and accept their perspective as how THEY see the world right now. They need to feel heard and valued before they’re anywhere NEAR ready to examine their feelings and beliefs with you. Play back what you hear and notice  - Repeat back to them, in your own words, what you heard them say to make s
Read more