What’s Different?
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
- Lao Tzu
A friend of mine sent me a message the other day, giving me a wonderful topic to write about for today's article.
Yesterday I interviewed candidates for a peer team and today we had the debrief for the role. After that meeting, I spent a bit of time reflecting how far I have come professionally in that domain. Over the last 5-7 years I have interviewed dozens of candidates. Hired personally more than a dozen engineers/analysts. All of them are contributing to my teams and/or on stakeholder teams. A good number of them have also gotten promoted into new roles as part of recognition of their success. That made me reflect on where I am now vs. where I was 10 years ago.
For me, reflection like that is an important component in overall management of mental health and staying motivated. Especially as my personal life and career gets busier. The point being, take time to reflect how far you have come in your career/personal growth/skill development.
Reflection makes perfect sense for him right now - he's just achieved a major promotion.
My friend raised a point I'd like to emphasize - reflection is an important component in overall management of mental health and staying motivated. It's also a super important capability to develop as a leader.
A CEO I work with is using this approach as part of his preparation for a major board meeting - he's reflecting back on the history of his organization and using that to set the context for some important conversations. He's using his skill for personal reflection to not only look at what he's achieved but what his business has achieved.
Short Term and Long Term
It's natural to look back when something big happens in your life - I'd strongly encourage it - and I'd encourage you to look back at regular intervals too.
A coach I worked with a few years ago would ask at the end of every session, "What are two takeaways from today?". The specificity of the question made me be selective and clear about what I had got out of the session.
One question I love to ask clients at the beginning of a session is "What's different since we last met?". I then follow it at the end with a variation of the question above, "What is your one main takeaway or insight from today's session?".
Then, taking a longer term view, every few months I'll ask "What's different since we started working together?"
Asking this question helps show the value of the work that the client has done over the time we've been together.
You see, often change is incremental, but lots of tiny things add up to huge transformation given time and continual application. When you look back over a longer period you can really appreciate how far you've come.
Practicing reflections at Château d'Azay-le-Rideau
Creating a Reflective Practice
What can a reflective practice look like in practical terms? Try the following:
Every quarter, look back at the last three months and answer the following questions:
What have I achieved in the period?
What did I learn?
What mistakes did you make and what did you learn from them?
Take a moment to reflect and appreciate what you've done
Every year:
What have I achieved since this time last year?
Where was I five years ago? Where have I grown since then?
What have I learned, both over the year and the past five years?
Where did I think I would be now, five years ago?
Where do I want to be in five years time?
The last two questions are very important - I would imagine you've ended up somewhere different than you expected, and that's ok. The important thing is that you've grown.
You can repeat the 'year' exercise looking at longer timespans every few years too - taking time to take stock is always going to be helpful.
I'll leave you with a quote from the great Robert Ellis "It's the dreaming that's important, not the dream."
What's your dream? Is it the same as it was five years ago?
When you're ready, I offer 1:1 coaching for leaders who are looking to take their life and career to the next level. Send me an email and we'll set up a time to have a chat.
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