Unleashing Your Inner Leader: An Executive Coach Tells All

CHAPTER 13

Reflecting on the Past to Get to the Future

Stopping and hitting the pause button for reflection is essential for each of us to unleash our Inner Leader and ensure that we are going in the right direction. Reflection before projection ensures that past successes are understood and celebrated. Then the learnings of the reflection are incorporated into the projections of the future.

Reflection can happen when a person is forced into a situation such as a job loss or a serious illness. That is when all the insights learned in Part One of this book become increasingly important to use when projecting the future. Sometimes after reflection, fear of failure gets in the way of projection. Taking the view of failure being a road to success is a way of unleashing your Inner Leader. A successful leader reflects so that the conversation can then be directed to how that success gives the team the experience and insights to tackle the next big project.

REFLECTING ON THE PAST TO GET TO THE FUTURE

One of the concerns that I have when working with very successful leaders is that they do not build into their busy schedules enough time for reflecting. I know that we are all so busy that it is hard to find time for many things that we want to do, and time for reflection should be on the top of the list.

The technique that I sometimes suggest is simply to make a list of 5 to 10 questions to ask yourself when you decide to take some pause time. Maybe you could have a quiet lunch alone and ...