I recently attended the second session of my Boards Leadership program and I have to say that I left satisfied with the content and conversation.
After a recap of our first session and a brief talk about our assigned readings we talked about the power and importance of self reflection. One of our lead learners gave us an example of the impact and benefit of self reflection by telling us about the crazy day he had at work and how he ensured time to reflect on his actions and words. At then end of the story his point became clear - self reflection is a habit that is an essential ingredient for effective leadership.
Our discussion about reflection got me thinking about my self reflections - when, where, why, and how I reflect. I realized that self reflection is actually one of my assists and that I could further benefit from it by becoming more aware and systematic with them.
Even though I engage in self reflection quite often, I don't always welcome it. This is no surprise to me because sometimes my reflections are brought on by negative experiences. It isn't easy to immerse yourself in a process that will cause discomfort, but I am learning that the discomfort tends to lead to positive results.
As I was thinking about blogging my thoughts about the benefits of self reflection, with respect to leadership, I stumbled across an app created to assist in reflection.
It is called Pine, here is its description:
Seeing as how I use my smart phone for a variety of reasons each day, I thought it would be neat to use it to 'check in' allowing me to "appreciate the ups, handle the downs, and start noticing the things that are in the way of getting the most out of life".
Here are some screen shots of the introduction to this app:
In the next day or two I will start using this app to see if it fits with with who I am, the work I do each day, and whether it helps me meet my goal of becoming more aware, systematic, and skilled with respect to self reflection. I have, and continue to, experience the benefits of self reflection. The growth that comes from taking the time to seriously think about my actions and motives is second to none - this is why I must continue to become better at it.
