This is the Curator Brief on Pause /Reflect. One of the key ingredients in a successful leadership journey is the ability to learn from experience, taking time to think about what worked and what changes are required to accelerate our growth. Reflection came across as a powerful tool to have it in our repository. Leaders are often ambitious and can feel stuck “running the rat race” so taking pause is of tremendous value and can be an important tool in our professional journey at this juncture. We will be defining the pause (What), use of pauses (Why), scenarios in which you should pause and reflect (When) and tools for maximizing that reflection time (How).
We have come across two types of reflection: a brief reactive pause or a more systematic proactive pause. Short pause is handy when we are in the heat of the moment and need to effectively manage a situation. It can be a pause prior to sending a nasty email to your team or manager. A longer more proactive pause would be part of the daily practices, or weekly or longer reflections people take to rejuvenate. These proactive pauses can be used to reflect on our work performance or future goals, either personally or for the company.
A collection of resources is shared below. You can use this collection of information and tools for your proactive or reactive reflection journey.