One recent story I've heard is of a large F500 corporation that conducted an experiment on the importance of reflection as a leadership practice. A group of leaders were asked to journal and reflect upon 3 questions for 90 days:
What was your biggest challenge today?
How did you overcome it?
And what would you do differently next time?
For 90 days, the leaders answered those three questions daily – at the end of experiment, those leaders who had journaled were able to demonstrate $250 million in cost savings compared to a control group who had continued for 90 days business as usual. With the reflection the leaders had started to re-wire their brains to make better, faster decisions based upon what was working and not spending time repeating prior mistakes. Application and reflection are core components to coaching, adult (and leadership) learning.
Leader’s today need to be able to adapt to an ever-changing world of work. And they need to have the right mindsets and behaviors to help their teams navigate through continuous change. There are many tools to support this capability. Coaching helps leaders reflect and develop the right mindset and behaviors in a safe environment. Journaling is another.
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