Where Do You “Reflect?”
Where Do You “Reflect?”
Where do you reflect? It was a topic that recently came up in a VIM Executive Coaching session. When rather young, we remember knowing the thrill of traveling by train. What may now take 90-minutes from Denver to Chicago, could take 12, or more hours by the fastest trains. When looking back on those days, we remember business people (most in suits with ties), working away on spreadsheets and such, stopping every so often to wistfully look out the window.
Random Thoughts
“What are they thinking about?” we wondered.
Perhaps they thought of the problem at hand, or family or business or their health or (delightfully) nothing.
It you have the “pleasure” of being a frequent flyer, then you well understand the drudgery of the entire process. From rushing to the airport to waiting in lines to getting jammed into seating intended for Lilliputians, any niceties have long been supplanted by heavy doses of stress.
This week’s post however, has little to do with travel. Unless, you possess a private jet and pilot, a limo and driver, and all that, travel has probably lost its once exciting appeal for you. The quiet and reflective in travel have been mostly lost.
While we’re at it, hand-held digital devices have cut into every aspect of our lives (about 70-percent of us have them on our night tables), cable news shouts at us to take only one “correct” position (theirs) rather than weighing pros and cons, and many of us can fume for hours over something that has been posted on any one of our several social media accounts.
As a result of all of these factors – and many more, executive leaders have lost the luxury of reflection, to simply be.
Executive leadership has become reactive at a time when response is deeply needed. As a society, corporate and personal, reflection has been lost to anxiety and fear. Unless something is done about it, the problem worsens. It is a hard road to be told we must be every single thing to everybody.
Is a lack of reflection harmless?
Of course not! Whether your executive leadership responsibilities concern themselves with satisfying customers at a small chain of garden centers or as the chief information officer at a multi-billion-dollar agribusiness conglomerate, self-reflection is exponentially more than a luxury. In a recent article for Very Well Mind by Sanjay Gupta, several psychologists were interviewed as to the importance of reflection. As one authority stated:
“Self-reflection involves being present with yourself and intentionally focusing your attention inward to examine your thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations.”
If the executive leader cannot escape the silos in which society (digital and otherwise) has forced them to occupy, how can they expect themselves to show empathy or authenticity or being truly mindful of a situation?
Reflection might also be thought of as mindfulness, where the executive leader takes time “to stare out the window” and to see the problem for what it is. Unfortunately, present-day society often discourages reflection and mindfulness. Let’s face it, does “one voice” on cable news or social media or any other influence really want us to say, “You know, I’ve reflected on it, and I am in agreement with the other guy?”
However, mindfulness goes further. It allows us to better reflect on a personnel issue, or an upcoming merger or the promotion of an employee. At VIM Executive Coaching, we encourage meditation as a key to greater mindfulness. We cheer mindfulness as a way to cultivate authenticity and to be the key to a truer response to challenges.
A 10-minute a day mindfulness meditation practice is clearly advantageous to the stress we all encounter in our daily lives. A 10-minute a day mindfulness meditation and may not be like staring out of the window of a train, but it does allow a respite from the daily clutter confronting us all. Please reflect on that.
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