Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey there and welcome to Leveraging Operations in Leadership, the podcast where we talk about the strategies, systems and mindset shifts that help leaders build high-performing teams and sustainable success. I'm your host, tonya D Harrison, and today we're going to be talking about something that really should be a part of the leadership playbook but often doesn't make it in. This is the power of reflection how leaders grow through self-assessment. Now, here's the truth. Great leaders don't just lead others. They learn by leading themselves first. We have to become really great leaders at leading ourselves first, and this is something that you hear me talk about. When we're talking about time management, when we're trying to help our team manage their time and be more efficient and effective, we have to apply those things to ourselves first. Leadership is no different. The first person you need to learn how to lead is you. But let's talk about why.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Reflection is not just something that is a fluffy, soft skill, but a high leverage habit. This is a strategic leadership tool. This is something that you really want to be strategic about. It's the thing that separates reactive leadership from intentional leadership. Reactive leadership is when you're always running around with your air on fire, putting out fires or responding to problems as they arise and making decisions in the moment without the bigger picture strategy, without taking in consideration all of the information that you have available. The result of that is usually burnout, misalignment and a team that is just as reactive as you are, because a lot of teams a lot of times our teams follow our lead, whereas when you are more intentional and you have an intentional leadership, it's about being proactive. It's rooted in clarity, reflection and purpose. It's about forward thinking and leading with your eyes up, not just your heads down. This is something that I've talked about before and you'll hear me say often as leaders, we can't just go through with our heads down. We have to look forward. We have to have our eyes up. Intentional leaders don't just react. They actually respond, but when they respond is with clarity and strategy. When you take the time to reflect on your performance, what worked, what didn't work and where you showed up strong or not so strong, you gain clarity, and that clarity is going to help you make better decisions. Reflection helps you align your leadership with your values and your goals and, more importantly, it helps you to see your blind spots before your team actually feels them. This is something that you really want to be mindful of and you really want to take advantage of. This is a tool that you should be taking advantage of. At the end of the day, the goal is for us to grow, to become better leaders, not be in the same place today as we were a year from now, a year ago.

Speaker 1: 4:02

So today I'm going to share some techniques that you can use to get started. Here is where you want to go and get your pen and paper so that you can start to take notes. All right, let's get practical. If you want to level up as a leader, here are five solid techniques for assessment, self-assessments and reflection. The first one is a little bit more structured, and this may involve tools, not may.

Speaker 1: 4:34

This will involve tools, and I'm thinking about things like the 360 degree feedback tool, which helps you to gather insights from people that are on the same level as you, so your peers, people that report to you, people that you report to. Sometimes, people get feedback from clients. If you have a heavy interaction with clients, it's a comprehensive tool that is objective and often humbling, but if you're serious about growth, you want the truth, even if it stings a little bit. This is a tool that I use within my lead ops program. Other leadership programs may have them coaching. If you're working with a coach, you may take it, and then HR departments sometimes have these as a tool.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Also. Another great tool that I use is the Myers-Briggs type indicator. This helps you to understand a little bit more about your natural preferences Anything from how you communicate, make decisions, handle conflict. Being armed with this information is going to better prepare you for your leadership journey. And there's also tools like the DIS, the Hogan Assessment.

Speaker 1: 5:53

There's a lot out there. Some of them you can go and you can take online. Some of them, like I said, you may need to go through your HR department or a training program or something like that, but those are some of the more structured tools. If you don't have access to them, don't worry, because I got other techniques that are going to help you, but those are the more structured ones, so keep those in mind, right, those are. What I like about them is they actually help to kind of guide you through the process. They have prompts, right. They're prompted with questions and to get you to think about different things in different ways and, based on your responses, you have a report that you'll receive the second type of technique that I want to share with you is weekly leadership retrospectives.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Now reflection has to become a habit. I recommend that, every week, that you go back and you do a leadership retrospective. And here's how it works. It's really straightforward and simple. The biggest part of it is making sure that you are truly thinking out of the box and you're consistently doing it. Block 30 minutes at the end of your week. You want to do this every single week. Pick a time of day, a day of the week where you can block 30 minutes and you can sit in time with yourself Uninterrupted time with yourself and you want to ask yourself a couple of questions what went well in my leadership this week?

Speaker 1: 7:38

I always talk about having a brag book. You want to know what went well, if there were some wins. Make sure you're documenting this. Where did I struggle and why did I struggle? This is an opportunity to really face some of the things that did not go well and then also to understand why they didn't go well. Third question is what feedback did I receive, whether it be directly or indirectly, and once you document what that feedback is, I want you to process it. I want you to really process it and think about the feedback that you got, whether it was directly or indirectly. And the last question is what will I do differently next week? You're looking back, you're thinking through these things and you are already putting a plan in place for the next week. Here's where you're starting to be more intentional, just by doing the reflective assessment right and then by putting a plan in place for the following week. And you basically want to keep a journal, and this could be handwritten or you could do a digital, whatever you're comfortable with, but as you do this week by week, by week, 52 could do a digital whatever you're comfortable with, but as you do this week by week, by week, 52 times in a year, over time, there's going to be patterns that emerge and there's also going to be some solutions. These you want to really evaluate this and see what shows up. All right, that is technique number two. Let's move on to technique number three, and you can pause this recording at any time Key results check-in.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Now, another approach I like to use is to tie reflection into your goals and your KPIs by integrating regular reflection with your goals and your KPIs or your key performance indicators. This isn't just a productivity hack. Yes, it is good for productivity, but it's not just a productivity hack. It's actually a game changer when it comes to intentional leadership. Think of it as your personal GPS. It's going to guide you toward what's working and highlight areas that may need a little extra TLC when you pause to reflect on your progress.

Speaker 1: 10:02

You're not just checking boxes. It's not just something to do. You are actively aligning your day-to-day, your daily actions with your broader objectives and you are ensuring that every step you take is purposeful. Are you hitting your leadership KPIs? This is something to think about, and when you're thinking about your leadership KPIs, think about your team. Think about team engagement, product delivery, overall team goals, conflict resolution, team communication. Think about all of these things and ask yourself, as it relates to your team is your team performing well because of my leadership or, in spite of it and you flip that as well Is my team underperforming because of my leadership? These are some hard questions that you want the answer to. Checking in on these metrics regularly, they allow you to course correct before small issues turn into full-blown problems, to full-blown problems, and that's what we want to do.

Speaker 1: 11:19

All right, number four, the trusted advisor debrief, or what I like to say, is aligning yourself with the truth teller. So leadership can be lonely. We know that we really do. We know that leadership can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. And what you want to do is you want to set yourself up with a mentor or a coach, and this is going to be your truth teller. You want to make sure you pick somebody who's not afraid to give you insight, but give it to you straight, not a lot of fluff, not a lot of beating around the bush. They are going to be truthful with you and it's not always going to feel good, right, but it's something that we need, and you want to make sure that you're asking them. What's one thing that you notice in my leadership lately that I might be missing? Because not only is this person able to give you direct feedback, but a lot of times they are able to identify blind spots. They're able to help you see some blind spots that you may have things that you didn't see or didn't take into consideration. And let me warn you, when you are working with a truth teller because I'm a truth teller, because I'm a truth teller anybody that I coach I make sure to let them know I'm a truth teller.

Speaker 1: 12:41

You want to make sure that you are listening with an open heart. Don't defend it, don't justify, don't make excuses. Just take it all in and begin to process it. This is somebody that you can trust. This is somebody that is going to give you feedback from a good place, because they want to see you do better. So just take it all in and start to process it. And let me tell you something this is gold. This is gold. This is gold. This is real feedback from someone who sees a bigger picture. Remember, you're in it. You're deep in it, day after day after day. You're deep in it. This is someone that has taken a step back. They're not in the day-to-day like you are. They're seeing it from a bigger picture, a wider angle. Just take it all in and if you have questions later, you can ask those questions like follow-up questions. But it's not coming from a place of trying to defend it and justify it. It's just for better understanding. All right, technique number five, and this is the final one, and this is really where a lot of what we talked about comes together Every quarter, you want to take a deeper dive.

Speaker 1: 13:57

You got your weekly reflective moments that you're doing 30 minutes tops, but every quarter you're going to take a deeper dive and you're going to look at the last 90 days of your leadership. You're going to refer back to your weekly journal. You're going to refer back to any meetings and feedback that you've received from your mentor or your coach. You're going to think about any feedback that you got, whether it be directly or indirectly, from your team, your boss, your peers. All of that is going to be considered and you're going to ask yourself again a couple of questions.

Speaker 1: 14:34

And when we're talking about reflecting, you're really asking yourself some deep questions and sometimes some difficult questions when have I grown? Because we should be making progress, so you want to be able to identify where you've grown. Where have you coasted? We all have those moments you've grown. Where have you coasted? We all have those moments and those things. Where have you coasted? You just gliding along? What areas can I improve? Because we want to get better? And here's a big one what did I avoid that? I need to face head on that. I need to face head on.

Speaker 1: 15:16

And when you are early in leadership this happens more often than we talk about where there's just some things that you just put off, whether it's a conversation with your boss or a team member. There's just some things that we put off, but what are some things that you absolutely need to face head on? This gives you space to zoom out and reconnect your leadership practice with your long-term goals and the needs of your team. After you have all of your answers now, you can start planning the next 90 days. Okay, all right, and so that's the five tips. Those are the five things that you could do right now in order to really start to be more reflective and more intentional when it comes to your leadership journey. All right, go back, review them, make sure you are implementing them. You can start now.

Speaker 1: 16:11

I know we've passed the first of the year, but it doesn't matter. The goal is to start, and reflection is operational, it's strategic and it's one of the most underutilized tools in leadership. So we have a lot of information right at our fingertips. We just have to be willing to set aside the time and ask ourselves the tough questions. When you commit to a regular self-assessment, you stop running on autopilot and just being reactive and you start leading with intention and you have more clarity. So here's my challenge to you Pick one of these techniques and commit to it for the next 30 days.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Just one to get started. If you're new to this, pick one to get started. Whether it's a weekly retrospective or a mentor debrief or, like I said, a truth teller debrief, put it on your calendar and honor it like any other leadership priority, because this is important to your growth. Your team deserves a leader who is learning and evolving, and you deserve to be that kind of leader and you deserve to show up in a way that makes you proud. All right, so thanks for joining me today on Leveraging Operations and Leadership In this episode. I hope I sparked something for you. If I did, be sure to like it, leave me a review and share it with a fellow leader. And don't forget. Don't forget until next time. Keep leading with purpose, reflecting with courage and operating in excellence.