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The
number of emails I
received to the piece
‘The
Reflective Leader’
(Businessworld, 4 April) exceeded
the usual average by a
huge margin. The
article also received
the highest number of
hits on our website
beating Thriving
without Paranoia’
(BW, Nov 22), which
held the previous
record. Far more
surprising was the
unusually high
page-views from
continental Europe
(we have a fairly
sophisticated website
user tracking system
in place).
In the article, I had
talked about the need
for the senior
executive to routinely
take out the time to
make sense of the
marketplace,
competitive and
organisational
activities so that he
can look “beyond
what he sees, beyond
today. Reflection also
helps him do things
better today… the
successful business
warrior uses
reflection as a means
to know which battle
is worth fighting. But
most importantly, it
helps him understand
how the next war will
need to be fought; to
make sure that too is
won”.
Considering the
comments and queries,
here are some
clarifications:
Not A New
Leadership Style:
There is the
‘charismatic’
style, the ‘quiet’
style, the ‘servant
Leader’ style.
Probably somebody has
also advocated the
‘cowboy’ or the
‘Zen’ styles. To
each his own. Having
said that, the
effective leadership
style is more a
function of the needs
of the particular
situation in which the
leader is placed (see
‘Which
is the Best Leadership
Style?’, BW,
April 11).
When I advocate
‘reflective
leadership’, it is
not intended to be a
pitch for the latest
approach to being a
leader. Great leaders
can be gregarious or
reserved, planners or
spontaneous,
‘big-picture’
thinkers or
detail-oriented.
Whatever be the style
he favours, the amount
of experience, or his
position in the
organizational
hierarchy, the
practice of reflection
is for every leader.
It helps the chief
executive of a
multibillion
enterprise as much as
it does the young
executive starting his
or her career. The
only difference being
what each reflects on.
Beyond Knowing:
When you actively
practice reflection,
you move from knowing
things, to
understanding them. To
highlight the
difference between
these two states,
Harvard psychologist
Howard Gardner shares
an incident in his
book Dealing With
the Unschooled Mind,
about his daughter who
called him frantically
from the university,
distraught about how
little she understood
Physics, in spite of
getting good grades.
He offered the usual
advice any one of us
also would; getting
more help from
faculty, sticking to
it, and finally, not
worrying too much
about the grades
because understanding
mattered the most.
Upset, she replied:
"You don't get it
dad, I've never
understood it."
The gap between what
passes for
understanding, and
‘genuine
understanding’
remains great
according to Gardner.
Reflection helps you
make that leap,
successfully.
Doing Matters
The
late Marvin Bower, the
man who
single-handedly
created the profession
of management
consulting, once
remarked, “ideas are
not enough. They do
not last. Something
practical must be done
with them.”
Reflection practised
for the sake of
reflection is nothing
more than armchair
intellectualism. What
is the point of
understanding if we
don’t use that?
Incidentally,
at Anoova Consulting,
our guiding philosophy
is: “The great end
of knowledge is not
knowledge, but
action.”
Understanding things
helps you do them
better. Doing things
helps you understand
them better. You
cannot have one
without the other.
Unsurprisingly,
the thinkers also
think better when they
do. A recent example
is of Harvard Business
School. Till the late
70s, HBS faculty were
not permitted to
consult. Their focus
was deemed to be
research and teaching.
After the restriction
on offering consulting
was lifted, the
quality of research,
especially that
related to concerns of
practising managers
improved markedly.
Getting into the messy
world of
organizations, helped
them look at the world
from a different lens.
It provided the
academician with the
insights to develop a
better perspective of
organisational issues.
I am sure it
contributed positively
to their classroom
interactions also.
Here,
I must also take a
moment to mention the
not-so-apparent
downside of the
‘single-minded
focus’ approach that
we have been brought
up to revere. Focus is
good. But only if you
are focusing on the
right things. The
practice of reflection
helps you make sure
that it is indeed so.
The marketplace and
the organisation
evolve. They don’t
remain static. So do
the things that we
need to focus on. With
active reflection, we
too can get to see
what truly requires
focus at each point in
time.
To put it in another
way: you are on an
adrenalin rush,
playing the fast and
furious game.
Reflection helps you
understand and get to
where the ball is
going to be next. But
more importantly,
whether you are in the
right playing field to
begin with. Is
football your game, or
is it basketball?
How?
To help you get
started on the path to
active reflection, let
me suggest two very
simple introductory
exercises:
Every night before you
turn off the lights,
think about these two
things. Give about ten
minutes to each:
-
First,
list out the
decisions that
went off well in
the day. Ask
yourself why, for
each.
-
Then
carry out the same
exercise with
things that
didn’t go so
well and the
reasons that they
didn’t.
Sounds
simple? Try it and
see.
To offer a caveat, the
entire exercise will
yield results when we
take an honest,
realistic look at the
day’s events. They
way they actually
happened. As I have
often written,
“There are two ways
of looking at life.
The way it is; or the
way we will like to
believe it is” (Why
you must shoot the
messenger?, BW Aug
23; ‘Thriving
without Paranoia’,
BW, Nov 22).
We begin our journey
with getting to
understand what is
happening in the world
around us. Soon we
graduate to
understanding what
will. Which helps us
correctly define the
path our lives and our
organisations need to
take. All we need is
to regularly disengage
from the everyday
fire-fighting, and
reflect.
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