For some time now, I have worked with executives who want a certain support that is similar to coaching but which goes deeper: Executive Reflection.
Overview
The top of an organisation can be an isolated place. It may be a lonely journey to get there too, for those on their way up. There’s pressure, time’s precious, and work-life balance can be precarious. Executive Reflection is a practice, a way to consciously enable yourself to give of your best. It is simple, but not always easy to do by yourself. By enlisting the support of a skilful partner, time spent in reflection is easeful yet intense, relaxed and focused, and it can be many times more productive than time alone with your thoughts.
You
Typically, you may be deeply immersed in your work and attached to your organisation, leading its people, managing problems and developing opportunities. The tactical is always vying with the strategic in your schedule, while the urgent and the important switch places constantly. It’s hard to step back and gain perspective, and it seems like you never, ever have enough time to just think. If life is a waterfall, then maybe you’re the log rolling round in the whirlpool. You know that you could be much more productive, that you could make some useful changes and achieve more if you could just stop sometimes, take stock and see what you might be missing.
You find it hard to make the time but sense that you could do so with the right additional support – but what support exactly do you need? You don’t want a mentor because you’re the mentor now, helping younger colleagues. You don’t exactly need a coach, because you are performing as is expected of you and you manage yourself and others pretty well most of the time. You are not so interested in being analysed. You don’t think a therapist is useful just now, and certainly not a guru, evangelist or Zen monk, although they might be interesting.
I suggest you need a reflection partner.
What is a reflection partner?
The role of a partner in this context is to work with you to enable you to see and do what you need to. To help you step out of the current and into calmer waters for a while. To help you slow down and engage all your faculties including your heart and guts. To help you find the perspectives you need. You can metaphorically sit at the edge of the river and take the time you need to review, assess, check your assumptions and see what emerges. Your partner makes this time feel spacious, creative and easeful whilst being entirely focused on you and your needs.
How I work as a reflection partner
I offer the sensitivity and confidentiality to enable exploration of personal and work topics. I’ll help you generate fresh thinking and draw deep learning from past events. I will be with you as you come to face the fears and difficulties that many a leader has but may not admit to. As a walker and nature-lover, I bring my work into the outdoors where possible, to enhance our reflection experience and multiply the benefits of time spent in this way.
Please contact me if you’d like to try a session of executive reflection for yourself.
Three Rules of Work: “Out of clutter find simplicity; from discord find harmony; in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein.
Walk to think things through: “I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, theologian, poet and social critic.
Listen to ourselves: “There is strong shadow where there is much light. Our shadows can derail us but they can also keep us on track. When we notice our shadows we can choose to either ignore them or embrace the message which they offer us.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.