Reflection: The Silent Tool of Leadership

Hello, welcome to my fourth Newsletter. This is for you if you are a Changemaker or Thought Leader in Workplace & Facilities Management. Each issue is brief, to the point, and structured like this: A Quote, A Thought, An Action - intended to prompt curious and potentially disruptor thinking about what else we - as a collective - can do to move the sector forward.

In a soothsayer-esque quirk of timing, this week's issue which focusses on the immense power of reflection as a behavioural tool of leadership, coincides with the day Boris Johnson has resigned his position as leader of the conservative party and eventually his tenure as Prime Minister. Whatever your thoughts on this individual, his behaviour as a leader in public office is undeniably the reason for his demise. What was once considered by his followers an attractive and compelling leadership quality, simply became too much to tolerate, explain and defend.

As Boris *may* one day privately reflect upon, leaders, are only leaders whilst they have the privilege of Followers who trust them to do the right thing, in the right way.

A Quote

"Reflective thinking turns experience into insight." - John C. Maxwell.

A Thought

In my recent blog ‘Seven hacks for leaders who are struggling to motivate their teams to achieve peak performance’; I identified common behavioural blind spot themes that, when addressed, build strong foundations for performance growth;

1.     Show Appreciation

2.     Admit Mistakes

3.     Listen Actively

4.     Be Honest

5.     Encourage Debate and (calculated) Risk Taking

6.     Get Connected

7.     Leverage Strengths

You may read this and think “I do these already”, but I’d like to throw in some food for thought...

Motivation and engagement problems arise when leaders believe they’re demonstrating these behaviours, but their employees don’t share this belief because they do not see the behavioural evidence. This happens more often than we realise. Human beings tend towards over-optimism when evaluating their own performance; demonstrated by an oft-replicated experiment “the average person, when asked, typically claims that s/he is ‘above average," which is, of course, statistically impossible.

Leadership is a complex discipline requiring vision, strategic thinking, financial savvy…and behavioural competency. Having worked with a wide cross-sector of business leaders from construction to manufacturing to financial and legal services, I recognise that acknowledging your leadership blind spots takes courage and humility.

FM has traditionally been seen as a "doing" sector, rather than a cerebral one. I'd wager that most FM-ers would quote driving peak performance, action-taking, strategic thinking, relentless focus on commercial success as the defining behaviours of successful FM leadership.

And I very much doubt I'd hear advocating silence and mental stillness as a tool of leadership. And yet having space and time for reflection through silence and mental stillness is crucially important to professional and organisational development, productivity, progression and peak performance.

Reflection is a powerful tool of high performing Leaders.

This week I shared a post that I adore spending time at Gladstone Library, Hawarden in North Wales, and every so often go and immerse myself in the stillness, silence and studious atmosphere.  For me this is a destination workspace where I go with the specific purpose to have a quiet space where I can reflect and gain new insight. Most of us will need or want to work for a long time; for this reason I believe it is important to make as much of your working life as possible - use it to learn, grow, develop and progress… so we can achieve peak performance. This can only happen if we make time and space for reflection.  

An Action

Ask yourself if you prioritise reflection as a means of improving performance, and if not, why not? Where is your destination space for reflection?

Until next time, Kate

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PS If you are a client-side leader in FM, are you part of the FMCatalyst group hosted by Martin Bolton and myself? This group offers peer support and insights to drive change to get different results. No sales and no competition; just a desire to accelerate the pace of positive change across this fantastic sector. If that’s you, please get in touch. 

As part of that group we hold Round Table Discussions - the next will be in September at Moneypenny's offices in Wrexham. DM to reserve a space.