Leadership Skills in the Workplace

Maintaining Gains Made

LEADERSHIP BRIEFS

08 Time for Reflection

Objectives

Help leaders understand they need personal reflection time to do their best.

Discuss how to find such time on a regular basis.

Lesson

Marcus Aurelius was a second century Roman emperor. He was a statesman, businessman, and philosopher, and more keenly aware of the responsibilities of his office than most. He was an able and thoughtful leader whose wisdom (which later generations gleaned from the journal he kept) has inspired numerous people through the ages.

There are three fundamental ideas he held and practiced which he used to improve his life and his leadership.

First, he found daily time for quiet reflection. Withdrawing and reflecting was a habitual pattern. In his case, journal writing allowed him the time to examine his own behavior and motives. This reflection enabled him the opportunity to renew his commitment for the weighty duties he held.

Second, Aurelius surrounded himself, in his journal and his life, with reminders to live more nobly, suggestions to himself, challenges to live more fully, and conclusions on lessons he had learned. He writes in some detail about lessons learned from people in his life who had shaped and influenced him, and he expressed gratitude for their positive influence.

Third, he spent time thinking about and writing about how he wanted to live, creating his ideal self. He took bits and pieces from all those he admired and his own values and crafted a powerful vision of who he most wanted to be. Much of his journal is a self-evaluation of how he was living up to his own standards.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. What is the value of quiet time, time for thinking, and time for journal writing? Do you need this kind of time?
   
   
2. This “reflection time” may have been fine in the Roman empire, but most organizations today need action. How to you respond to the charge that if you are not actively “doing something,” you are not contributing?
   
   
3. How can you carve out regular time for reflection in an already too busy life?

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