Author: Mark S. Brown

Sometimes when you learn something new, it is like a light bulb coming on. You begin to see things you did not see before. The world did not change, but your view of it did. Reflection can help you turn on those light bulbs.

Experience without reflection is nothing but a record of your work. Experience with reflection is enlightening. The reflection process allows you to grow, learn, and break through barriers.

Reflection can probe deeper, and suddenly an experience becomes illuminated, and your understanding and view of the world changes. How can you make your daily reflection this productive? Ask yourself probing open ended questions. Don’t only review the surface of your day, but dig deep. Here are some questions for you to consider:

1. How did my actions reflect my values? Where can I improve my actions or attitude to better reflect the values I hold?

2. Who did I help? How did I increase the potential for someone?

3. What is the one most important thing that I can do to increase my potential or reach my goal?

4. What did I do that distracted me from my goals? Where were the sources of my distraction? What do I need to do differently?

5. How have I served my family, my team, and my friends today?

6. If I knew I would be successful, what one thing should I do tomorrow?

7. What false limitations have I placed upon myself?

8. Have I unleashed my enthusiasm and passion? Where am I holding back?

If you are not routinely using a reflection process in your life, grab a journal or pad of paper, and get started today. Only you can light your path.

An organization does not become innovative without the environment. Innovation results from letting people think creatively in a supportive environment. As a leader, you have the ability to influence and create that environment. It is not as easy as you think, but here are three actions you can take that will put you on the right track.

1. Communicate the goals, objectives, and mission of your organization.

It would be a waste of effort to create an innovative culture that was not focused on the organization’s goals. You could end up with a great ideas and motivated employees that can’t contribute to the organization.

Tell people what the organization needs. Tell them how they can help. Describe what success would be, but most of all don’t tell them how to do it. Don’t micro manage the process.

2. Remove threats, pressures, and provide support and encouragement.

People must be encouraged to experiment and try new things. People need recognition for success and failure. Keep people focused on participation, and less on measurements. Create awards for “Best idea that almost succeeded”, and “Most incredible idea that did not work”.

Turn failures into opportunities to learn. Take two unrelated failures and a review team, and see how you may take ideas from both and create something new.

3. Provide a fun environment that sparks imagination and creativity with fun, games, and challenges.

Creativity is a skill that can be developed. Giving people an opportunity to think of solutions without pressure is what games and challenges can provide. These can be team challenges or individual challenges. They can be structured or very unstructured. Make them fun, and get people involved.

Games and challenges can seem as a waste of time by some. But in the right context, it creates participation, fun, and another way to recognize creativity. A challenge can be as simple as describing the link between three unrelated items. For example, have everyone describe what a bulldozer, a telephone, and a coffee cup have in common. Make it fun and award free movie passes to the person that submits the most creative connections.

You can make a difference in your organization. Take responsibility for helping create the right environment for innovation, because innovation will not happen by accident.

Do you have a list of goals or objectives? If you do, maybe you should trash it, or shred it, and start with a new blank piece of paper. Clear your desk, and clear the next hour. So you can start fresh.

Close your eyes and imagine where you want to be in 5 years. What do you want to accomplish? Think big picture and think big. Realize that failure is not a factor in defining your true personal vision. Your potential is unlimited.

Got that picture? Now make it 10 times bigger. Make it 10 times more successful. How would it feel? What would it look like?

While you still have that picture, write your personal vision. Remember your passion. Remember your purpose. Capture it in writing. Define what you want to achieve and where you want to go.

Great, you have just freed yourself of your short term goals and objectives and created a new successful destination. When you compare your goals with your vision, did you define the right things? Did you have a plan to make yourself successfully achieve your vision? If you are like most people, you didn’t.

True self leadership requires knowing the destination, and then navigating towards it. You must review and adjust for obstacles. You must become an expert in the knowledge required for success. You must keep moving.

Now you can rewrite those goals. Remember the vision, and chart your course. No one else can plot it, only you. No one else can be accountable for achieving it, only you.

Are you aware of the learning opportunities around you? Are you stuck in your comfort zone, and find yourself going through your daily routine with little variation? Lifelong learning aspirations can be combined with your normal daily opportunities to rejuvenate your spirit.

Everyone can teach something. It is easy to miss learning opportunities. Your life is filled with your priorities and tasks you must complete. You do not have time to look around for new opportunities. But by not being aware, or grasping the value that every person around us has, you risk missing many good things in life.

Next time you get a telephone call from an associate or a colleague, take a chance, and ask them a question unrelated to their call. Ask them about a project, or ask them about a decision they made, or ask them about their toughest current challenge. That one question that you ask can impact you.

For a challenge today, take these three actions:

1. Open your eyes. See opportunity in every human contact you have today. Make a list of the names of each person you meet or talk with today.
2. Force yourself to interact. Ask questions that create an opportunity to learn. Practice your listening skills, and concentrate on the message, and also the person. How are they reacting to your discussion?
3. Recognize the impact on yourself. At the end of the day, reflect on how this list of people affected you. Take the information you learned today and decide if there are next steps that will help you. What about extending help to those people? Did they reveal areas that they needed support?

At the end, you should be able to recognize that each day provides us with opportunities that many times we ignore. Each day can be so much more than just a routine or just a job. If you find this technique successful, then repeat it. Begin using it once a week, or even daily.