What Works: Reflection (#23)
Practical leadership techniques I've been using for years (part 2)
In my ongoing series on What Works, I have been trying to provide you with practical ways to apply the theories of Telodynamic leadership in your organization, immediately. Each suggestion is something I have benefited from. These are not just theories; they are realistic, functional ways to make an impact in your organization.
I decided to call these shorter articles “What Works.” The goal is to discuss the simple, practical ways that you can apply telodynamic leadership in your workplace.
Each of these suggestions are not things that I'm guessing about; they are things that I have personally used. There are a number of ways you can practically apply other leadership methodologies in organizational downshifting, but the steps in the “What Works” series are practical steps that I have personally designed, tested, and implemented.
Note: Each of these practical tools I have used require about 10 minutes each day.1
Today we're going to talk about reflection. Specifically, reflecting on the decisions you've made during the week, and how to do so in a valuable and effective way.
What Works #2: Reflection
It's a pretty simple process, and while the review data might take some time to set up and get familiar with, in all you're not going to add more than 10 minutes a day, or 10 minutes at the end of your week.
Step One: Record Your Decisions
This isn't actually as hard as you might think. There are numerous tools for doing so, including AI tools that will record your meetings and can transcribe them; pulling out the decisions that were made.
I have tested several of these tools, and what I can tell you is that if you repeat a task or a decision more than twice, virtually all AI recording review programs will recognize it is a decision or next step that needs to be highlighted.
Even if you're meeting in person, not over Zoom, you can record your meetings and run the recording through an AI tool to identify the decisions you've made. I do this with critical decision conversations that involve small leadership teams as well (with their consent, of course) to ensure that there is some accountability for what is said.
The simplest way to do this is to write down each time you've made a decision. You should include what the decision was, at a high level, so that at a glance you will remember what the decision was and why you made it.
I usually record when I made the decision, why I made the decision, who I made the decision with or who was there, and what I felt about that decision at the moment (1-5 ranking: terrible to awesome).2 The ranking (which we’ll explore more in a little) looks like this:
I feel terrible about this decision and regret it
I feel bad about this decision
I don’t feel strongly about this decision; good or bad
I feel good about this decision
I feel this was a great decision and am proud of it
It's really pretty simple, and you can use a spreadsheet or a notebook, or even Post-it notes to record your decisions.
The reason I include when I made the decision is because sometimes my decisions aren't as good depending on the time of day. If I'm making decisions right before lunch, I might be thinking about what kind of sandwich I want to make, instead of whether the stakeholders will care about this or that additional metric in their quarterly review.
Whatever the decision, or its importance, having the time of the decision is an valuable factor for the review process when you get there.
If you record each decision in a simple way, you'll have a pretty long list come the end of the week. These could be as simple as, “sent the update email now, instead of waiting for a fourth review” or “decided to sign the contract today.” The critical thing is to track that you made a decision.
Then, at the end of the week, you will learn something about your decision-making process and effectiveness during the review and evaluation processes:
Step Two: Review Your Decisions
At the end of the week, I take my list of decisions (which has been anywhere from 30 to 200), and I run down the list and score them in three specific areas:
#1—Did My Decision Solve the Problem?
The first question is regarding whether the decision I made actually solved the problem or resolved the situation. This is a simple yes or no, however, because some decisions are time-sensitive or can take time to make an impact, I also include an “unknown” option (we will get back to those unknowns in a little). Answers: Yes, No, Unknown
#2—Did My Decision Create a Problem?
The second question is regarding the targeted impact of the decision. Specifically, did my decision end up creating collateral confusion or did it only impact what was necessary.3 It’s important to know if my decision potentially reduced performance in other areas not obviously related to the problem I was trying to solve. This may also be unknown, so that is another option. Answers: Yes, No, Unknown
#3—How Do I Feel About My Decision Now?
The final question is pretty straightforward. I rank the decision on a scale of one to five, one being I feel terrible about this decision and regret it, and five being I'm proud of this decision and think it was the best decision. Answers: 1-5
You'll note that with each of these decisions, I am not adding any notes or context. I am only creating a high-level, somewhat binary determination of my prior decisions. There's a reason for that; it takes too much time to sit down and do a deep dive on every single decision, each week. There are some decisions that you might need to dig into more, but that is not the purpose of this exercise.
Next, we will break down the final step of the review process: Evaluation. See you soon!
The 10-minute benchmark is important to maintain, for practical purposes. I have led teams up to 60 individuals, at all levels of an organization, and I have yet to find one leader who legitimately couldn't spare 10 minutes a day to improve their impact and the performance of their associates.
An Excel sheet or something similar works for me, so that I rarely spend more than one minute on this information at the end of my meeting. Some information (such as who is present, or the time of the decision), can be added before a scheduled meeting to save time as well. Usually, I record this information while summarizing the meeting at the end to confirm next steps and such (an AI tool just makes this faster). That way, I don’t actually add any time to my calendar.
This might even include flak from people on the job who didn't like the change that I suggested.