In a world obsessed with action, reflection can feel like a luxury.
It is not. It is a necessity — for grounded leadership, for clear seeing, and for sustaining wise action.
Reflection is not self-monitoring or second-guessing. It is a practice of noticing, of tending inner landscapes so that our outward expressions arise from greater clarity and congruence.
Leaders who model reflection create spaces where thoughtful action becomes normal, where pause is valued, and where reaction is softened by awareness.
In this Conversation, we’ll consider Reflection as a leadership rhythm.
The Importance of Pause Practicing:
How often have you started your day before sun-up and by the time you closed the last email, finished the last call, or put the dot on the last page of the report realize it’s a few hours past a reasonable time for dinner?
How often have you been in the office, felt like you blinked, and hours had passed?
It’s not that we’re working harder. If you laughed at that, I get it, I really do! But hear me out:
If we went back a handful of decades, people relied not on their mobile phone alarms to get them up in the morning. They were up with the sun (or the crowing of a rooster, or the bustle of the dog or cat) and finished their work day around sun down or so.
Sure, that sounds like a farming analogy. My grandmother swore by The Farmer’s Almanac, and it seemed like not just for her gardening. She was born in 1898 and believed in the saying, “early to bed, early to rise”.
Throughout her days, she visited her same-age friends, checked in on neighbors, participated with her social groups, and did things retired women do. However, she always took time for herself, to sit quietly on the porch or in an Adirondack chair in the backyard.
To sit quietly …
How often in the midst of our busy-ness, do we pause?
It’s important.
It’s like breathing with intention.
Breathing just happens, sure. But when we ground ourselves in the practice of breathing, the action doesn’t just involve one “motion” — it’s not all inhale or all exhale. It’s not continuous both but there are pauses.
Try taking a deep but natural slow breath in. Notice how there’s a pause at the top of the breath, just before the exhale.
That’s the feeling of intentional breathing. It’s a good practice to have. It helps ground that daily rhythm.
This intentional breathing can also be useful as part of a reflective pause practice. Before making a big decision, before that one-to-one conversation with a challenged team member, before meeting with the person we report to, reflective pauses help us think things through.
Holding Silence:
Another couple times that lend to reflective pausing is first thing in the morning and before going to sleep at night.
When we wake up, our mind is like the empty sponge, ready to soak up the day. Before the hectic overdrive kicks in of getting off to work, perhaps getting children in order or older relatives sorted, taking time to breathe and consider helps us begin with purpose and organization.
People might use the morning when they first get up or as the last thing they concentrate on before bed for spiritual practice. Or, they might be working on a project and spend that time, thinking about possible next steps. I’ve done that at night and in the morning, I have a clearer vision on my next steps.
Cultivating reflection that deepens outward expression, not just self-monitoring.
Understanding our inner thought life allows us to assess our authentic self and how what we’re working on aligns with that self.
We can then walk into our workspace, the community, or with our family or friends in ways that allow us to model reflective practice.
Here are two meeting scenarios:
In Meeting A, the conversation is constant and, dare I say, frenzied. People talk over each other, answers come before the questions are finished, and the leader bellows over everyone or says nothing and lets the team burn out their energy, then offers a “solution”. Members of the team walk away from the table, feeling unheard, ignored, or maybe supported and valued because their answer was chosen or at least similar enough to the leader’s recommendation.
In meeting B, the leader encourages conversation but ensures everyone has their turn without anyone over-talking anyone else. This leader asks for solutions when challenges are presented. They might answer a question with a question (“What do you think about that?“) or leave space for others to answer. They check in with those who might not speak up. Multiple solutions are the order of the day. Team member leave the room, encouraged to continue the conversation and to bring other ideas.
The leader in Meeting B takes time to hold silence and managers to slow the reactive loop that sometimes develops in team engagement.
And it all begins with reflection.
Take some time for yourself, for reflection. What does a time of reflection, of intention, look like for you? How does reflection look in your personal and professional practices?
If you don’t take time now, how might you start doing so in future?
If you’d like to explore this path, let’s connect…
Your Journey Sentinal, Andree
