If the Shoe Fits: The Need to Reflect
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
Startup life, especially for founders, is notoriously fast-paced, with thinking time devoted to product development, funding, growth, funding, user acquisition, funding, hiring, funding, etc.
Add to that the need/desire to interact with family and friends, compulsion to keep up with social media and daily chores, such as eating, sleeping, bathing, etc. and many will say that carving out time for quiet reflection is a nonstarter.
That said, no thinking entrepreneur questions the enormous value of attending Steve Blanks annual Lean LaunchPad class — since it offers far more than any accelerator.
It’s the difference between buying fish and learning to fish — the latter provides a lifetime of value, while the former is short-lived.
Blank and his cohorts added a week to the course this year and the reason is of paramount importance — even to those not in the startup world.
This year we made a small but substantive addition to way we teach the class, adding a week for reflection. The results have made the class massively better. (…)
We realized that we had been so focused in packing content and work into the class, we failed to give the students time to step back and think about what they actually learned.
So this year we made a change. We turned the next to last week of the class into a reflection week. Our goal—to have the students extract the insights and meaning from the work they had done in the previous seven weeks.
Reflection — (in this context) a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration
Back in 2011William W. George, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, found that making time for self-reflection was critical for anyone aspiring to a leadership role.
Before anyone takes on a leadership role, they should ask themselves, “Why do I want to lead?” and “What’s the purpose of my leadership?”
The kind of thinking/reflecting recommended by both Blank and George can’t be done while scanning email, texting, listening to music or any of the myriad of distractions that constantly bombard you.
You need to set aside the time, turn off your devices and give yourself time to reflect and even do some deep thinking.
You and your organization will both benefit.
Image credit: HikingArtist
