A Practical (and Often Overlooked) Exercise to Help You Accelerate Your Career

I changed my early morning routine today and went for a long walk after my coffee. As I was walking, I thought about topics for my newest blog post and reflected on the numerous conversations I had with clients and friends in my network last week. What did I learn? What challenges are top of mind with this group? Are there consistent themes? A number of topic ideas popped into my mind, but one in particular truly seemed universal and helpful to explore:

Our calendar is a school and a great source of learning that we often overlook.

As you have likely gleaned from my books, past writings and this blog post series, I am a reflective person. I am always interested in extracting gold from encounters with others and often mine my past experiences and memories for valuable lessons that will help me grow and learn. I was struck by how often last week I encouraged my clients (as I have for many years) to reflect carefully on past meetings and conversations with their colleagues as a helpful source of information on how to develop themselves. Specifically, I asked them to begin each workday by honestly reflecting on all of the people interactions from the previous day’s calendar and slowly ponder their answers to these questions:

• How did I show up in each of these meetings/conversations?
• Did I model the behavior I would like to see in others?
• Did I show up as authentic? Appropriately personal/vulnerable?
• Was I fully present or distracted and multi-tasking?
• Was I organized and prepared for the conversation(s)?
• Did I ask good questions? What did I learn?
• Did I help, add value and invest in my colleagues?
• What worked well that I wish to continue doing and what do I need to change?

You may be thinking this is very basic and simple, and you would be correct. But I am surprised how rarely businesspeople do this helpful reflective exercise. Think of all the missed opportunities to learn and grow! What gets in the way of this being more commonplace? In my experience, complacency, fear of looking in the mirror, and busyness are typically the culprits.

Practical Application

Try this reflective exercise for a few weeks and see if it works for you. Be intentional and disciplined about carving out 20-30 minutes each morning to do it. Be brutally honest. Take careful notes on the answers to your questions. Continue doing what is working and seek help in areas you need to improve. Read helpful blog posts or books to enhance your knowledge and understanding. Seek coaching from colleagues who excel where you have opportunities to get better. Get accountability partners to help you make changes and stick to them. Always be willing to seek candid feedback from colleagues on your progress.

As you get more and more comfortable with this reflective approach, add an additional and logical step. I have coached many of my clients to spend a few minutes at the beginning of each workday reviewing the upcoming day’s calendar (some do it each Monday for the entire week). Think carefully about what is required of you in each meeting. How can you take the learnings from your calendar reflection exercises and apply them going forward? How will you best prepare? How will you add value? How will you maximize each meeting to be efficient with your time and energy? A helpful tip is to put your preparation notes into your calendar to ensure maximum readiness.

Are you on track at work? Everyone, from the newest team member to the CEO, should always be asking themselves these questions: Is something missing? Am I truly self-aware about my strengths and weaknesses? Am I growing at a pace that fits my goals? Am I effective? Adding value? Everybody has a different way of learning and you should pursue the approach that works for you. But, if you are seeking a practical and proven method of looking in the mirror and reaching your potential, these reflective exercises really work and I encourage you to give them a try.

Good luck!

*Learn more about Randy's recent leadership books here.

Learn more about his brand new book, Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life

Randy Hain is the president of Serviam Partners, the award-winning author of 10 books, an executive coach, leadership consultant and thought leader on candor, clarity, time management, accountability and business relationships. He is also the co-founder of The Leadership Foundry.