To me, self-reflection in the workplace is the solo act of reviewing and adjusting one's own behavior to better serve the organization's needs. The process can be outlined in three simple steps:
- Review your recent activities, assessing how productive and well-aligned they were. Consider your own personal goals and the organization's goals in your assessment.
- Make a short-term action plan, noting which activities to start doing, to stop doing and to still continue to do.
- Execute your short-term action plan.
The length of the "short term" is up to the individual to decide, based on that person's individual capabilities and the time constraint set by leadership. For example, take an employee with a short attention span who is expected to spend 2.5% of his time on self-reflection. This employee may decide that "short term" equates to one week, which is just enough time for him to start losing focus on the action plan.
As implied, self-reflection is not a one-time process, but rather a habit that should be developed over time. I searched on Google for "why is it important to self-reflect" and found a few useful resources that explain how the process helps in many situations:
- Real Talk blog: "Why Self Reflection Is Important"
- College of the Canyons: "Self-Awareness"
- DJUS Online: "Cognitive Effects of Self-Awareness on Thought"
And when would be good to start this process? Well, how about today?
