Reflective Power

by Paolo Giuricich CA (SA)
Organisation Development (OD) Consultant
Founder and owner of smart EQ (www.smart-EQ.com)
 
We work at breakneck speed in today’s world. The innovation and creative demands are unprecedented.   Do we take stock and reflect, often enough, of our experiences to become the best we can be? Our collective and reflective narrative sustains our growth.
 
As an Organisation Development Consultant, I work globally, with diverse people. Freelance consulting in the ‘gig’ economy is lonely and it’s difficult to obtain meaningful feedback, beyond social media ‘likes.’ My happy, reflective spaces is ‘up in the air’ on an aircraft, disconnected. Flying back to South Africa from Austria, having facilitated an executive global management team through a high performing team process, my head is full of reflections from my past week. Making sense of my experiences ultimately strengthens my professional and personal toolbox.

Patrick Lencioni, wrote ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,’ and highlights building trust as a foundational base to support optimal team functioning.  My challenge was to facilitate a newly formed executive management team to build trust.  Challenges included leadership approaches, ingrained values and behaviours, culture and diversity considerations and questions about rank, power and authority, amongst other dynamics.  My parallel process was to build trust, with this team in a relative short time.  Doing this I felt exposed, however being authentic and showing vulnerability, built our relationship in exponential ways and ultimately built trust.  My ability to show authentic vulnerability, immediately changed the dynamic and conversation amongst the team and provided safety for the team to ‘open up.’

When collaborating on a project with a friend and colleague in the UK, on the ‘Future of learning,’ we reflected on the changing role of the accountant and leadership challenges.  With AI reshaping financial roles, entry level professional will need to be skilled in the art of intuitive leadership.  Our current systems do not advocate learning that allows personal vulnerability to be the catalyst for growing skills.

Reflections are not only professional, but also about my family. I am always delighted when I see a smile and hear the words, ‘close your eyes dad, I have a surprise for you!’ from my seven-year old son. He had constructed a micro golf course out of Lego and we played the game with abundance. We took stock of our day, using a free-child transactional analysis approach.  Children have a remarkable ability to ask blunt questions.  Such reflective questioning techniques at an early age should be sustained and encouraged.  A super proud dad.

How are you taking stock and reflecting on your experiences?

Five weekly reflective and appreciative practices to consider:
What positive experiences did I have and what did I learn from these experiences?
What relationships did I grow and how did I increase my levels of trust?
With your team – what is going well and how can we build on our success and levels of trust?
What did I do to grow relationships at home and what positive behaviours can I continually repeat?
What do I have a greater appreciation for in my life?

Create your positive, reflective narrative!