How can a prospec­tive global leader track his or her growth and progress? And how do you as leader of an orga­ni­za­tion make sure that the partic­i­pants of your global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment (GLD) program, are making progress?

One of the key factors of growing as or into the role of a successful global leader is the will­ing­ness to take a long, hard look at your­self, acknowl­edge your short­com­ings, and — most impor­tantly — strive to work on your­self and change.

A.k.a. self-reflec­tion.

That’s why, when we at eurac are working with a company to set up their own in-house global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment (GLD) program, one of our best prac­tice prin­ci­ples, we like to imple­ment for program partic­i­pants is reflec­tive learning. It helps both you and your partic­i­pants figure out if they’re actu­ally making progress and learning.

In this article, we take a look at how reflec­tive learning bene­fits any prospec­tive global leader and how you can imple­ment it success­fully in your own GLD program to make sure your partic­i­pants are learning at an accel­er­ated level.

What is Reflec­tive Learning? 

According to Univer­sity of Kent (2019), reflec­tive learning empha­sizes that “learning derives from our expe­ri­ences and can be constantly updated through the process of recording and thinking about the expe­ri­ences we have”.

Univer­sity of Kent further stresses that an impor­tant benefit of reflec­tive learning is that it facil­i­tates the process of learning about ourselves. The Gibbs reflec­tive cycle empha­sizes six steps of reflec­tion that help us to make sense of and learn from our expe­ri­ences: 

1. Descrip­tion — What happened? 
2. Feel­ings — What were you thinking and feeling? 
3. Eval­u­a­tion — What was good and bad about the expe­ri­ence? 
4. Analysis — What else can you make of the situ­a­tion? 
5. Conclu­sion — What else could you have done? 
6. Action plan — If it rose again, what would you do? 

There are different methods on how to inte­grate reflec­tive learning into the learning process. Jour­naling is one of them. As jour­naling is an effec­tive tool for reflec­tive learning which also makes it possible to track progress, eurac inte­grates reflec­tive jour­naling into our global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment programs.

Partic­i­pants in the programs are asked to debrief each activity in the program. At the begin­ning of each day, the partic­i­pants also get the chance to do some jour­naling, to reflect on their learn­ings from the previous day. Using jour­naling to accel­erate reflec­tive learning is widely supported by liter­a­ture as an effec­tive learning method­ology.

What Are the Bene­fits of Reflec­tive Learning? 

There are many bene­fits of reflec­tive learning, as Cambridge Assess­ment Inter­na­tional Educa­tion explains.

Firstly, by reflecting, you improve your problem-solving skills. This is a highly desired ability in a complex envi­ron­ment where the unex­pected is the rule.

Secondly, reflec­tion also helps you under­stand your­self better, what your strengths and your areas in need of devel­op­ment are. Global leaders need to be highly self-aware, to be able to step out of situ­a­tions where someone else is better suited for the job. Also, a self-aware leader is able to find people that comple­ment their skill set, to make up for their weak­nesses.

Thirdly, with increased self-aware­ness, reflec­tive learning also improves emotional intel­li­gence, which helps the global leader to adapt to different person­al­i­ties across cultures.

Harvard Busi­ness School also lists another impor­tant benefit — reflec­tive learning boosts the perceived ability to achieve a goal, also known as self-effi­cacy. It is certainly a desir­able outcome to boost the confi­dence of tomorrow’s leaders, preparing them mentally to tackle complex global chal­lenges. Improved self-effi­cacy, in combi­na­tion with increased self-aware­ness, helps develop compe­tent and emotion­ally intel­li­gent global leaders. 

Reflec­tive Learning in a Global Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Context

The overall learning imple­men­ta­tion of the program follows three stages: 

1. Entry 
2. Encounter — learning from expe­ri­ence
3. Inte­gra­tion and exit 

During these three stages, the partic­i­pant typi­cally goes through different psycho­log­ical states in the form of a U‑shape.

During the first phase, which is a more cogni­tive psycho­log­ical state, the partic­i­pant gets to take part in their 360 feed­back, person­ality tests, and coaching sessions. This is the entry point, before the partic­i­pant tran­si­tions into the second stage, when he or she is exposed to expe­ri­en­tial learning and debriefing sessions.

According to Harvard Busi­ness School, learning from expe­ri­ence is most effec­tive when inte­grated with reflec­tion. During the second stage, the partic­i­pant typi­cally moves away from a cogni­tive state to an emotional and reflec­tive state.

In the last stage, the partic­i­pant inte­grates their learn­ings and plan for action; as a result, he moves back into a cogni­tive state. Hence, reflec­tive learning takes place during the emotional state where jour­naling is an effec­tive tool to accel­erate learning. 

How Do You Get Partic­i­pants to Actu­ally Journal? 

As explained in the best prac­tice prin­ci­ples for eurac’s global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment programs, we always ensure we have the commit­ment and sign-off from the CEO before we kick off any global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment program. If the CEO has not committed, the imple­men­ta­tion simply won’t be effec­tive. To start with, it is there­fore impor­tant that the CEO stresses the impor­tance of lead­er­ship devel­op­ment and sets an example by partic­i­pating in the full program himself.

It’s also impor­tant to stress that partic­i­pants cannot cherry-pick what activ­i­ties to partic­i­pate in — if they partic­i­pate, they have to partic­i­pate in the full program, including reflec­tive learning. The aspiring global leader must have the right learning mindset and desire to learn. 

The main, key, however, is routine. Partic­i­pants have to make it part of their daily rituals — almost like brushing your teeth after break­fast and before bed. An example would be for partic­i­pants to journal for ten minutes every morning when they get to the office, while their computer is booting up and their coffee brewing.

Partic­i­pants who are willing to work on them­selves will find the time and make jour­naling a routine, but it’s also impor­tant to help them make the most of it. There­fore, the program should allow some time in both group or one-on-one coaching sessions for partic­i­pants to discuss their recent jour­naling endeavors, where they’re stuck, and how they can proceed to accel­erate the learning effect.

Why Focus on Learning is Good for Busi­ness 

Not convinced yet? Then what if we tell you that emphasis on learning is good for busi­ness? The concept of growth mindset, based on Carol Dweck’s famous research, is gaining trac­tion. In short, the research shows that kids in school who were praised for their effort, instead of their intel­li­gence, outper­formed the kids who were praised for their intel­li­gence. Kids who were praised for their effort and the process of how they tackled the chal­lenges were more inclined to take on more diffi­cult chal­lenges (i.e. increased self-effi­cacy). Kids who were praised for their intel­li­gence tend to take on less diffi­cult chal­lenges, hence not devel­oping as fast as the other group. 

What are the lessons orga­ni­za­tions can learn from this? Fostering a learning envi­ron­ment leads to increased self-effi­cacy amongst the employees. As a result, employees develop faster and solve harder chal­lenges. As a leader of a company, it is there­fore impor­tant to thor­oughly think through how you can foster the right learning culture to outper­form the compe­ti­tion. 

Try it for Your­self! 

Next time you do training in your orga­ni­za­tion, how about trying a reflec­tive exer­cise at the end of it? It doesn’t have to be compli­cated, a simple exer­cise can make a big differ­ence. An easy exer­cise commonly used within the agile method­ology is to simply review four areas: 

1. Did you learn anything new?
2. What will you continue to do? 
3. What will you do differ­ently next time? 
4. What action will you take? 

In a group setting, everyone in the room can brain­storm in silence on post-it notes before sharing with one another what you learned from the exer­cise. You might be surprised by the effect on learning such small exer­cise can have. 

Inter­ested to know more about how eurac can help your orga­ni­za­tion boost reflec­tive learning and develop the global leaders your multi-national company needs to thrive? Then sign up here for our weekly newslet­ters: