The global economy faces continuous turbulence. There is no such thing as normal anymore as the world changes every moment. This is why there is a need to navigate skillfully through good and bad times as a leader.

In addition to remaining focused, managing a personal life and adapting to changes in work-life balance, you might also need to manage a team that consists of individuals who are experiencing difficulty adjusting.

The truth is that, to be an effective leader, you have to look within yourself first. Start with staring at the reflection in the mirror. Only when you can effectively manage your own stressors and emotions will you be able to strive and thrive in a globalized world.

Reflective Leadership

Before you can manage a team, you need to reflect on your thoughts. The fact is that reflection does not need to be a personal process. It can even be a collaborative one.

Every leader needs to spend some time reflecting. It does not mean complete detachment or disconnection from things, but gaining a better perspective of their decisions. This inherent component will enable you to manage and lead.

When it comes to the concept of reflection in leadership, John Dewey is a philosopher that comes to mind. His teachings have greatly attributed to the understanding behind its importance. According to Dewey, reflection equips leaders with problem-solving capabilities.

He believed that action and thought are inseparably attached. Through this rational elaboration, one can come to a suggested conclusion and proceed with active experimental testing.

The mental process of mirroring involves research, clarification and finding a solution for eliminating doubt and difficulty.

Unstructured ideas can become clear enough to find a solution to even the most complicated situations when a person looks within.

Making sense of things

Most people do not realize that they have an innate ability to make sense of just about everything. This is what distinguishes leaders from the masses. They can reflect to make sense of something that might seem impossible to comprehend, let alone solve.

To attain clarity, one has to make an intentional decision to manage their emotional and mental states. It helps cultivate ideas and assists with handling daily interactions constructively.

Whether you are running an online business or not, you must take some time to review your thoughts.

As we are exposed to a relentless flow of negative news and drastic changes, it is easy for us to get overwhelmed. Even when we feel that we can make a life-changing decision, fear and doubt can easily cloud our minds.

Hope

When we reflect, we think about the things that we have achieved throughout the course of our careers. This provides us with much-needed hope. With hope on our side, there is nothing that we cannot do. It makes us feel invincible and capable enough to take on the world.

Hope might be a four-letter word, but it is probably the most powerful emotion that one can possibly possess. A leader that is filled with hope sees past the difficulties and can make crucial decisions that will change the course of the organization.

The power of intention

You might not feel it, but you are more powerful than you think. The driving force that pushes effective leaders is intention. With the right intention, you will be able to dedicate all your efforts towards achieving the desired goals.

To channel the right intention, you need to reflect. It plants a seed that grows into everything that you have always wanted to accomplish. Being in a leadership position also means that you need to instill an intention to follow suit in your peers.

With your intention on something, team members will look at you for mitigating damage and proceeding towards the destination that you want them to reach.

Remain calm

If there is one thing that the philosophy behind reflection in the mirror teaches leaders, it is to remain calm. Just the act of looking back will make you realize how effective you have been as a leader. It enables you to keep going even when you enter difficult waters.

When you are calm, your team will remain confident and continue to put in the effort to help attain the organizational goals. Just the act of being calm makes you win half the battle, which is something to be proud of.

Patience

Patience is, without a doubt, a virtue. However, it is a virtue that every effective leader possesses. Sometimes, when you cannot remain calm, you have to be patient. To attain patience, you need to reflect in the mirror.

By looking within, you will come to realize that everything happens for a reason. It will boost your patience levels, and you will float through all the problems like nothing even happened.

Now, you have to be present and listen actively to what your team members have to say.

Patience allows you to avoid being distracted. Practising management of perspective will provide you with complete control over your decisions.

Embrace change

Reflect on all the change that has come your way. When you embrace change, you become an effective leader. There is no running away from difficulty. Instead, you need to tread head-on. By embracing change, you gain the ability to navigate the unknown.

Change is a part of life. The business world is continuously changing, and only those companies that are adapting to change are surviving. If there is a new technology in your industry, you should learn as much as possible about it to adopt it.

When you accept change, you elevate your emotional and mental state. Start by meditating daily to look within to be willing to change yourself. By showing employees that you can change, they will follow suit.

Reflection opens the door to effective leadership

The only difference between an effective and ineffective leader is reflection. To cultivate the practice of reflection, you should meditate daily. Create a calm environment where nobody can interrupt you. Make sure to put your smartphone on silent and sit in a comfortable position.

Practise your breathing and take control of your thoughts. It might seem noisy at first. But, you will slowly learn to channel your infinite knowledge to make better decisions and be an effective leader.

Arslan Hassan is an electrical engineer with a passion for writing, designing, and anything tech-related. His educational background in the technical field has given him the edge to write on many topics. He occasionally writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions.