Getting Started

Check In

Begin each topic with an honest assessment of where you are personally. Rather than a one size fits all approach, PowerUP Career is designed to help you focus on what will matter most to you, based on where you are right now and where you are headed in your career. Think of it like a personal trainer for career muscles. The “check and reflect” approach is a unique feature in this program to help you apply research based realities to your situation and create strategies that will help you soar. These assessments are confidential and illustrative – providing personal insight on your strengths and potential gaps or blindspots, thus directing focus to areas that will help you overcome current blockers. Any data collected is anonymous and is used exclusively to advance our research and hone this design to meet your individual needs.

Lab

Think of this as a blog on steroids.  Our team has combined current research with practical application and expert insight, to bring you practical ways to navigate your career journey.  This will be a combination of new concepts, and insightful refreshers, to set the landscape for you to do some broad thinking and adopt some new habits. These habits are the foundation of your career fitness moving forward.

We’ve included a curated collection of interesting support and sidebar topics to round out your learning. This is not our content, but it’s some of the best in the industry and a good way for you to know other experts in the field. Take a look at your leisure, and use these as a launching point to go deeper in what interests you. These resources are not ours, but we bring them to you because we believe in their value.

Move Forward

Once you’ve established your personal baseline via the assessment, and explored some interesting ideas in the Lab, it’s time to pull it together in your own meaningful way.  The secret ingredient to the PowerUP approach, is your own insight and commitment to take action for improvement and personal satisfaction.  While the Check In assessments are fun to take and score, don’t skip the reflection activities. These worksheets are structured to focus your thinking and help you set priorities to Move Forward.  These activities are your personal input for the PowerUP team conversations – where coaches and colleagues will collaborate to help you Move Forward. 

Connect

We are better together, than alone … so make it a priority to participate in the PowerUP dialogues if they are available.

Chat – There’s a section for your input with each lab. This is your space to post questions, insights, practical ideas, and/or the hurdles which need advice.  Everything is fair game – use this space as your sounding board to learn how to PowerUP.

Team — Many teams have the option to meet via video to have a more robust dialogue and build relationships that can carry us forward beyond the this experience.  Your cohort will be your “PowerUP team” with the mission to give you support and drive your success.  We will succeed together. 

Reflection is Key to PowerUP

Routine and Reflection – Where do you stand?

We’ve all heard it, probably more than a few times – “practice makes perfect.” It’s hard to pinpoint where it all started, but it’s one of those subtle sayings that really packs-a-punch. It keeps us grounded in improvement based on consistency and daily repetitions.

And yet, there’s another subtle saying, equally as pervasive — claiming to be the definition of insanity – “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, but expecting different results.” Most of us have experienced the painful truth of this saying, too.

So, how do we reconcile these silent steadfast mantras that cause conflict in our heads?

Whether or not these words resonate as true, many of us continue on in our life and work doing the same things and wondering why we aren’t getting better outcomes.

The good news is, the solution is easy to understand, costs nothing, and can be improved over time. The solution lies in personal reflection— in taking a step back and reflecting on life, actions, successes, and failures.

Personal Reflection – What do you think?

At its simplest, personal reflection is about careful thought. It’s about looking more closely at what’s happening and how it makes you feel or behave. It’s about watching yourself as you go through your day, and noticing what you like, and what you hope to change. It’s about not taking things for granted. And at work, it’s about considering your impact on others, and their impact on you. When you can notice and attune to the impact you have on others in the present, you can build your ability to create the intentional impact – to actually be the contributor or leader that you want to be for the future. 

Reflection allows the brain to pause amidst workplace chaos, untangle and sort through diverse observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning. It’s a “meaning making” process that produces new learning and insight to inform future mindset and action. This is how we become intentional about who we are, who we want to be, and what we want to accomplish.  And ultimately, this drives our confidence and satisfaction at work.  This is how we PowerUP.

Thus, personal reflection is far from “fluff work.” Rather, it’s core to a leader’s ongoing growth, development, and productivity.[1] Personal reflection about work involves the conscious and consistent consideration and analysis of beliefs and actions for the purpose of learning, adapting, and accelerating.[2] It is dedicated time, routinely, in which one recounts interactions and impact in an effort to uncover avenues for improvement.

Reflection is both simple and challenging, consuming both time and tremendous cognitive processing.[3] Personal reflection requires one to own their true self: personality, quirks, shortcomings, and strengths. It requires an awareness of an interior self, as well as one’s exterior self; one’s presence and modes of interaction and connection with others.[4]

Perhaps most importantly, personal reflection helps to uncover our perspectives, filters and biases. We often believe and endorse our own version of the truth based on our own assumptions and preconceived notions. Research suggests that in processing information, we posses internal filters that dictate how we think and act, thus, reflection is necessary to slow us down, call our attention back, and re-analyze initial interpretations and behaviors for greater accuracy.[5][6][7] Successful organizational leaders are those who are able to exhibit cognitive and behavioral complexity amidst dynamic, diverse, and complex work environments.[8]

Further, what’s good for you is also good for your organization. Personal reflection builds not only the individual as leader, but also workplace productivity and climate. A call center study that found that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about lessons learned, performed 23% better after 10 days of practice compared to colleagues that did not reflect; thus confirming the positive impact of reflection on production.[9] Similarly, in a study that prompted participants to use daily commute time for reflection, research found that participants were happier, more productive, and less burned out by work than people who didn’t engage in reflection time.[10][11]

It’s clear; the benefit of personal reflection is multifold, improving one’s capacity for leadership, work productivity, and general wellbeing.[12] The nature of contemporary work environments makes the capacity for continuous learning and adaptability through personal reflection a critical competency.[13] Employees today must be able to learn from their experiences to advance in their careers and deal effectively with diverse teams and work environments.[14]

Thus, it starts here.

Leadership Fitness is about learning to engage in structured, consistent, and focused personal reflection as a way to transform your goals into realities. Seeing yourself for who you are is key to becoming who you want to be—and this requires the discipline and practice of reflection. It’s a fitness routine that will carry us forward. We all need an honest way to assess our starting point, and honest check-in’s along the way, as we pursue life’s journey in work and beyond.

Check Out Our Sources:

[1] Høyrup, S. (2004). Reflection as a core process in organisational learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 16(8), 442-454.

[2] Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., Staats, B., & Di-Stefano, G. (2014). Learning by thinking: How reflection aids performance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

[3] Høyrup, S. (2004). Reflection as a core process in organisational learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 16(8), 442-454.

[4] Sparrowe, R. T. (2005). Authentic leadership and the narrative self. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 419-439.

[5] Greenwald, A. G., & Krieger, L. H. (2006). Implicit bias: Scientific foundations. California Law Review, 94(4), 945-967.

[6] Ashford, S. J., Blatt, R., & VandeWalle, D. (2003). Reflections on the looking glass: A review of research on feedback-seeking behavior in organizations. Journal of Management, 29, 773-799.

[7] Nesbit, P. L. (2012). The role of self-reflection, emotional management of feedback, and self-regulation processes in self-directed leadership development. Human Resource Development Review, 11(2), 203-226.

[8] Nesbit, P. L. (2012). The role of self-reflection, emotional management of feedback, and self-regulation processes in self-directed leadership development. Human Resource Development Review, 11(2), 203-226.

[9] Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., Staats, B., & Di-Stefano, G. (2014). Learning by thinking: How reflection aids performance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

[10] Mann, K., Gordon, J., & MacLeod, A. (2009). Reflection and reflective practice in health professions education: a systematic review. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 14(4), 595.

[11] Harvard Business School. Retrieved from: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/16-077_0aae29b7-b67e-402a-9bc9-c06dd477e8da.pdf

[12] Sparrowe, R. T. (2005). Authentic leadership and the narrative self. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 419-439.

[13] Nesbit, P. L. (2012). The role of self-reflection, emotional management of feedback, and self-regulation processes in self-directed leadership development. Human Resource Development Review, 11(2), 203-226.

[14] Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., Staats, B., & Di-Stefano, G. (2014). Learning by thinking: How reflection aids performance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.