Reflection with executives: A tool to improve executive and team performance

The purpose for this study is to publish the author’s dissertation research.

The qualitative study used stimulated recall (Gass and Mackey, 2000) of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) in a structured reflection interview (Johns, 1994) to study executives’ “reflection-in-action and on action” business practices. All of the participants (60 people from 10 organizations, aged from 38 to 68) were experienced executives. Each brought an average of over 15 years of leadership and industry experience to their understanding of and experience with these phenomena. The results were analyzed using Miles and Huberman (1994) qualitative data analysis methods.

Three research questions guided this study: How do executives describe, understand and utilize reflection-in-action in their work practices? The study participants were interviewed soon after an experience, meeting with subordinates and a discussion of two critical incidents representing their reflection-in-action to isolate and illuminate the instant and better understand this often subconscious process of reflection-in-action; How do executives describe, understand and use reflection-on-action in their working life? Here the study participants were asked to describe a recent change initiated by reflection-on-action to better understand that process and how it moves from reflection-on-action to action-on-reflection: the initiation of the new action or change; How do executives learn and develop their reflective practices? The participants were asked to describe how they learned, developed and sustained their reflective practices to better understand the nature and development of reflective practice on all levels: in-action, on-action and cyclically. The results of my research included four areas of analysis: reflection as emotional interaction, reflection as development, reflection as a system and reflection as a frame of knowing.

In this doctoral work, the author attempted to show that reflection contributes to improved performance. What the author also learned was that there is a positive relationship between reflection and building supervisor/employee relations, especially within teams. The author also learned that as you reflect, there are a lot of emotions involved. This is largely, in the author’s opinion, where there is a results focus and during performance conversations. The importance of this is that people grow and change when this happens. There is a definitive link. This was the author’s hypothesis and was proved.