Join the "Space to Lead” Challenge

Are you ready to transform your leadership practice? Introducing the “Space to Lead Challenge”—a unique opportunity for leaders to elevate their effectiveness through the power of reflection.

In our Spring Issue, we introduced the new column Space to Lead, and talked about the importance of leaders creating time for reflection. You can read the full article HERE.

When working with individuals and teams, I consistently hear about challenges with workload, with leaders often feeling stretched beyond capacity as they look after day-to-day expectations, support and manage their people, participate and run projects, and more.

It is not uncommon for coaching clients to come into coaching conversations apologizing for not having the time to spend on commitments they made during their previous coaching session.

As these patterns repeated themselves, I began challenging clients to be intentional about setting aside time for reflection.

Today, you are being invited to join the “Space to Lead Challenge” by setting aside 30 minutes weekly to reflect on your leadership practice.

Why Participate?

1. Time Flies: Without intention, it is easy to fill every moment with tasks and to-dos.
2. Gain Clarity and Insight: Reflection allows you to examine your actions, thoughts, and behaviors, leading to better decision-making and personal growth.
3. Learn from Experience: Reflecting helps you extract valuable lessons from your experiences.
4. Build Self-Awareness: Regular reflection cultivates self-awareness, a crucial component of emotional intelligence, and leadership practice in general.
5. Enhance Communication: Understanding how your actions impact others can improve your interactions and relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.

How it works:

1. Schedule a Recurring Weekly 30-Minute Session: Call the recurring meeting “Space to Lead” and dedicate this time solely to reflecting on your leadership practices, goals, and experiences. My clients often set aside time on Fridays.
2. Keep this time sacred: There is always something important to do. Make sure to keep this time regardless of what might be going on. And talk about it. Make sure others know what you are doing and why – perhaps encouraging them to join the challenge too! Imagine if an entire organization dedicated a regular time for leaders, managers and employees to reflect on their week….
3. Think about your “Space to Lead” Practice: Will you have a consistent approach to your reflective time? Or will you adapt each week or period based on what is happening in your world?
4. Think about your environment: As you think about your practice, what environment would best support that work and reflection?

“Space to Lead” Prompts- Each of us will have different needs and areas of focus, and I wanted to share a few examples of how you might use your reflective time, to help get your creative juices flowing:

1. Are you working with your coach to enhance or refine a particular skill or competency? A weekly check in to review your progress might make sense. For example, if your goal is to be more assertive in meetings, spending some time reflecting on the week, noticing times where you stepped into your power, or perhaps times where you held back. Were there any patterns or themes that stood out? How can you carry that forward into the next week/
2. Do you find yourself running from meeting to meeting, barely able to catch your breath, let alone get to all the tasks and emails that are piling up? What if you used your weekly “Space to Lead” time to look at next week’s calendar? Do you need to be at every meeting you are scheduled for? Looking at your schedule with a critical eye, are there meetings that are well-represented by other members of your team? If you are attending for information purposes only, is there a more effective way for you to be updated? Is there information that could be shared via an email or Teams chat? We could go on with questions here, as meetings are the biggest challenge our clients face.
3. Have you been working to develop or manage a particular employee? How has that gone this week? What progress have they made? Have you been consistent in giving them timely feedback and coaching? If no, what needs to change for this to happen going forward? How much responsibility are you taking on for their success, vs. holding them accountable? Are there perhaps areas where your own bias or experience is influencing how you deal with them? Being intentional about our approach (vs. being reactive) can have a dramatic impact on the development process.
4. Finding it difficult to connect with your team? Is the only time you are seeing then at meetings? Dealing with issues? What if you intentionally created some time to do a walk-about, or take someone for coffee?
5. Have you been running non-stop all week? Perhaps the most impactful thing you can do during your weekly “Space to Lead” time is to put everything down and get outside. A walk, some movement, and some time to clear your head can be very powerful!
6. And the list could go on. What would add the most value for you? What questions would help you gain more clarity on your leadership, your team, your priorities, opportunities and possibilities?

Share Your Journey

We encourage participants to share their reflections and experiences on social media using the hashtag #SpaceToLead. By doing so, you'll inspire others and build a community of leaders committed to growth and excellence. And I would love to hear your stories too. Please reach out to share, and let me know if you would like your story featured in a future article.

Get Started Today

Don't miss out on this transformative challenge. Get started this week and take the first step towards becoming a more reflective and effective leader.