Being a reflective leader

Reflective learning is fundamental to how any learning organisation operates but is particularly important in health and social care. Although leaders may believe they provide opportunities for people to reflect on their work, these discussions are often driven by task management and an agenda focused on compliance. Truly reflective organisations recognise the importance of critical thinking, learning and growth, and they provide opportunities for people to unpack the complex emotional demands of the job.

It is crucial to create ‘reflective spaces’ where practitioners can discuss the emotional demands placed upon them and how best to cope with this key aspect of the work. Where support is lacking, the emotional demands of health and social care can have wide-ranging, negative implications; our research found that decision-making abilities can be impaired, motivation and job satisfaction inhibited, and compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion heightened, all of which can have a negative impact on people accessing services (Grant & Kinman, 2014; Kinman & Grant, 2020). 

A lack of opportunity for reflection can also encourage a false sense of security: for example, a worker may be tempted to ‘cover their back’ before leaving for the weekend by sending a flurry of emails highlighting the tasks they have accomplished, rather than expressing an underlying concern about a person who is accessing services.

Reflective learning must be deeply embedded in health and social care organisations and leaders should ensure it is happening in practice, not just in theory. Opportunities for reflective learning will be increased in a culture where the value of learning is emphasised, blaming and scapegoating are avoided, and there is an appreciation that mistakes, near misses, and unsuccessful practice are opportunities for learning.

Reflective leadership is crucial for successful health and social care organisations. Leaders should model reflective practice personally, as well as encourage it through supervision and conversations with practitioners. Only reflective leaders can foster a learning organisation, as they will draw upon the collective expertise of the teams around them to make decisions.

Reflective leaders:

• Are flexible.
• Regularly step out of their routine and familiar environment to think, explore and learn.
• Question others for alternative points of view and ensure they consider a wide range of options before taking action (see the strategy for ‘walking the floor’ in KFP2 Sense of Appreciation).

You may be thinking: “This describes me very well; I am just like that.“ But we can easily become defensive or reluctant to consider different perspectives and this can make us stuck or fixated on a decision or pattern of behaviour. The iceberg model shown below is a useful analogy to help you think through why you have come to a particular decision and to check out what might ‘lie beneath.

Do you ever wonder why you (or others) have reached a standpoint on a key issue and become stuck? When colleagues are intransigent, do you see them as inflexible or stubborn, or do you try to understand the reasons underpinning their thought processes and behaviour? The iceberg model can help an individual or group uncover the ‘mental models’ and patterns of behaviour that underlie a particular interpretation of an event.

Drawing on Freud’s theory of the human mind, the model recognises that the greater part of what we believe is hidden under the surface, but that is what helps us understand ourselves and those we work with more effectively. Just like an iceberg, what we see on the surface is only an event or behaviour. Identifying what lies beneath can only be accomplished when practitioners feel safe and leaders have the emotional literacy to engage in honest, reflective conversations.

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• words
• Behaviours
• Gestures
• Experiences
• Beliefs
• Values
• Biases
• Prejudices
• Fears