Reflection on Reflection: 3 Ways To Look At Your Company’s Progress

As the year speeds to a close, reflection is a likely consideration for most business owners, marketers and decision makers. If it’s not, it probably should be. Confucius is quoted as saying, “Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.” Great advice, Confucius. And, today I challenge you to explore the many meanings of the word reflection.

Three Ways To Reflect On Your Business’s Progress:

What should I be reflecting on? When it comes to your business, there is no shortage of things to reflect on weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. In fact, there may be too many things to reflect on. Understanding what you should be reflecting on is an act of reflection in and of itself. Here are some tips to help you clear the deck and reflect on what matters:

Don’t worry about vanity metrics. Vanity metrics may stroke your ego and give you the warm fuzzies, but they are often not tied to real results for your business. Beware of using your precious reflection time thinking about things such as social media likes and page views for your website. If you cannot reproduce the action taken to get the result or tie it to tangible business KPIs, it might be a vanity metric.

Enlist your team to help with your reflection. You compiled a great team that goes out with locked arms to face the front lines of your business every day. They have insights and intel that you need to tap into. Not only that, they love getting involved in these high-level exercises like reflection. Don’t squander the chance to let them lead the way toward real and meaningful reflection that propels your business forward.

Find a mentor(s). No matter how much experience and expertise you have, you are sure to find someone who has a skill set that you don’t. Compile a few mentors that you can lean on occasionally to help you overcome challenges. Find out what those individuals spend their reflection time on, you might get ideas.

Embrace change. Reflection efforts can be a waste of time if you are not open to the change that may be required. Be open to change and leary of statements like, “but, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Will I like my own reflection?

One definition of reflection is, “to give serious thought or consideration” but another has to do with what you are putting out to the external world. Think of your reflection in the mirror or light reflecting off metal. While self-reflection is critical, understanding what our reflection to our customers, our employees and our stakeholders looks like is equally vital. Sometimes, it’s not exactly what we think it is or desire it to be. The good news is “seeing” your own reflection is easier than ever with the help of Google reviews, Glassdoor, social media platforms and your own Live Chat sessions. You can drill deeper into these factors by using survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Net Promoter Score.

• What does the data say about my reflection? As a successful business person, you may pride yourself on having that sixth sense about what succeeds and what doesn’t in the business world. Hunches can, however, lead to bad decisions. Whenever possible, use data and quantitative metrics to help you make decisions and steer your reflection in the right direction.

As the year comes to an end and we enter into the holiday season, we often feel the urge to reflect. Reflection in both our personal and professional lives is an excellent endeavor…with these tips, I hope it is also an effective one. Here’s to another great year (almost) in the books.

Need help defining your business’s best course of action? I can help with that!