“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration ... create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
– Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work”

You may think that working longer, harder, and smarter than your team will inspire by example. But leadership is both active and reflective, and requires eyes on the details as well as the bigger picture.

Your employees are looking to you for the big vision as well as leading the way forward.

Successful leaders and CEO’s like Bill Gates block out time on their busy calendars to think, grow, solve problems, and dream up ways to improve their business. Every year since the early 80’s, Gates has taken “Think Weeks” at a lakeside cottage.

J.K. Rowling, creator of the wildly successful Harry Potter franchise struggled to complete the last book in the series. The pressure to not disappoint millions of fans made it all but impossible to focus in her office. So she checked into a luxury hotel and that solitude helped her finish the book.

Taking time to think will help you become an extraordinary leader. In our early professional lives, we’re rewarded for being highly effective doers. As leaders we need an upgraded set of skills, practices, and mindsets. Taking the time to think can greatly speed up the process of acquiring these.

For this reason, a well-known coaching company has all its coaching clients take a survey that leads off with “How often do you take time off for strategic thinking?” Some clients say “weekly.” Many other managers say “never” or “rarely” often explaining their hectic schedules don’t allow for it.

Step #1: Recognizing the importance of weekly reflection time

Thinking may seem like a luxury you can’t afford because you’re so busy. But in fact, taking time to think is absolutely necessary to insure that you, as a leader, are focusing your attention on the most important tasks, such as:

• Seeing the big picture and all of its parts, problems, and successes.
• Knowing what and how you’re feeling in the present moment.
• Shifting your mental/emotional states to respond appropriately.
• Getting in the right frame of mind to make high-stakes decisions and engage in difficult conversations.

Step #2: Pick a time and place and schedule your first weekly strategic thinking session

Make an appointment with yourself for a specific day, time, and place to reflect for 30-60 minutes. It should be somewhere quiet where you won’t be interrupted. Hint:

You may want a whiteboard or paper and pen to take notes. Or you could record your thoughts out loud on your phone and then have them inexpensively transcribed by a service like rev.com.

Here are some suggestions of what to think about.

It’s best to not focus on too many items – pick one or two per session – from this list (or create your own).

• Grow and develop your team.
• Identify future opportunities and challenges.
• Build relationships across your organization to better support your team.
• Help your team remove roadblocks, without doing it for them.
• Ask questions to identify gaps in the ideas your team provides.
• Empower your team and help them maximize their potential.
• Decide where and when to let your team fail.
• Decide where and when to be proactive, not reactive.
• Determine the critical and curious feedback to share with your team.
• Get better at asking questions, not giving answers.

Spending time thinking deeply will help you get clear on how your role today makes your team more effective for tomorrow. Ultimately, your role is not about problem-solving – that’s your team’s job. Your role is coaching, mentoring, developing, strategic thinking, supporting your team, and creating enormous value for the future.

So put on your “thinking cap” and reap the insights and solutions it creates!

Further Reading

DEEP WORK: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport