- Kevin Sanders
- Aug 16
- 4 min read
August 16, 2025
Read Time - 4 minutes
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience."
— John Dewey, American philosopher & educator
In recent weeks, I’ve written about starting your year strong—planning retreats, setting big goals. But there’s a quieter, less flashy practice that will shape your leadership more than any strategic plan:
Making space to think.
It sounds simple.
It’s not.
Most academic leaders’ weeks are a patchwork of meetings, urgent fires, and a rushed lunch between emails. When you do get a spare hour, you fill it with the next pressing task.
Because that’s… “productive”… right?
Reflection—on how you’re leading, processing difficult decisions, what’s working, what’s not—slips to “maybe later.”
But here’s what you have to keep in mind:
you can’t lead at your best if you never stop to think about how you’re leading.
Why This Matters
It’s entirely possible to do something every day for years and not get better at it.
When I studied at music conservatories, I saw this up close—other students who spent a lot of time playing their instrument, but not intentionally trying to improve on their instrument...and their growth stalled.
It’s like a faculty member teaching the same course for a decade—same lecture notes, same assignments, same exams—without adjusting to feedback or the changing needs of students. They’ve gotten efficient at delivering the course, but not more effective at teaching it.
Through my performance career, I have had the benefit of being around a lot of people who are world-class at what they do (the top 1%) and I’ve witnessed a simple recipe for improvement:
Practice – Regular, intentional application of skills.
Reflection – Pausing to evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and why.
Feedback – Input from others to help you see blind spots and possibilities.
In leadership, we practice daily. We often get feedback (at least once a year). But without reflection, we miss the bridge between the two—the part where we intentionally apply what we’ve learned to how we lead. And if you don’t schedule that reflection time, the urgent will always win.
Research confirms it. In a field study by Harvard Business School and colleagues, employees who spent just 15 minutes at the end of each day writing and reflecting on what they had learned performed 23% better on final training assessments than those who didn’t. Reflection wasn’t extra work—it was an efficiency multiplier.
Making Reflection a Non-Negotiable
I’ve done this with exercising for years—get in a great rhythm for three or four months, then break the habit. Why? Because, for me, exercise wasn’t a non-negotiable. It was always lower than the writing deadline or the urgent work project.
Reflection time works the same way. If it’s not fixed on the calendar, it will always get bumped.
If you’re already busy, blocking an hour to think might feel impossible. But the truth is, reflection saves time. It keeps you from solving the same problems twice, from holding the same unproductive conversations, and from reacting to every fire instead of preventing some altogether.
Here’s how you can make reflection one of your weekly non-negotiables:
1. Time-Block Thinking Hours
Protect at least one uninterrupted block each week for nothing but thinking, journaling, or reviewing your week—your leadership wins and challenges. Treat it like your most important meeting—and keep it.
2. Ask a Weekly Learning Question
Pick a few questions to guide your reflection:
“What did I learn about myself or how I lead this week?”
“What should I stop doing, start doing, or continue doing?”
“What pattern am I starting to notice?”
"If I did everything I did this past week for an entire year, where would I end up?"
"How were my habits and behaviors that are creating the person I want to be?"
"Were there behaviors that brought me closer or moved me away from my goals?"
"Did I live out the personal values this week that are important to me?"
3. Pair Reflection with Feedback
Schedule regular check-ins with a trusted colleague, coach, or mentor. Share your reflections and invite theirs. Growth accelerates when reflection is paired with outside perspective.
4. Batch the Noise
This is a simple productivty hack, but batch the things that distract you. For me, it’s easy to fill my time between meetings with the unstructured and always pressing—email. So, one of my own non-negotiables is batching my email time. I’m less reactive and more reflective when I’m not reenacting Pavlov’s dog, jumping at every ding from my inbox.
The Real Win
Reflection is not just about avoiding mistakes—it’s about learning on purpose.
Without it, you risk running harder each year without getting better. With it, you build a kind of leadership compound interest: small insights, consistently applied, that transform the way you work.
The Bottom Line
Progress in leadership rarely comes from one big moment. It’s built in the quiet, protected spaces when you stop, think, and learn. Make that time a non-negotiable, and this year won’t just be busy—it will be transformative.
Try This Before Friday
Block one uninterrupted hour on your calendar this week for leadership reflection. Bring at least one question to answer. Treat it as sacred time.
That’s it for today.
See you next Saturday.
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