Podcast 14: How Self Reflection ‘Fast-Tracks’ Soft Skills Development

Self-reflection, while not a soft skill, plays an important role in
how we develop our soft skills over time.
Introduction
Bob Graham (‘0:20'): Hello, I am Bob Graham and with me as always
is Dr. Tobin Porterfield. We teach college, we research soft skills
and we help our students develop these skills and have seen how
they play out in a variety of work settings. We'll show you that
eye for soft skills in a second when we start talking about self
reflection.
Graham (‘0:39'): Self reflection itself is not a soft skill, but
rather a tool to help us develop our soft skills. Toby, can you
explain that to us in general?
Dr. Tobin Porterfield (‘0:52): I can and our timing is great. The
Harvard Business Review just this week has an article on the power
of self reflection. I am getting the feeling that they folks there
are listening to our podcasts and are buying into what we are
doing.
Graham (‘1:12'): I love that. It's a great leap.
Another Voice on Self Reflection
Porterfield (‘1:15'): No, seriously, I do feel like it's just an
affirmation of how powerful self reflection is and typical of the
Harvard Business Review, they are looking to CEOs and how they
dedicated large periods of time to quiet thought on their own to
evaluate what's going on in their lives, what's going on, where the
opportunities are. We look at self reflection a little differently.
We are looking at it and saying the people we work with aren't able
to carve out two hours of their day. I know there's value in self
reflecting and spending that quiet time, but if I am going to spend
two hours a day on that, I am going to have to get up around 3 AM.
The realities for many of us in our workdays don't support that. We
stay so busy. That's the pitfall of not self reflecting. It's a
great opportunity to grow, and that's where we have endorsed it
from a soft skills standpoint. You need to self reflect and in that
time self evaluate on where you are with a couple of these soft
skills and where are you growing. What were you going to try to
improve from last week? You need to really be rating yourself and
moving toward improvement. While it's funny to look at the HBR
side, but the reality that self reflection is a powerful
tool.
What Is Self Reflection?
Graham (‘2:43'): Are we talking about self reflection in terms of
journaling or is it just taking some moments to be mindful of what
we've done and what we are trying to achieve? Or is it interacting
with someone else and being accountable? Or is it all three of
those or something else?
Porterfield (‘3:00'): We have to be open to how that self
reflection takes shape in each of us individually. The No. 1 core
element is dedicated time. There are great examples in the Harvard
Business Review article, where some people say I do an hour of self
reflection every day. Some people say I do six hours, but I spread
it across the week, with one or two hours here and there. I have to
get out of the office so I won't get interrupted. I get up from my
desk and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I take 45 minutes and go
down to the coffee shop, put my earbuds in so I don't get
interrupted and work on my self reflection. I go through my
list.
Porterfield (‘3:37'): For many of us, self reflection has to have a
writing component, where here were the things I was working on,
here's what I was going to do, did I do them? What am I going to do
to make sure they happen next time? As you know, I am a person who
journals. I find that productive because it introduces a personal
accountability so I can look at last week and see th...

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