CHAPTER 1
SELF-
REFLECTION
elf-reflection is the key to identifying what you stand for, what your
S values are, and what matters most. Through self-reflection, you are
able to step back, filtering out the noise and distractions. As your view
becomes clearer, you can prioritize how and where to invest your
time, efforts, and energy. Self-reflection allows you to gain clarity on
issues, both personal and professional, because you have taken the time
to think more deeply about them. T he more self-reflective you are,
the easier it is to make choices that are in line with your values, with
awareness of the full impact of your decisions.
Self-reflection has been my lifelong practice. As I became more
self-aware, I gained clarity about my values and goals. I was able to
focus on what mattered most because I took the time to discern my
priorities. Engaging in self-reflection on a regular and ongoing basis
has made a huge difference in my life as a business leader, an active
board member, a university professor, a husband, and a father of five
children. What would otherwise appear to be a complicated existence
has become much more straightforward and easier to navigate.
13
14 From Values to Action
Through self-reflection, I have also become a more effective leader
in m y career, including as a former chairman and CEO of a multibillion-
dollar global health care company and currendy asan executive partner
in a prívate equity firm with a portfolio of more than thirty companies.
Likewise, whether yo u are a leader of a team, a department, ora Fortune
500 company, or simply an individual who is trying to manage yourself,
your priorities, and your time, self-reflection helps you make choices
that are better aligned with your valu es. Y ou are able to discern whether
what you're doing is really what needs to be done. Y o u will know what
you are deciding and why, and what the outcomes of those decisions
are most likely to be. The more aware yo u are of your choices, whether
personal or professional, and their impact, the better the decisions you
will make in the future.
Being self-reftective, you take the time to think through your choices
and decisions. As situations arise, yo u are surprised less frequently. Even
when you do face an unexpected outcome, self-reflection can help you
use it to your advantage for the future.
THE SELF-REFLECTION CONNECTION
Self-reflection is central to your leadership. The more you self-reflect,
the better you know yourself: your strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and
areas to be developed. Being self-aware, you know what you stand for
and what is most important to you. With this clarity, you are able to
connect and communicate with others more effectively. Grounded in
self-knowledge, your leadership becomes more authentic.
All too often, when people aspire to leadership, they want to emulate
someone else's style. Theywant to be likejack Welch or RonaldReagan
or Abraham Lincoln or another recognizable leader. Although we can
alllearn a lot from the example of others, your leadership must come
from your core. Y ou cannot determine the kind ofleader yo u are without
first figuring out who you are. Y our leadership needs to be rooted in the
real world and reflective of your views, life experiences, and professional
path. 1 believe self:.·reftection is so important that 1 make it the focus of
Self-Reflection 15
my leadership classes at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of
Management. M y goal is to give the hundreds of students I teach each
year a tool that I believe will make a significant difference in the choices
they make professionally as well as personally.
Self-reflection enhances leadership by helping you become more
aware of the decisions you make, as well as the likely outcomes and
implications of them. I refer to this as making your decisions explicitl)'
rather than implicitl)'. With an explicit decision, you understand that you
are not making one decision by itself in a vacuum. An explicit decision
takes into account all the factors that are affected by or have an influence
on the decision. There are causes, contributing factors, previous deci-
sions, and direct and indirect outcomes to consider. By being explicit,
the process becomes transparent. In contrast, implicit decision making
takes only a narrow focus without much regard for the big picture- an
approach that can lead to surprises, often unpleasant ones.
Making an explicit decision requires you to be self-reflective,
ensuring that you stay consistent with who you are, your goals, your
values, and your priorities. Therefore, the likelihood of being dealt
an unexpected disappointment is far less when you are introspective.
Your decision can even be a bit "out of the box" and still have a high
probability of producing the expected results, as long as you spend
sorne time in reflection and discernment. Such was the case at Baxter
when we decided to promote an unconventional candidate into a very
important position.
Baxter's senior vice president of human resources, Mike Tucker,
and I sat clown to discuss the creation of a talent management process
for the en tire company, which would be led by one person. Rather than
make a quick decision to put someone from HR in thatjob, we looked at
the position holistically. We determined that the ideal can didate would
have a good understanding· of the total company, with exposure to
different divisions, functions, and geographic locations. When we looked
at the position with that perspective, someone immediately carne to
mind: Karen May, who had a background in finan ce and auditing and
was a CPA. She had the company knowledge, the people skills, and a
16 From Values to Action
deep understanding of various functions. On the surface, the decision to
promote Karen to the job was not obvious; after all, she had no specific
HR experience. However, by stepping back and reftecting on the type
of person who would be best suited for the job, we could see that Karen
was a perfect fit.
She was so successful that two years later Mike told me she was
qualified to take over his position as senior vice president of HR for the
entire company. Today Karen is an executive vice president for Kraft,
a $50 billion global firrn. Were we surprised? Truthfully, no. Being
self-reftective increased our chances of making a decision that tumed
out as we had expected. Had we not been introspective and merely
followed the usual hiring route, we never would have offered Karen the
job, and would have missed out on the contribution she made to talent
management at Baxter, and currently at Kraft.
Karen, too, had to engage in self-reftection in order to determine
whether she wanted to pursue this opportunity and, if so, for what
reason. In a conversation I had with Karen recently, she recalled
that when Mike and I approached her about the talent management
position, it prompted her to reftect on her inventory of skills. As she
explained it, "Was I really a CPA and accountant, because ifthat was
who I was, why would they want me to do this job? But as I reflected
on my personal inventory of skills, it raised the question, ·'What would
Ido to bring value to the table?"'
Her conclusion was that the new job provided another lens through
which to gain perspective on her career and how she could contribute
her knowledge, talent, and experience in new ways- all priorities of
hers. "I saw this as something different ... as an opportunity to grow in
a m ueh different and more rapid way than if I did something that I was
more comfortable with," Karen added.
Looking back, Karen also found it enlightening to reftect on what
did not come to mind at the time. "I did not think about 'What are
people going to say?' or 'What about my career?"' she recalled. "lt
never occurred to me to think that way about a job opportunity, which
Self-Reflection 17
others would probably have seen as a huge risk. 1 didn't see itas a risk.
1 saw it as an opportunity to grow."
Explicit decisions also help you with your relationships with other
people, helping you determine how your choices and actions affect
others. Nowhere has this skill been more critica! for me than irt
balancing my personal and professional life. There have been times
when my youngest son, Daniel, has asked me to go on a bike ride with
him. Normally, nothing would make me happier. But on one particular
day, 1 was about to leave for Kellogg to teach. 1 had to say noto Daniel,
which was disappointing for him, but it was the right decision. The next
day, Daniel asked me ifl could color a picture with him. Unfortunately,
1 was about to head out the door to give a speech, so 1 could not. Two
days later, a Saturday, 1 was going to the gym. 1 couldn't wait to work
out. Daniel stopped me befo re 1 left and asked if 1 would watch one of
his Disney DVDs with him. Befare 1 said yes or no, 1 realized that 1
was not making one decision in that moment. 1 was actually making the
third of three decisions in a row: the first two resulted in my saying no
to him about a bike ride and coloring a picture. 1 cannot say that my
children are very important to me if 1 continuously put other priorities
in front of them. With that understanding, 1 put my gym bag clown and
went to watch Mickey Mouse.
Whether you are trying to set priorities about time spent with your
children or with your team members, self-reflection helps you pause
and look at things holistically. Has a member of your team asked to
speak to you on several different occasions, but you were always too
busy with something else? lf yo u don't make time to speak with him or
her and to live up to your stated value of having an open-door policy
with your team, what are the chances that this valued team member
. self-reflection, you can see
will seek opportunity elsewhere? Through
that certain decisions are not just one-off incidents but part of a pattern.
Therefore, if making time for your team members, spending quality
time with your family, or whatever you have identified as a priority is
important to you, then saying no to someone or something three times
18 From Values to Action
(or more) in a row is a pattern you should avoid. Something must be
wrong, and you may have confused your valu es and priorities- or you
may have not set your priorities well to begin with. Self-reflection also
plays a critica! role in that process.
SETTING PRIORITIES
One of the biggest benefits of self-reflection is in identifying what comes
first and what comes last. Too often when people or teams engage
in setting priorities, they identify multiple things- maybe even ten or
twenty- that are "the" top priority. Sorry, but it really doesn't work
that way. If yo u prioritize one hundred things, then there is only one first
priority, one second-place priority, and so forth. Moreover, if something
is number one on the list, then that means other items must be relegated
to places from number two to one hundred. This isn't easy, but unless
you prioritize in this fashion, you're only fooling yourself. You will be
rushing around trying to accomplish fifty-first-, second-, and third-place
"priorities," instead of committing your time, attention, and resources
to what matters most.
This approach to prioritizing may take sorne getting used to. For
example, at Baxter, we would identify the top one hundred projects,
listing them from one to one hundred. Initially, when a manager found
out that his project was number twenty, his reaction was shock and
disappointrnent. Rather than realizing that the project ranked in the
top 20 percent of the company's priorities, which was indeed a good
thing, he reacted on the basis of the more common view at most firms,
where five or ten things are ranked number one, and a similar number
are rated second, third, and so forth. With that skewed scale, of course
being number twenty would seem as though he was at the bottom of the
barrel! Once the people at Baxter understood that this was really a top
one hundred ranking, the perspective began to shift. They knew a1l one
hundred projects would get sorne attention, with the highest-ranking
. receiving the most. In time, projects could either move up significancly
or be dropped.
Self-Reflection 19
As a leader, when you engage in true prioritization, you confront
a harsh reality, one that nobody, particularly the overachievers and
perfectionists among us, likes to admit: we can't do everything. If you
create you~ own list of one hundred things you'd like todo, you may be
able to do only the first seventeen. Knowing that, you must make sure
that the top seventeen on your list really ought to be there, and that
they are ranked in order of what is most important to you. Once you
have established your priorities, then making decisions based on what
matters most beco mes fairly easy. You do not have to agonize about
what is most important because through self-reflection you have already
established what comes first, second, third, and so forth.
Similarly, by being a self-reflective leader, you can determine where
the organization excels, just as you can assess your own strengths. U nless
you, as a leader, are willing to take a step back to reflect, it will be very
hard to make these distinctions consistently: 1 used to tell my .teammates
at Baxter that 1 had good news and bad news. The bad news was that
of all the things we were involved in, we were probably really good at
only two or three of them. The good news, however, was that many
companies were not good at any of them. By knowing what we were
really good at, we were able to put our focus and our energies on those
areas that reflected our strengths and core competencies.
Once you have determined what your organization can do well,
then it is time to prioritize accordingly. For example, a company that
operates in forty countries can state that its strength is its global nature.
But not all the countries in which it operates are equal when it comes
to size or the importance of its market. Similarly, a company's strength
may be its multiple product lines, but every line is not equal; sorne
rate higher than others in importance. Without an honest assessment,
leaders and their companies run the risk of trying to make everything a
priority- which, as l've stated previously, is impossible.
When yo u are in the middle of setting these priorities, however, you
can't get your brain around the task unless you step back and ask the
key questions: What is most important? What should we be doing? The analysis
becomes clearer and easier when yo u take the time to reflect. Otherwise,
20 From Values to Action
your company is at risk of engaging in a lot of activity without much to
show for it.
Being able to discern activi9' from productivity requires discipline
because priorities shift with changing circumstances and new develop-
ments. As a leader, you need to address these shifts constantly in order
to make credible decisions that make sense today and in the foresee-
able futÚre. Here's an example of what we face at l\4adison Dearbom
Partners as we manage our nearly $20 billion portfolio of companies
across diverse industries. Let's say we have the opportunity to buy a
fast-growing business that, on the surface, appears to be complementary
to our portfolio. Without self-reflection, we might be tempted to jump
in and make the deal work. Instead, long before planning, negotiating,
financing, or serious due diligence come into play, we need to stop
and reflect: Does this company really fit into our portfolio? Is it con-
sistent with our investment philosophy? Given the amount of time and
effort that it takes to complete a transaction (negotiation, due diligence,
financing, and integration), does it fit with all the other priorities that we
said were critica!? As a leader in your organization, when you engage in
self-reflection, you can see how and whether a business opportunity or
project is important to the company, how it aligns with and advances
the goals of the organization, and how priorities that you set might
change as a result.
If we move forward with the acquisition, having determined that
it is strategic, economically sound, and consistent with our objectives,
then we are able to move forward with a framework that m~.kes sense.
We have thought about the acquisition explicidy, instead of merely
engaging in the frenzied activity that often surrounds deal making.
Your self-reflection may lead yo u to the opposite conclusion: that
although the company looks and sounds good, it is not aligned with your
company's strategic goals. For example, the business may be in a par-
ticular niche market or geography that is not your top priority. Ifyour
focus is on trying to make the deal work, however, it is easy to ratio-
nalize and see connections that are not really there. Only self-reflection
can help you discem if it is truly an opportunity worth pursuing. The
Self-Reftection 21
process is ongoing as new opportunities arise, challenges are faced, and
priorities shift.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE
NOT SELF-REFLECTIVE?
As a twenty-four-year-old graduate student at Kellogg, 1 was fortunate
to be recruited by severalleading firms and soon found myself caught up
in the process. What started out asan interesting, fun, and, admittedly,
flattering mission to find out what :it might be like to work for one of
these firms suddenly advanced to a final round of interviews. There 1
was in New York, in the global headquarters of one of"the" investment
banks, and they wanted to hire me. As 1was ushered around to speak to
various people, 1started to get a funny feeling. Did 1really belong there?
1 had a serious girlfriend (now my wife, Julie) at Lawrence University
in Appleton, Wisconsin, and 1 was trying to picture myself as a New
York- based investment banker. How did this job fit with my life goals
and priorities?
Through self-refiection, it occurred tome that, yes, this was a great
company, and 1 was being considered for a position that others might
envy- but it was not where 1 belonged. Equally important, 1 was not
.
the right person for this firrn. Fortu~ately for me, self-refiection kicked
in befare 1 ac~epted the job. Otherwise, the excitement of the moment
could have carried me into a position that did not fit me.
Experiencing such a seminal moment early in my career should
have made me alert to the warning signs when it happened to me again,
twenty-five years later. The truth is, however, that 1 was right back in
almost the exact same scenario. 1 had just left Baxter as the chairman
and CEO and had started teaching at Kellogg. At the same time, 1was
being recruited by a number of prívate equity firms in New York to
become an executive partner. Before 1 knew it, 1 was taking severa!
fiights a week to New York to meet with senior partners. Finally, one
evening as 1 was getting ready for yet another trip, Julie said to me,
"Harry, since we live in Chicago and have decided that we are going to
22 From Values to Action
stay here, why are yo u going back and forth to N ew York all the time?
Wouldn't taking ajob there be inconsistent with our priorities?''
I had done it again. Because I let my practice of self-refiection
lapse for a bit, I didn 't catch the disconnect between what I was doing
and what I said were my goals and priorities. Thankfully, Julie (as is
usually the case) kept me on track. Although personal assessment is key
to self-reflection, you cannot always do it without the input of others.
We'll talk more about this in the next chapter.
What these two stories point out is that engaging in self-reftection
on a regular, ongoing basis (preferably daily) keep~ yo u from becoming
so caught up in the momentum of the situation that you get carried
away and consider actions and decisions that are not aligned with who
you are and what you want to do with your life.
Although self-reflection is the cornerstone of my leadership, it did
not come naturally to me. In fact, for people who know me well there
is a certain irony when I say that my leadership philosophy starts with
self-reflection. M y background was in mathematics and economics at
Lawrence University, followed by finance and accounting at Kellogg
where I received my MBA, after which I received my CPA. 1 was always
a quantitative, numbers-oriented person. Even though I had used self-
reflection on a personal level, if someone had said to me that one of
the keys to becoming a better leader was to practice self-reftection,
I probably would have questioned his or her judgrnent.
Then one day I had an epiphany. I had always believed in multi-
tasking, thinking it was the key to getting a lot done. At first, I felt pretty
good because I could get a lot done. What I soon realized was that the
more I accomplished, the more there was to do. I was never done;
instead I was just exhausted. Was more really better? Was faster the
ideal? These same questions apply as much to my life today as they did
back then. Thankfully, I have learned the value of slowing clown and
reftecting on what is happening in the moment. 1 realize that instead
of moving faster, it makes far more sense to focus on what is most
.
unportant.
Self-Reflection 23
U N DE.R ST AN DI NG SELF -REFLECTION
There is no right or wrong way to engage in self-reflection. The key is
to find time when you can be silent and really focus on what matters
_most. Sorne people are able to do this when they are jogging or walking,
others while they are commuting by train or car. For sorne, it is when
they pray or meditate. You focus on the inner voice, rather than the
outside noise.
My personal time for self-refiection is often at the end of each day,
when my work and family activities have been completed. l've made
my phone calls and sent my e-mails. l've exercised, and my children are
in bed. In these quiet moments, I refiect on the day that is coming to
a close, the impact that I have made, and the impact that others have
made on me. I ask myself the following questions, which are personal
in nature: líYhat did 1 sqy 1 was going todo today, and what did 1 actual/y do? lj
what 1 did was dijferent than what 1 planned, what were the reasons? What went
well, and what did not? H ow did 1 treat people?Am I proud of the way 1 lived this
day? 1f1 had the day to live over again, what would 1 do dijferently? And finally,
What did 1 leam today that will have an impact on how 1 live the next day, the next
week, and goingforward?
The questions you ask yourself may be sim.ilar to mine, or they may
be very different, depending on your particular situation. Ask yourself
the questions that are the most relevant to you. You may want to record
your reflections in a journal. Personally, 1 find it helpful to write things
clown so that 1 can tell when l'm really being self-reflective, instead of
just daydreaming. Putting my thoughts in writing also gives me notes to
review later.
In addition to my daily practice, every year in early December
1 attend a silent retreat. This is a time I set aside to really get to know
myself and to think deeply about what matters tome. As thejesuits who
run the retreat explain, in silence we are able to "dispose ourselves" so
that we can really listen to our inner thoughts. When we stop talking
and remove ourselves from conversation, we can engage in listening on
a deeper level. For me, the retreat provides a few precious days without
24 From Values to Action
phones, faxes, my BlackBerry, and other outside distractions. There are
only paper, a pen, and silence, which allow me to delve into the key
questions of who 1 am, what my valu es are, and what difference I want
to make during the short time I am on earth.
Understand that when I went to my first retreat, I was a fairly
animated, type-A personality and very quantitatively oriented. lt was
my future father-in-law, TomJansen, who suggested that Ijoin himon
the retreat. I wanted his approval, so I agreed, even though I had no
idea until we were on our way to the retreat that I would have to be
silent for three days. At the time, I thought it would be difficult for me
to be silent for three minutes, let alone three days. However, once the
retreat began, I saw the value of being able to contemplate, without
distraction, my values, my goals, and what I wanted to accomplish in
the next five years of m y life.
For the next thirty consecutive years and counting, my father-in-law
and I have continued the tradition of going on the retreat. Wherever
I am in the world-Tokyo, .Singapore, Sao Paulo, or someplace in
between-I always make sure I return to St. Paul, Minnesota, in early
December for the retreat.
At this point in your life, you may not be able to devote three days
to a silent retreat. But what about fifteen minutes a day? Surely your
life and future are worth that investment. The next time you have sorne
unexpected free time on your hands- a conference call ends early or
gets cancelled- rather than racing to fill it up, consider devoting that
time to contemplation and self-reflection. I keep a list of things 1 want
to think abo.ut more deeply for just those occasions.
On a recent business trip to N ew York, as 1 waited at the gate at
LaGuardia, an announcement was made that our flight was delayed.
Other travelers scrambled to see if they could book another flight, or
immediately picked up their cell phones to complain to someone about
being delayed. Instead, I found a quiet comer of the gate area and
started to go through my list of things I wanted to give more thought
to: career coaching for a friend or advice for someone who was having
difficulty in a relationship. Rather than seeing the delay as a huge
Self-Reflection 25
inconvenience, 1 regarded it as a gift of time for self-reflection, which
1 knew would benefit me in dozens of ways.
Although 1 would like to say that 1 am disciplined enough to engage
in self-reflection on a continuous basis, l'm human. Even after all these
years of practice, sorne times 1 neglect the routine. The same thing will
happen to you from time to time, perhaps because of several large proj-
ects at work, a new baby, or out-of-town guests coming for a visit. You are
so busy you skip your daily self-reflection. You tell yourself that you'll do
it tomorrow or next week. The problem, as it is with many good habits,
such as maintaining a healthy diet or exercising regularly, is that it is all
too easy to slip into your old ways. Before yo u know it, you haven't taken
time out for self-reflection for a week or even a month or more, and all
kincls of chaos creep back into your life. The good news is that when you
fall out of the discipline of daily self-reflection, you can easily resume. In
a quiet moment, sit clown and reflect about what was going on that kept
you from engaging in self-reflection. Where did it almost take you? What
did you learn? Did you gain clarity about what you really want? The
insight you gain may be worth the lapse and all the upset it caused.
No matter how or where you engage in self-reflection, use the
time to conteinplate whatever is on your mind, such as a particular
opportunity, challenge, or even crisis. The same questions you asked
personally now apply as you think about how you handled a certain
situation. What was the outcome? What would you do differently? What
did you learn that you will apply in the future? Taking the time to reflect
each day on all the priorities of your life-work, family, personal, and so
forth- will reinforce your comrnitment to make choices and decisions
that are consistent with your values. Over time, this habit will become
the foundation of your values-based leadership.
THE SELF-REFLECTIVE LEADER
Self-reflection can serve as a wake-up call to.live your life more fully in
the present. Rather than spending your time obsessing about what will
happen doWI1 the road or continuously planning for the next move, you
26 From Values to Action
will become more connected to the actions, decisions, and interactions
of today. That, in itself, will make you a better leader. Your teammates,
peers, customers, and business partners will experience you as more
alive, present, and connected. You will make decisions more consciously
with an understanding of the likely outcomes and consequences. If your
team is facing challenges, you will be able to prepare them for what lies
ahead. At the end of the day, yo u will assess what you did, how you did,
what the result was, and what you wanted it to be. Then you will go
back the next day and do the right thing with awareness and intention.
Understand that self-reflection is not a panacea. 1t will not auto-
matically make you a better leader or open the door to the C-suite.
However, 1 have used this tool throughout my career, from when I wasa
young analyst until 1 was the CEO responsible for the entire company,
and now in the current phase of my professional life. Self-reflection
keeps you honest withyourse!f. You will see quite clearly whether you are
focusing on the things that you say are most important. You can fool a
lot of people, but why fool yourself? Self-reflection will guide you on the
.path that you want to follow.
·Self-reflection will require you to ask yourself some personal ques-
tions that will most likely force you outside your comfort zone, but
the knowledge you gain about yourself is priceless. As you will see
throughout this book, self-reflection is fundamental to each of the other
principies of values-based leadership. Learning how to take the time
to step back and reflect is absolutely essential to your becoming a
values-based Ieader. So tum the spotlight on yourself. The glare will
not be more than you can handle. Rather, let it illuminate your life and
your choices- personal and professional- and help you see how you
are affecting the course of your life and your leadership.
