“The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you end up with the same results. With better habits, anything is possible.” James Clear, in Atomic Habits.

Leading a Disability ERG/Network is a rewarding and challenging role. As with any leadership position, it will involve success, failure and plenty of opportunities for learning.

In our working lives, we might measure the impact of an output but often spend less time reflecting on our own personal contribution to delivering outcomes. For example, common evaluation frameworks like KPIs, After Action Reviews and Balance Score Cards rarely encourage deep personal reflection on the impact of our own personality traits, beliefs and working styles.

This month we will explore lessons for disability ERG/Network leaders from Harvard Business School’s Reflective Leadership Model. The model supports leaders to develop the habit of self-reflection by adopting a continuous reflective cycle. It comprises four components:

• Awareness: For example, recognising your role as a leader representing the interests of up to 20% of colleagues and customers.

• Judgment: For example, considering how your own experience of disability influences your decision-making.

• Action: For example, do you act in a way that is accountable to your ERG/Network members and other stakeholders such as the DEI team?

• Reflection: For example, improving your ERG/Network leadership by reflecting on all three of these components to learn from past experiences.

This month, we invite you to consider:

• How do you review, analyse and evaluate your decisions, in the moment and over time?

• Do you continuously deepen your awareness and self-knowledge?

Peer Leadership Roundtables

One of the most valuable aspects of PurpleSpace membership is the opportunity to build your leadership capacity via quality conversation with other disability ERG/Network leaders.

Each month we convene groups of disability ERG/Network leaders to stimulate discussion on the monthly leadership lesson.

Connect with your peers during these interactive one-hour sessions for disability ERG/Network leaders. These sessions are a great way to share good practice and challenges, swap ideas and build your ERG/Network leadership capacity. 

In February, we have two sessions to choose from to explore the power of reflection:

• 6 February 10:00 GMT / 15:30 IST / 20:30 ACDT

• 25 February 16:00 GMT / 11:00 EST

PurpleSpace and External Useful Resources:

Tap into our Networkology know-how and check out some of the external learning that links to this month’s leadership lesson:

• Harvard Business School Online Blog on Reflective Leadership. The free Ebook – “How to Become a More Effective Leader” (published by Harvard Business School Online) is also available on the same page.

• Confident Conversations Podcasts. In-depth interviews hosted by PurpleSpace Founder Kate Nash with leaders with lived experience discussing what they have learned about navigating disability and a successful career.