Earlier this year, I visited Negril, Jamaica with a girlfriend. If you’ve ever been, you know how magical this place is—there’s a kind of magic that lingers in the salty breeze, the golden sunsets on the turquoise water, reggae music floating through the air along with the smells of jerk chicken and curried goat. 

My friend and I often found ourselves in the middle of hilarious hijinks and unexpected adventures, so every night before bed, as the waves crashed against the cliffs below our bungalow, we made it a point to reflect. We’d sit on the balcony, eat Peanut M&Ms and drink fresh juice, and recap the day – whether it involved a clumsy cliff dive or making friends with a sea cucumber during a snorkel. We’d jot down these moments—sometimes in detail, sometimes just a word or two—because we wanted to capture the joy, the wonder, the tiny lessons we might’ve otherwise forgotten. Looking back at this shared Apple Note many months later always makes me smile. It’s like reliving the experience and reconnecting to the place and its people. 

That is the power of reflection. 

Reflection is a key skill or practice for social impact leaders who want to be more visible in their fields. To share your most thoughtful perspective, stories and opinions, you need to pause, notice, and reflect first. 

In this podcast episode, I talk about how building a habit of reflection will support your thought leadership practice, and share plenty of reflection questions and practices you can use to make this habit stick. Keep on listening!

Highlights from the podcast episode: 

Why is reflection important?

Usually, when we think about visibility or thought leadership, we think about skills like: content marketing, writing, strategy, community-building, staying up to date on social media trends, and all that kind of stuff. We focus on output and what needs to be created or what stories need to be told.

But unless you stop to reflect first, what are you even going to talk about? Unless you notice why something is important, how are you going to share it with your audience?

Without reflection, the things you put out there are just going to be surface-level insights. Sure, posting a picture of you at a conference does something, but you’re not going to really break into how you or the people in your community can use your learning or perspective to move forward in their work.  

Creating a habit of reflection

Building a habit of consistent reflection means you get deeper clarity on what sets you and your work apart from others. Your unique experience. Not necessarily how you’re better but how you’re different, so you can partner with others more effectively. You learn to develop a more distinct voice, which helps you stand out in the noise. Your content feels more authentic because you gave your “that was so cool” moments time to marinate, and turn into purposeful content. 

Learning from your reflection

Reflection also helps you learn from your mistakes and make more informed decisions. It’s easy for something to happen – maybe a campaign didn’t go how you wanted, or you got some negative feedback from a partner. Instead of just keeping it pushing and going on to the next thing, reflection helps you figure out how you’re maybe out of alignment with your values, pivot accordingly, develop a different strategy, and even think about how and who you need to build a relationship with to have a different outcome. 

9 Questions for Deeper Reflection

So, what are some questions to guide your reflection practice? Here are some prompts you can ask yourself to identify the most important pieces of an event or story: 

• What was the ‘aha’ moment in this experience and why did it matter to me?
• How does this event or story connect with my values or purpose? Or in other words, how does this experience challenge or affirm my beliefs about my work, industry, or community?
• What about this story is relatable or impactful for others? How can it help solve problems that the people I speak to have?
• What’s one unexpected lesson I took away from this experience?
• How has my mindset around this kind of thing evolved over time? What led to this change?
• What perspective can I offer that most people don’t think about? 
• What patterns or themes have I noticed in my recent experiences, and what do they reveal about my journey or focus?
• Who influenced my perspective during this experience, and how can I acknowledge them, and build upon their knowledge?  
• If I could revisit this moment, what would I do differently, and why?

8 Prompts for Creating Storytelling Content

Once you uncover how your story resonates with your audience, you’ll have to figure out how you’ll tell this story in a compelling way. Now, here are some questions that can help you turn those personal reflections into storytelling content: 

• How can I open the story in a way that grabs people’s attention?
• How can I set the scene to make people feel like they’re experiencing this story with me? What specific sensory details – like sights, sounds, smells, or feelings – can I include? 
• What is the conflict or challenge at the heart of this story, and how can I emphasize it to create tension and interest?
• Who is the key person involved in this story, why would the reader care about them, and how can I highlight their perspective?
• What emotions do I want to convey and what language will I use to do that?
• What is the broader trend or issue this story reflects, and how can I best tie it or transition into that larger lesson? 
• What’s the core message I want people to take away? Or in other words, what is the ONE thing I want people to do, be, or remember after they consume this piece of content?
• And finally, when would be a good time for me to share this story again? Is there some kind of annual milestone, or certain time of year where I can repurpose this? 

These questions help you think deeper and turn everyday experiences into meaningful conversation starters through your content. 

Creating a culture of reflection with your social impact team

Many of you work with a team of other social impact changemakers, maybe that’s at a nonprofit, foundation, consulting firm, B Corp certified business, or other mission-driven organization. So, I want to talk about creating a culture of reflection with your team. Because building a reflective internal culture helps bring depth and authenticity to your brand’s voice, and makes team members feel more connected to your mission and vision. This also helps create a stronger culture where people have a growth mindset and share more innovative ideas. I feel like I just said culture a whole bunch but that’s really what it is – reflection builds culture and you know that old saying about culture. 

To do this, incorporate reflection moments in team check-ins and meetings. Talk about team wins, how they happened, and who made it happen. As you share about it internally, think about how you can tell this success story in a way that your audience will care about – maybe not using internal words that only your team will understand but making it accessible. 

Get comfortable talking about mistakes and what went wrong. This, by the way, helps build a culture where people are willing to take risks and move your mission forward. Frame these conversations as lessons learned and always make time to talk through solutions and what the story is here. 

After each conversation, recap your reflections somewhere (because it’s easy to move on and forget), recap what you learned, and what actions you’ll take next. 

6 Questions to encourage team reflection

• Here are questions you can ask your team to encourage reflection:
  • What was the most top-of-mind challenge we faced and what did we learn from it?
  • What strengths did we leverage collectively to navigate the situation and how do we continue to build on those skills?
  • How can we apply these learnings to future projects? What assumptions did we challenge or confirm through this experience, and what does that mean for our future approach?
  • How did this experience shift our perspective or reinforce our core values? Or, were we out of alignment with our core values – let’s talk about it. 
  • How did collaboration play a role in this outcome, and what adjustments can we make to improve our teamwork?
  • Which of these learnings would be appropriate to share with our audience? What could they resonate with? 

Implementing reflection into your team culture

All right, so to bring it all together, how do you actually operationalize these pieces and make reflection part of your culture, which will then subsequently make your thought leadership content more resonant? 

• Start small. Personally, you could schedule weekly reflection time, like dedicating 15-30 minutes to write down one recent experiences or challenge from the week. Maybe take yourself on an Artist’s Date, or just get away from the computer and into a place where you feel more creative or whole. Ask yourself, “What did I learn this week?” or “What stands out about this week?” or “What would I tell [insert person that you love] about this week?” 
• As a team, hold team reflections at a cadence that works for your organization, whether that’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly.  Use this time to discuss recent wins, challenges, and key learnings and use those reflection questions I shared to go deeper. You maybe get out of the office for this and go on a team walk. Another idea is to have people write down their reflections – either anonymously or with their names – so that everybody feels safer sharing their perspective. 
• Ask for audience feedback: Ask your community, clients, or social audience for feedback on your content, insights, or strategies. LinkedIn polls, Q&As, or feedback forms are relatively easy ways to gain new perspectives from people who are just outside the four walls of your business or organization. 
• Practice social listening: When you’re scrolling LinkedIn, pay attention to top discussions, liked comments, and trending topics in your industry. Following hashtags or the membership organizations of your field is a good way to do that. And instead of only reposting what they share, take some time to think about why you care about that thing. Why does it matter to you? 
• Content brainstorm: Set aside one day a month, one day a quarter, whatever that cadence is – to intentionally review your notes, team reflections, and audience feedback. Look for themes or messages that can be turned into content, whether it’s internal, external, whatever. 

You’re most likely listening to this in December 2024, the close out of this year. What better time to get into a reflective mindset? 

Let’s do it now. Close your eyes for a moment and think about a recent win. Unless you’re driving, then don’t do that. But either way, think about that win, picture where you were, who was involved, and the emotions you felt. Now, ask yourself: What made this a success for you, specifically? What did you learn from it that will inform your work going forward? And how can you build on that, in community? Feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn and share what comes up. Excited to hear from you!  

Other helpful episodes:

Social Impact Storytelling: why, when, and where

10 Tips for engaging LinkedIn content

Where do good LinkedIn content ideas come from?

Connect with Tania Bhattacharyya:

LinkedIn: Tania Bhattacharyya