Reflective practice on company boards

I recently completed a research project, ‘investigating the role and status of reflection and reflective practice on company boards’. It was motivated in part by Prof. Colin Mayer’s (Oxford University) important work on a growing loss of trust in business leadership and board governance (Prosperity, 2018).

Mayer writes that a ‘shareholder primacy’ (Milton Friedman) ethos has driven corporate practice for too long. A practice which gives precedence to economic theory and financial technique, at the expense reflective practice. And a consideration for the well-being of all stakeholders, alongside the pursuit of profits (Business Roundtable, 2019).

Practising reflection expands our awareness and enables us to make sense of phenomena that are ever-present in complex, ambiguous, human experience. Business leaders and company directors who engage with reflection make better decisions. 

Company boards are accountable for company performance, prudent governance, and long-term sustainability. A loss of confidence has arisen in their ability to learn from past mistakes and raise standards of practice in an increasingly complex and ambiguous business environment (Meyer, 2108).

Google and Facebook, among others, are often talked about as innovative companies leading the development of consumer empowering products and services. However, they are also talked about as companies engaged in the relentless pursuit of profits, at the expense of their consumers, stakeholders and society at large (The Great Hack, Netflix 2019).

My research investigated the role and status of reflective practice on company boards. It revealed insights on the complex social structure that characterises the lived experience of company directors in a boardroom environment. Four key findings emerged:

Internal and personal: Reflection and reflective practice are a personal and internalised psychological construct.

It’s how we learn: The quality of learning and development, and the effectiveness of personal decision-making, are enhanced by a conscious commitment to, and engagement with reflection through reflective practice.

Not on this board: There is a low regard for, and engagement with, reflective practice on company boards.

Disconnect and paradox: There is a dissonance, or paradox, between the beliefs and behaviours regarding the importance of reflection in directors’ personal lives, and how they embrace other beliefs and behaviours in their professional lives as company directors.

These findings imply that company boards’ ability to use their empowered position and authority in the corporate hierarchy and respond effectively to their legal, societal, governance and business-effectiveness responsibilities is compromised and lessened by a lack of engagement with reflection and reflective practice.

Leadership coaching gives business leaders a reflective space to reimagine things and gain perspective. In this space they can engage with the unconscious resistance they may face in their work and with their own conscious intentions and determination.