Faculty Column ∙ February 13, 2025

The better we know the streets of our internal landscape, the more confidently we can walk the external landscapes that we inhabit."

Roger Delves ∙ Professor of Practice in Leadership and Management at Hult International Business School

Headshot of Roger Delves with graphical background

The more we understand ourselves, the more effective we can be in every aspect of our lives. Roger Delves, Professor of Practice in Leadership and Management at Hult International Business School, walks us through the valuable practice of reflection, and shares practical steps to get the most out of it.

Here’s something any of us can try. Think of a space in the external world that you inhabit. It might be the route you take to walk a child to school each day. Or it might be your journey to work, however you make that trip. Or perhaps it’s the layout of your office. You choose – then think of your space and visualize it in your mind’s eye. You know it intimately well, don’t you? You know every shortcut, every road name, every pedestrian crossing, every noticeboard, lift, staircase, water cooler, and coffee station…

This degree of knowledge and understanding of our external environment is built up over weeks, months, years. But there is another environment, significantly more important, to which we may not pay as much attention. This is the inner landscape that we can and should all walk, and with which we should be as intimately familiar as we are with our offices, factories, school runs, hometowns.

Because within the streets of our inner landscape, there is much to be found. We can find our understanding of our best self – the person we want to be and know we could be, if only things could somehow fall into a slightly different pattern.

Or we look for our values, which may already be familiar to us through constant revisiting. Perhaps they’re somewhat difficult to find without a focused search, after being hidden away somewhere, years ago. Maybe we can find our sense of purpose, the thing that gets us out of bed in the mornings. For sure we find our hopes, fears, dreams, and ambitions. If we have faith, we can find the place where we keep that faith safe. Perhaps we find, maybe in fledgling form, our understanding of our own authentic self.

If we explore carefully enough, we can find our emotional baggage, some of which we may find relates to damage caused by old events that have dimmed into a sepia tint – meaning that, maybe, that baggage can now be thrown away and labelled: “Not required on journey”.

Exploring our inner landscape should not be a guilty pleasure that we allow only ourselves occasionally. The better we know the streets of our internal landscape, the more confidently we can walk the external landscapes that we inhabit, and the more sure we are about who we are, what we hold dear, why we do what we do, where we are going, and why we want to get there.

The external world is often about doing things – at work, away from work – and we are often consumed by the act of doing. In stark contrast, the internal world is about being someone. It’s who we are, and perhaps it is discovering the gap between who we are being and who we want to be.

If we close ourselves off from this world, or if we are only casual visitors, walking just the main boulevard without conscious thought or emotional engagement, then we run the risk of being people – leaders, followers, parents, spouses, friends – who are busy doing rather than purposefully being.

What can we do to help us become more mindful? Here are some tips to get started:

1. Value reflection time – build it into your schedule

Reflect on the gap between what you are doing and who you want to be.


2. Before you explore your inner landscape, ask yourself what you would like to look for

Don’t look for everything at once or spend time picking up and putting down lots of things. Have a plan.


3. Think about what the advertising industry calls ‘the end benefit’

The benefits might include having clarity around your values, or identifying your authentic self, or jettisoning unwanted baggage, or finding your sense of purpose. But what is the end benefit of doing any or all of these things? When you’ve explored your inner landscape, found its jewels and put them to use, what happens? What changes? And how are you in a better place?

Meet the expert

Headshot of Roger Delves

Roger Delves

Professor of Practice in Leadership and Management at Hult International Business School

Roger joined Ashridge in 2008. He has taught extensively internationally and in the UK, designing and leading many tailored and qualifications courses.  

Roger co-authored a 2014 book for Pearson, Twenty Management Dilemmas, and co-edited Inspiring Leadership for Bloomsbury in 2018. He also wrote a chapter in the 2021 Springer Compendium Leadership after Covid-19, and is on the Advisory Board of Developing Leaders Quarterly (DLQ).