Public strategic leaders and their reflective practice in accelerated times: a narrative exploration of a utopic story

Purpose In the leadership debate, one of the questions for public leaders nowadays is how to reflect and experience meaning in these complex and accelerated times. This article compares three dominant theoretical narratives with the narratives of public strategic leaders in practice. The statement in literature is that leaders in organisations need to create time to reflect on “creating meaning” with others as an answer to the adaptive challenges. The limitation of these studies is that they do not explore leaders’ experiences in practice. We fill this gap by examining the experiences of public strategic leaders and exploring the implications. Design/methodology/approach We qualitatively explore the narratives of 25 public strategic leaders using interviews, group dialogues and surveys. Findings The central finding is a problematic gap between theory and practice. This is a concern because of the utopic ideology of reflectivity, which does not consider the forces present in political and bureaucratic organisations and the leaders’ perceptions of their role and position. The narrative exploration shows a pattern of leaders trying “to do good”, avoiding disruptions caused by doubts, emotions or intuitions. Practical implications The narratives of public strategic leaders show three persistent ideologies putting pressure on their reflective space in daily practice. These narratives offer a starting point for public organisations regarding the reflective practices of strategic leaders. Originality/value This article opens a debate about leadership and reflectivity paradigms in theory and practice. It offers a reality check for leaders’ and coaches’ daily practices, as opposed to the often utopic theories.