Description/Overview: Whether leading in classroom, clinical practice, healthcare delivery, or academic administrative settings, effective leaders draw upon lessons learned from past experiences—their own and others—in responding thoughtfully to the everyday challenges that occur in our increasingly complex organizational systems. This symposium examines how reflection on experience helps leaders identify leadership practices—particular ways of leading they may want to continue to enact, or to extend, challenge, or overcome. Through gathering one’s thoughts, reflective leadership calls forth personal development and creates a space for organizational transformation. The authors met through their involvement in the National League for Nursing/Johnson & Johnson (NLN/J&J) Faculty Leadership and Mentoring Program which paired an experienced faculty leader with a less experienced educator who demonstrated potential for leadership. For their group project, the 2007/08 cohort conducted an interpretive phenomenological study of the lived experiences of becoming a nurse faculty leader. Members interviewed 23 self-identified faculty leaders in attendance at a faculty leadership conference, whether they were formal or informal leaders in the classroom, among their peers, at their institution, or more broadly in academe. Members tape-recorded participant stories of becoming a leader, transcribed them, and analyzed the written texts for recurring themes and patterns. Additional faculty leaders were interviewed in 2010 following a similar process. Underpinning the entirety of this collective work is the practice of reflecting on one’s experience. Reflection was necessary as a participant and as a researcher, and participants revealed it as a distinct practice of leadership. This symposium presents cumulative findings from this series of studies on the practices of becoming a nurse faculty leader including being thrust into leadership, taking risks, facing challenges and advancing reform. This research illuminates the importance of reflective skills for leaders and encourages development of reflective practice.