Value of Reflection as a Leadership Skill

To be an effective leader, you must make wise decisions. As Confucius stated,

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” A noble leader will make it a practice to reflect daily on the decisions made and actions taken in order to learn from those experiences.  As expressed in School Leader Internship, reflection allows a leader “to learn from one’s prior actions (and mistakes)” which is “basic to the development of expertise.”

I believe that reflection is important skill in leadership, not just because Confucius said it was or that it was documented in a leadership text, I have found through this internship program that reflection is essential for growth. I believe that taking time to reflect allows for a leader to think about recent experiences and reactions to those experiences and look for patterns or meaning.  I believe that this practice allows for a leader to capture clarity on what it is they have done and want to do and gives them direction.  It gives a leader  an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.  If a leader fails to take time to reflect, then they just might miss an important lesson. Without reflection a leader may keep doing “what they have always done,” which means “they will get what they have always gotten.” In today’s fast paced world of constant changes, leaders can’t afford to stay the same.

Throughout this superintendent course, we have been given many opportunities to practice our skill of reflecting. From the first course to the last course, we have been asked to reflect on our experiences with the various assignments.  We reflected on how leaders could use blogs and wikis to enhance or improve their communication.  We posted reflections to our blogs and were able to read our cohort members’ blogs and reflect on their experiences and answers and compare their reflections to our own. The course and campus supervised logs forced us to reflect as we summarized our experiences and actions taken for each activity completed on our internship plan. In several course we administered pre and post assessments on our level of knowledge and experience as related to the 10 competencies. We were then asked to reflect on our strengths and areas for growth in each of these areas. All these opportunities to reflect and dialog about our reflections, nurtured our ability to “think about” our experiences and learn from them.  I found myself reflecting more about my experiences, even when we weren’t specifically asked to.  For example, after taking the LCE, I reflected on my experience with some of the questions and my inability to successfully answer some of the questions.  This reflection taught me that I need to reread some of the competencies and practice for the TExES prior to taking the exam in October.
                                                                                             

Describe how you plan to use reflective practice to improve your leadership skills – provide some specific suggestions for applying the skills of reflection.

I have already began using the art of reflective practice in my current position as campus administrator as a means to improve my decision-making and problem-solving skills. At the end of each day, usually on the drive home, I think about the days’ events and ask myself the following questions:

1)    What went well today?

2)    What could be improved?

3)    How can it be improved?

4)    Should I have done anything differently?

I then reflect on my answers to these questions. Many times I will share my new found knowledge with someone else as a way to reinforce the learning for myself.

As another means of reflection, I have also started having follow-up meetings with my assistant principal after certain events, so that as a team we can improve our leadership skills and build on each others’ strengths. I would like to get to the point that I keep a journal of my reflections to refer back too, but so far have not been organized enough to fit that into my day.