Without reflection you cannot grow as an individual or as professional. Reflection allows us learn from our experiences. This is an extremely important skill in leadership. As a leader every situation will be different because there are different conditions, but we can still apply things from other situations to new situations. That is the skill of reflection. It allows us as leaders to step back and look at a problem more globally and understand the different parts of the problem before and after a decision is made. It allows for adjustments in our leadership and decision making skills. The greatest gain from reflection is learning from our mistakes and prior actions. For me personally, reflection has allowed me as leader to grow, especially in the area of recognizing the perspective of others and how my decisions impact others.
Throughout the superintendent program I have had many opportunities to reflect and use reflection to grow as a leader. I was able to reflect throughout the program through course assignment activities, blogs, course and campus supervised logs, assessments and other intern reflection experiences. I truly believe without reflection a person cannot grow personally or professional. So, I always take some time each day to reflect on decisions or discussions I have had throughout my day.
With the use of the course assignment activities I was able to use reflection to grow as a leader. Being able to read comments from my other cohort classmates allowed me to recognize the perspective of others, which to me is an important part of reflection. Even though each of us in the class did the same assignment each of us walked about with different experiences and knowledge. By reflecting on my own assignment and then reading others in my class allowed for me to gain even more knowledge in that skill set.
I also had the opportunity to reflect though the use of our blogs. Prior to this class, I had heard of blogs, but never used a blog. The use of a blog has become a very helpful tool in allowing for reflection. It gives us an outlet to share our ideas and experiences. We are able to communicate with our classmates in an informal setting, which allows for more open communication. By being able to share ideas with each other it allowed me to grow as a leader.
The course and supervised logs was probably the area where I reflected the most. After each internship activity I took some time to write a reflection on each activity. I would reflect on the actual activity, what I learned and how I could use this experience in the future. I also would reflect on how I could apply these skills to my current position.
After each assessment during my coursework I would take some time after the test to review the items I missed. I would then research each test item I missed so, that I could learn from my mistakes and apply it to future. This is a skill of reflection. Part of reflection is to learn from our mistakes and prior actions and apply it to future decisions. The assessment in our coursework allowed me to do this.
There were numerous other times I reflected during my coursework. To be honest there were times I just reflected on why I was doing this coursework and why I wanted this certification. I truly needed to understand why I wanted to be a superintendent to move forward on my coursework, blogs and internship activities. With a better understanding of why I wanted to be a leader the more knowledge I was able to gain in this program.
I will continue to use reflective practices to improve my leadership skills by stepping back and taking a few moments to reflect on the possible outcomes of a decision before a making a decision. Also, after a decision has been made take some time to reflect on that decision and is there something I could have done differently in that situation. Also, I believe in reflecting in conversations with people, especially ones you are leading. Did I listen to everything they said? Did I take into account their emotions, suggestions, etc? I truly believe reflection is one of the most important skills to have as a leader and will continue to use that skill set to grow as a leader.
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