Reflection is an important leadership skill. Reflective skills allow one to think more in-depth with regards to problem solving or making adjustments as needed. Leaders who effectively use reflection are able to evaluate experiences, positive or negative, in order to grow professionally. Reflective skills include using knowledge from previous experiences to plan accordingly for future experiences. It could also include seeking the advice or input of others. Reflection does require some time. It can be as simple as one taking a few minutes to look back at an experience or as complex as writing out thoughts; positives, negatives, audience response or outcomes. Effective reflective skills take time to develop. Too often leaders do not take the time or develop the skills to effectively utilize the advantage of reflection.
Course assignments – The course assignments allowed me to reflect back on experiences learned from weekly lectures or readings as well as apply them to practical uses. Key assignments included developing professional development plan, finance assignments and facilities assignments. The professional development plan allowed me to reflect and develop the skills necessary to design and implement a district wide plan. The finance assignments not only allowed me to gain knowledge in the area of school finance but allowed me to reflect and relate the knowledge to our own school districts financial situation, including needs and challenges. The school facilities assignment gave me the opportunity to reflect back on our school districts failed bond election four years ago as well as one that was passed 15 years ago.
Blogs – Developing, using and posting to a blog or wiki was a new experience for me. Although I was familiar with the concept I had never actually used either one of them. The activities allowed me to become familiar and comfortable with the process of creating, posting and commenting. I also was able to see the benefits and advantages of using them as a communication tool when working with group of people. The blogs provided me an opportunity to share my thoughts, ideas or experiences with cohort members as well as the opportunity to learn from and comment on their thoughts, ideas or experiences.
Logs – The logs allowed for me to reflect on activities related to the superintendent position. The course and supervised logs helped develop my reflective skills by providing me with a template to sit down and reflect over interviews, observations, findings, etc. The logs forced me to sit down and write out my thoughts and observations in direct relation to my internship activity. Key activities included interviews with superintendent, interviews with our finance director and strategic planning for district wide Working on the Work initiative. The interviews with our Superintendent allowed me to really learn and gain a lot of information about the position, mainly the importance of board/superintendent relationship. Every time I interviewed our finance director I gained valuable information concerning school finance. The knowledge from course work helped allowed me to play a role in assisting our district leadership team in developing a plan to continue our district wide Working on the Work initiative.
Assessments – The assessments allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my knowledge and experiences. The pre and post course assessments provided me a way to focus on my strengths and weaknesses with regards to the superintendent competencies. The course assessments (mid-term and final), including the LCE exam, provided me a tool to evaluate the knowledge I had gained from courses.
Other – I gained a lot of valuable information from Dr. Jimmy Creel. Dr. Creel was very helpful at all times, as well as encouraging. After each visit I would reflect on our conversations. Dr. Creel was beneficial in sharing experiences and helping me develop a plan (more so mindset) for obtaining a superintendent position.
I plan to continue practicing as well as improving my reflective leadership skills. As I stated in the opening paragraph it is important for a leader to reflect on previous experiences in order to grow professionally. The experiences and knowledge gained from this program has provided me the opportunity to use in reflection in a way which will allow me to be a better leader. This includes both personally and professionally; not only in the superintendent position. Specific tools include taking the time, daily or weekly, to sit down and reflect over the days or weeks activities. Reflect on meetings with various groups, conversations with others or presentations. I will seriously look at and evaluate myself including how I felt about the activities, how others seemed to respond, did I get the desired results or outcomes. Often times this will include seeking feedback from participants, audiences and/or advice from mentors or peers. I reflect back on a couple of internship activities in which I actively sought the input and feedback from others (specifically staff members) in evaluating my effectiveness of a staff development. Reflection is critical in improving and becoming a better leader.
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