Last week I was quite disappointed not to be going away or having a packed social schedule but the recent bank holiday gave me the opportunity for a bit of 'reflection' as we academics like to call it!!
This week at LCF we talked about what it means to be a leader. Spurred on by Nic Askew's film with Jenny Garrett called
Unprotected Conversation,it asks some beautiful questions about leadership - particularly - would you follow you?
The film and the ensuing conversation gave us a lot to think about and reminded me of the first experiences I had with the concept of reflection - in short I found it quite hard to grasp so I spent some time putting my thoughts in order.
In order to reflect you need...
1 something to happen to you or to be actively involved in an event, project, activity. Get out and about, put yourself on the line, volunteer, take a chance, change something - most importantly
experience something.
2 time - anything that has substance, experience or value takes time to create, grow and develop. The reflection process is not fast but it can't all be done at the end either. It's an ongoing process where we need to check in and see how things are doing - mostly ourselves!
3 self awareness, a bit of respect for the process and an understanding of why we are doing it.
This final point for me is the most important and reminded me of an experience I had several years ago. I started a PGCE - teacher training course for university lecturers and the buzz words at the time were amongst others 'critical reflection'. Relatively new to teaching I immediately took a disdain to this term and suggested that I was too busy 'doing' the teaching to 'criticise and reflect' and this type of 'naval gazing' was unnecessary. Soon after I changed jobs, suspended my studies and had a baby and then picked the course up again at a different university. A few years older and with much more (life) experience I gathered together my thoughts. I realised that I didn't understand the process - or why I was being asked to 'reflect'. No one simplified it for me, but in short having a greater level of self awareness allows you to see how this impacts on your life, work and relationships. Taking a little time out to reflect on something that has happened can allow you to do this.
Reflection is a slow process and if we are kind enough to give ourselves a break we can become more aware of our impact on others. After a quiet bank holiday weekend I asked myself Jenny's question again - would I follow me? On a good day - yes. Although I still have a lot more 'naval gazing' to do - only next time somewhere on a beach!
Have a good week! x
