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Association of Washington School Principals
Washington Principal | Volume 2– 2022-23
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The More Reflective You Are, the More Effective You Are!
Make Self-Reflection Part of Your Daily Routine
Jack Arend
Deputy Director, AWSP
Evaluation Criteria: Creating a Culture, Improving Instruction, Closing the Gap
At AWSP, we believe professional learning is crucial to the success of a school leader. In fact, we often say, “Professional learning is a school leader’s self care, and self care is how you get your power back!” As a school leader, you can easily get caught up in the whirlwind of the day and find yourself moving at a frenetic pace. You are constantly being asked to solve complex problems, create intricate systems and ensure robust learning is happening in every classroom.
You utilize multiple leadership skills throughout every day: Empathy, communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence, compassion. These are just a few of the skills needed for you to thrive in your workplace and continue to become a great leader. Time and again, you are told these competencies are the key to making yourself highly effective — not just now but far into the future. Interpersonal skills, after all, are what make us human and relatable to the people we serve every day.
Developing leadership skills, traits and attributes are highly important for every leader. It is hard to find a leader who will tell you they don’t want to get better or that they no longer want to experience growth as a leader. Unfortunately, due to the workload and the thought that a school leader needs to be everything to everyone, every minute of the day, most leaders have lost the art of self-reflection as a tool to improve their performance. Self-reflection is one of the most powerful things a leader can do for their personal and professional development.
According to a West African proverb, “When a child falls, he looks forward, but when an adult falls, he looks behind.” The moral of the proverb is that a child does not pause and reflect on what made him fall, so it happens again. Adults look behind to see what made them stumble and make adjustments to prevent a recurrence.
With each project or meeting, school leaders need to slow down and reflect on how they showed up as a leader and what leadership moves did they make that helped or hindered progress. Being intentional about self-reflection is the leader’s tool to bridge the gap between ‘what has been’ to ‘what can be.’
So what does this mean for you as a leader?
Well, to put it simply, your leadership experience is not what makes you grow; it is your evaluated experience -- to pause, reflect and act – that will catapult you forward on your leadership journey. If you find you are constantly jumping from one project to the next, one initiative to another without allowing yourself to reflect, you will never experience the next level of your leadership.
With each project or meeting, school leaders need to slow down and reflect on how they showed up as a leader and what leadership moves did they make that helped or hindered progress. Being intentional about self-reflection is the leader’s tool to bridge the gap between “what has been” to “what can be.” Now is the time for leaders to pause and reflect on the school year. What will you celebrate? What will you re-evaluate? What will you completely reshape and start over?
Want to try some simple self-reflection?
START WITH ONE THING Select one thing from this school year. An initiative, a meeting, a new idea or a refreshed system. Ask yourself some simple reflective questions:
  • Did I do my best to be engaged? Did I do my best to build positive relationships?
  • Did I do my best to set clear goals? What went well? Did my involvement contribute to the success of the event? Reflect on how you showed up and your leadership actions throughout the meeting or project.
As you allow yourself time to reflect, you will quickly find the benefit of this practice and will hopefully consider making this a part of your routine. Maybe consider these two things as you start to build the system of self-reflection into your schedule.
BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND What is your end goal? What have you always wanted to do with your building, your staff, your students, but haven’t done yet? What’s getting in the way? What are you going to do about next year?
SCHEDULE SELF-REFLECTION TIME ON YOUR CALENDAR I know this might seem impossible to fit one more thing on your calendar. The secret of your leadership success lies in your daily routine. Being intentional about scheduling time for self-reflection will create new insights that drive new behaviors and results. This doesn’t have to be a massive overhaul of your calendar. Start small – schedule 10 or even 15 minutes a couple days a week. You will be giving yourself the time you deserve for your self care and leadership growth.
When leaders are not self-reflective, their vision becomes blurry. They end up compromising instead of prioritizing good things for kids. They become sluggish in executing innovative ideas and find themselves stuck in old thinking. School leadership matters. School leaders matter, and so does their professional growth. If culture is what the leader allows, then start allowing self-reflection to be a part of your daily routine.
Your success depends on it.◼