Reflective Practice in Educational Leadership

Reflective leadership is a way of approaching the work of being a leader by leading one's life
with presence and personal mastery. Learning to be present, to be aware and attentive to our
experience with people throughout the day is the focus of reflective leadership.

Defining Reflective Leadership

Derived from the Latin term reflectere, reflection means “to bend back”; the act of
reflection is therefore crucial to global education because it serves as the bridge
between experience and learning (Reed & Koliba, 2003). When reflection is coupled
with emotional intelligence – the ability to understand one’s self and other people,
display self-control and self-confidence to respond to others appropriately – we have the
potential to lead global sustainable change (please see Burgan & Burgan, 2012). In our
everyday lives, and most certainly in the work we do with students, we must be more
patient, observant, and introspective, creative, and take risks, as well as have the ability
to take in information, connect the dots and glean eye-opening insights.
Another key tenet of reflective leadership is empathy. Over the past two decades, Pulitzer
Prize winner Daniel Goleman has written extensively on authenticity and empathy, and the
connection between empathy and leadership. He suggests that effective leaders possess
all three types of empathy – cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathetic
concern. How can we help students harness their skills to be emphathetic leaders? In what
ways can we be better attuned to how the other person feels and what they might be
thinking? Is it possible to empathize with our colleagues and be moved to help them? As
we create rapport with our global colleagues, being in tune with yourself and in tune with
what’s happening, suggests Goleman, will strengthen the relationship.

Reflective Leadership in Action

How can we incorporate reflective leadership into program implementation? The

following provides an example of reflective leadership in action. In June 2017, I co-led
Diversity Abroad’s Global Institute for Inclusive Leadership, an intensive, 8-day
interactive workshop designed for international education, student affairs, education
abroad, faculty development, and diversity and social justice program professionals who
were interested in gaining skills and resources and building networks to better support
their global education and diversity-related work. The inaugural Institute was held in
Cape Town, South Africa and was comprised of full-time professionals from 11 different
universities in the US. Self-reflection was a core component of preparing for
participation in the Institute; self and group reflection was fundamental to the experience
on the ground in South Africa and critical towards learning and growing both personally
and professionally upon participant’s re-entry into the US.
On day seven of the Institute, I led a workshop on Reflective Leadership that was quite
transformative for participants. The workshop was designed to provide participants with
an opportunity to map their leadership, using the Johari window as a framework to
better understand: a) what we know about our leadership skills and abilities, b) what we
don’t know about ourselves, c) what other’s don’t know about our leadership, and d)
what we and others don’t know about our skills and abilities. The workshop was
purposefully designed to be held at an off-site location with access to comfort foods, a
beachfront view, and plenty of space and time for participants to journal in private and
dialogue with each other confidentially. The guided activities revealed deep insights for
participants about their respective leadership styles and how these styles vary in
professional and personal settings. Participants explored what it means to do soul work
with purpose, the importance of balancing work with competing life priorities, and much
more. Facilitating the workshop led to my own set of discoveries about the
characteristics that I value in a workplace, why ethics and authenticity are core values
that guide my professional praxis and that through shared vulnerability we can foster
deep, meaningful and lifelong connections with our colleagues – an unexpected result
of leading the Institute.
https://www.diversitynetwork.org/news/371350/Reflective-Leadership-in-Global-
Education.htm

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1114323.pdf

https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/52166.pdf
 Critical reflection and leadership, and journaling as
part of a reflective practice

Critical Reflection
Critical reflection is a reasoning process to make meaning of an experience. Critical reflection is
descriptive, analytical, and critical, and can be articulated in a number of ways such as in written form,
orally, or as an artistic expression.

https://www.toolshero.com/management/gibbs-reflective-cycle-graham-gibbs/

What is the purpose of reflective journal?

reflect upon the subject content and personal experiences as a means to increase learners'
understanding; analyse learning process for self development.

Does journaling really helps?

Now it's called journaling. It's simply writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand
them more clearly. And if you struggle with stress, depression, or anxiety, keeping
a journal can help you gain control of your emotions and improve your mental health.

5 Reasons To Write a Reflective Journal

Reflective journals are most often used to record detailed descriptions of certain
aspects of an event or thought. For example, who was there, what was the purpose of
the event, what do you think about it, how does it make you feel, etc. Write down
everything, even if you don't have a clear idea of how this information will be helpful.

Here are some of the most common reasons why people find reflective journals so
useful:

1. To make sense of things that happened. What you write should sound as if you are
describing the details to someone who wasn't there. Be as descriptive as possible. Just
 the act of writing down the details of what happened may give you perspective that you
may not have otherwise considered had you just continued to think about it.

2. To speculate as to why something is the way it is. Your views can come from your
own common sense, or from something you have heard at a lecture or read in a book.
Either way, speculating why something is the way it is can be a very useful exercise in
reasoning.

3. To align future actions with your reflected values and experiences. After positing
your interpretation, continue to observe the subject of your speculation to decide
whether you want to stick to your original views, or make changes. That is one of the
great things about an online journal--you can make changes to your entries at any time.

4. To get thoughts and ideas out of your head. Writing down your thoughts can help
relieve pressure or help resolve problems. It will also help you focus the task at hand.

5. To share your thoughts and ideas with others. Getting opinions from others about
what you wrote can help you clarify your feelings for a deeper understanding of yourself.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hennainam/2017/04/02/to-be-an-effective-leader-keep-a-leadership-
journal/#2138ecfe3b4d

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/reflecting-yourself-leader-elena-aguilar

Individual Leadership Case Study

https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/52166.pdf

http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-qualities/Reflecting-on-leadership
If we are to improve our leadership skills, then it is important that we are aware of our
strengths and weaknesses, our values and behaviours, and the ways in which we attempt to
influence others. In other words, self-awareness and self-reflection is about learning to
understand our leadership style.

====

http://ceelo.org/toolkit/individual-leadership-toolkit/individual-leadership-skills/

Individual Leadership Development

Effective leaders have realistic assessments of their own abilities. Studies show that a
high self-awareness score is the strongest predictor of overall success. However,
looking in the mirror is never easy, but this is where mountains are scaled. A personal
leadership development plan gets you where you need to go faster, better, smarter.

Leaders need to uncover where they stand now and how this current frame of reference
affects their role in leadership. There is no greater loss than not living up to potential.
Understanding self is an essential building block for any future success.

How?
Imagine what being a leader would be like with an instruction manual. What wouldn’t
leaders be able to accomplish without a road map to the inner workings of their own
brain and emotions?

Everyone has pre-determined attributes that run alongside an entire spectrum of an

inner being that changes and adapts through growth and development. How one faces
difficult decisions, reacts to new ideas and is influenced by experience and environment
is filled with opportunity. Leadership Foundry gets leaders on the path to self discovery.
Your personal leadership development can not continue to be put off to the side.

https://www.leadershipfoundry.com/personal-leadership-development-plan/
======

It is important for early education leaders to possess solid background information but, in and of itself, it
is not sufficient. Effective early education leaders also possess a number of skills which are called upon in
their daily activities. While many fundamental skills are known to be found in leaders in a variety of
settings, several focused skills have proven very useful for early education leaders working in state and
local education agencies. These include Systems Thinking, Results-based Leadership, Communication
and Relationship Building, and Leading for Continuous Improvement. These skills are typically learned
rather than innately present, and take full advantage of one’s background knowledge to engage and lead.

Systems Thinking
Systems thinking (Waters Foundation, 2018) is an approach that concerns an understanding of a
system by examining individual components and their linkages and interactions that comprise the
entirety of that defined system. It requires taking the “balcony view” or seeing the big picture in
addition to all of the parts. Systems thinking utilizes habits, tools and strategies to develop an
understanding of the interdependent structures of dynamic systems. Systems thinking habits can
be acquired and many tools learned through tools and strategies. Effective early education
leaders are familiar with how systems function and engage in systems thinking to better
understand the big picture and leverage points leading to desired outcomes.

The complex world in which we live requires leaders to think systemically. The
concept of systems thinking was popularised by Peter Senge in his book “The
Fifth Discipline” where he describes system thinking as:

“a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships

rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots.”

The practice of system thinking helps us see the underlying inter-relationships

and connections which create the events occurring in our organisations.

When we refer to a system we mean:

“A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a

complex whole.” – Answers.com

The core assumption that underlies a systems approach, is that our world
consists of interconnected systems, relationships and interaction. This implies
that everything interacts with everything else. These complex relationship
mean introducing change is difficult and risky. For change to be effective we
have to focus on changes the underlying structure that’s responsible for
creating the events and trends we see and in so doing create different
results. Merely reacting to events and trends results in failed change.

The Iceberg Model

One of the best tools I’ve come across to help see things systemically is what
is known as the Iceberg Model. The iceberg model, is a structured way of
observing and understanding systems and helps us think through complex
problems and have the following benefits.

 Helps to move our focus away from events and symptoms toward
structures, thinking and beliefs.
 Helps to develop shared thinking or “mental models” within teams and
communities. This guides consistent and aligned action.
 Helps is to understand where leverage points are within the system.
Those places where least effort produced maximum results.

A systems perspective is an effective means for helping leaders gain an

understanding of the underlying structures, thinking and beliefs that shapes
their organisations.

The first thing to notice about the “Iceberg Model” as illustrated above is that
approximately two-thirds of an iceberg is under water, as the captain of the
Titanic quickly discovered! The majority of the iceberg remains hidden from
observation, beneath the water. This is true of the systems we interact with on
a daily basis, much of the structure and thinking that produces their results
remains hidden underwater.

The key to navigating and changing systems, is to see and understand the
whole system. Not just that which can be easily observed, the events. Walking
through the various layers of the iceberg we find the following:

 Events – This is the surface level of the iceberg, usually we can easily
see the “events” happening. Observable events answers the question
‘what happened?’ Linear thinking causes us to see the world as a series
of events. This is not a bad way to see the world, however it does not
provide a leveraged way to introduce change. A fixation on events often
leads to attributing cause and effects in a superficial way, limiting our
understanding and therefore our ability to introduce change.
 Trends and Patterns – As we string events together we begin to
recognise trends and patterns, this provides a deeper level of
understanding and along with it increased leverage, giving us a deeper
level of insight; ‘this event has happened before’.
 Structure – After a trend or pattern is identified, the next step is to look
for the dynamics that created the trend. There is some interpretation and
theorising needed to develop and understand the structure. It requires
that we develop a hypothesis as to what’s causing the trends. The
structure creates the foundation, which supports the trends and patterns,
resulting in events. Structure is important as it gives us a deeper
understanding of the system and can help us to predict a systems
behaviour.
 Mental Model – Systemic structures, in turn, are frequently held in place
by the beliefs, perceptions, thinking or “mental models” – these beliefs
are usually be undiscussable theories, residing in the minds of leaders,
on what constitutes quality, service excellence or customer orientation.
These beliefs may also affect interpersonal dynamics – such as
approaches toward conflict, leadership or the best way to introduce
change. Change the organisations thinking, beliefs and mental models
and you change the organisations behaviour and results.

As we move down the iceberg we gain a deeper understanding of a system

and at the same time gain increased leverage for intervening and changing
the system and it’s results.

The Art of the Asking Questions

One of the tools we have to help us understand and diagnose a system is the
art of asking questions. Using the iceberg model to guide us, we can ask
probing questions, moving from the level of events down through the pyramid
to the mental model level, as follows:

 Ask questions to identify key events: ‘What’s happening?’ or ‘What

has happened?’
 Ask questions that surface patterns of trends: ‘Has this happened
before?’ or ‘Is this problem similar to other’s we’ve had?’
 Ask questions that leads to the structure: ‘What structure is driving
this problem?’ ‘Why do you think that?’ ‘What effect has the delay had?’
‘What explains this?
 Ask questions to understand belief systems and
assumptions: ‘What is your understanding?’ ‘What are out beliefs about
this?’ ‘What assumptions are we making and why?

The primary goal of this analysis is to identify and act upon a system’s
leverage points. Leverage points are those places in a system where a small
change creates a substantial improvement. This is part science and part art
and as leaders we will need to practice moving our thinking from events to
structures to beliefs, by improving what types of questions we ask, develop a
theory or hypothesis as to what the structure night be and the beliefs driving
the structure. This then allows us to experiment with different ways of
changing the system. Wait for feedback and make further adjustments.

What is Results-Based Leadership?

Results-based leadership has relentless emphasis on results. It's simple equation:
Effective leadership = attributes × results.

"This equation suggests that leaders must strive for excellence in both terms: that is, they must both demonstrate attributes
and achieve results. Each term of the equation multiplies each other; they are not cumulative."1

Why Results-Based Leadership?

What is missing in most leadership-related writings and teachings, is the lack of attention to results. Most of them focus
on organizational capabilities – such as adaptability, agility, mission-directed, or values-based – or on leadership
competencies – such as vision, character, trust, and other exemplary attributes, competencies and capabilities. All well and
good, but what is seriously missing is the connection between these critical capabilities and results.1 And this is what results-
based leadership is all about: howorganizational capabilities and leadership competencies lead to and are connected to
desired results.

Benefits of Results-Based Leadership

 By helping leaders at all levels get results, results-based leadership frees productivity from constraints of hierarchy and the
limitations of position.
Results-based leaders define results by understanding audience and customer needs. They continually ask and answer the
question – "What is wanted?" – before they decided how to meet these needs.
Employees willingly follow result-based leaders who know both who they are (their own leadership attributes) and where
they are going (their targeted results). "Such leaders instill confidence and inspire trustin others because theу are direct,
focused, and consistent."1
Results-based leadership makes performance measurement easier. "Without a results focus, calibration of leadership
becomes extremely difficult. Measuring results helps organizations in many ways, from tracking leaders' individual growth,
to comparing leadership effectiveness in similar roles, to clarifying the leader selection process, to structuring leadership
development programs, to using results as the standard filters who should enter an organization and how they should be
trained."1

Communication

The leaders have to communicate the vision and goals to his team so as to motivate them to
achieve them with efficiency.Team Involvement, effective listening, clear and
timely communication is the main feature of this style. This style
of leadership makes communication an effective communication.

https://www.mcgill.ca/engage/files/engage/effective_leadership_is_all_about_communicating_effectiv
ely_luthra_dahiya_2015.pdf

Interpersonal skills

DEFINITION :
Effectively communicating, building rapport and relating to all kinds of people.

Those who have mastered interpersonal skills have the ability to connect with others in a
positive way. This skill set is comprised of other competencies in this module, including
empathy, understanding and evaluating others, and diplomacy and tact. Interpersonal skills
enable a person to successfully work with a wide range of individuals at varying levels of an
organization. In this section, you will learn techniques to listen and speak to others
effectively, as well as other means to improve your interpersonal skills.

https://www.thecompleteleader.org/interpersonal-skills

Continuous Improvement

Much like a product life cycle, a continuous improvement leader’s life cycle may start small, grow
as the leader becomes more aligned with the organisation’s mission, and then subside somewhat as
performance improvement matures. As leadership positions grow and evolve, leaders need to
remain relevant to their organisations. They are required to change, minimise their weaknesses,
and create or accept new leadership projects with the goal of sustained continuous improvement.

Following are five steps that could help you grow alongside your organisation’s maturing
performance improvement practices:

1. Develop formal and informal leadership authority

A leader’s formal authority is usually proportionate to the formal responsibilities entrusted to

him or her. In contrast, informal authority is accorded to the leader at a personal level, with
personal loyalty and trust extended on a person-by-person basis. While informal authority
develops outside an organisation’s formal structure, it generally remains visible to the executive
leadership. Growing informal authority can help develop the opportunity for additional formal
authority. A growing track record of success, experience and training thus becomes the basis for
the leader’s expected performance.

2. Maintain a strong awareness of self

Without self-knowledge there can be no real development in the leadership space. It’s simply not
possible to progress as a leader if you’re not aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and
the impact your behaviour has on others. Emotional intelligence is an indicator of the
understanding of self and of your maturity as a leader. To help develop self-knowledge, answer
the following questions:

 What are your professional interests?

 What motivates you when carrying out your work tasks?
 What topics do you want to learn more about?
 To what extent does your enthusiasm drive project execution?

Then build your experience with leadership training, mentoring and self-evaluation in order to
become more effective and versatile in continuously changing circumstances.

3. Expand and practise your skills

A good leader builds a broad foundation of skills from a range of experiences. All such
experiences will deliver leadership practice. Improving on soft skills such as adaptability,
decision-making and communication are pivotal for leadership development. The upsurge in
using social media as a business tool also means that you’ll have to constantly tweak your
techniques. By staying ahead of emerging trends, your peers in your organisation will see you as
a cutting-edge leader.

DOWNLOAD the Interpersonal Skills for Team Leaders Infographic Pack to help you build a
repertoire of skills that drive performance.

4. Recognise opportunity life cycles

A good continuous improvement leader becomes skilled at sensing which opportunities to take
and which to pass on. No one leader has all the experience and all the capability required, and
leadership opportunities can change with shifting organisational objectives. A leader must
recognise this and find new needs and opportunities. This process ensures a leader does not
stagnate or impede another leader who might be a better fit for a particular operational challenge.

5. Consolidate team empowerment

In a mature organisation, the role of the leader is to support employees and teams to develop
their own learning, and to promote their general self-empowerment so that they are increasingly
able to make decisions around their work.

The role of the leader will therefore be that of a ‘guider and gardener’ where employees are
provided with the direction and given the space to work out the best route. With this goes the
promotion of innovation at all levels and creating a climate where experimentation is genuinely
allowed. Empowered employees are a resource for gathering information and providing
performance-based feedback. They have examples to emulate and personal knowledge bases.
They are sources of inspiration. Add value to their roles and gain value from them in return.

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”

― John Dewey