How can Educational Leadership professionals develop self-awareness?

Whilst reflecting on your experiences, reflect on your ‘done’ list, what did you achieve? How did you achieve it? How did it make you feel? What was the impact on your organization/your colleagues? If you could do it differently and achieve the same outcome, would you? Ultimately when reflecting on your experiences, it’s important to have more questions than statements. Reflective questions are a good way to develop self awareness, making use of professional support such as a clinical supervisor, therapist or coach will help with those reflective questions and deepen your self awareness. Sometimes you need a professional with psychological skills and expertise to help you see yourself & learn from your experiences.

I would be able to share the right view if i could understand this phrase "Reflecting on your experience" about self awareness as parent or student or leader or as a peer group. Exactly I would say that awareness comes from attentively observing the other person's activity and it's outcome or result. Therefore more of exposure to new attempts and case study of the outcomes can your interpretation and understanding to respond rather than to react would be the best self-awareness.

If adding a journal or engaging a mentor feels like just 'one more thing' to add to your to-do list, like so many leaders, you're headed for burnout - and yet, despite knowing this, I often find myself in that position. That's when I know it's vital to stop and reflect on what's going wrong, but I need to do it as efficiently as possible! Using an app to track mood is a quick and easy way for me to look back at patterns and see what in my schedule is repeatedly triggering stress or low mood so that I can address what needs to change; without adding to a workload that already feels like too much.

Educational leadership professionals can develop self-awareness through intentional reflection, seeking feedback, and leveraging their strengths. For example, using reflective practices, such as journaling, to regularly assess personal experiences, challenges, and successes helps identify patterns in behavior and decision-making. Reflective practices emphasize the value of self-reflection as a means to understand personal beliefs, biases, and values that may impact leadership decisions.

Educational leadership professionals can develop self-awareness through various strategies. Regularly reflect on personal experiences, actions, and decisions to gain insights into one's values, beliefs, and leadership style. Actively seek feedback from peers, subordinates, and superiors to understand how others perceive your leadership and identify areas for improvement. Professional development is also important.

Getting feedback can make you feel vulnerable, especially if you've had a history of controlling or heavy-handed leadership or you struggle with low self-esteem. Still, it's crucial for you to be able to learn and grow. If you find receiving feedback challenging, practice with safe people first. That might mean people you are close to, who you can trust to give you feedback with kindness. Alternatively, it could mean people whose opinions aren't important to your self-worth; it's easier to hear a stranger didn't like something about you than someone you admire. Be wise about who you ask to speak critically in your life, but don't make the mistake of refusing to hear feedback. Feedback is a powerful tool.

Proactively seek feedback from peers, subordinates, and mentors to gain different perspectives on leadership style and effectiveness. You can seek constructive feedback by fostering a culture of openness within the educational leadership environment. Encourage honest communication and assure colleagues that feedback is welcomed. Create psychologically safe places to build trust.

Seeking feedback indicates that we are open to growth and learning. Being open to learning is a key link between self-awareness and being our best selves.

Feedback is the reassurance or critique that we all need as human beings living in a complex society. Positive feedback promotes confidence and critical feedback delivered in a strategic way can promote growth and opportunity. Most importantly, feedback needs to be specific, purposeful, and timely.

Getting feedback from stakeholders is one of the most successful ways a leader can keep a pulse on what is happening in their building/company. Feedback can aide in the development of a school/business culture and build trust among you the leader and his/her staff. I often say to leaders when training, "don't be afraid of a little push back from your staff. It is a great tool to prevent your school/business from developing group think".

I've always struggled with traditional meditation - my brain refuses to slow down and cooperate! I was introduced to "The Wheel of Awareness", a visual depiction of how my mind works, which really helps me focus my attention. The core is the experience of knowledge and awareness. Around this lies four distinct groups; the senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight), our interior body signals, our mental activity (thoughts and feelings) and interconnectedness (with others and nature). My mindfulness practice is working through each of these groups and trying to categorise what I'm experiencing, squeezing my fingertips against my thumb, in turn, each time I name something. It's simple but very effective.

Being mindful of implict biases will also help you determine points of focus on your growth journey. Take a real step back. Look at pictures of students, staff members amd stakeholders in your community and allow yourself to make judgements. This exercise will allow you to be real with yourself about biases you may carry and never share in your professional environment. Be willing to address these biases by mindfully considering why you feel the way you feel. What has lead to these feelings? What is currently feeding these feelings? Be honest with yourself about the implications of your biases. Now is the time to apply Mindfulness practices to becoming a better version of yourself.

Personality tests are essential to leaders. They are designed to systematically elicit information about a person's motivations, preferences, interests, and even their management style. My favorite personality test is Strength Finders. This assessment outlines your strengths and gives you ideas of what you can do to be sure you are using your strongest skills when working with your people. In addition, when we function in our strength (focusing on what we do have) and not the weaknesses (areas/skills you don't have). A great exercise would be for the entire leadership team to take the assessment and learn about each other.

I love psychometric testing and personality tests. I've taken loads of them, but my favourite is the VIA character strengths survey. It's free for anyone to take, focusing on the positive parts of your personality that make you feel authentic and engaged. Research has shown that understanding and focusing on your character strengths can help boost your self-esteem, reduce stress, strengthen your relationships and increase happiness. It's often easy when self-reflecting to only point out our faults and what we need to be better at; but focusing on our strengths is a great way to reframe problems and think, 'what's the best way to approach this with MY strength profile?' and help us to make sure we are thriving at work.

I recommend using tools like the Clifton Strengths assessment to identify and understand personal strengths. Leverage these strengths in leadership roles and seek opportunities that align with them. Emphasize the importance of recognizing and appreciating individual strengths within the educational leadership team, creating a more collaborative and supportive environment. However, a word of caution ... Avoid over-relying on strengths to the detriment of addressing weaknesses. Use strengths as a foundation for growth rather than a limitation.

We encourage our students to challenge themselves creatively all the time ("sorry, visual art is full... theatre fits in your schedule!"). I started drawing every day for 2023 and was keen to not be discouraged by the level of challenge. So I kept the subject matter entirely flexible and just kept a daily habit and a daily allotment of time. Believable - I both improved, and have a model for how to embark on an entirely new challenge for another skill in another time and place.

Continuously challenge yourself to engage in continuous professional development opportunities, attending workshops, conferences, and courses focusing on leadership skills and self-awareness. Communicate the importance of ongoing learning and self-improvement within the educational leadership community. Lead by example in demonstrating a commitment to growth.

- One thing I find helpful is to always remind myself of my core values. - As a leader, the values I cherish the most are empathy, empowering, and respect. - I work on aligning my decisions with these values to ensure objectivity and justice. - As a continuous process, I always reflect on my actions and decisions and be open to feedback, and any constructive thoughts.

A fast way to burn out is to work in ways that challenge your core values. My values include justice, equity and inclusivity. Now that I know those things about myself, I can see that I feel far more drained at the end of the day when those values are challenged. I can choose to manage this well by making sure I schedule challenging meetings around access and accommodations for my students at times of the day when I have the most energy or even times of the month (ladies with cycles, self-awareness includes recognising that our hormones can significantly impact our energy levels and responses).

Assessing your values involves a process of self-reflection, seeking feedback, and aligning your actions with your core beliefs. Reflect on how the knowledge gained from becoming more self-aware begins to confirm and align your values in ways that reassess and refine them. Use the time you're taking to become more self-aware as an opportunity to deepen your understanding of what matters most to you.

Often when I sit down to review my values, I am overwhelmed by all the good things to care about in the world. The questions "what if there was only a year left?" "what if you only could claim one" and "what would you most want to be remembered for" really help. These questions help discern the difference between values that I think are important and MY core values. Again, a conversation is a useful way to get there as is a chance to write free thoughts as they emerge.

To develop self awareness, you need to have a good understanding of who you are. Consider your cultural and intersectional identity, the above points listed such as your values, your personality and how you make decisions will be informed and influenced by your identity: your gender, faith, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, your personal experiences and more…Having a good understanding of your identity and how parts of your identity interacts & intersects with your colleagues and within your organization will help deepen your self awareness and strengthen your awareness as a leader.

To develop self-awareness, you need to spend time getting to know yourself. Reflect on moves you make and how they impact others. Ask others for feedback. Plan forward specifically on what you are going to pay attention to within yourself. Plan to act with your values and beliefs in mind as well as with an openness to other perspectives.