Reflective Leadership

Extracts from my Leadership Learning Journal

When I first started my National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) it became very apparent that I had a lot to learn about how to move from being operational in my role to being strategic. This included reflecting on what I understood by the term 'leadership', the type of leader I saw myself as and how I could make a difference.

My working class background meant that I wasn't born into leadership. I'd seen leadership as a position bestowed on a person through promotion or election; a recognition of hard work or expertise. It was clear that I could point to leaders but not articulate what it meant to be one. The experience in teaching taught me the responsibility of leadership and the impact of strong leadership. I'd reached the point whey I needed to ask some fundamental questions of what leadership is. Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones wrote about what it takes to be an authentic leader in their eloquently titled 'Why should anyone be led by you?' (Harvard Business School Press, 2006)

On my first NPQH face-to-face session, I was presented with some reading that tested the capacity of my lever-arch folder. Realising that this was just the beginning of my learning journey, I made the decision to keep a journal of what I read or talks that I attended. I bought myself a sturdy A4 notebook that looked as though it could cope with accompanying me whenever I needed it. From that point, I had a 'go-to' that was a collection of all the ideas that gave me an insight into effective leadership.

Keep a diary of leadership ideas

I would advise you to keep a journal, in whatever format works for you. I like the feel of the book and the process of manually writing things own. I engage with the content more that I have to think about how I am going to lay it out on the page and present it.

The pages of my Leadership Learning Journal reflect the way I see things and are presented in a way that I can visualise the ideas:

• Summary of articles or speeches

• Conference notes

• Thinkpieces

• Quotations, soundbites and mantras

• Conceptual diagrams

• Mindmaps

• Step-by-step lists and processes

• Illustrations and visual representations

• Gems that have been cut out and stuck in

The pages of my Leadership Learning Journal reflect the way I see things and are presented in a way that I can visualise the ideas. With each entry into my journal, I try and apply the thinking to my own context, and ask 'How can I use this?'. I regularly look back and remind myself of where links can be made and how I can reflect on what I've done. This is the reflective part of the process.

Join me on my journey

My aim is to reflect on my leadership and have joined-up thinking in my educational philosophy. With many of the blogs I write, I will include a copy of one of the pages or extracts from my journal for you to see. I'll reflect on what I wrote then and how I think about it now.

Perhaps get your own notebook (and some good pens) and start writing your own ideas. Maybe even make some space in it to include something from me!