Leadership Development SeminarBecoming a Reflective

Practitioner

April 17th,2014

Becoming a Reflective Practitioner

Learning Objectives• Becoming more self aware through the use of reflective

practice• Appreciating the value of strength based leadership• Understanding your own strengths and how these are

complementary with others• Review the Reflected Best Self(RBS) tool and its utility in

developing your ARC• Introduction to narrative medicine as a self and other

reflective lens• Creating a network of leaders through learning together

Introductions 5 minutes

• Introduce yourself to a neighbour• Tell each other one or two things that are

unique about yourself• Group into fours• One of each pair introduce your new

colleague emphasizing their uniqueness

Effective Leaders• Are best when they utilize their strengths and

the strengths of their team?• Need to remediate their weaknesses and the

weaknesses of their team?

Strength Based Leadership GREAT LEADERS,TEAMS,AND WHY PEOPLE FOLLOW Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

(Gallup Press NY,2008)

Reflected Best SELF

• Myth that people need to be well rounded• Few truly high performing people are well-rounded• Combining our skills with our deeper, unique talents• Grooming ourselves to work within strength based

leadership models

How to Play to Your Strengths, Laura Morgan Roberts et al Harvard Business Review. Managing Yourself, January 2005

• We can’t ignore our weaknesses• But we can build on our special talents as a

pathway to excellence• When we receive positive and negative

feedback, we tend to focus on the negative

Your Reflected Best Self (RBS)Anchored in Your Strengths

You are a composite of:• Talents (naturally endowed abilities)• Core competencies (skills and strengths)• Deeply held values (principles)• Identity (culture, gender, education,

environment)

RBS is not ….

1. A static portrait designed to boost your ego2. An invitation to ignore your weaknesses3. An abstract catalogue of your strengths4. The same for everyone – not “the” best but

“your” best

RBS is …..5. An individual strength based leadership

development model

Developing your RBSStep 1

• Identifying your respondents and asking for feedback

Who? How? What?

Step 2:Recognize Patterns

• Collect and integrate feedback • Organize feedback into themes

Step 3:Compose your Self-Portrait

• Weave themes from the feedback into a composite self-portrait

• Create a narrative beginning with the prompt “When I am at my best, I…..”

• This will give you insight into both your strengths and areas where you have not performed as well

Step 4:Redesign the way you do your work

• Redesign your Job Description/Academic Role Category

• Look at your team for complementary strengths

Your RBS Portrait

• Review your RBS with two/three others- What is my best self?- How can I apply this feedback?

• Help each other refine your portrait … look for patterns in your data that created your portrait

• Discuss new insights/surprises• How can I incorporate my best self into my current job

description, my relationships( team, social and family), my future career plans?

Doing the RBS exercise

• Who in the group is genuinely interested?• Sharing the tool• Discussion: implementation and next steps?

Self Reflective Practice and Narrative……