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In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
Six Lenses for Making Sense of the Past Year
By any measure, the past year has been distraction-filled, challenging, and bewildering for most of us. Yet, it has offered experiences to reflect upon, lessons to be learned, and opportunities to grow. Of course, many of the experiences were stressful, some of the lessons were hard, and the opportunities were not always obvious.
Still, as we approach the end of the year, it’s worth our time to reflect on what the year has brought, what it has meant, and what we should take from it. It might be tempting to try to forget the journey and put it behind us, but doing so also risks losing any value it offered and ignoring how we have grown and what we can take forward to be better prepared for what lies ahead.
Of course, we need to decide where to start and how to frame our reflection. Here are six “lenses” we can use to focus our reflection and capture what may be most relevant from the year-long journey we will soon complete.
The first lens invites us to reflect on what we chose to lift up during the past year. What values did we defend? What principles did our actions reflect? What ideas did we discover, develop, and deploy? Whose lives did we make better? Who did we mentor? Who did we reassure and support? Among the most important roles we play is lifting up the lives, experiences, and aspirations of those around us.
The second lens asks who we let in. What relationships did we form? What relationships grew stronger through the experiences we shared? Whose counsel did we seek? How did we contribute to, tap, and build our network of support? During times of challenge and stress, the support system we have built and on which we rely can be the difference between barely surviving and powering through the experience healthy and whole.
The third lens offers the opportunity to reflect on what we let go over the past year. Times of stress and conflict can leave us with myriad conflicting emotions, many of which are not useful and do not contribute to our well-being. What worry did we release, realizing that we did not control the factors that would determine the outcome? What guilt did we let go of because it served no purpose and held us back from being our best selves? What relationships did we step away from because they were not healthy or helpful to our well-being? These decisions can be difficult, but they are often necessary if we are to move forward and grow.
The fourth lens asks what we chose to learn. What learning was necessary to navigate the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities we encountered? What learning did we choose to grow our knowledge and expand our skills? What learning was unplanned, but necessary? How did what we learned change the way we see our work and how we engage in it? How might we use what we have learned to be better prepared and more successful in the future? Learning is what determines whether an experience has value or is simply something we endured.
The fifth lens invites us to consider how we chose to leverage our expertise and influence to make a difference. Each of us holds a position of potential influence with those around us. We also possess expertise that can shift the nature, direction, and momentum of issues, conflicts, and initiatives. How did we use our influence to guide discussions in productive directions? Where did our influence make the lives of those around us better? How did we employ our expertise to help solve a problem, find a solution, or move a dialogue in a positive direction? We often possess more power to influence what is happening around us than we realize. What we choose to do with our influence and expertise is what matters most.
The sixth lens asks how often we found occasions to laugh during the past year. We might find this question curious as that past year may not have offered many situations where laughter would be a natural response. Yet, an effective strategy for navigating tragedy and grief can be laughter. Where did we encounter absurdity so great that it made us want to laugh? When did we step back and appreciate the irony of situations we encountered? What did we do to stimulate laughter in those around us? What did we do for pleasure despite the challenges we faced? How did we strike a balance between tragedy and comedy in our lives?
We can’t know what the next year will bring, but as we look ahead, we can put our reflections on the past year to good use. We can use what we learned, let in, and let go to prepare us for what lies ahead. We can commit to use our influence and expertise to make a difference in our work and lift the lives of those around us. We can also promise ourselves to find reasons to laugh, find balance, and seek healthy pleasure despite what the future may hold.
In Your Corner, Student Learning
Closing the Year with a Message to Our Students
In the waning weeks and days of the school year, we can feel as though our students are slipping away. They are beginning to look forward to summer and anticipating the adventures of next year. Of course, we have invested the past months guiding, coaching, and preparing them for this time. We have watched as their competence and confidence have grown. We hope that we have done what is necessary to prepare them for what is next and what lies beyond as their lives unfold.
While we are excited to send them on their way, we may also feel some regret. There is never enough time to teach everything we would like our students to know. Yet, it’s amazing to see how far they have come.
Now as the end of the year approaches, we have one final opportunity to give our students some advice to reflect and rely upon in the months and years ahead. Each of our students is unique and will hear our advice in a different way. Regardless, this is a time when we want to instill hope and build their confidence. As we think about our “closing message,” here are some ideas and insights to consider passing along.
First, we can remind our students to regularly recall and recount their successes. Confidence grows as students feel successful, and success builds on success. When students remember, recount, and relive their successes they can counter negative, confidence-undermining narratives. We can remind students of the many successful experiences and occasions worthy of recalling and recounting from the past year.
Second, we can discourage students from comparing themselves and their performance to others. Comparisons to others who may be moving faster or doing better can undermine confidence even though another student may be in a very different situation. What matters most is for students to concentrate on their own learning and progress. It is also the only element students can control. Our students’ long-term success will be determined by what they do, how they continue to grow and learn, and what they do with their unique talents and skills.
Third, we can remind students that effort and occasional struggle are important to their learning. In fact, learning that comes easy is often forgotten just as easily. We can remind them that when they must concentrate and make multiple attempts before succeeding, they are building learning skills that will serve them for a lifetime.
Fourth, we can point out to our students that it’s never too late to get better. Life continues to present lessons until they are learned. No matter how well our students did this year or how much they may have struggled, there are always opportunities to get better. Life is all about growth.
Fifth, we can remind our students that school will end, but learning is lifelong. We can urge our students to continue to find and practice learning approaches that work for them. Sometimes their learning approach will not align with how they are taught. That doesn’t mean that they are not good learners. We can urge students to find the ways in which they learn best and embrace them. It can make all the difference.
Sixth, we can advise our students that what matters most is not who approves of them. What matters and will count the most is their own approval, acceptance, and confidence. To chase the approval and acceptance of others is folly. We can urge our students to live lives they can be proud of and people who count will approve of and accept them.
Seventh, we can assure our students that we see in them the potential for greatness. They have gifts and talents they may not be aware of yet. Each student has their own unique combination of special potential. Further, we can remind students that it’s not the A’s they received in school that will matter most, it will be the actions they take in life. It will not be the B’s they earned in school that will determine their future. It will be what they choose to become. And it’s not the C’s that will matter most. It will be what they are willing to commit.
Eighth, we can urge our students to take life as it comes. There is no need or benefit to hurrying life. We can remind students that every stage of life will have its gifts and delights and its challenges and heartaches. Trying to accelerate life beyond their years risks their missing important lessons and experiences that will make them more satisfied and successful people. We can remind them to live each day with purpose and to make each day count. If they always try to do the right thing, then they will live a life with few regrets.
Our end-of-year message is an opportunity to remind students one last time of the experience of the past year and it is a gift to take with them as they depart our classroom and school. Our best hope is that when they encounter life’s challenges and navigate life’s dilemmas they will be able to fall back on what they have learned and experienced in their time with us.
In Your Corner, Student Learning
In Your Corner, Student Learning
In Your Corner, Relationships and Connections
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
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Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
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