The Importance of Critical Reflection
Our ability to improve our performance is dependent upon many factors. Strategic brilliance, indefatigable energy levels and an ability to communicate a compelling vision are all helpful! Of course, the ability to be able to motivate colleagues and work collaboratively and collegiately is also of value. However, none of this counts for much if we are not consultative or if we struggle to listen to or respond positively, to well-intentioned feedback. A failure to listen undermines personal relationships and professional performance.
It is reasonable to feel an instinctive defensiveness when we, or the people we love, are criticised. The convergence of home and school life is something that has been navigated sensitively by those of us who live and work within a boarding community. The personal feels professional and the professional may well feel personal. As you are aware, we have recently been through a full ISI inspection. This has been an affirmative process because it underpins the importance of the reflective culture that characterises the way in which we are resolved to work. We listen to parents, respond to survey findings and try to ensure that everyone has a powerful voice within our community. We review our practices and procedures in light of lived experience and we apologise when we make mistakes. We are determined to be open and transparent and we are committed to listening and reflecting.
Home truths can sometimes be uncomfortable and it is so often easier for us to project blame rather than assume responsibility. I think that we are all guilty of this at times and yet experience tells us that our children are best supported when we have the courage to be honest with ourselves and those around us. Appraisal is an important part of the professional landscape here at Rossall and I would like to think that we are able to reflect upon those areas of development with openness and with confidence. For the record, my most recent appraisal mentioned work-life balance and the need to devolve some aspects of leadership more effectively. It also gently pointed out that I should accept and give praise more freely. These observations are enormously fair and made in good faith. Take the point about positive praise. I think that I give lots of effusive praise to colleagues but it is clear that there is a perceptual gap between what I think I am doing and the true impact of my actions or inaction. What matters is that my non-effusive and understated mode of expressing praise does not resonate as positively as I might have cared to imagine. It is an easily fixable area for development but I would be unlikely to change my behaviour in this regard were I not to embrace the feedback of those around me. Without a focused conversation, I would blunder on in blissful ignorance.
There are times when we all encounter egregious examples of those who are lacking self-knowledge. An extreme example of this is provided by King Oedipus in Sophocles’ tragedy, ‘Oedipus Rex’. Of course, we are unlikely to find ourselves in such dire circumstances but it is easy enough for us to construct self-serving narratives that project blame for our own failings onto others. When we do so, we remove the motivation to improve and we delegitimize the feelings and observations of those around us.
Things didn’t work out so well for Oedipus!
Rossall has come a very long way over recent years and we are on an exciting journey of self-improvement which will hopefully stretch well into the distant future. We are not and never will be the finished article. Nevertheless, we do need to celebrate our many successes and take a moment to accept that which is truly affirmative – even if that embarrasses our English sense of modesty! As parents, we need to be reflective and I think that we should always entertain the prospect that our children might be right and we might be wrong. The more experienced I become, the less certain I become. Similarly, I know that I grow as a person when I reflect meaningfully on the observations of others. True humility requires courage. Assuming responsibility is empowering and gives one agency. Impotently railing against the failings of others impedes meaningful progress.
Defensiveness is primal, instinctive and reactive. More often than not it arises out of a wounded sense of pride and gives voice to our deepest feelings of insecurity. If we want to truly excel and become the best versions of ourselves then we need to listen and reflect. More importantly, if we want our children to grow up to be reflective and considerate then we need to actively model these qualities with a sense of humility and a positive commitment to self-improvement. With that in mind, I am going to go and find some colleagues to praise!
Jeremy Quartermain
Headmaster of Rossall School
