by Leah Jackson
Higher education takes a collective restoration after each fall semester, though the exact time off may vary depending on your role. You may use this time for solitude, activities and celebrations with family, or rest and relaxation. This campus-wide break is also a chance to pause, reflect on our careers, and envision what the future can hold.
"Cultivating a habit of self-reflection is a practice that pays off in multiple ways," confirms Sally Anne Carroll, PCC, founder of Whole Life Strategies Coaching. "Not only does it help you to better understand your career goals and design your career path, but it also helps to build skillsets and qualities that are important for personal and professional growth and wellbeing."
This practice can be useful for improving in your current career (such as brainstorming ways to improve courses or better serve students) but also for looking at your entire career trajectory.
"The pause between one semester and the next is a perfect time to reflect on what's working, what's been challenging, and where you might want to grow, make changes, or shift course," Carroll says. "Having this bigger picture in mind allows you to be more intentional in planning for the new year and align your time, energy, and resources with the priorities that are most important to you."
To help you take advantage of this well-deserved opportunity for self-reflection, we have compiled a list of 10 questions to consider:
- In the past year, what were the things that excited you most about your work? This could include specific tasks/projects, aspects of your role, or what you enjoy about your team. Reflecting on this question can help you to pinpoint aspects of your position that fulfill you, giving you a sense of gratitude for what you have. "It's also a good jumping off point for thinking about ways in which you can use job crafting strategies to incorporate more of what makes you happy and fulfilled into your role -- or, find another role that will fulfill or grow you more," Carroll says.
- What was your biggest career accomplishment this year? Celebrating our achievements is a great way to boost our self-esteem and energize us for the future. Recognizing your good work can help you get a strong start in the new semester.
- What is one goal that you didn't meet this year? Why not, and how do you feel about it? "It's just as important to reflect honestly on our challenges as well as our plans and successes," Carroll warns. While you can't go back and change what happened, we can learn from our mistakes and missed opportunities. Think about any obstacles that may have prevented you from achieving this goal and how you might do things differently in the future. Carroll also explains that this question can help you to re-align your goals with your vision, values, and career path. In other words, "Is this goal still important to you, and if so, why?"
- What skills do you hope to hone or attain in the next year? And how do they tie into your overarching career goals? Consider whether there were skills or abilities you wished you had this past year. What were you lacking that would help you in your career or current position? Setting goals for the new year gives you direction, but it's important to make sure they align with where you see your career going long-term and/or departmental goals.
- Have you felt supported by your supervisor? Is there any additional support you could ask for to help you thrive in your role? While we have a lot of control over our career and performance, the support and resources to which we have access can make a significant difference. A report at the beginning of 2023 from CUPA-HR indicated that supervisors in higher education were particularly overwhelmed and under-resourced (and leaving their jobs as a result). Whether you are a supervisor or not, it's important to consider if you have the right tools for success. If there is something within reason that would improve your performance, map out a plan to advocate for it.
- How would you rate your happiness and fulfillment in your role on a scale of 1 to 10? What (if anything) is keeping you from reaching that 10 (the happiest and most fulfilled you can be at work)? What changes could improve your rating, and are you able to influence any of those changes in the next year?
- How can you contribute to your department's or institution's momentum in the next year? Ultimately, we are all part of a team, so thinking about how you fit into the bigger picture is just as important as evaluating your individual progress. What are the goals for your team in the coming year, and how can you contribute to them?
- Have you been a supportive and effective teammate? Is there anything you can do to improve relationships with colleagues? Were there any times you let a coworker down in the last year or failed to support them as well as you had hoped? Much of our success and happiness in a position depends on our ability to work effectively with our coworkers and build meaningful relationships. Take a step back once in a while and consider if you have room for growth as a colleague.
- How is my work-life balance and mental health right now? Be completely honest with yourself. Are you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or unable to cope with your job frequently? These are important questions to help you determine if work is affecting your overall well-being. If you do find that your mental health is suffering, consider what would improve it. Though this article was written with the pandemic in mind, it offers some great options for self-care.
- If you are a manager, are you happy with how you managed your team this year? It can be difficult to be the manager that you envision while also being the manager that your team needs. Effective people management means that you are often changing your approach for each specific employee (adopting the management style that seems to best fit them). Would you have done anything differently? What will you change for the new year?
We hope these questions are helpful as you go into the spring semester. However, these can serve as a roadmap for self-reflection anytime throughout the year. It's important to take these pauses from time to time to think deeply about your career.
"Regularly reflecting on what you've experienced, how you've grown, and your feelings about that can all help develop self-trust and self-awareness, deepen the learning from your experiences, and give you a wider view of the context and impact of your work," Carroll reminds us.
This article is republished from HigherEdJobs® under a Creative Commons license.