Your Year in Pictures

by Curt Friedel --

Royalty-Free photo: Tilt shift lens photography of girl holding black Canon DSLR camera | PickPikOne of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is to find the websites offering the year in pictures. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and tells a story of significant events of the past year. Sometimes, the pictures are associated with a newsworthy event; sometimes, the picture is a colorful and beautiful moment. It seems like each picture offers a glimpse of our humanity, and sometimes our inhumanity. Pictures offer a great opportunity to reflect on what we can be proud of, and what we could do better or different.

Some great websites for seeing the year-in-pictures include:


What does your year of pictures look like? Maybe you take a lot of pictures, or maybe you don’t. Either way, we tend to take pictures of things that are important to us. It is likely that the pictures saved on your phone are important to you.

Looking at our pictures from the past year can give us an opportunity to reflect on all the things, good and bad. We know from Kolb’s (1984) model of experiential learning, reflection is one of the four stages of learning. We often forget the importance of reflection in teaching leadership, especially in leadership skill development. The four stages of Kolb’s experiential learning model include:

  1. A concrete experience (e.g. making something, case study, role playing, etc.)

  2. Reflective observation (evaluate the experience and identify feelings)

  3. Abstract conceptualization (apply conceptual knowledge to the experience)

  4. Active experimentation (plan for a concrete experience with improved results)

The end of the year tends to be a natural time to reflect on the past year, and plan for better or different approaches for the new year. We could consider the last year as one large concrete experience. Of course, to follow the experiential model completely, this would require some reading and gaining understanding of leadership concepts, and planning to do better next year (active experimentation) in whatever area you are trying to improve. We can learn to be better leaders by following the experiential learning process.

Going back to reflection, and your year in pictures; consider picking 3 to 5 pictures from the past year which provide a representation of your leadership. Then consider some of the following reflective questions.

  • What am I most proud of accomplishing this past year?

  • How do your values align with your accomplishments?

  • How are you different than when you started this year?

  • Who were your major supporters this past year?

  • Whose life did I make better this year?

  • What did you change your mind about?

  • What new skills did you learn this past year?

  • How did you begin this year? How do you want to end it?

These questions are a great start for reflecting on your leadership, or perhaps even be reflective questions for your students to answer. For leadership development, deliberate reflection is key to continue your growth.


Acknowledgment

Boy with camera from pickpik.com 

Reference

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning. Englewood Cliffs.

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