Self-Reflection

In order to expand your range of skills you will need to develop a high level of self-awareness. Self-awareness begins with self-reflection. You must be willing to take a candid look at yourself to identify what makes you tick. Self-reflection is about questioning in a positive way what you do and why you do it, and deciding if there is a better or more efficient way of doing it in the future.

Answering these questions honestly will help you analyse your perspective and decide whether or not you should do things differently in the future. It can be difficult to remain objective about your own behaviour. However, it is imperative that you do not lie to yourself, as you will only create a false view of your behaviour, character and abilities. This could make it challenging for the people you work with to trust you and your ability to be open-minded and receptive to the views of others.

Examining and exploring yourself by self-reflection will lead you to being more self-aware. If you understand how you think and learn, your talents and abilities, the way you make decisions and how you behave, you will have a better understanding of how people perceive you and your point of view. To put it simply, to understand other people, you need first to understand yourself.

Key questions

Before you can start reflecting, you will need to identify the questions you want to reflect on. The questions you use for self-reflection will depend on the situation. In a work setting, you will ask yourself different questions than you would if you are reflecting on personal relationships. Examples of work-related self-reflection questions may include:

• What am I enjoying about my job?
• What would I change if I could? Can I facilitate these changes?
• How can I improve my workplace performance or increase my skillset?
• Am I providing good service to all of my clients?
• Do I relate well to other staff members?
• Does my lack of cultural understanding negatively impact clients?
• Are there processes or practices that I am unhappy with?

Tips for self-reflection

Regardless of your choice of approach to self-reflection, here are some simple tips to help you get the most out of the exercise.

Get into the right state and environment

For self-reflection to be effective, you need to put yourself in the right mental state. You want to give the process your full attention, so minimise any distractions. It may be helpful to choose a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. Choose a time of day when you are relaxed and alert.

Ask the right questions

It’s best to ask yourself ‘how’ questions rather than ‘why’ questions. ‘Why’ questions only tell you why things are as they are. ‘How’ questions will help you to identify things you want to change and improve. 

Ask: 'How can I have a better relationship with my boss?' Rather than: 'Why do I have a lousy relationship with my boss?'

Be 100% truthful

If you lie to yourself or avoid something unpleasant, nothing will change. Being truthful to yourself might be challenging, but remember, you are only talking to yourself.

Use a self-reflection model

A model can be useful for starting your self-reflection process and keeping you on track. Various self-reflection models are discussed later.

Don’t lose sight of the key questions

Asking yourself a question will probably lead to another question, and another, and so on. It can be easy to drift off track and end up getting nowhere. Keep the focus on your key questions.

Concentrate on self

If you have had an upsetting interaction with another person, your reflection may focus on the other person’s behaviour rather than your own. Emotion may block your ability to understand how you acted and reacted to the situation. Try to focus on your behaviour and reactions and what you could do differently next time.

Using a reflective journal

Some people find it useful to write their responses in a reflective journal. By writing it down, they not only have a record of their thoughts that they can refer to later, but they can also see how their thoughts and responses change over time. A reflective journal may also help you to focus on a particular difficulty you might have, such as having a difficult conversation at work or responding to negative feedback. 

If you make a decision, act on it

Self-reflection is all about changing things. If you come up with an idea to improve something, make sure you put it into action; otherwise, what is the point of thinking about it?

Developing self-awareness

Self-awareness is practised through the focus of your attention on your thoughts, behavioural patterns and emotions. At times, we might think that we are being self-aware, but instead, we might be focusing more on others and the situation instead of ourselves. Self-awareness takes a great deal of personal integrity and honesty – it can sometimes be difficult to recognise a behaviour you possess as being bad or unproductive to your team.

Once you understand why you think and behave in certain ways, you can use positive reflection to look at ways of changing the negatives and developing your skills in the way you work or learn.

It is likely that you already practise self-reflection, perhaps without even realising it. For example, you may have had an argument with someone at work. On your way home, you find yourself thinking about the argument and wondering if you handled it well.

• Was there a way it could have been avoided?
• Did your emotions get the better of you?
• Were you assertive or aggressive?
• Was the dispute resolved, or do you still feel angry with the other person?

What you are doing is evaluating how you handled the situation and looking at ways you might change your behaviour to avoid such situations in the future. In short, you are self-reflecting.

Confidence

Confidence is a key component of self-awareness and is a skill that requires lifelong journeying. Confidence can be defined as the way in which we view ourselves and our ability to achieve our required goals.

There are many internal and external factors that contribute to our confidence. These factors, such as family and friends, education, and community relations, affect our confidence and sense of true self.

Boundaries of self-reflection

Another important part of self-reflection in the workplace is to be aware of and operate within any legal or organisational boundaries that may exist.

Legislative boundaries

In the workplace, the self-reflection process may involve other people contributing to feedback. This feedback will be in the form of their thoughts, opinions and reactions to the actions, with the attitudes and performance of the person at the centre of the process. Remember that you must respect the privacy and confidentiality of anyone who provides input into a self-reflection process. This means acting in line with the Privacy Act 2020 and not discussing a person’s feedback with anyone else. You must use any feedback only for the purpose for which it was provided.

Organisational boundaries

Your workplace will have its own policies and procedures. These may include rules that also affect the self-reflective process. For example, support workers have a responsibility to always maintain a professional boundary between themselves and the tangata they support, their whānau and others in the team. In these situations, it may not be appropriate to ask a person you support to provide documented feedback for the self-reflection process. You will need to check your workplace policies and procedures to be sure about the rules on this. If the self-reflection process identifies something that could be seen as crossing any boundaries, discuss this with your supervisor/manager.

Some potential boundaries you could face in your organisation related to employee self-reflection include:

• time restraints
• lack of a supportive environment
• certain managerial styles
• rewards systems based on bonuses/promotions
• lack of resources
• lack of training
• power dynamics
• lack of honesty

In our busy lives, we often get caught up in our routines and sometimes forget to consider how we are behaving and the effect we may be having on others. Taking the time to build self-reflection into our day can have multiple benefits. Self-reflection can help you learn from your mistakes, expand your perspectives and support others with whom you interact. 

Self-reflection as a support worker

The use of self-reflection can benefit the health and wellbeing organisation that you are working for, along with the people you support. Benefits may include:

• increasing staff self-awareness and the ability to manage thoughts, emotions, responses and behaviour
• assisting in recognising strengths and weaknesses; enabling people to understand their own skills, knowledge and behaviours so that they can meet the demands of their role
• encouraging staff to explore theory and the use of practical experiences from the workplace
• providing a framework, through documenting reflection, for meaningful discussion about performance, personal development requirements and ongoing career options
• helping staff to learn from personal experiences, value strengths, develop insight and judgement, and different, more effective ways of participating in the future
• providing an opportunity to track personal and professional goals
• helping staff empathise with peers and the people being supported.

There are many models that you could use to assist with your self-reflection process. While the structure and format of these models may vary, they share many features. All have the same purpose – to act as a guide to assist you to become self-aware.

We will look at three models:

• Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988)
• Johns Model for Reflection (2000)
• Framework for reflection model (2001) by Rolfe et al.

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Gibbs’ model acknowledges personal feelings about a given situation and the influence they may have on how you begin to reflect. The model breaks down the reflection process so that you can explore your experience. Gibbs’ model provides a clear link between what you learn from an experience and the changes you make to your future practice. The model has six steps, as described below.

Description	What happened? Simply describe the situation or experience without making any judgements or drawing any conclusions.
Feelings	What were your reactions and feelings? At this point, you are not trying to analyse your experience. You are simply recording the facts about how you felt and reacted.
Evaluation	What was good or bad about the experience? In your evaluation, be clear about the experience and the positive and negative aspects. Make value judgements.
Analysis	What sense can you make of the situation? What was really going on? Were there similar or different perspectives that should be taken into consideration?
Conclusions	Make general conclusions about the situation based on the analyses you have undertaken. Make specific conclusions about the situation. What can be concluded about your own unique personal situation or way of working?
Personal action plans	It is time to move reflection into future action. What will you do differently in this type of situation the next time? What steps are you going to take on the basis of what you have learned?

Johns Model for Reflection

The Johns Model was developed for nursing practitioners but is applicable to any field. The model is based on five steps that enable you to break down your experience and reflect on the process and outcomes. This model encourages guided reflection, i.e., sharing the reflections with a mentor or peer to gain a greater understanding of an experience.

Description	Write a description of the experience. What are the key issues within this description to which I need to pay attention?
Reflection	What was I trying to achieve? Why did I act as I did? What are the consequences of my actions for myself and for the people I work with? How did I feel about this experience when it was happening? How did the people I work with feel about it? How do I know how the people I work with feel or felt about it?
Influencing factors	What internal factors influenced my decision-making and actions? What external factors influenced my decision-making and actions? What sources of knowledge did or should have influenced my decision-making and actions?
Could I deal with it better?	Could I have dealt better with the person? Could I have dealt better with the situation? What other choices did I have? What would be the consequences of these other choices?
Learning	How can I make sense of this experience in light of my past experience and future practice? How do I feel about this experience now? Have I taken effective action to support myself and others as a result of this experience? How has this experience changed my ways of thinking or my practice?

Framework for reflection by Rolfe et al.

The framework for reflection by Rolfe et al. is a simple three-stage model that is based on three questions:

What?	Describe the situation, the achievements, consequences, responses, feelings and problems. What is the problem/difficulty/reason for being stuck? What is the reason for the way I feel? What was my role in the situation?
So what?	Discuss what has been learned about self, relationships, models, attitudes, cultures, actions, thoughts, understanding and improvements. So what does this tell me, teach me or mean to me? So what does this tell me, teach me or mean about other people? So what was going through my mind as I acted? So what did I base my actions on? So what other knowledge can I bring to the situation? So what could/should I have done to make it better? So what is my new understanding of the situation? So what broader issues arise from the situation?
Now what?	Identify what needs to be done in order to improve future outcomes and develop learning. Now what do I need to do in order to make things better/stop being stuck/resolve the situation/feel better, etc.? Now what broader issues need to be considered if this action is to be successful? Now what might the consequences of this action be?

Watch: AUT Leadership Introduction to Reflection September 2017 (3:57 Minutes)

Watch the following video which describes the use of the Rolfe model.

There are two very important aspects of applying self-reflection that must happen during the workplace self-reflection process. They are seeking feedback and reflecting on your team and how you contribute to it.

Getting feedback from others

If you want to improve your skills or performance in the workplace, you need feedback from others. This feedback could come from your team leader, supervisor, manager, mentor, peers or other professionals. Feedback could also come from a person you have supported or their whānau/family.

Without feedback, you’re limited to your own perspective. Learning what others think of your performance is very valuable. It can help you frame appropriate questions to ask yourself so that you can understand why you do things as you do.

Health and wellbeing workplaces may have a formal feedback process. Depending on the organisation, there will be different policies and procedures dictating how it is carried out, by whom, who can be asked to provide feedback and what happens to any written records.  Some examples of formal feedback-gathering methods include:

• surveys
• one-on-one or group interviews
• focus groups, which bring together a small group of individuals with similar characteristics or experiences to discuss specific topics
• installing physical or virtual comment/suggestion boxes in strategic locations
• performance reviews
• creating feedback forms specifically designed for different stakeholders
• using online platforms and social media
• implementing a 360-degree feedback process involves gathering feedback from multiple sources

If the organisation where you are working doesn’t have a formal process for giving and receiving feedback (or even if they do), ask for feedback from a peer, team leader or supervisor. It doesn’t have to be formal or written.

Remember that the feedback will not always be positive – you need to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. Try and remember that feedback is an opportunity for improvement rather than a form of scrutiny. Knowing what others think of you is important so that you can:

• identify your strengths and weaknesses
• compare any feedback with your own assessment of your performance. That is, are you being realistic in your own assessment?
• learn from what went right and what went wrong in a particular situation
• identify problem areas that need attention
• if you are part of a team, find out how your team is performing and your part in that performance

Reflecting on the team

A team is ideally made up of people working to achieve a common goal. The success of that team depends on how well members interact and work together.

The way team members behave has a direct impact on individual team members and, potentially, team objectives. For example, if a person is often rude and abrupt, this behaviour may mean that other team members do not approach them for ideas or advice. This can cause a communication breakdown between team members, which can, in turn, prevent the team from achieving its goals.

Reflection can be a valuable way to look both at your team and at your teamwork. You can reflect both on the effectiveness of the team itself and on your role, behaviour and performance within the team. You might find working as part of a team rewarding or frustrating, or somewhere in between. You may ask yourself why you feel this way about teamwork. Are you concerned about your effectiveness as a team member? Perhaps you dread team meetings or find that they get taken over by one particular member?

Activity

What are some reflective questions you could ask yourself about teams and teamwork? 

Click on the following heading to see some possible examples.

If your reflection identifies anything that could benefit the team, engage with your teammates and report your findings. It may also be possible to exchange feedback with other team members to identify how certain behaviours are impacting the team.

The team self-reflection process can be difficult; not every member will be comfortable giving or receiving feedback. It is important to focus on positive changes to support team success and illustrate how these could lead to better outcomes.

Effectiveness of self-reflection

To be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your self-reflection process, it is useful to revisit its purpose and possible benefits. At the conclusion of your self-reflection, perhaps some of the most important things you could ask yourself are:

• have I increased my self-awareness?
• have I identified my own strengths and weaknesses?
• have I identified problems that are holding me back?
• have I identified and given myself credit for what I have achieved?
• have I identified the things I am currently happy and/or unhappy about?
• have I identified opportunities for change and improvement?

The effectiveness of self-reflection for you and your team can be measured in improved relationships, better communication, more positive team dynamics, more efficient team processes and more successful team outcomes.

Being aware of your feelings while supporting a person is important. You may have been supporting a person for a while and you will experience feelings of loss if they deteriorate or as they face challenges. It is important for you to recognise these feelings and find a way of dealing with them. You need to find ways to care for yourself if you want to continue to provide care for others.

Understanding the importance of self-care

• Maintaining resilience: Self-care helps you build resilience and cope with the daily stresses and emotional demands of the job. 
• Preventing burnout: The risk of burnout is higher in roles that involve constant caregiving. Prioritising self-care reduces the risk of burnout and helps you sustain your passion and commitment to your work. 
• Improved job performance: When you take care of yourself, you can perform your job more effectively. Your physical and emotional well-being directly impacts the quality of care you provide to your clients. 

Practical self-care tips

The following slides share some ideas for self-care. Use the Turn button to display each slide's information, and use the arrow keys to move between slides.

The whole self

Your whole self includes:

• Physical you (your body): Your tangible structure and five senses that enable you to touch, see, hear, smell and taste the world around you.
• Emotional you (your feelings): Your range of emotions from fear and anger to love and joy.
• Mental you (your thoughts): Your knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, your analytical self.
• Spiritual you (your spirit): Your relationship with yourself, your creativity, your life purpose, and your relationship with a higher power.

If you know your whole self, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, you will be able to recognise if any one of these parts is out of balance.

Iceberg model

The iceberg model (Fundamentals of Palliative Care, 2023) is a good way to describe your wellness. Your current state of wellness is just the tip of the iceberg. Think of an iceberg with a top layer and three more layers underneath.

All of these layers work together to make you the person you are. One aspect can affect all of the others. For example, looking after your physical health will enhance the sense of well-being you project to others. Being aware of these interactions means you can make lifestyle choices that will positively enhance your wellness.

In summary, supporting workers' well-being is crucial for their performance, job satisfaction, mental and physical health, and overall work-life balance. By investing in worker wellbeing, organisations can create a positive and supportive work environment, leading to higher productivity, higher employee engagement, and all-round success.