If you haven’t yet figured out your career strengths and weaknesses, or haven’t developed some skills yet, it’s high time you reflect on your work experience. Reflecting on your experience may accentuate gaps or problems that may need to be worked upon.
Reflection comes from a Latin word ‘reflectere’, which means to bend back, to turn back or to turn around. Reflection creates the best conditions to illuminate your intentions and to help you express your thoughts and feelings.
When you reflect, you evaluate what career path you wish to take, and clarify if it’s really what you want to choose or consider a different one and why.
Frank Mugarura, CEO of Gravity Rwanda says that to improve your own personal development and compete in the entrepreneurial environment, it is really important to keep track of what you are doing on your journey. Not only does this help when compiling your experiences, but reflecting on your experiences will boost what you learn from them.
He points out that this process is a consistent learning experience – whether this is becoming more and more specialised in your domain or developing your skills and mind-sets, for example, in problem-solving or time management to name a few.
When you reflect, you evaluate what career path you wish to take.
"You will have some experiences that you find easy and natural, and others that are more challenging for you. Reflection allows you to really get the most out of your experiences and identify which skills and abilities are stronger or weaker for you and why, and which you need to develop,” he states.
Mugarura notes that from an entrepreneur’s point of view, no matter how many degrees you possess, you will also need several other professional skills to manage your business that your institute may not emphasise, and all of these can be acquired only from real-life experiences.
For example, working closely with different people will help you improve your communication skills and become an efficient orator and better negotiator. Since you’re working with a team, you also get to learn how to work closely with your teammates with a positive attitude, irrespective of how different your opinions are, he adds.
The Chief Executive Officer stresses that similarly; working on different projects might require you to handle challenging situations that you haven’t dealt with before. Such situations are great in helping you improve your problem-solving capabilities and make you a logical decision-maker.
Although soft skills like these don’t appear to be of much importance, such skills can help you mould your personality and make you a better leader and entrepreneur.
"If you want to practice work experience reflection, you may begin by thinking of a specific leadership activity you played a role in. This could be a coaching conversation, a sales call, just anything you want to reflect on. Limit it to one specific situation and try to organise your reflection into three steps,” he says.
One of the steps he highlights is to reflect on your experience, for instance, think about what you did, thought, and felt at the time you ask yourself these questions: What did I experience during the conversation?, What happened inside me during the conversation?
Secondly, he says, you must reflect on your learning. Analyse your experience and compare it to the models or principles that you want to follow. Ask yourself; what does this experience say to me? And what can I learn?
Thirdly, he urges applying to your practice. For example, apply your learning to your practice. Consider what options you have for the next time you face a similar situation: What options do I see for the next time I encounter this situation? What specifically do I intend to do based on my reflection?
It is important to consider work experience reflection because it’s where real experience is generated from, and it brings wisdom to fulfil your potential and succeed with your endeavours.