Know thyself: how to assess your shortcomings and successes

Everybody knows the things they are good at and what they need to improve.

At least, that’s what we tend to believe.

I’ve always taken pride in knowing my role well. I care deeply about supporting my team and our students, and I’ve felt confident in my understanding of what strong leadership in my position looks like.

Reflection has always been part of my practice. Like many leaders, I often talk about the importance of reviewing what we do and adapting accordingly.

Honest reflection

But recently, as I was preparing to move into a new position and begin the handover process with the colleague stepping into my current role, I was forced into a different kind of reflection.

Not the broad, philosophical kind, but the granular kind.

I began mapping out my daily, weekly, termly and yearly responsibilities. The routine tasks. The processes. The rhythms that quietly define the role. What initially felt like a straightforward exercise quickly became something more revealing.

To my surprise - and, at first, discomfort - I realised that there were several aspects of the role that, while I carried them out competently, I knew I could have done better. I had not done them dramatically poorly. Nor had I been negligent. But I could have been better. Sharper. More consistent. With greater intentionality.

Procedural rather than purposeful

Over the course of a busy term, certain tasks had become procedural rather than purposeful. They were completed, but perhaps not always elevated.

One example was follow-up conversations. I pride myself on being visible and available when issues arise, and I would often have the initial conversation quickly and effectively.

However, when reviewing the role, I realised there were occasions when the planned follow-up a week or two later wasn’t as consistent as I would have liked. Nothing fell through the cracks, but there were opportunities to revisit conversations and check on longer-term impact that I know I could have been more deliberate about.

At the same time, there were other areas where reflection brought a different realisation: I had enhanced parts of the role more than I’d given myself credit for. Systems I had strengthened. Relationships I had deepened. Processes that now run more smoothly than when I inherited them.

Evaluating the everyday processes

Both discoveries were important, and what made the process particularly valuable was that I wasn’t reflecting in isolation. As I began handing over responsibilities, questions from the colleague taking over the role prompted further reflection.

Why had one system evolved while another remained largely unchanged? Why had some routines become embedded while others had drifted? What had I stopped doing that had once made a real difference?

Those questions helped to push me to recognise the importance of evaluating not just when things go wrong (when it’s clear we need to evaluate) but also the everyday systems and processes that underpin how we work, recognising the positive changes we introduce and why they work.

How to assess

Evaluating yourself is not easy, which is why such an exercise should ideally not be done alone, but with a trusted colleague, line manager or even the person inheriting your role.

The gaps between how we see ourselves and how others experience our work often reveal the most useful insights.

Of course, in the busy rhythm of school life, it is easy to believe we have no time for such self-reflection.

Yet busyness can camouflage mediocrity. When everything is moving quickly, “good enough” can quietly replace “as good as it could be”. Not because we don’t care, but because we are stretched. And when that happens gradually, we rarely notice it ourselves.

Equally, busyness can blind us to growth. We move on so quickly to the next challenge that we don’t acknowledge where we’ve meaningfully improved a system, culture or team.

Self-reflection, then, isn’t simply about identifying weaknesses; it’s about accurately diagnosing reality.

As I hand over my current role, I’m grateful for the clarity this process has given me. It has shaped not only my own understanding of the role, but also the handover itself.

Rather than simply passing on a list of tasks and deadlines, I’ve been able to share what I believe works particularly well, while pointing out the areas where there is still room to push further.

Some of that has been captured through notes and documents; some has come through conversations. Both have been important. After all, a role is never just a collection of responsibilities; it is also a collection of lessons learned.

Ian Watts is assistant head of secondary (student wellbeing and community) at The International School @ ParkCity, Kuala Lumpur