Authors: Natasha Kenny and Sue Miller

As we round the corner to the end of 2023, the importance of taking some time to reflect on what we’ve learned and how we will move forward into 2024 struck us this week. So often we rush forward into the new year, without taking time to pause, reflect, learn, and set intentions for our journeys ahead. 

We work closely together at UCalgary’s Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning (TI) – Sue is the Associate Director of Strategic Operations and Natasha is the Senior Director. This week, Sue came to our biweekly 1:1 touch base with some fabulous questions for reflection that allowed us to journey through this process together.  The coach in me (Natasha) loved seeing the coach in her! 

During our conversation together, we took some time to noodle on our framing questions – clarifying and adding a couple that had meaning and resonance to both of us. We then took about 5-10 minutes individually to jot down some initial thoughts that came to mind for each of the questions.   The next 20 minutes were shared in a dynamic and reciprocal conversation together where we shared each of our responses, got to the heart of the matter, authentically built upon each other’s thoughts and reflections, and created new understandings and realizations of how we would move forward individually and in our work together.

It was a wonderful experience and we thought you might enjoy them too! We’ve provided the questions below:

1. What is something from the last year that you are most proud of?
2. What is one thing you learned about leadership or wished you had done differently as a leader last year?
3. What are your hopes for the TI [your organization] in 2024?
4. What would you want a colleague to say about your leadership, if they were having a conversation with another colleague?
5. What are your intentions as a leader in 2024?

We encourage you to share, use, and adapt these questions in your practice as you journey into 2024 (inside and outside of work). We’d love to hear how these questions work for you, how you have adapted them, or what other questions you’d recommend!