This week I have the semester ending opportunity to assess and score the results of students taking their Final Exam in my American Government & Politics class.   As you can guess my exams are a little non-traditional… but a whole lot about “What do YOU think?”.  The exam consists of a variety of essay questions and each student has a choice of the required number of questions they must answer.  But the question that is most fun and interesting are the answers that come from the last question:

“Ten (10) years from now… what job will you have and what part of this American Government & Politics course impacted you the most and why?”

Right now, I bet you are asking yourself… where is the Inspiring Innovations TRIPLE III TIME message in all this verbiage?

Well, just like students in my class answering that last Final Exam question, reflection… Professional Reflection is the special “test” assignment for this weeks message.  What if you were asked:

“Given all of the challenges you faced during calendar year 2020, what action or occurrence professionally impacted you the most and why?”

I am sure the COVID issues would strongly influence your response to this question… but what about you and your world of work?  Consider:

• Are you more tech-savvy?
• Can you really do your job without personal contact?
• Have new business products/services been created in your profession?
• What skill-set areas have you “stretched” and which ones have contracted?
• What type of motivational speech could you give to co-workers… today?
• Are you happy because you didn’t have to change at all?
• Did you feel like you wanted to find a new job?
• Is there a training area you wished you had?
• What professional resources or people did you look to for guidance?
• If you knew then what you know now, would you do anything different?

Professional Reflection is an exercise that really should have no specific timetable. Therefore asking yourself pertinent growth questions is something that all professionals need to ask in some way or form… just to observe/determine personal movement.

So how would YOU answer this Final Exam question??