Have you recognised the ‘spots of time’ that have made you who you are? By Niamh Ollerton
Have you ever taken a step back to reflect on your life? Are you able to observe the people and environment around you for what they truly are? Have you recognised the ‘spots of time’ that have made you who you are?
Coined by William Wordsworth, known as the greatest British poet on self and self-reflection, ‘spots of time’ is a concept used to describe special moments and experiences in life that are particularly memorable and influential.
These pivotal moments that helped shape us made us the people we are today. But how can we channel these experiences for our own betterment as leaders, team members and humans in general?
The art of self-reflection can be challenging, but lessons learned from Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem The Prelude demonstrate the positive power of memory, and how identifying key moments can offer re-energising and transformative benefits.
Embedding employability into the curriculum
Renovating. Nourishing. Repairing; that’s what Wordsworth believed the act of reflection and spots of time can do for humans – and according to Henry Mintzberg, co-founder of the International Master’s Programme for Managers (IMPM), managers learn best when they reflect on their own experience.
The IMPM is for senior leaders who want to be effective global leaders of their organisations, understanding the connection between all disciplines, and how by integrating disciplines under ‘mindsets’ they can better address the complexity of most of the decisions senior leaders have to make.
Featuring five modules held at different business schools across the world, each of the IMPM’s modules focusses on an individual mindset organisational leaders need, with the first module, Managing Self: The Reflective Mindset held at Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster and the Lake District, Cumbria, UK.
Participants then undertake: Managing Organisations: The Analytic Mindset, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Canada; Managing Context: The Worldly Mindset, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore; Managing Relationships: The Collaborative Mindset, Yokohama National University, Japan; Managing Change: The Action Mindset, EBAPE/FGV, Brazil.
Continue read at https://magazine.qs.com/qs-insights-magazine-22/reflection-with-purpose