The best time to implement more intentional reflection with your student council or Leadership students is today. 

Totally cheesy, but it’s true. Simply put, no matter the time of year, it’s always beneficial to be thinking about how things have gone, currently how things are doing, and how things could be made better for the future. 

And there are any number of ways to make it meaningful for your students’ self-growth as well as for the health of your group. 

It can be as simple as asking a single 5-minute question once a week in a group circle or privately with a Google form. Or taking 15-20 minutes to ask a handful at the end of the semester or year. 

However you integrate this essential life skill of reflecting with your students, these tips should help make it easier!

Why is it Important to Reflect as a Student Council?

Student council duties can be hectic, jumping to planning the next event right after the previous one. Sometimes, it feels like you barely have time to take down the out-of-date posters. So, pre-planning specific time to reflect is crucial.

Each of your student leaders have different perspectives to offer great insight into how things went, which will allow your group to continually serve your school better. And for you to improve how you serve as their advisor. 

Of course, reflecting is also a super important life skill. Pausing the daily chaos to step back, assess things as a whole, look for patterns and outliers, then make meaning of it, all to improve for the future is essential in being successful in life. 

One of the best things you can give your student leaders is the practice of regular reflection, tailored to different settings. 

What Makes Good Leadership Reflection Questions?

First, whatever questions you ask, they need to be genuine to create genuine answers. Meaning, don’t just copy and paste ones from a LinkedIn essay that’s full of corporate jargon. Ask questions in a way your students would ask them.  

Also be specific. Vague questions won’t set your students up for useful answers. Don’t ask “How did you grow this year?”Instead, ask, “What was the most unlike-you, step-outside-your-comfort-zone thing you did this year?”

Lastly, be sure to balance the types of questions you ask.

Have some fun and positive ones along with more vulnerable, personal ones. By having both you’ll be able to evoke more meaningful self-reflection as well as valuable feedback for you.

Individual-focused questions should also be mixed with ones about how the group as a whole worked. Again, having a mix avoids question fatigue, which can begin to decrease the impact of the whole thing! 

When to Reflect as a Student Leader?

There are a few different times of the year that work great for pausing to reflect. 

At the end of a quarter is great for shorter-term and on-going questions focused on progress, small wins, and issues that have arisen. One I like to ask is “What are you most proud of yourself for doing in the last 9 weeks?”

End of the semester is better for more in-depth and long-term reflection, especially when paired with future goal setting for the next semester. I always save this one for mid-year: “What did you become the go-to person for this semester?”

The end of the year is best for feedback for you, the advisor, as well as suggestions for the next year. Like, “What’s a recurring task we do that should be fixed or changed?”

If you want to do weekly reflection questions, limit them to just 1 or 2 and change them up so they don’t become tired. Tailor them to match whatever it is you’re in the middle of and some weeks phrase them a little quirky to create anticipation for something otherwise routine. 

For example, “If the power went out in the middle of an assembly, what strength of yours would help save the day? What is one thing you’ll do next week to develop that strength of yours?”

Or simply, “What’d you/we drop the ball on this week? How can we not do that next week?”

Self & Group Leadership Reflection Questions 

These favorite questions of mine to ask all come from my Reflection Question Flip Deck kit, which gives you a bank of over 50, tailorable to be individual- or group-focused that work as weekly single questions or part of an end-of-the-year survey. 

Included are questions that cover these 7 different categories:

Strengths & Assets: What did you become the go-to person for this semester/year?

Growth Over Time: What was your biggest stumble this semester/year? What did you learn from it?

Room for Improvement: What was your/our biggest win this semester/year?

Contribution to the Group: What contribution of yours brought the most joy to others?

Overall Reflection: What’s one improvement could we make to our communication/organization/etc. system?

Future Goal Setting: If we had $1,000 to spend on anything for our school, what should it be?

Feedback to the Advisor: Did being a part of this group turn out to be what you expected? Why or why not?

Check out my done-for-you Student Council & Leadership Reflection Question flip deck to access all 56 questions, both in easy-to-use printable cards for group conversation as well as a digital bank to easily copy and paste into your LMS platform. The best part is that these are all editable to customize to your needs!

Image credit: Hannah Olinger