In this fortnight’s Leadership Reflection, Principal Leonie Harwood reflects on honesty, responsibility and accountability, and why these qualities are essential in building integrity, both in ourselves and in the young people we guide.
As first term comes to an end, staff and students step into an opportunity for rest, restoration and reflection. Some people stumble into the break, while others, with impressive stamina, bounce into the holidays.
I am probably a little closer to the stumbling this term. I have been trying to pretend for the last few days that I am not getting sick, but my body has ignored my assertions. It has also been protesting about the start of the hockey season, most noticeably in my knee.
At the start of the year I set myself some positive fitness and wellbeing goals. Injuries, weather and competing commitments have all played a part, but so have my own choices. The list of excuses is quite long. Moving beyond those excuses requires honesty, taking responsibility for what I can control and holding myself accountable.
“Honesty, responsibility and accountability are three essentials in building integrity, a critical character strength.”
As a society, we often find some aspects of honesty easy. We have even developed common abbreviations or text speak to support our claims of honesty. TBH, shorthand for To Be Honest, has become code for “I am about to say something hurtful, but it is allowed because our society values honesty”.
There is a great clip of Hugh Grant sharing some of the things he does not like in this world, people walking slowly, backpacks, water bottles, roadworks without people working on them. I imagine most of us have quite a creative list of the things that annoy us. We can be honest, sometimes very honest, when we are complaining about roadworks and other people.
Being honest about our own mistakes, our own growth areas and our own failures is far more challenging. The greater challenge is taking responsibility for our own actions, especially our own failings. It is easy to blame roadworks, for example, when we are late. It is harder to take responsibility for not allowing enough time and being accountable for that choice.
Taking responsibility and being accountable are traits we seek to develop in children and young people, and are quick to criticise in adults when we see them lacking. We demand our suppliers take responsibility for a late delivery. We expect high levels of accountability in our leaders.
It is one thing to be honest about what annoys us. It is much harder to be honest about our own actions, and that challenge is only increasing.
As we face a world with conflict, shortages and rapid change driven by artificial intelligence, integrity will be one of the most important values and skills for the future, and one of the most challenging to develop.
“Integrity will be one of the most important values and skills for the future, and one of the most challenging to develop.”
As a society, we often find some aspects of honesty easy. We have even developed common abbreviations or text speak to support our claims of honesty. TBH, shorthand for To Be Honest, has become code for “I am about to say something hurtful, but it is allowed because our society values honesty”.
There is a great clip of Hugh Grant sharing some of the things he does not like in this world, people walking slowly, backpacks, water bottles, roadworks without people working on them. I imagine most of us have quite a creative list of the things that annoy us. We can be honest, sometimes very honest, when we are complaining about roadworks and other people.
Being honest about our own mistakes, our own growth areas and our own failures is far more challenging. The greater challenge is taking responsibility for our own actions, especially our own failings. It is easy to blame roadworks, for example, when we are late. It is harder to take responsibility for not allowing enough time and being accountable for that choice.
Taking responsibility and being accountable are traits we seek to develop in children and young people, and are quick to criticise in adults when we see them lacking. We demand our suppliers take responsibility for a late delivery. We expect high levels of accountability in our leaders.
It is one thing to be honest about what annoys us. It is much harder to be honest about our own actions, and that challenge is only increasing.
As we face a world with conflict, shortages and rapid change driven by artificial intelligence, integrity will be one of the most important values and skills for the future, and one of the most challenging to develop.
“As shortcuts become easier and the way we work continues to change, how will we ensure our young people develop the critical skills of integrity?”
It has never been easier to cheat in an assessment. Remember the days when people wrote answers on the palm of their hands or found someone else to complete an assignment for them, none of which I ever did. Now it takes very little effort to submit work generated by AI and present it as your own.
As shortcuts become easier and the way we work continues to change, how will we ensure our young people develop the critical skills of integrity, take responsibility for their effort and learning, and remain accountable for their choices? How will we support them to be honest, especially in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect truth?
We sometimes disguise the truth because it opens us up to vulnerability and to admitting that we are not perfect. The Burgmann Keys recognise the importance of taking responsibility for our actions and their consequences, and of seeing mistakes and challenges as opportunities to learn, grow and show grace.
As you and your children take time to reflect on the term that has been, on successes and challenges, I encourage you to lean into personal honesty, accept responsibility and establish accountability to support authentic growth.
So let me be honest, I am getting older and I need to do a lot more work to keep myself fit enough to keep playing hockey