How can leaders use self-reflection as a development tool with others? Self-reflection is one of the most effective learning and development tools that a leader can use with themselves and their team members.

Self-reflection can help everyone to learn from any mistakes that were made, flaws in systems that were uses, and to analyze actions that were taken.

When guides and instructors use reflection with their guests, they create an opportunity to become aware of and to address problems. It also creates an opportunity to highlight learning opportunities and to ensure that everyone leaves with an accurate memory of events.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Bill Mark joins Jordy and Chris to explore how leaders can use self-reflection with others.

Bill Mark is a CSGA Certified Ski Guide and Guide Trainer. He has spent over Forty years in the ski industry working in ski patrol and as a guide. Bill’s current role is the Assistant Director of Ski Operations and Senior Lead Heli-Ski Guide for Mike Wiegle’s Heli-Skiing.

Bill has extensive experience working with large teams of guides in high-risk environments where self-reflection is an essential tool for learning and development.

Bill shares how leaders can use self-reflection with themselves and others effectively to improve sharing and leverage learning.

Key Takeaways

Using self-reflection as a leader effectively requires:

Developing a Culture of Self-Reflection: Self-reflection is an essential component of developing a responsible risk-taking culture within teams. It is also one trait that can separate amateurs from true professionals. To leverage self-reflection, teams need to create a culture where self-reflection is encouraged and the time for it is set aside. This means scheduling it into the day and finding ways to make it a sustainable habit.

Create Phycological Safety: Self-reflection only works if people are forthcoming and truthful with events, actions and thinking. To create an environment of open and honest communication, team members need to feel safe. To accomplish this, people should be rewarded for sharing mistakes instead of being punished or shamed. This is an essential component of creating psychological safety within the group.

Look for Trends and Patterns: Humans are creatures of habit. When using self-reflection with others, leaders should be actively looking for unhealthy patterns or weakness in systems regardless of the outcomes. Correcting negative patterns, biases in decision making or poorly constructed or executed processes early, is an essential part of preventing future mishaps.

Mentorship and Training (up for success): Leaders may need to train mentors and trainers how to use self-reflection effectively. It is a mistake to think that people in leader positions know how to use self-reflection effectively. Leaders may also have to train team members on how they can be mentored more effectively. This includes coaching them how to ask the right questions, how to learn from feedback and where to access mentorship.

Guet Bio

Bill started his career in the adventure industry working as a ski patroller in New Zealand before moving to Whistler for what was meant to be a season. Bill joined the Blackcomb Ski Patrol in 1987. He liked it so much he started doing back-to-back winters shuttling between the Whistler and working ski patrol in Cardrona in New Zealand, where he went on to become the ski patrol director.

In 1991 he joined Mike Weigle’s Heli Skiing as a ski guide. Bill is now the Assistant Director of Ski Operations and Senior Lead Heli-Ski Guide for Mike Wiegle’s Heli-Skiing.

Bill is CSGA L3 certified and has ISIA full certification (from NZ). He also instructs on CSGA courses and on CAA Industry Training Programs.

When it comes to using self-reflection as a skill development

How can we use self-reflection to improve our decision making, performance and experience delivery?

One of the best ways to undertake personal growth as an individual, a risk-taker and leader is to build self-reflection into our day.

Self-reflection can help us to improve our performance, decision making, our delivery of information, and our relationships. While experience can be an essential tool for a guide, instructor and coach to have, experience itself is only good if we learn from it.

In this episode, Jordy and Chris are joined by Tracey Fraser to discuss how we can harness the power of self-reflection more effectively.

Tracey Fraser is the training manager at the Whistler Blackcomb Snow School. She is a certified CSIA Level 4 and PSIC Level 4 ski instructor. She is also a PSIC Level 4 LPT trainer which means that Tracey is certified to train ski instructors at the very highest level.

Tracey shares how we can build self-reflection seamlessly into our day, how we can use it and what it can teach us.

Key Takeaways

How can we use self-reflection on a personal level effectively

Adopt a Growth Mindset: This means approaching situations from the perspective that you want to know how to make them even better in the future, regardless of how well it did or did not go.

Make Time to Reflect: This can include stepping away from others to think about what just happened, making time to ask other people for feedback or taking time at the end of the day to analyze high and low points.

Be Curious with Yourself: This can include asking yourself if there is anything you would want to do differently, asking what went well, what were the challenge points, and what did not go well.

Look for Patterns or Tendencies: We all have ways of doing things that could be problematic and may not be effective. These can include cognitive biases that can compromise our decision making. It can also include flaws in our systems and ways of doing things. Addressing negative patterns is an essential step to improvement.

Embrace Being Vulnerable: It is okay to admit that there is room for you to do things better or to improve. Being vulnerable is not a weakness, it is a strength that you hear in most of our guests.

Be Objective: To do this we have to focus on the facts by being non-judgemental. This includes avoiding the trap of rationalizing our actions to the point that we miss the opportunity to spot weaknesses in what we did.

Guest Bio

Tracey Fraser is the training manager at the Whistler Blackcomb Snow School which is one of the largest Snow Schools in the world with close to fifteen hundred staff. She is also involved with the Professional Ski Instructors of Canada and has worked with the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance where she Chaired the CSIA Women in Skiing Committee.

Tracey has represented Canada at Interski twice. She is a certified CSIA Level 4 and PSIC Level 4 ski instructor. She is also a PSIC Level 4 LPT trainer which means that Tracey is certified to train ski instructors at the very highest level.

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How can you keep control over a group without creating conflict? This is something that even the most experienced leader can find challenging.

When people trust their leader’s decision making and are content to follow the leader’s directions, being the leader of the group can be easy.

However, most people are not willing to blindly follow their leader’s direction. An important human need is to retain a sense of control. This need for control can often be driven by our ego. It can also manifest itself as an anti-authority mindset where we can want to do things our own way.

Joining us to explore key strategies that leaders can use to keep the right amount of control over their group is Madeleine Martin-Preney.

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC.

Madeleine shares important insights from her guiding career on how she manages to both give and keep control when she is leading. Knowing how to give and take control is an essential skill for every adventure guide, instructor and team leader to master. In this episode, we discuss how you can do it more effectively.

Key Takeaways

How can a leader maintain the right amount of control over a group?

Having too little control: Can lead to people making decisions for themselves. This can cause people to go in different directions. When the leader does not have control, it can also erode trust in the leader.

Having too much control: Can cause people to push back. Having a measure of control is an important need and when we do not give people some sense of control for themselves, they can rebel. People want to feel that they are part of the experience instead of just feeling like they are being led or managed.

Right Balance: Give people control where you can so that you can take it back when you need to.

Building trust early: Can help the leader to avoid having people challenge their control.

Creating systems: Having everyone understand how systems work and how they can contribute to the system or work within it can be a really powerful tool.

Guest Bio

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. Born and raised in Nelson, BC, she earned her full ski guide certification in 2018. An avid backcountry adventurer, she completed the first full ski traverse of the Selkirk Mountains (520 km, 43 000 m elevation) and participated in the Bugaboos‑to‑Rogers Pass expedition featured in the film Mind Over Mountain.

Madeleine has served on the ACMG Board of Directors with Chris and I for the past nine years. She is also involved with Mountain Muscox. Mountain Muskox is a community-based organization that provides peer support circles for individuals who have experienced loss or trauma in the mountains.

Guest Links

Madeleine’s Instagram: @madoalpine

Geary’s Guiding: https://gearysguiding.com

Mountain Muscox: https://www.mountainmuskox.com

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