Self Awareness means having a good understanding of how our feelings affect our reasoning, thinking and ways of interacting with other people.
Someone who is self aware:
Knows their strengths, weaknesses and considers how their talents can be best used to deliver results;
Listens to and responds positively to feedback from others; and
Acknowledges the mistakes made, how their actions contributed and uses them as a learning opportunity.
Someone who is not self aware:
Spends little or no time on self reflection, tends to jump quickly into tasks and situations;
Tends to respond defensively to feedback, no matter how constructive and objective; and
Refuses to take responsibility for their mistakes and tends to blame others when things go wrong.
Being self aware can help us understand the situations and conditions we can thrive in and how to challenge ourselves positively. It can help us break habits, beliefs and biases that may be holding us back, increase our credibility and build trust.
The good news is we can develop our self awareness! below are seven tips for self awareness self development.
1. Becoming self aware requires you to learn more about your personal preferences, values and motivators. This requires some honest self reflection. Questions to ask yourself include:
What am I good / not so good at?
What motivates me to get up in the morning?
What are my proudest moments?
What makes me happy? Frustrated? Angry?
How do I react in difficult situations?
2. Seek feedback via a range of channels to get a broad understanding of how you perform and how you come across. This can range from:
360 degree feedback;
One on one meetings with managers; and or
Asking Team Members or colleagues 'How did I come across to you?'
3. Put yourself in others shoes, consider how your words and actions could be perceived by others, and how they are likely to make them feel. How do you think others would describe your management style?
4. make time for yourself, becoming more self aware is a process of connecting with your true self. An important part of this is being able to quiet your mind, which allows you to reflect internally, this may include:
Going for a relaxing walk in nature;
Listening to Music;
Doing breathing exercises through yoga or meditation.
Its not your job to like me, its mine - Sophie Guidolin
5. Write, committing to a habit of writing every day can dramatically increase your level of self awareness; keeping a reflective journal or even free writing can help you explore your subconscious, your fears, your joys and everything in between.
this will also help your stress management and sleep routines as you write down your anxiety and issues and not carry them throughout your day and night.
This has also been rewarding to review and reflect on a weekly or monthly basis to understand trends and how you managed certain situations.
6. learn by storytelling, can help you find out what makes you tick by retelling what happened to you, an an observer of the past you may learn more about what has made you the person you are today.
7. Review your self awareness, even the smallest of changes can impact our behavior, sometimes without us noticing it. So its important to regularly review how other people perceive you and adapt your behaviors as necessary.
Daniel Goldman, 'How Self Awareness Impacts Your Work (4 October 2015)
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