Situational/Organizational Awareness

Reading social and political currents in family and social gatherings, in business, school, the community, their neighborhood, and the workplace. 

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People with this competence:

• Accurately read key power relationships;

• Detect crucial social networks;

• Understand the political forces at work in social and business settings, including the community, gatherings of family and friends, the workplace, in organizations;

• Accurately read the guiding values and unspoken rules that operate in various social and work situations;

• Understand and make use of both formal and informal power structures and dynamics;

• Are effective at influencing social, family, community and organizational events; and

• Don’t violate social, family, community and organizational norms. 

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People lacking this competency: 

• Find it difficult to get things done in various social settings;

• Unwittingly offend social, family, community and organizational norms;

• Are unaware of and often surprised by social, family, community and organizational events and situations;

• Make mistakes due to misunderstanding social, family, community and organizational structures; and

• Act in ways that are not appropriate in the organization, the community, the neighborhood, the workplace, the family, etc. 

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Development tips: 

• See the value of paying attention to what’s going on in your social and work settings; understand that to be successful and get things done, you need to be tuned in;

• Know the history of your social and community groups, as well as your workplace or organization (or particular department or team);

• Listen carefully as your friends, family members and colleagues describe people they view as effective and ineffective;

• Identify the characteristics and behaviors of individuals who are successful in the organization or social situation;

• Have informal conversations with friends, family members, colleagues, and co-workers, and try to get their perspective on how things get done in specific social settings;

• Recognize the informal structures, procedures and practices that support getting things done;

• Have breakfast or lunch with people in the community, social group, or work organization who are perceived to be influential, and learn from them how they operate within the organization; 

• Remember: this competency is empathy on a much larger scale at the organizational and societal levels.

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“Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi 

“We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” – Benjamin Franklin