Developing Self-Awareness - Understanding Yourself

Knowing oneself is enlightenment; knowing others is wisdom.- Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

Have you ever collaborated with a highly self-aware person?

This individual was considerate of others' needs and feelings, accepted responsibility for her errors, was modest about her abilities, never made careless remarks, and was conscious of the impact her words and deeds had on others.

Simply put, it was a pleasure to work with this guy!

One of the most crucial traits a leader may possess is self-awareness, and it's crucial to cultivate self-awareness in both your personal and professional spheres.

In this post, we'll examine self-awareness in further detail and discuss how you might improve it.

What Is Self-Awareness?

Early in the 1970s, researchers Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund produced the first significant theory of self-awareness. Self-awareness, according to them, is the capacity to reflect inside, give your behaviour careful thought, and evaluate how it squares with your moral principles and ideals.

They argued that you experience unease, unhappiness, and bad emotions when your behaviour is inconsistent with your standards. On the other hand, when your actions and values are in line, you feel upbeat and confident. You can better grasp your own attitudes, convictions, and knowledge when you are self-aware.

Self-consciousness and self-awareness can occasionally be mistaken, although there is a significant distinction between the two. The excessive obsession with your own manners, behaviour, or appearance is known as self-consciousness, which is a hyper-sensitized state of self-awareness and is frequently seen negatively. Self-awareness is significantly more advantageous because it focuses on the effect your actions have on other people.

One of the most crucial components of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. It helps you comprehend how these affect the emotions and actions of others while also enabling you to comprehend and manage your own emotions and actions.

Why Self-Awareness Is Important

Both your personal and professional life will benefit from having self-awareness.

First, studies have found a direct connection between managers' great performance and their self-awareness. Simply said, you may exercise better leadership when you are aware of both your own emotions and those of your team members.

When you are conscious of your own strengths and shortcomings, you have the ability to consciously employ your strengths and control or even get rid of your flaws. Your credibility with your team grows when you can say what you don't know and when you have the humility to ask for assistance when you do.

Knowing your strengths and limitations provides long-term advantages for both your job and for your long-term well-being. One study indicated that leaders who were aware of their abilities had higher self-esteem, were paid more, and had happier workplaces.Being self-aware personally enables you to approach people and circumstances with assurance. As a result, you take charge of your own life, direction, and experiences.

How to Develop Self-Awareness

Self-awareness can be developed in a number of ways. But remember that this requires time and effort.

1. Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Finding your areas of strength and weakness might help you start developing self-awareness. To learn more about this, perform a personal SWOT analysis. Take the StrengthsFinder self-test, which enables you to determine your top five strengths.

You may learn what drives you and how you interact with the environment when you know how your personality stacks up against that of other people. These are both significant facets of self-awareness.

Personality assessments like the Big Five Personality Model and Myers-Briggs® might be helpful tools for self-discovery in this situation.

2. Reflect on the Impact You Have

When you are self-aware, you are aware of your natural thought processes, interpersonal connections, communication styles, and decision-making processes.

Keeping a notebook where you write about your day, the things you did, the feelings you encountered and expressed, and the results of these is a terrific approach to comprehend these things. This makes you consider what works and doesn't work for you and makes you more conscious of how your actions affect other people.

Alternately, take a pause and meditate for five to ten minutes each day. In addition to reducing stress, meditation helps you become more aware of yourself.

Alternately, spend some quiet time at the end of the day considering how well you interacted with others. What excelled in your performance? What else could you have improved upon?

3. Focus on Others

Self-aware individuals are aware of how their words and deeds affect other people.

Learn to control your emotions so that you are more conscious of how you effect other people. Spend some time considering your words and how they will effect the individual you are speaking to.

Stop right away if you catch yourself venting your tension, rage, or irritation on other people. Instead, try to find a silver lining in the circumstance. If you discover that you are unable to regulate your emotions, take a few deep breaths or even leave the situation.

It's not a sign of lying when you control your own words or actions. Instead, it demonstrates your concern for other people by showing that you would never say or do something that could have a detrimental impact on them.

Humility is a crucial component of this. When you are modest, you put other people first and put less emphasis on yourself.

4. Ask for Feedback

Receiving criticism is crucial for increasing self-awareness because it's frequently the only way to learn about problems you might be unable to address directly. (For additional information, see our article on the Johari Window.)

You can ask direct questions or use 360° input to gather input from your coworkers and team members. Asking for input from those around you provides you the chance to consider your actions from their perspective. Additionally, it can assist you in locating weaknesses that you are unable to perceive or would choose to ignore.