Love Your Working Life
  • Work With Carleen
    • About Carleen
    • Awards
    • Career Strategy Session
    • Coaching Programs >
      • The Art of Influence at Work
      • Realize Your High Potential
      • Recognizing Your Leadership Potential >
        • Welcome to Recognizing Your Leadership Potential
      • Individual Assessments
      • Customized Coaching
    • Career Transition
    • Services for Organizations >
      • Workshops That Work >
        • Communicating Comfortably in a Virtual Setting Workshop
        • Career Health Check Workshop
        • Leading in Ambiguity Workshop
        • Accomplishing Work Through Others Workshop
        • Leading Teams Virtually Workshop
        • Working Successfully From Home Workshop
        • New Habits for Life Workshop
        • Valued Living Workshop
        • Working Resilience
        • Addressing Conflict Workshop
        • Building A Culture of Trust Workshop
        • Time Management Workshop
        • Business Intelligence of Empathy Workshop
        • Finding Your Leadership Compass Workshop
        • Foundational Conversations Workshop
        • Conscious Conversations Workshop
        • Leading with Emotional Intelligence Workshop
        • Success in A Mulitgenerational Workforce Workshop
        • Networking in A Digital Age Workshop
        • The Psychology of Decisions Workshop
        • Purpose Driven Feedback Workshop
        • Dynamic Team Communication Workshop
      • How do Virtual Workshops Work?
      • Developmental Coaching
      • Online Assessments
      • Group Facilitation
  • Client Stories
  • Blog | Everyday Potential
  • Hello Monday Videos
  • Make Your Career Merry & Bright
  • Just For You
  • Testimonials
  • Career Resources
  • Life Practices
    • I Feel Angry
    • I Feel Stuck
    • I Am Overwhelmed
    • I Need Self-Compassion
    • Emotions At Work
    • Mindfulness
    • Triggers At Work
    • Naming Emotions
    • I Feel Frustrated
  • Career Health Quiz
  • Working Life Persona Quiz
  • Connect
BLOG

EVERYDAY POTENTIAL

Building Self-Awareness

7/19/2018

 
Picture
Photo by Anna Demianenko on Unsplash

A skill of growing importance in today’s workplace is self-awareness. Defined as “the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals” (Wikipedia) it’s your ability to know how you are being perceived by others in a given moment in time and what lead to that perception. When we speak of our own self-awareness it is usually in the context of whether we are self-aware.  Listen carefully to yourself as you express this (or as others do); many people put this forward as a question (intentionally or unintentionally).  For example they may say “I’m pretty self-aware” but their voice may go up at the end of the sentence, intoning it as more of a question.  Or they may say “I think I’m self-aware”, again with the infection at the end signifying they are not sure, or they are leaving it up to the listener to decide.
 
Beyond the dictionary definition of self-awareness is the more practical application of it.  Anyone can be self-aware in a moment (excruciatingly so, especially if you have just spilled coffee down the front of your white dress shirt), we may even be able to remain self-aware consistently in a particular context, like in a performance review meeting where we are expecting to receive constructive feedback.  However, consistent and resilient self-awareness that is present every day can be elusive and requires a great deal of practice (mindfulness is a great way to do this).  Anyone who is self-aware would likely not call themselves that because self-awareness is like peeling an onion, there is always another layer underneath and getting there usually requires a great deal of introspection and emotional discomfort.  Like peeling an onion, sometimes self-awareness brings tears as we see ourselves in objective and meaningful ways (warts and all).
 
It’s worth the journey because self-awareness has many gifts to offer, including self-confidence, self-acceptance, emotional well-being and the ability to pursue bigger life goals that scare you (self-actualization).  There is a distinction between self-awareness and self-consciousness. Self-consciousness means we are experiencing attention from others that is unwelcome, either because we don’t like being the focus of attention, or because it is for something we’d rather it wasn’t (like a big coffee stain on our shirt). Self-consciousness and self-awareness are often confused, but with self-awareness you are accessing something useful (even when it is uncomfortable), something that can inform you, give you more options (during an interpersonal exchange with others as an example) and supports your growth and development.  Ultimately there are some things about ourselves we are more willing to see then others (which is a very human way of being) and it requires us to examine feedback or exchanges where we are confused (even hurt), to see if there is something there we should be working with, using our own good and compassionate sense about ourselves to identify a constructive learning opportunity from judgement (our own and others).  Self-awareness is about being open to seeing something about yourself that may contradict how you see yourself today.  That is why it is so valuable, it’s about your level of openness.
 
Want the ultimate test to see if you are open to seeing something about yourself you may not expect?  Do a personality assessment (here is a reliable assessment that is informative and free https://www.16personalities.com/).  As you go through your results, see how open you are to the information that may not match how you see yourself…then sit with that uncomfortable feeling for a bit (quietly, introspectively) to determine what it was about that information that bothered you so much.  If you can stay with it, discovering something new about yourself, you are building self-awareness.

Comments are closed.

    Subscribe 

    Looking for a Blog? Search here:

    ABOUT MY BLOG

    I believe in giving back to others in many tangible ways.  When I learn something new, or see something that might help others, I share it using my blog and website.  You can always find my latest blog entries here, on Facebook or Linked In. 

    ABOUT SUBSCRIBING
    Your information will never be sold, it will be held in confidence.  You can safely unsubscribe at any time.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    December 2013

All photography on my website is courtesy of the generous artists at Pexels and Unsplash.
Book Your Career Strategy Session
Privacy Policy
Integral Coach™ is a registered trade-mark in Canada owned by Integral Coaching Canada Inc. and licensed to Carleen Hicks.

  • Work With Carleen
    • About Carleen
    • Awards
    • Career Strategy Session
    • Coaching Programs >
      • The Art of Influence at Work
      • Realize Your High Potential
      • Recognizing Your Leadership Potential >
        • Welcome to Recognizing Your Leadership Potential
      • Individual Assessments
      • Customized Coaching
    • Career Transition
    • Services for Organizations >
      • Workshops That Work >
        • Communicating Comfortably in a Virtual Setting Workshop
        • Career Health Check Workshop
        • Leading in Ambiguity Workshop
        • Accomplishing Work Through Others Workshop
        • Leading Teams Virtually Workshop
        • Working Successfully From Home Workshop
        • New Habits for Life Workshop
        • Valued Living Workshop
        • Working Resilience
        • Addressing Conflict Workshop
        • Building A Culture of Trust Workshop
        • Time Management Workshop
        • Business Intelligence of Empathy Workshop
        • Finding Your Leadership Compass Workshop
        • Foundational Conversations Workshop
        • Conscious Conversations Workshop
        • Leading with Emotional Intelligence Workshop
        • Success in A Mulitgenerational Workforce Workshop
        • Networking in A Digital Age Workshop
        • The Psychology of Decisions Workshop
        • Purpose Driven Feedback Workshop
        • Dynamic Team Communication Workshop
      • How do Virtual Workshops Work?
      • Developmental Coaching
      • Online Assessments
      • Group Facilitation
  • Client Stories
  • Blog | Everyday Potential
  • Hello Monday Videos
  • Make Your Career Merry & Bright
  • Just For You
  • Testimonials
  • Career Resources
  • Life Practices
    • I Feel Angry
    • I Feel Stuck
    • I Am Overwhelmed
    • I Need Self-Compassion
    • Emotions At Work
    • Mindfulness
    • Triggers At Work
    • Naming Emotions
    • I Feel Frustrated
  • Career Health Quiz
  • Working Life Persona Quiz
  • Connect