1. Self-Awareness – what is the real meaning?
Self-Awarenessisatermthat hasbeenusedrathersuperficiallyinorganizationallife - butwhat
doesitreallymean? Most leaderswouldsaytheyare self-aware.Itisa necessaryrequirement
inleadership. Iwouldargue that self-awarenessisn’tasprevalentaswe are leadto believe.
Self-awareness,inmyopinion;isthe abilitytoreallyunderstandone’sbehavior inrelationto
others. It isour abilitytosee ourselvesin‘the thirdperson’. Are youable tosee yourself inthat
way? Most of us wouldsay‘no’. Our unique behaviorcomesfromour‘internal dialogue’. By
this,I meanthe pictures,memories, thoughtsorviews thatwe have developedoverourlife
time. Fromour earlychildhooduntil adulthoodwe are evolvinganddevelopinghow we see
ourselvesinrelationtoourworld. Our life’sjourney,shapes the waywe thinkandthe waywe
thinkaboutourselves. Inour mindthis becomesourreality. Oursensorial experiencescreate a
picture of whowe are and what we standfor. Theybecome our ‘values’whichthenbecome
‘hard wired’andhardto shift. Letme give youan example: Have youeversunginthe shower
and imaginedthatyouwere onstage witha band behindyousingingyourfavourite songand
the crowd cheeringinthe backgroundonlytobe told(bysomeone inyourexternal world) “oh
my god,whatthe xxxx wasthat? Yourinternal worldwastellingyouhow amazingyouwere!
Some mightsayyou lackself-awarenessbutthatisnotmy point– my pointitis that your
internal worlddictateshowyousee yourself inyourexternal world.
Self-awarenessisthe abilitytobringyourinternal worldandexternal worldtogether. Itis the
innate abilitytounderstandhowyourinternal worldimpactsthe external. Atthe risk of going
evendeeper–itis the abilitytobringthe unconsciousintoconsciousness. Togive youanother
example: IobservedsomeoneIworkwith. Thispersonwouldtell me whentheyare
uncomfortable aboutsomething–notby tellingme butbybringingherfrontteethoverher
bottomlip. She iscompletelyunaware thatshe doesthis. Icame to thisconclusionbecause I
watchedherpatternin eachscenario - and I saw iteverytime. To make sure I wasn’tcrazy, I
askedmycolleague (apsychologist) toobserve whatIhadseen. Ididn’ttell hermythoughts
onlyaboutthe teethoverthe lip. Everytime,she observedherdoingthis,she saidshe wasin
an awkwardor difficultposition. Tellingyouthisisnotan attemptto putanyone down,onlyto
make us all aware that there are thingswe do unconsciously. Asksomeone youtrustwhether
youhave certainexpressionsorsomethingyoudowhenunderpressure. Thiswill becomethe
firststeptowardsbecoming self-aware!
If you wouldlike more informationabouthow yourelationtoothersvisit www.NIODA.com.au
theydo some greatexperiential workon ‘self’ and‘groupawareness’.Ie
Blog forHR site March 2016