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12Nov

Self-awareness can be defined as having an understanding of your personality, behaviours, habits, emotional reactions and motivation. It’s about being conscious of what you’re good at while acknowledging that you still have things to learn. Daniel Goleman, in his book called Working with Emotional Intelligence highlights self-awareness as being the foundation for outstanding performance at work.

self-awareness

According to research, the vast number of managers, whilst classing themselves as being very self-aware, are, in reality, largely unaware of their behaviour and the way in which this impacts on others. Through a study of top executives at 15 global companies, including Pepsi, Volvo and IBM, Daniel Goleman concluded that success at the highest levels could be attributed to emotional intelligence rather than to technical and intellectual competence.

As a result, he suggested that self-awareness involves:

  • recognising what emotions you are feeling and why
  • having self-confidence.

All human relationships are based on our behaviour towards one another.Your emotions and feelings affect what you say, do and behave.

Understanding your emotions and feelings, and the effect they have on behaviour, can help you to:

  • understand why you behave like you do
  • interpret other people’s behaviour
  • improve your relationships at home and at work.

You can do this in a number of ways, for example:

  • Consciously identifying what emotions you are feeling and why.
  • Realising the link between your feelings and your behaviour (i.e. between what you felt and what you did or said).
  • Recognising how your feelings are directly affecting your performance at work.
  • Being aware of how your values and principles affect the way you behave at work.

On an interpersonal level, self-awareness can help you to secure the trust of those around you and lead to increased credibility. Being self-aware enough to ask for help when required means you make better choices, to the benefit of your organisation as a whole.

Self-awareness is also important for job searching. Understanding our skills, weaknesses and how we come across is vital for securing a new job. Read more about self-awareness for job searching and how to remain self-aware throughout the full job search process in our blog here.

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