Self-awareness is crucial in the workplace.
Knowing your own strengths and limitations, and how others see you and your behavior, has been linked to a range of positive outcomes. But when it comes to understanding how others see us, many of us are in the dark.
When you compare how people categorize themselves with how their counterparts categorize them, the correspondence is disturbingly low—not much better than flipping a coin.
Not realizing how others see you leads to bad decisions and spoiled relationships. And when others sense that you’re clueless about your personality, it can undermine your general stature and credibility.
If self-awareness is so important, why do so many people lack it?
One reason is because other people often don’t serve up clear signals. Some of this reflects politeness and white lies (“Your presentation looks great!”). Other skewed signals stem from tactical motives, like ingratiation (“Of course you’re the best manager in the division, boss”).
This warped and ambiguous feedback then runs up against two of our own internal tendencies: We often make self-flattering assumptions, and we expect others will agree with us: “I think I’m a good, effective, talented person…and so others must see me that way, too.” Repeat something like that enough times and it can become a force field, deflecting the occasional true signal that does head your way.
One effective way to raise self-awareness is to gather anonymous assessments from peers and colleagues, with the results collected into an overall report that doesn’t identify who said what.
Take a Small but Concrete Step
Do something—one thing—that can initiate a process that might lead to greater self-awareness.
If you’re on your own, you might enlist the help of an executive coach who can facilitate not only gathering data but also making sense of the results.
Contact an executive coach. Talk to a role model about their self-awareness and how it has mattered to them. Reach out to a trusted confidant and to tell you how others see you.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2015