Personal Awareness

Self-Awareness and the Secret to Effective Communication - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and the Secret to Effective Communication

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People often ask me what’s the secret to effective communication.  There really are no hidden mysteries, it just requires having the self-awareness to communicate with people in a way that makes things easier for everyone in the workplace. Try these ideas and you’ll be on your way to communicating more effectively and getting more done with less effort.

  1. Build up your self-awareness so you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and communication style affects you and others.
  2. Think before you talk.
  3. Speak calmly or don’t speak at all.
  4. Listen more than you talk.
  5. Try not to react to what the other person is saying.
  6. Ask open-ended questions.

How many of these concepts do you practice on a regular basis?  Once you master these skills you’ll be on your way to enjoying communicating with others.  Effective communication is achievable, you just have to be conscious of what you’re doing to make it happen. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and communicate effectively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Organizations That Welcome Diversity - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Organizations That Welcome Diversity

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I’ve consulted with organizations where leaders and employees are genuinely puzzled by diversity, there is a palpable sense of resistance or worry that this diversity thing will throw everything into chaos. Other organizations welcome diversity. So what’s the difference? Self-awareness. Companies that have self-aware employees and leaders tend to welcome new information and variety of approaches because they are comfortable with themselves and others.

The bottom line with diversity is that it’s not scary, it’s simply a way to use the diverse talents and experience of your employees. If we move away from thinking of diversity of something creepy we can use it to make ourselves and our organizations more successful. What if we thought of diversity in the following ways?

  • Diversity will help us use all the talents of our staff.
  • Diversity will help us reduce conflict.
  • Diversity will help us work collaboratively.
  • Diversity will help us create stronger teams.
  • Diversity will help us compete more effectively.

Diversity is as effective as we make it. If we choose to see it as a nuisance or a threat we’ll get predictable results. If we view it as a tool then it can help us succeed. Self-aware leaders and employees appreciate diversity because it gives them more tools to work with and succeed, they see it as an asset rather than a threat. What will you do to increase the self-awareness in your workplace and view diversity positively?

Cheers,

Guy

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees

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Leaders who lack self-awareness do a lot of things that alienate their employees and then shake their heads and wonder why things got out of hand when the person leaves the organization. One of the key elements of inspirational leadership is to remember that you’re there to interact positively and make things easier for the people around you. The less challenges and obstacles your employees have, the better you’ll look and the less time you’ll spend trying to put the pieces back together. Here are ten ways that leaders lose employees:

  1. Treat people uncourteously or disrespectfully.
  2. Don’t recognize or put to use people’s talents and abilities.
  3. Put people in jobs they hate and give them no opportunity to grow.
  4. Don’t listen to people.
  5. Inability or refusal to fix things when they go awry.
  6. Regularly get into a conflicts.
  7. Insist you’re right and they’re wrong.
  8. Read the employee the policy handbook instead of working with them to resolve an issue.
  9. Not knowing how to communicate effectively.
  10. Lack of follow-through.

The secret to enlightened leadership is to do the opposite of these things. Treat people like they really matter and show them you care deeply about their well-being and growth and you’ll create a workplace where individuals feel important and work accordingly. If you currently do any of these things, think of ways to replace the behavior with one that leads in a more positive direction and you’ll be on your way to creating a more positive workplace. What will you do to keep your employees happily working for your organization?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Develop Self-Awareness: A 10-Step Plan - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Develop Self-Awareness: A 10-Step Plan

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Here is a ten-step plan on how to develop self-awareness:

  1. Decide that you’re willing to look deep inside yourself. Don’t start this process if you’re not committed to being fully honest and working hard on developing self-awareness.
  2. Make a list of all the great things about you.
  3. Make a list of the things you feel, think, or do that are detrimental to your well-being.
  4. Make a list of all the things you’d like to improve.
  5. Pick one item from your list of things you’d like to improve and decide on one action you’re willing to take to work on it.
  6. Take action and then evaluate what benefit it had on the thing you’d like to improve. If it worked, move on to the next thing you’d like to improve; if it didn’t, choose another action.
  7. Once you have found the appropriate action to resolve the issue, start the process again. It’s important to do this because your lists will change whenever you change in some way.
  8. Keep working continuously, one item at a time. Don’t overload yourself by trying to do several things at once. Choose one thing and work on it deliberately.
  9. Whenever you resolve an issue in your life, celebrate and praise yourself for the great work you’ve done.
  10. Continue to identify and resolve issues throughout your life.

Developing self-awareness doesn’t happen overnight, it requires sustained attention and effort over time. Try this ten-step process and, as you do it, you’ll be gaining insights into yourself and living a healthier, more balanced life.

Cheers,

Guy

Developing Self-Awareness to Get Rid of Fear Instilled by Parents - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Developing Self-Awareness to Get Rid of Fear Instilled by Parents

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As you build self-awareness you’ll find it easier to leave behind some of the negative beliefs your parents may have instilled in you. Many well-meaning parents project their fears onto their children by offering “helpful” guidance and suggestions about what they should do with their lives. This leads to many kids growing up doubting themselves and following career paths that make them miserable.

Parents want their children to succeed and not get hurt but these caring instincts often stifle creativity, squash dreams, and force people to live inauthentic lives. Thankfully, you can pursue your bliss regardless of what your parents say now or have said in the past.

It isn’t just parents who limit our horizons, it’s other caring people like teachers or good friends, all of whom project their own fears onto us and make us second-guess whether we can pursue our dreams. The irony is that it doesn’t matter what anyone else says, you get to follow your dreams if you so desire.

The key to living with self-awareness and enjoying a fulfilling, meaningful life is to kindly thank people for their advice and then do what you really want to do deep inside. Chart your own course and live as you wish.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and move past the fear instilled in you by your parents?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Develop Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Develop Self-Awareness

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People often ask me how to develop self-awareness. Here are some ideas on how to do it.

Heal Your Hurts

Self-awareness means getting to know and understand yourself, which starts with looking deep inside to see what makes you feel, think, and behave the way you do. One of the main reasons people practice negative behaviors is that they are functioning from their inner hurts, the unresolved issues that lead to less-than-desirable outcomes.

Take the time to heal the hurts from your past, it will allow you to be a mentally healthier person who is able to live life positively. You’ll feel better inside which will lead to much more favorable emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. The way you do it is to go to a professional therapist, someone trained to help you heal the challenging issues from your past.

Look Inside

You can’t be self-aware without looking inside. Make the effort to look deep within to understand your strengths and areas for improvement. Be honest and candid with yourself, work on improving the things that you need some help with and celebrate the positive things about yourself.

Looking inside doesn’t mean beating yourself up, it’s just the process of being aware of the areas you need to fine tune and improve. The idea is to be aware of how your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors affect you and others.

How to Develop Self-Awareness

So, you’ve worked on healing your hurts and continually looking inside to improve yourself. Now what? Self-awareness is an ongoing process, you don’t just do it in a one-day workshop or after one try, it takes continuous practice and effort to master. Each day is an opportunity to develop your self-awareness by working on improving the things that don’t yield positive results in your life.

The idea of self-awareness is to always be working on becoming the best version of yourself, a person who is comfortable with herself and feels, thinks, and does positive things. You don’t have to be perfect, all you have to do is always be working on being comfortable with who you are and making sure others also feel the same way around you.

There’s no big mystery to self-awareness, it just means working on yourself so you become a high-functioning, happy person who treats herself and others well. What will you do today to develop your self-awareness?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Means Treating Yourself and Others Well - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Means Treating Yourself and Others Well

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As you build your self-awareness, you’ll likely understand that how you treat yourself often predicts how you will treat others. If you feel horrible about yourself, chances are you’ll treat others the same way. There are countless cautionary examples of people who don’t feel healthy inside and the destruction they wreak on their own psyches, the people they interact with, and the world. If you feel great, then you’re bound to create good vibes in the world, which is what happy, balanced people do.

A great way to feel wonderful about yourself is to increase your self-awareness by consciously looking deep inside and deciding who the real you is. Who are you at your very core? What do you really want to do with your life? Once you answer questions like these you can start doing things to live authentically. As you become a more fulfilled and balanced person, you’ll naturally treat yourself and other people wonderfully for all the right reasons.

How do you treat yourself and others?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy