Self-Knowledge Archives – Page 36 of 39

Insecure People Lack Self-Awareness

February 19, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy - 5 Comments

Insecure people lack self-awareness and are often afraid of other human beings, new situations, and different ideas. Self-aware individuals are comfortable with diversity and change and are able to get along with a wide range of people.

Insecurity chips away at our self-esteem and keeps us stuck feeling poorly about ourselves. It can even affect our relationships because it inserts and unhealthy element into the relationship. Insecurity can be defined as when someone feels that they are not worthwhile. People feel insecure when they are scared, feel threatened or feel like they are not important.

Some people withdraw when they are insecure, others lash out. Regardless of how we behave, insecurity is about having a how we feel about ourselves. So what can we do to feel better about ourselves? Think of the following ideas to increase your self-awareness and self confidence, and reduce your insecurity:

Characteristics of Secure People
Aren’t threatened by others.
Listen well and don’t require attention by talking.
Don’t require attention all the time.
Are comfortable with other people’s success.
Don’t feel they have to win.
Don’t put other people down to make themselves feel better.

Characteristics of Insecure People
Threatened by others.
Talk a lot to get attention.
Need to be the center of attention.
Jealous of others’ success.
Competitive, always need to win.
Put people down to feel better.

Think of yourself, where do you fall on these two extremes? If you see yourself on the insecure side, don’t worry, all you have to do is increase some of the positive traits. Even very insecure people can feel better about themselves by doing things that allow them to build self-awareness and experience their own success.

I suggest to my clients that they find out something they like to do and pursue it. Learn from the successes and challenges in life and you will learn how to feel great about yourself. Feeling secure takes some practice but the rewards are amazing.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and feel less insecure?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and the Record of Your Actions

February 13, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

An important part of self-awareness is understanding how your behaviors affect not only you, but others as well. As you go through life, you create a record of your actions:

The way you treat yourself and others.
Whether you live authentically or not.
Whether you heal your hurts or run from them.
Whether you follow your true path in life.
The beneficial vibes you spread.
The good deeds you do.
The quality of your relationships.
Your inner health.
The depth of your understanding of yourself.
Your level of kindness, compassion and balance.

Each one of your actions reflects who you are at that particular moment. The pattern you establish throughout your life becomes the verifiable record of whom you chose to be. It’s up to you to consciously decide how you behave in life and whether you leave a positive imprint on the world around you. What will your actions say about you?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Consulting Produces Long-Term Results

February 11, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Many leaders hire a self-awareness consultant for a session or two only to find that they produce little or no long-term results. Most leaders and their employees are highly motivated and conscientious professionals who genuinely want their training programs to succeed but who habitually focus on short-term patches instead of long-term programs that benefit their organizations over time.

Short-term thinking permeates many of our workplaces. I’ve had more than a few leaders who lack self-awareness ask me to transform their workplaces and employees in a single, three-hour session, and they actually believe it can be done. It takes considerably more time and effort for consulting to take hold in any organization. As with any behavior, it takes time to shift our thinking and replace it with new actions. Here are ten ideas that will help you make the most of your work with a self-awareness consultant and create long-term results:

1. Self-awareness consulting works best when it’s ongoing. A one-time session might be mildly effective if you’re teaching people a specific workplace task but it doesn’t create long-term changes in thinking and behavior. Learning any new skill (such as how to communicate well, manage effectively or build teams) takes deliberate practice over time.

2. Help your employees keep practicing the new skills. Your staff members benefit from your support to keep the consulting going. Try to set people up for success by giving them opportunities to practice the material instead of expecting them to be perfect immediately after one or two sessions.

3. Self-awareness consulting starts with leadership. No initiative succeeds in an organization if leaders aren’t fully committed to participating actively in the program. If you’re not involved on an ongoing basis, then your staff members will think the program doesn’t really matter.

4. Don’t hire a self-awareness consultant on the cheap. You don’t have to spend excessive amounts on trendy experts just show your employees that you’re willing to invest in their growth and development. It’s more productive to pay more for an ongoing, quality consulting program than many inexpensive and ineffective ones.

5. Focus on specific workplace behaviors. You either practice positive behaviors in the workplace or go down some other path. Focus on hiring a self-awareness consultant that helps leaders and employees behave in positive ways and build a more productive work environment.

6. Don’t punish employees with a consultant. Your program will lose all credibility if you force employees to attend as a corrective measure or because you think they did something wrong. Self-awareness consulting is about ongoing educational opportunity and growth, not about disciplining employees.

7. Attendance is highly encouraged. No one is allowed to schedule meetings or be called out from sessions, especially leadership. Make time during the workday so that people can see that the consulting program is worth their time. Leadership attends consistently and sets the example for the rest of the staff.

8. Set specific goals and measure results as you go. Identify one or two areas you want your consulting program to affect and measure what’s happening before and after the training as well as at intervals in the future. Keep practicing what works and make modifications to strengthen areas that need extra attention.

9. Have the self-awareness consultant train you and your staff to keep things going. Design your consulting programs so that key employees gain the expertise necessary to train other staff members. When your staff can train itself you can keep the knowledge spreading indefinitely and continue making refinements.

10. Make the consulting program part of your culture. You decide how important the program is in your organization. If everyone from your leadership down is highly invested in and actively involved in the program, then it will become a natural element in your workplace.

Try these ideas and you’ll enjoy the benefits of self-awareness consulting that creates lasting change in your organization. All it takes is your commitment and the energy to keep it going. What will you do to develop self-awareness and promote long-term self-awareness consulting in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and How to Fix Workplace Problems

February 11, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness helps you fix workplace problems because, when people understand how their emotions, thoughts, and actions affect the workplace, they are able to work on actually resolving the issues at hand instead of perpetuating or making them worse.

During my consulting sessions the theme of how to fix workplace problems arises frequently. We tend to be fixers in our culture and, from an early age, we are taught to confront any problem with an immediate fix. This greatly affects how we deal with challenges in our workplaces. If a colleague asks us for help or just wants us to listen to him or her we often jump to an unsolicited fix. When employees talk with us about our behavior we frequently react by looking for a fix rather than learning more about ourselves.

We do a whole lot of fixing and not as much self-aware thinking and reflecting. This leads to an approach to workplace interactions where everyone reacts to everything rather than pausing a bit and doing some thoughtful planning beforehand.

While I like resolving issues as much as the next person, it’s also important to devote some attention and importance to just working on things without fixing them immediately. The next time someone comes to you with a problem in your workplace, use your self-awareness to do the following:

1. Listen without interrupting or offering advice.

2. Give yourself permission not to fix anything.

3. Let the person talk to you freely and give them the time to do so.

4. Even if you disagree, don’t rebut or become defensive.

5. Learn to recognize the things that trigger your defensiveness or anger.

6. Offer to listen to the person again in the future.

7. Always remain calm and kind.

The act of listening changes the whole dynamic in workplace interactions. Suddenly you can learn what other people really think and simply bond with them. This strategy is different because it requires that, instead of talking or jumping in, you just let someone else tell you about the things they find meaningful. This approach greatly reduces hurt feelings and anger because it encourages you to react calmly to anything another person says and helps the other person feel important.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and fix problems in the workplace more effectively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Increasing Your Leadership Success

February 10, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness helps you increase your leadership success because, when you understand your own and others’ emotions, thoughts, and actions, you’re able to create a dynamic workplace where you and other people consciously do things that lead in a positive direction.

There are a lot of leadership consulting programs out there that promise us that we can change our workplaces, lead better or be more successful if we just think about it hard enough. While I’m a big believer in the power of positive thinking, I like to add an extra dimension called taking real action.

When you decide to move from an idea that’s in your head to actually doing something you open a door to being more successful because you increase your commitment to changing something in your life. Try the following practical steps to increase your success.

Think of something you want to achieve.
Think of various actions you can take to achieve it.
Pick one action to do today and decide by when you’ll complete it.
Move to the next action.

If you practice these four steps over time you’ll find that you get much better at focusing on something and actually doing it. As you improve your ability to take action you will increase your leadership success.

Leadership success is about actually doing things that help you build a healthier and more productive workplace. All you have to do is commit to changing the patterns you’ve established up to now by replacing them with actions that will get you where you want to be.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and increase your leadership success?

Cheers,

Guy

How Self-Aware Leaders Communicate Effectively

February 5, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Leaders who lack self-awareness often think that effective communication is about showing how powerful or in control they are and talking on top of their employees or clients. This approach overlooks the reality that there is more than one person involved in a conversation. Self-aware leaders realize that communicating effectively is about making sure everyone feels important and valued. Here are some practical tips to help you practice effective communication in your workplace.

Talk Much Less

It’s much easier to understand what other people are saying when you’re not talking, thinking of the next thing you’re going to say or how you’re going to defend yourself. It’s very difficult to accurately grasp what other people are saying if you’re talking at the same time they are.

Listen Much More

A frequently overlooked skill, active listening helps you get more information from the other person so you can then make better decisions. Listening actively means that you are intensely focused on understanding what the other person is saying and you’re there with them the whole time they’re talking.

Keep an Open Mind

Effective communication isn’t just about forcing one point of view on others, it’s about understanding that other people have ideas that may be greatly beneficial to the organization. Try not to go into conversations with an agenda or strategy for victory. Be willing to consider ideas that don’t agree with yours.

Value the Input of Your Employees

Show your employees that you value what they have to say by letting them say it. Give your employees the opportunity to share their ideas and perspectives. Create a workplace where people are free to use their knowledge to make their jobs more satisfying and improve how the company functions.

Lose the Ego

Conversations aren’t exclusively about you. Let go of the need to control communication and you will have more opportunities to learn about your employees and what’s actually going on in your workplace. Let go of having to defend or rebut and you will have smoother, more easy-going interactions and get more done.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and communicate effectively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Deciding What You Want to Do in Life

January 29, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness is a vital element of deciding what you want to do in life because, when you know yourself well deep inside, you’re able to use your emotions, thoughts, and actions to move in the direction of your dreams.

Many of us are searching for what we want to do with our lives. I frequently recommend to my clients that they do things that bring them joy and that really speak to who they are as a person. A quick checklist you can use to figure out if you are doing what you love could include:

What do I love doing more than anything? Am I doing it?
What am I doing to pursue my dreams?
Am I settling for a life that does not include my dreams?
What am I afraid of?
What can I do today to move toward my dreams?

Moving one’s life in the direction we want it to go in requires conscious thought. The good news is that anyone can do concrete things to move in any direction they want. Start today and you could be on your way to doing the things you’ve dreamed of.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and follow the path you want to in life?

Cheers,

Guy