I was joined by the wonderful Amy Gandon in Episode 5 of Series 2 of The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast. Here are my Top Takeaways from what Amy had to say…….
To be self aware, you need to acquire a birds eye view of yourself to experience yourself from the outside.
Is the modern world skewed towards external self awareness? If you think about instagram influencers, its all about what the camera sees. If you think about politicians, are they occupationally wired to focus more on the external than the internal? Could that be why politics is cutthroat and personal, because it’s all about the optics on the stage?
Self awareness is the magic ingredient to leader effectiveness
Being agile is important in the current future focussed, climate conscious workplace. But how do you know what it means for you to be agile unless you are self aware? To be agile, compassionate and empathic you need to be self-aware so that you can tap in to your hard skills and relational skills to deal with the challenges ahead.
To avoid people pleasing and burnout at work, you have to have a clear vision of self, to be able to know what you should say no to and what you absolutely have to say no to. You need to know what self care means to you before you can put it into practice to maintain your wellbeing
From childhood, some people develop self awareness as a mechanisms to know themselves well enough to protect themselves, either by knowing their flaws before others point them out or in order to regulate their behaviour to cover up their perceived flaw. Conversely, some people develop their self awareness because it’s nurtured and fostered in a family that cares about each others’ emotions and gives time and space to share, safely.
If you asked a child to draw a leader, who or what would they draw?
Who are the people appointing the senior leaders of organisations? Have they come from the generation that values relational skills, empathy, compassion and self-awareness? We might need another 10 years before those people are the ones that are appointing the senior people. In the meantime, what can we do to accelerate change? Can embedding self awareness systems, such as 360 degree reviews, in a greater number of organisations bring the future closer, faster? What are your thoughts on how we can change the decisions about who gets to hold the senior jobs?
