The themes which came out of my research have neatly grouped themselves into ten, so I’m going to write ten parts in the Discovery Series. In this blog I’m going to talk about:
- Definitions, benefits of self-awareness and behaviour (good and bad)
- Reflection
DEFINITIONS: when people were describing self-awareness and leader effectiveness, they described them in terms of what they were and were not. Effective leadership is described as confidence, self-awareness and being able to defend decisions. Ineffective leadership was described as ‘a lack of care’.
BEHAVIOUR: People recognised that we consciously change our behaviour, relative to a situation. We also interpret situations differently depending on our mood. People talked about unethical behaviour in things like promoting people and treating people differently
BENEFITS OF SELF-AWARENESS: People told me that if you are self-aware, it gives you more opportunity to question your actions beforehand and reflect on them afterwards. Self-awareness of position-power also allowed individuals to better influence change.
REFLECTION: reflection is a key component of self-awareness, but organisations need to value reflection and give people the time and headspace to do it.