Awareness
What is it?
Self-awareness is crucial for business leaders because it enables them to understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots. By developing self-awareness, business leaders can make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and lead more effectively.
Higher self-awareness is good for leaders, but in itself it won’t lead to different actions or outcomes. Managing self-awareness is often a challenge for us; we can be overly critical, anxious, or procrastinate when we have feelings of fear and doubt.
We can also double-click on different types of awareness, for example:
Situational awareness: to see, feel and understand what is happening in a situation and adapt in the moment
Social awareness: to recognize the differences in the feelings, emotions, behaviors and motivation of others
Cultural awareness: understand the values, beliefs, and behaviors of other cultures and sue this awareness to adapt your own style
How might you develop it?
First of all, I like to onboard all my clients thoroughly with an in-depth questionnaire used in an early interview. This generates higher awareness of past and present for both client and the coach.
Reflection is at the heart of probing what is going on, to build a deeper sense of awareness. For example, I don’t feel I handled that situation very well, to what was going on, why did I act as I did, and what might I have done differently? Through speaking, sharing, reflecting and reconsidering, we deepen our awareness, increasing the likelihood of us having clarity. Having more clarity will lead to making better choices, and conviction on our choices, helps us be more intentional.
There are other tools that help us increase awareness:
Coach Feedback: A coach can provide you with honest, empathic and constructive feedback about your behavior, communication style, and leadership approach. This can help you identify blind spots and areas for improvement
Stakeholder Feedback: We often suffer from a lack of constructive feedback. Interviewing a range of stakeholders can help in going deep into perception and dynamics that when done effectively leads to higher level of awareness, appreciation, support and partnership
Reflection: A coach can help you reflect on your experiences and emotions, and gain a deeper understanding of your own thought processes and behaviors. I frequently hear “I value a sounding board”
Journaling: Note taking at a coaching session and in-between sessions aids memory, builds clarity and demonstrates attention. Attention is a key factor in both raising awareness and taking positive action
Assessment tools: Coaches can use various assessment tools and techniques to help you gain insight into your personality, leadership style, potential, strengths/weaknesses, and how they all may be impacting your leadership
Goal-setting: A coach can work with you to set goals that are aligned with your values and vision for the organization, and help you stay accountable for achieving those goals. Accountability is a key factor for us to take awareness into positive action
Support from Coach and The System: An executive coach can provide you with support and guidance as you navigate complex challenges and decisions, and help you develop the resilience and self-awareness needed to overcome obstacles and setbacks. The Coach can also work the “System” to enroll more empathy and support from others.