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Self-Awareness

The American Psychological Association clusters Reflective Practice, Self-Assessment and Self-Care together and loosely defined it as the practice conducted with personal and professional self-awareness and reflection; with awareness of competencies; with appropriate self-care.

What does personal and professional self-awareness looks like? On a personal level, it could mean:

  • Ability to articulate, monitor and evaluate attitudes, values and beliefs towards diverse others

  • Recognising your impact on others and how others experience you

  • Self-identifying your multiple individual and cultural identities

On a professional level, it could mean:

  • Responsively utilising supervision to enhance reflectivity and reviewing own professional performance

  • Recognising and addressing own problems; systematically and effectively monitor and adjust professional performance in action as situation requires

  • Accurate self-assessment of competence in all competency domains

Here are some resources we would like to share with you on self-awareness:

 

10 Best self-awareness books for increasing reflection

positivepsychology.com has identified 10 Best Self-Awareness Books for Increasing Reflection. The books are written by eminent authors and mental health professionals to develop awareness and guide us to internalise the concept of Self-Awareness.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 : Learning the Art of Self-Awareness

In this interview with Travis Bradberry, coauthor of the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0., Dr. Bradberry shares the following nuggets of information and tips:

  1. Self-awareness is not about discovering deep, dark secrets or unconscious motivations, but, rather, it comes from developing a straightforward and honest understanding of what makes you tick. People high in self-awareness are remarkably clear in their understanding of what they do well, what motivates and satisfies them, and which people and situations push their buttons.

  2. To become self-aware, you need a great deal of high-quality, objective feedback on your emotions and your behavior.

  3. Increasing your self-awareness is essential to increasing your emotional intelligence.

  4. As your emotional intelligence skills grow, you learn to spot your triggers and practice productive ways of responding to them that will become habitual.

13 Signs of High Emotional Intelligence

Justin Bariso is an author, speaker, and consultant who helps organizations and individuals develop their emotional intelligence. In this article, he shares 13 things emotionally intelligent people do, including:

  1. You think about feelings

  2. You pause

  3. You strive to control your thoughts

  4. You benefit from criticism

  5. You show authenticity

as well as asking 3 simple questions to improve your emotional intelligence.

Working with people who are not self aware

In a nearly five-year research program on self-awareness, it was discovered that although 95% of people think they’re self-aware, only 10 to 15% actually are. Consequences of working with unaware colleagues include increased stress, decreased motivation, and a greater likelihood of leaving one’s job.

So how do we deal with these situations? This article provides some tips.

How to increase your self-awareness with one quick fix

Dr Tasha Eurich defines self-awareness as the ability to see ourselves clearly, to understand who we are, how others see us and how we fit into the world. In this 17 minutes talk, she shares one quick fix on how to increase your self-awareness:

Self-awareness has countless proven benefits -- stronger relationships, higher performance, more effective leadership. Sounds pretty great, right? Here's the bad news: 95% of people think that they're self-aware, but only 10-15% actually are! Luckily, Tasha Eurich has a simple solution that will instantly improve your self-awareness.