Teamership: The power of self-awareness
Self-awareness is a central component of being a great team member. Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash
Dr Tasha Eurich claims that “self-awareness is the secret ingredient for success in the 21st Century”. She may have a bias, given that her work has a heavy emphasis on books and presentations promoting self-awareness. There is, however, plenty of evidence to support that self-awareness has a huge impact on a range of measures, such as:
Confidence
Creativity
Decision making
Relationship building and communication
All of these are behaviours that promote Teamership - allowing us to bring our best and others to bring theirs.
It’s useful for us to acknowledge that self-awareness is a central component of being a great team member. As we better know ourselves, we are better able to understand the perspectives and roles that we are playing within our teams - and more readily able to choose a positive contribution.
One challenge is easy to identify by asking a counterintuitive question…
How would you know if you were not self-aware?
In her research, Eurich suggests that…
Even though most people believe they are self-aware, only 10-15% of the people we studied actually fit the criteria.
That means that there are a lot of us who aren’t as self-aware as we think.
It also shows that there is particular value in seeing self-awareness as a skillset for Teamership. Not as a state - that we are self-aware because we reflected or had a profiling tool describe us at some stager. Self-awareness requires practices that need to be implemented.
Some of the skills and practices that support the development of self-awareness are:
Seeking and receiving feedback - from multiple sources
Reflective practices - such as journaling
Shared discovery - through peers
Some questions for you to consider this week:
How self-aware are you?
What are the practices that maintain and develop your self-awareness?
When have you noticed a lack of self-awareness (in yourself or others)?