Less likely to lie, cheat, and steal
In recent years one mainstream buzzword that seems to get an upper hand in vibrating my eardrums is Self-awareness, and it is for a very good reason.
Researchers suggest that when we see ourselves clearly and become more and more self-aware, we become more confident, focused, and creative. Not only that, but we also make sounder decisions and become less likely to lie, cheat, and steal.
Recent research summarized here revealed some surprising truths about what self-awareness really is and what it takes to improve it. The research suggests that even tho most people think that they are self-aware. Self-awareness is a very rare quality. But, whether we think we have it or not, it is crucial to continue developing it because it is evident that we can not have too much of it and the benefit is tremendously positive and life-changing.
Before beginning to improve Self-awareness, it is important to fully grasp the concept of what it is. that is what I will be explaining in this short note.
What is Self-awareness?
Self-awareness is not just our ability to monitor our inner world. There are some that label it as a brief state of self-consciousness and some others say that it is the difference between how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us.
We can try to understand self-awareness by breaking it down into two types.
First, it can represent how clearly we see our own values, passions, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, and behaviours), and the impact we have on others. This type of self-awareness is mostly tied to higher job and relationship successes, general fulfilment as well as strong personal and social control.
The second category is external self-awareness, it measures the ability of an individual to understand how other people perceive their way of being. People who possess this type of self-awareness are more likely skilled at showing empathy and taking others' perspectives.
For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.
It’s easy to assume that being high on one type of awareness would mean being high on the other. But the research has found virtually no relationship between them.
The following link is useful for those who want to read further on how to improve this wonderful quality.
