Self-Awareness

Ok, that is not entirely true, but what I want to suggest is that you focus on how best to leverage your strengths instead.

I love using assessments to learn more about myself and to share how others can use me more effectively.

This week I wanted to share an assessment I sometimes use with my clients:

How You Self Sabotage

I love this assessment because it gives you the vocabulary to talk about some of the things that hold us back.  

When I need to help a leader explain some of the...

 This is just who I am

 I can’t change

 I can’t do any better

Those are all versions statements I used to tell myself and mutter to others when I was afraid or feeling uncomfortable.

Now when I say those statements to myself, I get really curious and start to ask myself:

Is this true?

Is this statement holding me back?

 Am I just afraid and starting to get close to the edge of my comfort zone?

I find that usually, I am my own worst enemy.

A lot of my...

Even as leaders we do not like everything we have to do.

Invoicing, building budgets, and approving spending used to be super cumbersome for me.

So I appointed someone on my team to help me with it.

Now that I work for myself, I have to make it work and have selected a specific time in my schedule to tackle it.  I even reward myself when I complete my finance-related work.

In every position, we have a range of motivation and engagement. 

We are never 100% happy or excited to do our...

That is what self-awareness is all about.

Remembering that people are not you.

And making the most of who you are.

Did you know that according to research done by an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author Tasha Eurich working with colleagues who aren’t self-aware can cut a team’s success in half?  

You can probably replace colleagues with any stakeholder.

There are three basic ways to start to cultivate your self-awareness:

1. ...

I turned another year older yesterday and to celebrate, I wanted to share one lesson that has taken the support of experts and years to learn, and I’m still working on it.

How to label and work through my emotions.

For some reason, when I was a kid, I decided that feelings were bad. Whenever I had a strong emotional reaction to something, I would get angry at myself, making myself feel worse. I couldn’t even name what I was feeling beyond I’m frustrated, or I’m mad.

...

So am I.

When I feel a bit off, distracted, nervous, or want to make sure I accomplish something significant, I stop and set mini-intentions using my five senses. 

Let me break it down for you:

1. What do I want to see? 
2. What do I want to hear? 
3. What do I want to smell? 
4. What do I want to taste? 
5. What do I want to feel/touch?
   

Now, let me apply it to how I prepare for group sessions I facilitate: 

1. I see smiling faces and nodding.
2. I hear vulnerable questions and...

If you do, take a second to learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. 

Accessing the hidden parts of yourself – what you might be ashamed of, have hidden, or previously denied is ALSO part of that.

We need to bring light to them, integrate them, and bring them into our awareness so we can embrace our humaneness and remind ourselves that we are not perfect.

My responsibly as a leader and coach are to use my privilege to help others raise their self-awareness so they can show...

Did you figure it out?

Come on, guess!

Fine, I will tell you…

It is procrastination.

Why?

Because as humans, we are not designed to do scary things - and our brains are trying to protect us.  

We create habits to avoid things - to protect and relieve ourselves from perceived fear and anxiety, such as rejection, judgment, or failure.

This habit is called procrastination.

This video gives you a great starting point on how to change your habit of avoiding: 

...

I should be further along with my business.

I can’t believe I haven’t figured out how to position this product yet.

I didn’t get the promotion - there must be something wrong with me.

I am so stupid; I should have seen this coming.

During this crisis, I have become hyper-aware of how I am speaking to myself.  Though I’m hanging out at my parents’ house, I spend most of my time alone. 

I’ve noticed that when I get frustrated, I call myself a name...

Being able to communicate and connect with all types of stakeholders is key to being a successful leader. The most important component might be building our self-awareness to understand where we stand and how we can improve. Communicating, like all soft skills, is like a muscle that needs to be worked out.

As a leader, one of the responsibilities I had that would scare the heck out of me was speaking.  Whether I had to lead a team meeting or have a press conference, I was always...