Chapter 1 2008 EHR PDF

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Chapter 1 – Journey into Self – Awareness Learning Objectives 1. Recognise your strengths and how they can help you in making personal 1 and professional choices 1. Work out what would motivate and inspire you towards personal and 2 professional success 1. Develop a plan for improving any shortcomings or limitation you identify 3 Gain understanding and insights into your personality, attitudes, and 1. 4 behaviours 1. Identify any biases that might reduce your ability to fully appreciate the 5 worth of others and understand their views What is Self – Awareness Self – awareness is knowing your motivations, preferences and personality and understanding how these factors influence your judgement, decisions, and interactions with other people (Cooper, 1998). Through self – awareness ‘one develops the ability to know how you’re feeling and why and the impact your feelings have on your behaviour. But it also involves a capacity to monitor and control those strong but subliminal biases that all of us harbour and that skew our decision making’ (Book, 2004, p.32). Feelings and thoughts, interests, strengths and limitations, values, skills, goals, abilities leadership orientation and preferred communication style are just a few of the elements that compromise self – awareness. Benefits of Self – Awareness  ‘To lead or attempt to lead without first having knowledge of self is foolhardy and sure to bring disaster and defeat’  Self – awareness or self-knowledge is the straight point for effectiveness at work  Benefits include:  Understanding yourself, your strengths, and weaknesses  Understanding how your characteristics and behaviours are perceived by others  Developing and implementing a sound self-improvement program  Developing relationships with others  Setting appropriate life and career goals  Understanding the value of diversity  Managing others effectively  Increasing productivity  Increasing your ability to contribute to organisations, community, and family  Self-aware managers are able to listen to feedback and make positive modifications to personal behaviour thus resulting in trusting and more productive work environments How to Gain Self – Awareness  First step is to recognise your weaknesses, strengths, biases, attitudes, values, and perceptions

 Ways to enhance self-awareness including analysing your own experiences, looking at yourself through the eyes of others, self-disclosure, acquiring diverse experiences and increasing your emotional intelligence Self – Analysis  Requires people to examine themselves as an object in an experience or event  Therefore, you must take a step back as observe (as objectively as possible) the positive or negative impact that may have influenced their behaviours, attitudes, thoughts, or interactions  Enables us to become instruments for assessment for change  Failure to increase self-awareness leads to increasing incompetence  Process begins with ‘reflection on’ and ‘exploration of’ thoughts and feelings associated with situations where emotions such as anger or happiness are aroused  Reflections lead to obtaining new perspectives relevant to the individuals life based on these learning experiences  A realistic appraisal of one’s one needs, objectives, resources and capabilities can lead to more accurate judgement of self Behaviours  Behaviour is the way in which people conduct themselves. It is influenced by personal feelings, judgement beliefs, motivations, needs, experiences, and the opinion of others. Patterns of behaviour develop through reactions to evet and actions over a period of time. It consists of four components: 1. Motivation – the drive to pursue one action over another  What underlying factors move you to make a particular decision or choice?  Being aware of your core drivers (those things that motivate you – positively and negatively) can help you understand the roots of your behaviour and where to make necessary adjustments to modify your behaviours 2. Modes of Thinking – the way you process inputs your brain receives  How do you analyse information and make judgements about how to use and apply that information?  How do you process information – passively or assertively? 3. Modes of Acting – the course of action you apply in a given situation  What approach do you choose to apply in response to stimuli, events, people, thoughts, and feelings?  When someone does something to offend you, how do you react? 4. Modes of Interacting – the ways in which you communicate and share ideas  Whom do you feel comfortable relating to?  How do you typically share your thoughts, feelings, and ideas with others?  Do you prefer smaller or larger groups?

Personality  Personality is the term used to describe the overall combination of characteristics or traits that reflect the nature of a person and the way they react to and interact with others  Personality determinants appear to be an interaction of inheritance and environmental and situational factors  It determines how people interact with and react to other people and situations  Personality traits are relatively enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour 1. Extroversion-Introversion –  Represents the degree to which an induvial is social or antisocial, outgoing, or shy, assertive, or passive, and talkative or quiet  A person who rates high for the first trait in these pairs is extroverted  Neither introversion nor extroversion are necessarily bad, but both have extreme ends that can lead to dysfunction 2. Agreeableness –  Measures the degree to which a person is friendly or reserved, cooperative or guarded, flexible or inflexible, trusting cautious, good-natured, or moody, soft-hearted, or tough, and tolerant or judgemental  Those who score high on the first element of the paired traits are viewed as agreeable and easy to work with, while those rating low are viewed as more disagreeable and difficult to work with  However, being too agreeable leads to being taken advantage of 3. Emotional Stability –  Characterises the degree to which a person is consistent or inconsistent in how they react to certain events, reacts impulsively or weigh options before acting, and take thing personality or look from an objective standpoint  Those who rate high are generally viewed as calm, stable, having a positive attitudes able to manage their anger, secure, happy and objectives  Those who rate low are more likely to be anxious, depressed, angry, insecure, worried, and emotional 4. Conscientiousness –  Represents the degree to which an individual is dependable or inconsistent, follows through on commitments or reneges, keeps promises or breaks them  Those who rate high are generally perceived to be careful, thorough, organised, persistent, achievementorientated, hardworking and persevering; those who score lower, are likely to be viewed as inattentive to detail, uncaring, disrespectful, not interested or motivated, unorganised, apt to give up easily and lazy

5. Openness to Experience –  Characterises the degree to which people are interested in broadening their horizons or limiting them, learning new things, or sticking to what they already know, meting new people or associating with current friends and co-workers  Those who score high tend to be highly intellectual, broad-minded, curious, imaginative and culture; those who rate lower tend to be more narrow-minded, less interested in the outside world and uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings and situations  Self-monitoring is the ability of individuals to adjust their behaviour relative to the changing demands of situations in which they find themselves  High self-monitors are very sensitive to external cues and are able to adapt their behaviour to conform to a situation or a set of expectations  Low self-monitors are more consistent, displaying their feelings, attitudes, and behaviours in every situation  An important personality attribute that is related to self-monitoring is locus of control ...