11

Journey Into Self-

Awareness
Know Thyself.
~ Socrates
Chapte
r
1
12
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Chapter Objectives
Determine your strengths and understand how
they can guide you in personal and professional
choices.
Figure out what motivates you in order to find
personal and professional success.
Assess your limitations and develop a plan for
improving those areas.
Gain understanding and insight into your
personality, attitudes and behaviours.
Identify the biases you have that preclude your
understanding and appreciating others.
13
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
What is Self-Awareness?
Knowing your:
Motivations
Preferences
Personality
Understanding how these factors influence your:
Judgment
Decisions
Interactions with other people
14
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Benefits of Self-Awareness
Understanding yourself in relation to others.
Developing and implementing a sound self-
improvement program.
Setting appropriate life and career goals.
Developing relationships with others.
Understanding the value of diversity.
Managing others effectively.
Increasing productivity.
Increasing your ability to contribute to
organisations, your community and your family.
15
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Importance to Managers
Tend to be superior performers.
Have a greater understanding of others.
Can relate to or empathize with co-workers.
Tend to be more trusted.
Tend to be perceived as being competent.
Are able to reduce the potential for conflict.
Are more likely to be open to feedback.
Are able to create trusting and productive work
environments.
Managers who are self-aware:
16
Lack of Self-awareness
Who lack of Self-awareness:
Can lead to poor decisions.
Can result in decisions that lead to
negative consequences.
Can result in situation that lead to
career derailment.
Can result in the opposite incompetence, because individual
does not realize the gap between his or her perception and
reality of strengths and competencies in question.
Are less able to see themselves accurately and are therefore
less able to midcourse correct.
Are less able to make improvements necessary for changes
and improvement.
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
The greatest of faults, I
should say, is to be
conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle Scottish
Author, essayist, and
historian
(17981881)
17
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
How to Gain Self-Awareness
Recognise your weaknesses,
strengths, biases, attitudes, values
and perceptions
Enhance your self-awareness:
Analyse your own experiences
Look at yourself through the eyes of
others
Self-disclose
Acquire diverse experiences
Increase your emotional intelligence
There are three
things extremely
hard: steel, a
diamond, and to
know ones self.
~ Benjamin Franklin
18
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Means for Obtaining Self-Awareness
Figure 1.1
19
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Self-Analysis
Examine yourself as an object in an experience
or event.
Step back and observe the positive or negative
impact.
Not always easy.
Begins with reflection on and exploration of
thoughts and feelings associated with affective
events.
Become more effective by implementing
behavioural and cognitive changes.
110
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Behaviour
Influenced by our:
Feelings
Judgments
Beliefs
Motivations
Needs
Experience
And the opinions of others
Patterns develop through:
Reactions to events
Actions over a period of time
Behaviour is the
way in which we
conduct ourselves
the way in which
we act.
111
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Behaviour (cont)
Motivation
Modes of thinking
Modes of acting
Modes of interacting
Behaviours four components:
112
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Personality
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Emotional stability
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience
The Big Five Model
Personality
describes the
relatively stable
set of
characteristics,
tendencies and
temperaments
that have been
formed by
inheritance and
by social, cultural
and
environmental
factors.
113
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Attitudes
Determined by the emotions we
choose to act on.
Vary from situation to situation.
Derived from parents, teachers,
peers, society and our own
experiences.
Easier to influence and change
than our behaviours or values.
Can have an impact on our
professional and personal
relationships.
Attitudes are
evaluative
statements or
learned
predispositions to
respond in a
consistently
favourable or
unfavourable
manner with
respect to a given
object.
114
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Perceptions
Person-specific
May not always be
consistent with reality
Important to be aware of
ours and those of others
Influenced by many factors
Tend to be formed based on
our biases
Perception
describes the
process by which
individuals gather
sensory
information and
assign meaning to
it.
115
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Perceptions Diagram
116
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Perception Filters
Stereotyping
Selective perception
Projection
Expectations
Interest
117
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Attribution Theory
Attributions or judgments are
based on our personal
observation or evaluation of
the situation.
Future decisions and behaviours
are based more on our
perception of why something
happened rather than on the
actual outcome.
According to
attribution theory,
individuals tend to
decide that
behaviour is
caused by a
particular
characteristic or
event.
118
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Attribution Theory (cont)
Attribution to controllable factors tends to be a
stronger indicator of future behaviour than to
uncontrollable factors.
Greatly affected by personal biases:
Self-serving bias
Fundamental attribution error
119
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Others Perceptions
Social mirror
Understanding how others view us, and also
understanding how we are shaped by others
opinions of us.
Based on our memory of how others have reacted
toward us or treated us.
Learning to read accurately how others
see us enhances our self-map, our
images and judgments of ourselves.
120
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Self-Disclosure
Sharing your thoughts, feelings and ideas
with others
Key factor in improving self-awareness
Clarifies your perceptions
Verifies your own beliefs
Affirms your self-concept
Validates data received from an objective
source
121
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Diverse Experience
Living or studying in a foreign country
Learning a new language
Travelling
Reading books on new subjects
Acquiring broad work experience
Facing a life-threatening illness
Experiencing divorce
Overcoming a personal problem
122
Copyright 2006 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Slides by Caroline Juszczak
Summary
Self-awareness is an essential skill for
developing personally and professionally.
A high degree of self-awareness allows you to
capitalise on your strengths and develop plans
for improving or compensating for your
limitations.
Part of being self-aware is being able to monitor
and change your behaviour.
Concentrating on self-improvement
demonstrates to others your willingness to learn
and grow, increasing the likelihood of you being
able to develop close relationships and succeed in
a profession.