Self_Awareness

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are almost 7 billion people living in the world today (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html). Other than those who are either psychologically challenged or drug affected, I don’t think there is even one person who thinks he or she is perfect. To this day, I have not come across anyone who doesn’t have at least a few character traits that they wouldn’t like to change. So how does one begin the process of changing a particular behavior' Well, simply stated, we can’t change what we do not have knowledge of. We have to first be aware of our personal behavior and how it affects others, before we can make a conscious decision to change it. Self-awareness plays a crucial part in individual development and improvement. By being more aware of ourselves we not only identify areas to improve, i.e., interpersonal skills, leadership, family relationships, and work performance, but we also identify strengths that we can exploit to be a more productive member of society. As a Field Grade officer, the self-assessment module has provided insight and techniques that will assist me in my duties over the next 10 years of my career. Identifying and addressing personal weaknesses is a difficult task for most; however, it is critical for individual development. There are many areas of our lives that can be affected by increased self-awareness. Probably one of the most important is interpersonal skills, or how we interact with each other. Without awareness, we could never affect character traits that quite often lead to difficult personal and professional relationships and scenarios. Everything we do in life to a certain extent involves personal interaction, the significance of improving those skills is clearly evident. Even the most competent individuals have been rendered ineffective due to a lack of interpersonal skills; however, often the individual is not even aware of the problem. Another very important benefit of self-awareness is the improvement of leadership skills. As a leader, self improvement not only enhances the individual, but as a byproduct, it improves the team or organization as well. Oftentimes leaders aren’t aware of their leadership style or particular traits as perceived by others. This becomes an interesting point in organizations with a “not so great” command climate. The question in those instances is, “Is the leader even aware of the behavior that could be developed or improved'” Many times the answer is no. Besides improving interpersonal skills and leadership abilities, awareness of one’s self affects many other aspects of our lives. Being able to identify shortcomings in our family interactions is pivotal to successful marriages and relationships. Frequently, a problem in husband-wife relationships lies in the reluctance to recognize constructive criticism as exactly that. Instead the criticism is viewed as a personal attack, and when that happens, rarely is there a positive outcome. Needless to say, we as human beings don’t naturally welcome criticism. This adds to the difficulty in maintaining a personal awareness in family relationships. As parents we sometimes assume knowledge of our children’s viewpoints of us, but the reality is that their perceptions are often quite different than what we believe. I can remember conversations with my mother regarding our relationship through my teenage years. In her eyes, we had a picture-perfect relationship, characterized by happiness, harmony, and the works. My viewpoint, however, was slightly different. I recalled certain instances where conflict was the recurring theme and times when we didn’t get along as well as I would have hoped for. The point is that she was probably not as self-aware as she could have been. Of course I was far from being the perfect child, but that’s a whole other point entirely. In addition to the benefits of awareness on the home front, the way we perform in our civilian occupation also hinges on an enhanced understanding of ourselves. Ultimately, the same principles that allow self-awareness to improve our leadership skills, interpersonal relationships, and family scenarios still apply here. Performance can only be improved if there is a knowledge of what to improve. Generally, most military officers have an inherent desire to excel at their endeavors, and this includes civilian careers. As compared to the military sector, increasing self-awareness may be more difficult in the workforce. Specifically, there may be less of a tendency in the workplace to give candid, constructive feedback to others. Although many civilian industries have honest, effective means to provide feedback to employees, it’s frequently in the form of termination, demotion, etc. Obviously the preference would be to have awareness of and develop deficiencies before it gets to that extreme. This exemplifies the significance of self-awareness in the workplace and how the lack of it can impede performance. Being aware of one’s self not only identifies areas for improvement, but it also helps key in on individual strengths. Once recognized, these strengths can be directed to the good of the organization or workplace. For example, a person with excellent communication skills might be the one best suited to represent his or her department or company on a local media interview. Another example might be when a person volunteers to produce a robust presentation because he knows he’s very good at it, and could make the organization look good as a result. Even in family dynamics there is a need to recognize strengths. If one parent is aware that they have exceptional skills at resolving conflict, it would be a logical response for that parent to intervene when siblings bicker. The bottom line is that without at least a minimal level of self-awareness, an individual wouldn’t be able to capitalize on the things they do well. In conclusion, I am drawn back to the astounding amount of people that occupy God’s green earth. I can’t help but wonder how many of those live with a self-perception that drastically differs from the observations and opinions of those who interact with them on a daily basis. Self-awareness may be one of the most challenging aspects of self-improvement; nonetheless it’s the first, and arguably one of the most important steps of a sometimes arduous process. By increasing personal awareness, we can easily identify both our strengths and weaknesses; and improve or exploit them as required.