Self awareness is fundamental to the way you are able to present yourself to others, it is fundamental to successfully managing your career and your relationships.
I have recently had a few interviews and I know many other students who are having interviews for college. The interview remains the main focus when people give you the position that you want or turn you down.
Success in the business place is dependent on how well you do in the interview; and I wondered how much work can you do to prepare successfully for interviews. Ascolto’s lead psychologist, Kris Bush, has recently been supporting assessment centres, so I asked her for her top piece of advice on being interviewed.
“One of the qualities that interviewers may be looking for – that may not always be reflected in their formal competency frameworks – is a high level of self awareness. Self awareness is the degree of “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires”. In other words: How well do know yourself? What you do well? How you do it?And can you describe that to interviewers?
Self awareness is fundamental to the way you are able to present yourself to others and affects how well you come across as considered and trustworthy.
Interviewees do not have to be perfect and the “completely developed individual” for the role. They have to be authentic and honest with themselves to be authentic and honest with others about who they are and how they operate.”
How can people work to build their self-awareness?
- Consider taking a personality test – the Myers-Briggs Type indicator (MBTI) is often a good start for people to begin to understand themselves, and how they behave and respond.
- As for feedback, either informally from friends and colleagues, or in a work context consider 360-degree feedback – from supervisors, peers and direct reports.
- Take time to reflect – at the end of the day or the week take time to go back, and introspect – man people find a journal useful for this.
- Find a coach to help you examine yourself, your motivations and your behavioural drivers – and help you think about what you can do to develop.