How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Page 68

Expanding the Open Area
The more we can increase the parts of ourselves that are known to self and
others, the greater our potential for building effective relationships, both at home
and in the workplace.
Benefits. You’ve already considered some of the benefits of increasing the area that you
know about yourself. But increasing what others know about you is one of the most
important things you can do to build trust with those you lead.
When leaders make their reasoning and thinking apparent to others, they build
trust over time. As a result, others are then more willing to give them the benefit
of the doubt during those times when the leader can’t share information.
Opening Up.
Becoming more open means showing people more of your thinking, more of the things
that you are wrestling with, more about your objectives, and your likes and dislikes with
respect to the “business” of emergency management. It means making yourself more
available.
(Remember, though, we’re talking about work-related issues, not personal issues.)
True: being more open involves some risk. But the potential payoff is greater trust,
understanding, and the benefit of the doubt when it’s needed.
Ways to Increase Self-Knowledge
Whether or not you consider yourself a self-aware person, there are many ways
to learn more about yourself and how you lead. Three important methods include:
 Self-assessment.
 Self-reflection.
 Soliciting authentic feedback.
1. Self-Assessment
We tend to be an outward-oriented society. That tendency leads us to think that
both our problems and their solutions are outside of us.
Significance.
The upside of this is that we become good at recognizing and analyzing the world
outside ourselves. But the downside is that we tend to overlook the ways in which we
ourselves are impacting the world around us. We tend to be less aware of the choices
we make, our own responses to situations, and our own resources that can help us
succeed.
Our outward orientation can blind us to perhaps our most important and readily
available resources: our own talents, preferences, and choices. If you develop selfassessment as a habit, you will be able over time to see
yourself with greater honesty and accuracy.