How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Page 69
2. Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is another method for increasing self-awareness. Self-reflection is the
ability to “hit the pause button” and critically assess yourself or a situation.
Importance.
Why is self-reflection important to leadership?
Self-reflection helps you ensure that you are taking actions that are sound and not
simply running on “auto pilot,” but rather are conscious about doing what is most
important in any given situation.
Self-reflection can help you learn from your experience to avoid the trap of
simply repeating things that aren’t working.
Self-reflection allows you to notice your habitual ways of responding so that you have
the option of approaching things differently.
Methods.
There are many ways to reflect, and some methods may work better for you than
others. One approach is just to take a short time-out in which you simply stop and think.
Other approaches include:
Journal writing.
Note taking.
Talking to others (“thinking out loud”).
Speaking into a tape.
Meditation.
Drawing pictures
3. Authentic Feedback
The third technique for increasing self-knowledge is soliciting authentic feedback from
others. Leaders who know themselves and let others know them are those who
command respect and trust. Soliciting feedback is one of the most effective methods for
increasing the open area of the Johari Window, “Known to Self and Others.” Feedback is
critical to self-knowledge and thus, your ability to lead. It helps you to know if you are
leading in ways that are effective for those whom you lead.
Feedback can be informal. We usually think of feedback as a formal process that
happens once or twice a year. But you don’t have to wait for a formal process to get
feedback. In fact, the more informally and frequently you get feedback, the better. It is
vital to ask for and receive feedback in a way that encourages others to tell us the truth
as they see it.
Feedback requires trust. People may be reluctant to give you honest feedback if they
don’t trust you. That willingness to be honest is built on trust that develops over time.
And to some extent, most of us have a tendency -usually unconscious - to do things that
inhibit others from giving us truthful feedback. Down deep, we may not really want the
truth.