How to Practice Self-Awareness
Practice self-awareness is important because it helps you understand yourself, improve relationships, and improve performance. It is important because it is a key component of effective teamwork and can be improved through team building activities.
Self-awareness helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, and how you impact others. This can help you recognize your biases, manage your emotions, and be more empathetic.
Self-aware people are better able to communicate effectively, practice conflict resolution, and handle difficult situations. This leads to stronger relationships and more effective teamwork.
Self-aware people know what works and what doesn’t, and how to work with others to improve teamwork. They can also play off each other’s strengths and collaborate rather than compete.
Self-awareness can help you make behavioral changes that drive individual and team performance.
Here are some team building activities that can help improve self-awareness:
- Who Are You: The development of the exercise is quite simple: a person asks “Who are you?” and the other answers the first thing that comes to mind. The first person keeps asking “Who are you?” right after each answer, and the other person keeps answering but with other answers. It feels silly and simple, but most people struggle because they have to keep answering who they are. As the exercise progresses, it becomes more and more difficult. That is precisely the point: peeling back the multiple layers of our identity..
- Group Order: Have participants group themselves based on what they know about each other and then invite them to discover what they don’t know. Play upbeat music and ask people to walk freely around the room for about a minute. Blow the whistle and ask participants to line up according to a specific criterion.
- Affirming Thoughts: This exercise is an inspiring meditation to develop positive self-awareness and record empowering thoughts.
Self-awareness is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort and self-reflection. It’s also important to actively seek feedback and practice empathy.
