Developing Self Awareness

Are you Self Aware?

"Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes." Carl Jung

I really liked this quote when I first read it. Reading it a second time made me reflect and wonder how well we actually know ourselves. We are constantly puzzled by the behavior, motives and intentions of the people around us, yet how often do we stop to peer into our inner selves. Self awareness is often taken for granted but frankly there are many of us who lack it.   Some years ago, a colleague came to me in great distress. Her manager had asked her to fill in her strengths and weaknesses in the newly introduced performance management system. She was struggling with this exercise even though she had over 12 years of experience. Her take on it was that, no manager had ever given her candid feedback regarding her strengths and weaknesses. This surprised me, but what was even more shocking was her total lack of self awareness. Anyone who knew her would say that she is very well dressed, poised and quite efficient at her job. Yet she had not risen in her career and perhaps it was her inability to understand herself which stood in the way of her career progression.   You may often find that people who are unaware of their strengths and weaknesses tend to to overestimate themselves. When you know yourself, you can leverage your strengths, compensate for your weaknesses, develop in some areas and also avid situations where you are unskilled. There are many ways in which we can build self awareness:

• Ask others for feedback. You could ask your boss, trusted peers or friends.
• If your organization has a 360 degree feedback system - where you get feedback from your boss, peers, direct reports (if any) and sometimes customers then you can analyze what your highest and lowest ratings are.
• Question yourself. Do I lack certain skills or are my weaknesses things I avoid doing, do not like or have never done before? How did my strengths develop? Why am I perceived in this manner? Reflect on your answers to these questions so that you can decide what is easy and tough to do.
• Be prepared to follow up with people and ask them what they would like you to continue doing, stop doing, start doing or doing differently. Be very specific and focus on areas of concern.
• Accept the feedback given to you. Don't argue or qualify it. Just absorb it. If you do choose to comment, be sure to give examples of the behavior being described to validate what they are saying. 
• Remember every perception is a reality. Even if it may seem unpalatable at times. If you believe that the feedback is not true, think of how you can deal with it especially if it comes from someone senior and could potentially stand in the way of your career growth. Come up with an action plan to convince people through deeds and not words. Decide how you will act in critical situations. Remember that it may take people quite some time to view you differently or change their opinion about you.
• Be readu to accept that you are imperfect like everyone else. Freely share your thoughts, doubts and opinions in your normal work conversations. This may not come easily to you so carefully observe three people who are good at admitting their mistakes and weaknesses.
• The ultimate aim of self awareness is full knowledge. So go ahead and find out your blind spots, areas in which you think you are much better than others think you are. If these blind spots are not identified and tacked they could prove to be career stallers.
• You could also try something new, fun or plain whimsical to see how well you can get at it. This could be something like dancing, juggling, playing poker, etc.
• Another option could be to attend a self awareness workshop which includes live feedback

In the end, it is self awareness which will help you to live life wholly and discover your destiny.

Becoming People Savvy in the New Year

Becoming People Savvy in the New Year

It's a new year! 2013 has started and it's time to make new beginnings! New resolutions, skills, adventures, jobs, homes, etc...All of us are keen to start the new year on a positive note. Yet there are many people like Neil who are impatient and too critical to make a positve impact. He is a manager with many years of experience but he tends to misread others and is often unable to clearly understand their strengths and weaknesses. This has become a roadblock which is preventing his promotion from happening. What he lacks are people skills. Well, here are 13 ways in which they can be developed:
1. Avoid generalizations about people. Just because they are unable to do one this competently does not mean that they can't do a 100 things better than you do.
2. We often tend to stick to people with whom we are comfortable. They are similar to us in personality, views, skills, etc. There isn't much we can learn from someone like this. Instead, it is important to look for people with whom you disagree or who gets on your nerves. Try to understand what they do well and not well. Stop judging them.

3. Listen when people talk and try to find out what drives them. When you hear them out, it shows that you care. Find common ground. Also freely share information abut yourself.
4. When someone is speaking, don't interrupt, finish sentences or wave off further information by saying you already know it. Ask questions to learn more about people.

5. Think of the people you with whom you work closely and see if you can write down 3 specific strengths and weaknesses that they have. After that decide how confidnet you are of your assessment. You may find that you are more sure about the people whom you like or with whom you share a personal relationship. Spend time with people until you can comfortably list their strengths and weaknesses.

6. Become a people watcher. Try to predict what they are going to say or do before they do it. Find patterns in their behaviour. This will not only help you to understand their strengths and weaknesses but also adjust to their responses.

7. On a more formal level take up a job or assignment which requires you to interact with a different culture, new and diverse set of people.
8. Opt to work with a cross-functional team or a new group of people from another function who have a different background and perspective.

9. Take on additional responsibilities which entail managing a large group of people and the onus for their training and development.
10. Join a start-up which requires you to build a rapport with a new team and develop new skills.

11. Work on a project which requires you t use your personal power and influencing skills rather than your position or authority.

12. Volunteer to assemble a diverse team to resolve a challenging issue.

13. Handle a tough negotiation with an internal or external.

Try them out and share your feedback on how they worked for you.

Are you an Experimenter?

Sara is worried. She can feel a nasty headache coming on. Her entire body feels stiff from sitting for hours at her desk, working feverishly on the laptop. A successful lead in the marketing team, she is faced with a new challenge on her plate. For years she has been marketing the same products with a great degree of success. But today her boss has asked her to come up with a marketing strategy for a new product in a totally different therapeutic area and that too on a shoe string budget. Flummoxed, she knows that nothing she has done in the past is going to work here, creative and innovative ideas are the need of the hour. Having never failed on any project till date, Sara feels shaky and uncertain in this situation. “What if I fail?” is a thought that is repeatedly crossing her mind.

The reasons for Sara’s fears and lack of confidence when faced with a first-time situation of this nature are not tough to find out. They arise out of her dislike for taking risks, fear of failure and having been in a comfort zone for a long time. Till date her job did not require her to deal with very ambiguous situations or come up with very creative solutions. Sara likes to have everything just so and has a tendency to resist the new. A perfectionist, she likes to collect all the possible information before making any decision. This improves her confidence levels and helps her avoid criticism. In short, she is not an experimenter.

The current scenario, where change is the only constant, requires experimenters. This is an important dimension of change agility. People like Aman are experimenters. Aman is known to be an inveterate tinkerer who can never leave things alone for long. He takes on challenges and thrives on finding a new ways of doing things. Testing new ideas, products and services is something he enjoys doing and is known for his ability to come up with creative solutions. He is very comfortable trying something several times before finding the right solution. A risk taker, he remains unfazed by the failures that come along the way.

Do you find yourself falling back on old habits when faced with new situations? Do you expect different outcomes in a new situation although you continue to use the same ‘tried and true’ methods? As human beings we are creatures of habit and often find it difficult to adapt to changing situations. The good news is that we can train ourselves to become experimenters. Though research has shown that flexibility is largely innate, change agility is also partly an acquired capability.

Here’s how you can develop this capability.

Are you a perfectionist? Do you find it necessary to collect all the information before you make a decision? It is easy to make a good decision when you have 100 percent of the information but there are so many situations where you are expected to decide on the basis of limited information. And there are people who are able to make effective decisions in these scenarios. When you are in the process of trying to solve something, make a note of what you would do at different points along the way. Take a look at your notes each time you gain more information. Figure out at what point you would have made the same decision as you did with all or more information. You will find that you would have come up with the same solution long before you actually did. Many of us end up delaying decisions but ultimately our decision does not change.

Use failures and mistakes as an opportunity to learn. If you speak to any successful professionals, you will find that they report more failures and mistakes than the less successful do. You cannot learn from things you are not doing. So start by making small decisions, get instant feedback, make corrections and improve. It is unlikely that you would get it right the first time. Give yourself learning opportunities by trying three experiments.

Move away from your comfort zone. Stop relying on your favourite solutions. Doing this repeatedly comes in the way of your growth and change. Question yourself: “What am I most likely to do?” and then don’t do it. Spend time on talking to others, look for parallels in other organizations, speak to experts in other unrelated areas, spot some unusual or odd facts about the problem you are facing and see what they seem to indicate, or brainstorm with a one-time problem solving group. Don’t restrict your solution space.

Edison is known to have made 3000 attempts at making a light bulb before he succeeded. Yes, most innovations fail. Some of the most successful innovators do it by sheer quantity and learn from their failures. So go ahead and try out some low impact experiments to increase your chances of success. For instance, you may try five different ways of testing a product instead of one big carefully planned one. Look for that one common factor in the failure which is never present when you succeed. Let your plan evolve from the tests.

Feel free to challenge the status quo. To be creative you need to combine previously unconnected elements or change your perspective of viewing them. Start generating ideas without judging them. You will not get anything new by following the usual procedure of merely setting goals and schedules.

Start taking risks. Allow others in your team to take risks and experiment with new ideas. Start delegating more often. Review your progress on small and big projects, note what went well and what did not work out.

Do you think you are not bold enough? Are you tired of what you are currently doing? There is surely something for which you can drum up enthusiasm and be the champion. Try some initiatives and see if they succeed in spurring interest. Get an experimenter to collaborate with you. You may also get a heavy duty expert to join. You could plant new seeds of ideas at every possible opportunity.

Several part-time assignments can also help you to build the capabilities of an experimenter. You could volunteer to take on a touch and impossible project, one on which others have failed. Be willing to take on a task that you dislike and would usually avoid. Take on the responsibility of building a cross-functional team to find a solution to a common business challenge.

At the end of the day, it is the ability to continuously learn that will decide the extent to which you succeed in today’s turbulent times. You will always face new challenges, problems and issues. It is your willingness to experiment and try new things which will help you succeed where others fail.

Career Exploration

If you are interested in continuing in your current job while you investigate possibilities within the organization, you can:
- Study the organization chart to learn more about how the organization is structured. Identify an area you would like to learn more about and connect with someone who could provide more information about that area.
- Brainstorm with your manager and identify assignments that would give you a realistic view of another part of the organization. Select one assignment and make an action plan for it.
- Identify a job within the organization that you would like to know more about and connect with someone who is currently doing that job to know more about the responsibilities involved.
- Talk with your manager about the possibility of a short-term assignment in another part of the organization.
- Select a department that you are interested in knowing more about.
- Scan the organization's intranet to learn more about other departments.
- Conduct an informational interview with a leader within your department to learn more about the strategic direction and the critical skills and knowledge required in the next few years. Selct one of the identified skills to work on and add to you development plan.

Happy New Year! I have not been blogging for ages now but hope to be more prolific in 2012:) In this New Year I'm sure most of us are definitely looking forward to career growth. After all the end of a year makes us introspect on the year gone by and where we are in our career. Preparation is critical in career planning and it is important to identify the career transitions one wants to make. Some people may be looking at enrichment, that is, they are interested in growing and developing in their current job. To prepare for enrichment, one could look at:

• Identify 1-2 assignments or tasks that could be added to your current role for greater satisfaction or to expand your role. You can set up a meeting with your manager to discuss this in greater detail.


• Identify a task or project that you can handle with minimum supervision to add greater independence to your job. Come up with the action plan and discuss it with your manager.


• Identify a process improvement or a challenging problem that would give you a new learning opportunity. Volunteer to lead the effort.


• Find ways to nurture creativity in your job. Select a project or assignment that will enable you to contribute your best ideas.


• Enhance your customer service skills. Find 1-2 ways to interact more or in a different way with internal and external customers.


• Meet with your colleagues after completing projects or assignments for "give and take" feedback to pinpoint strengths and development needs. Incorporate the feedback in your development activities.


• Write down 2-3 things that you love in your current role and determine specific ways to do more of it. Include the ideas in your development plan.

Hope the above ideas prove to be useful. Do feel free to share your feedback with me. I plan to write about career exploration in my next post...

The Meltdown and other crises...

Hi!

Its been ages since I blogged!. Well I've been very busy with a number of things, but neverthe less I'm back. The recent meltdown has affected most sectors and everyone has major concerns about the current scenario. For instance, a friend was asking me what recruitment agencies could do to survive. It got my brain ticking but I was wondering if all you readers could come up with some ideas.

The way employees have been ruthlessly sacked in many firms has led to a low morale. All of a sudden, there is no respect as such, for people who were 'valued employees' a short while ago.

In addition, we had the crisis in Mumbai which, in its aftermath, has left people with scared and bruised spirits.

I think the answer to all this lies in more long-term solutions rather than knee jerk reactions. I'm yet to come up with any concrete ideas but hey like everyone else I'm thinking too.

Let's hope 2009 brings happy tidings for one and all!

“Before I state the problem are there any solutions?”

When I think of the word 'problem' other words come to mind such as quandary, complication, trouble, mess, plight... All of us face problems on a regular basis and solving them is a huge challenge at times.
What does the word problem actually mean? A problem is basically a dilemma with no apparent way out; an undesirable situation without a solution; or a question that you can't currently answer. It's not just that things are different from the way you'd ideally like them to be – it's that you can't fix them no matter what you do.
Some of the characteristics of problems are as follows:
Incomplete communication - Conversations have broken down or haven't even been started so that full understanding is lacking
Unknowns - Information is missing
Inaccurate information – Some of the known information is wrong
Confusion – People involved find themselves in a mental fog, stressed or overwhelmed by stimuli or choices
Hidden emotions – Emerging feelings tend to come out as you examine the situation
Different viewpoints – You and others have conflicting ideas
Changing impressions – As you investigate the situation, ideas, feelings and explanations change, sometimes radically
Balanced Dilemma – A tug of war exists where no one person or idea is able to win
Persistence – The situation won't disappear
One has to check which of the characteristics actually apply to the given problem. The ideal method of resolving problems and making difficult decisions involves two steps. This magic formula is guaranteed to work. In fact it never fails when applied correctly. The steps are
1. Define the problem
2. Decide how to solve it
You already knew that, right? Although it seems obvious, most problem solvers and decisions makers don't do a very good job of the first step, Problem Recognition. Instead they rush off to step 2, Solution Decision. Unless you define the problem thoroughly and accurately, your solution may not address what's really wrong underneath. The difficult is knowing what to analyze and resolve. Well, tomorrow I'm gonna talk about these two steps in detail.