his thoughts if it were you by Neogentrics. Food
for thought. Well, last time we covered emotional
intelligence, and we even covered the social
skills required. So we're going to talk about
one of those social skills today. Enjoy the jazzy
music in the background as well. We're going
to cover self -awareness. Self -awareness is
one of the key components of emotional intelligence.
Daniel Goleman, the guru of emotional intelligence,
identified self -awareness as being made up of
emotional awareness, accurate self -assessment,
and self -confidence. In other words, it's all
about knowing your emotions and your personal
strengths and weaknesses and having a strong
sense of worth. People who lack awareness find
living a truly happy and productive life very
difficult. This can be difficult to overcome,
as many societies and cultures encourage us to
ignore our feelings and emotions. You know, keep
calm and carry on. Examples of this include people
who stay in jobs that they find unfulfilling
or make them unhappy, or in relationships in
which they are not comfortable at all. The emotional
awareness. It's the ability to recognize your
own emotions and their effects. People who have
this ability know what emotions they are feeling
at any given time and why. They understand the
links between their emotions and their thoughts,
actions, and including what they say. They understand
how their feelings will therefore affect their
performance and be guided in how they feel by
their personal values. Be aware of your own emotions
and how they affect your behavior. It is crucial
to effective interaction with others. can also
be crucial to your personal health and well -being.
Keep that in mind as well. Living without emotional
awareness can be kind of difficult. Some people
find ways to mask their emotions rather than
listening to them. Addiction to certain behaviors
is often linked to emotional masking. These include
excessive drinking and or eating, overworking,
computer games, gambling, exercises, or any other
activities that effectively distract the mind
from... what's actually happening. elevator music,
but who can argue with their jazz music? Anyway,
people can find self -analysis of their emotions
difficult, especially if they have suppressed
them for a long time. It may be hard for people
to accurately recognize their emotions and even
more difficult to understand why they're feeling.
However, self -analysis is a vital skill to learn
and develop for good emotional intelligence.
A good starting point is to be aware of your
values, which can also be thought of as your
personal moral compass. For more about that,
check out the podcast I did on your moral compass.
These values have an emotional value to them,
which therefore means that many emotional responses
come from some action or event that touches on
those values. If you're aware of your values,
You can quickly see why you may have had a particularly
emotional reaction to an event or person. Most
importantly, you can then take action to address
the issue with a better understanding of the
problem. An accurate self -assessment is usually
required. Understanding your own and others'
emotions also requires a good understanding of
your personal strengths, weaknesses, inner resources,
and perhaps most importantly, your limits. It
can be particularly hard to admit to weaknesses
and limits, especially if you are in a competitive
and fast -moving work environment. But it is
crucial for emotional intelligence and your own
well -being. People who are good at self -assessment
generally not only have a good understanding
of their strengths and weaknesses, but they show
a good sense of humor about themselves and their
limitations. They are usually very reflective
and learn from experience, and also open to feedback.
But be warned, there are blind spots. Alright,
let's cover those blind spots. It can be very
hard to admit to weaknesses, and many people
may well be in the state of doubt that they even
have any. especially for those in senior positions.
It can also be hard to get genuine and constructive
feedback. This is a result in blind spots, problem
areas which are completely invisible to the person
concerned. Common blind spots identified in a
study of senior executives include the following.
Setting unrealistic goals for oneself or the
organization and having an unrealistic idea of
how easily tasks can be accomplished. Blind ambition.
where the person has to be right all the time,
and relentless hard work, working long hours
and being at risk of burnout as well as a result.
These blind spots can make people very resistant
to feedback, which makes it even harder to overcome
the problem. The solution? Get into a habit of
seeking regular, honest feedback from those around
you, and then act on it. This is very prominent,
especially in young males. who play sports or
young women in general. As everyone always wants
to be right and they never want to have that
feeling that they're wrong. But sometimes that's
what you need. Next, work on your self -confidence.
The final area of self -awareness is self -confidence.
Having a strong sense of your own self -worth
and not relying on others for your evaluation
of yourself. People with good self -confidence
are generally able to present themselves well
and are often described as charismatic, as I
mentioned before. Preparing to voice unpopular
opinions and not always go with the flow. You
know. And then they're generally decisive, being
able to make good decisions grounded in their
own values. Self -confidence is absolutely vital
for job performance. Without the ability to tell
tell it like it is, when necessary, and stand
up for unpopular positions, it is very hard to
achieve anything, especially during tough times.
Which is one of the main reasons why I enjoy
doing my podcast. In conclusion, with what I
was talking about earlier, self -awareness is
a crucial part of emotional intelligence. It's
no accident that Daniel Goleman, the author of
the book Emotional Intelligence, identified it
as the first of the five competencies that make
up the emotional intelligence. But without awareness
and understanding of ourselves and a sense of
self -rooted in our own values, it is very, very
hard. And it's not possible to even be aware
of or respond to the emotions of other people.
Just keep that in mind. And again, thank you
for listening. Enjoy the rest of your day. Neogentrics
out.