The Art of Self-Awareness

‘The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.’
– Carl Rogers

I love working with Teams. I love the interactions it creates. The awareness of each other as individuals and why people do what they do. This appreciation of each other as individuals and what has contributed to creating the person before them can open people’s eyes and break down barriers which open the Team up to many possibilities and opportunities to achieve.

But, of course, there has to be a ‘want’ to do this. Each individual has to want to look at how they contribute to the functioning of the Team and how they may be benefiting it or working against it.

This is where self-awareness of how our behaviour impacts on those around us is so important. First and foremost though, how our behaviour impacts on others firstly impacts on us. If we don’t have self-awareness it will hinder. If we have some semblance of self-awareness it can make it easier for us to achieve what we want. The more self-awareness we have, the easier it gets.

I recently saw the beginning of what I assumed was going to be a documentary about the rivalry between the great tennis players, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. It was actually a dramatic movie. The beginning I saw showed a young Bjorn Borg playing a game of competitive tennis. He was yelling at the umpire, smashing his racket and was penalised numerous times for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The next scene showed Borg being suspended for a lengthy period of time for his behaviour. He was ostracised. He was also told tennis was not for his ‘level of society’.

This is a far cry from the calm, calculated and strategic tennis player I remember. Borg went on to be one of our greatest and ironically played the biggest brat tennis had seen at that time. Borg was coached and learnt to manage behaviour which was not to his advantage.

What is your level of self-awareness? Are you displaying behaviours which are to your advantage or disadvantage?