Self-Awareness – Your Most Important Investment in Growth

Trapped in Everyday Life

In our daily routines, we often operate under the influence of stress. Working under time pressure and with limited resources, making numerous important decisions, we move almost like automatons.

Stress drives us back to instinctive behaviors. There’s no time for thorough preparation or deeper analysis of the situation we’re facing. In such moments, we instinctively act in the way most familiar to us – in our natural mode. This mode is based on our strengths, dominant traits, and talents. These resources help us respond better to stressful situations, offering a kind of subconscious support that each of us possesses.

We also tend to copy other people’s practices, assuming that their path to success will work for us too. However, reality often proves quite the opposite.

Is Self-Knowledge Obvious?

Areas of Self-Awareness

Self-awareness covers many interconnected areas:

• Personality type and temperament -define our preferred ways of acting, areas of comfort, and hidden fears.
• Talents – reveal our conscious and unconscious potential and the unique combinations of our dominant traits.
• Values – show our priorities and decision-making mechanisms. Interestingly, they are often easier for others to spot than for ourselves.
• Motivators – explain what gets us out of bed every morning and where we draw the energy to act, even beyond professional duties.
• Preferences and aversions – analyzing what we like and avoid can provide valuable insights into how we function in various situations and projects.
• Feedback from others – a crucial self-awareness tool, helping to confront our intentions with how we are perceived by those around us.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Robert was a great developer: always smiling, energetic, and well-liked by clients. However, he faced a problem – he couldn’t endure sitting for eight hours at a computer coding and solving algorithms like the rest of the team.
This made him feel inferior and less intelligent. Interestingly, it wasn’t a lack of analytical thinking – he had graduated from a prestigious math-focused high school and earned a degree in IT.

Coaching sessions helped Robert discover his natural preferences, talents, and values.
He realized that work requiring him to sit all day behind a computer didn’t align with his personality. His heart was drawn to people, not numbers.
With some sadness but full awareness, he left coding behind.
Soon, he took a role focused on teamwork and collaboration, where he quickly excelled.
He felt like a fish in water in his new position, and his confidence grew significantly.
Thanks to his developed self-awareness, Robert found a path that fully utilized his strengths and gave him real satisfaction.

Moreover, his years of programming experience are now paying off, providing him with a deep understanding of IT while also helping him navigate the human side of the field.

The Practical Side of Self-Awareness for Leaders

Self-awareness increases a leader’s effectiveness, improves relationships, and supports conscious decision-making.
Leaders deal daily with responsibility, multitasking, time pressure, and stress.

When we know exactly who we are, where we’re headed, and what strengths we have, we can handle unpredictable events much better.
We feel grounded – we have an “anchor” that prevents us from drifting on a stormy sea.

Self-awareness also supports:

• Emotional control – regulating your own mood and responding empathetically to others.
• Effective communication – understanding different personality types and their needs, which helps manage teams and resolve conflicts.
• Team motivation – understanding your own motivators and those of your team fosters development and engagement.
• Open growth – the ability to receive feedback and continuously improve.

A leader’s authenticity, stemming from high self-awareness, inspires their team and strengthens engagement.

The Path Toward Growth

Self-awareness is not just a trendy topic – it’s the foundation of success, both at work and in private life.
It helps us better understand ourselves, make better decisions, and build healthier and more effective relationships.

For leaders, it’s the key to effectively managing and inspiring a team. Self-awareness requires commitment, but its effects are long-lasting and visible both in the short and long term.

By knowing our personality, strengths and weaknesses, talents, and values, we can consciously create an environment that nurtures our potential and brings us closer to becoming the best version of ourselves.

The journey toward growth and success is a path where not only we ourselves win, but also the people around us.

Trapped in Everyday Life

In our daily routines, we often operate under the influence of stress. Working under time pressure and with limited resources, making numerous important decisions, we move almost like automatons.

Stress drives us back to instinctive behaviors. There’s no time for thorough preparation or deeper analysis of the situation we’re facing. In such moments, we instinctively act in the way most familiar to us – in our natural mode.
This mode is based on our strengths, dominant traits, and talents. These resources help us respond better to stressful situations, offering a kind of subconscious support that each of us possesses.

We also tend to copy other people’s practices, assuming that their path to success will work for us too. However, reality often proves quite the opposite.

Is Self-Knowledge Obvious?

You’ve known yourself since birth, so it’s natural to feel skeptical when you hear encouragement to “get to know yourself better.” After all, isn’t it enough just to look at your ID and count the years?
And yet, self-awareness doesn’t always involve great discoveries. Often, it’s about recognizing and naming what is already within us but has so far gone unnoticed. It’s about broadening our self-perception.

There’s a saying: It’s darkest under the lamp – meaning that what’s closest is often the hardest to see.
That’s why, for many people, the practice of building self-awareness is both eye-opening and challenging. Even one new piece of information about ourselves can be hard to accept and integrate.

Areas of Self-Awareness

Self-awareness covers many interconnected areas:

• Personality type and temperament -define our preferred ways of acting, areas of comfort, and hidden fears.
• Talents – reveal our conscious and unconscious potential and the unique combinations of our dominant traits.
• Values – show our priorities and decision-making mechanisms. Interestingly, they are often easier for others to spot than for ourselves.
• Motivators – explain what gets us out of bed every morning and where we draw the energy to act, even beyond professional duties.
• Preferences and aversions – analyzing what we like and avoid can provide valuable insights into how we function in various situations and projects.
• Feedback from others – a crucial self-awareness tool, helping to confront our intentions with how we are perceived by those around us.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Robert was a great developer: always smiling, energetic, and well-liked by clients. However, he faced a problem – he couldn’t endure sitting for eight hours at a computer coding and solving algorithms like the rest of the team.
This made him feel inferior and less intelligent. Interestingly, it wasn’t a lack of analytical thinking – he had graduated from a prestigious math-focused high school and earned a degree in IT.

Coaching sessions helped Robert discover his natural preferences, talents, and values. He realized that work requiring him to sit all day behind a computer didn’t align with his personality. His heart was drawn to people, not numbers. With some sadness but full awareness, he left coding behind.
Soon, he took a role focused on teamwork and collaboration, where he quickly excelled. He felt like a fish in water in his new position, and his confidence grew significantly. Thanks to his developed self-awareness, Robert found a path that fully utilized his strengths and gave him real satisfaction.

Moreover, his years of programming experience are now paying off, providing him with a deep understanding of IT while also helping him navigate the human side of the field. 

The Practical Side of Self-Awareness for Leaders

Self-awareness increases a leader’s effectiveness, improves relationships, and supports conscious decision-making.
Leaders deal daily with responsibility, multitasking, time pressure, and stress.

When we know exactly who we are, where we’re headed, and what strengths we have, we can handle unpredictable events much better.

We feel grounded – we have an “anchor” that prevents us from drifting on a stormy sea.

Self-awareness also supports:

• Emotional control – regulating your own mood and responding empathetically to others.
• Effective communication – understanding different personality types and their needs, which helps manage teams and resolve conflicts.
• Team motivation – understanding your own motivators and those of your team fosters development and engagement.
• Open growth – the ability to receive feedback and continuously improve.

A leader’s authenticity, stemming from high self-awareness, inspires their team and strengthens engagement.

The Path Toward Growth

Self-awareness is not just a trendy topic – it’s the foundation of success, both at work and in private life. It helps us better understand ourselves, make better decisions, and build healthier and more effective relationships.

For leaders, it’s the key to effectively managing and inspiring a team. Self-awareness requires commitment, but its effects are long-lasting and visible both in the short and long term.

By knowing our personality, strengths and weaknesses, talents, and values, we can consciously create an environment that nurtures our potential and brings us closer to becoming the best version of ourselves.

The journey toward growth and success is a path where not only we ourselves win, but also the people around us.