Men, do you possess a healthy self-awareness? (part 3) (2023)

In Part 1 I discussed what self-awareness is. In Part 2 I talked about the importance of understanding our values for developing self-awareness.

In Part 3 I will be discussing the importance of knowing and using your strengths in both your personal and professional life. Keep in mind, we're not necessarily talking about physical strength.

I know there's quite a few of you who have taken some kind of personality test. Maybe DiSC, Myer's-Briggs, Gallup's Strengthsfinder, the Birkman Personality Profile, etc.

My recommendation would be to NOT spend a lot of money on these types of profiles. Why? Because they are doing their best to help you understand yourself, but are limited to the truthfulness of your answers. Most of us have an inflated view of ourselves and our abilities. So, no doubt, they are going to give you some good direction, but some faulty direction also.

I am certified in one of these and have administered and interpreted them. I have been lucky enough to have good experiences taken a few of them also. As I said earlier, there's some good to be gained from them and some misses too. Only you can know if it's a hit or miss.

But for the price and reason you want the information, my recommendation would be to take, Gallap's 'Strengthsfinder.com' profile. It comes free with a purchase of the book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O Clifton.

It more than pays for itself and will get you going in understanding more about yourself and your strengths. Answering the question about what are your strengths and how can you develop and use them in your life.

If you've already taken that profile, I encourage you to go back and revisit. Re-read the book and seek to understand yourself a little better. Learn how to apply your strengths in your life.

For example, you could ask yourself, "What's one life goal I want to accomplish and how can my strength help me obtain it?" Then, you might ask yourself, "What options are available to me, to help me achieve this goal and utilize my strength in doing so?" "What steps with your strength can you take to reach your goal?"

Follow those two questions up with, "What obstacles might get in my way?" "How will I work through those obstacles when they arise?" Understanding the risks associated with your goal is important.

Last, answer these questions: "What specifically will you do to reach your goal?" "When will you do it?" "Is there anyone you could tell about your goal that would be your support to help when you are struggling or discouraged?"

OK, let's examine an example of this in action. One of my strengths is "creativity." I find this has helped a lot over the years in business and my personal life. For example, if this is one of your strengths, then you can use it to re-frame a business problem.

One of my goals might be to use my strength in my role at work. Maybe I'm a project manager, with a major initiative that recently hit a roadblock.

How to do I employ my strength? For example, you could find new ways to view the problem. Ask yourself what is another angle of looking at it? What are you missing or how might "so and so" handle this? Substitute "so and so" with the name of a inventor or competitor.

I might find a better way to administer employee benefits, how to work remotely, solve a machine problem, include a best business practice from another industry, become a better manager by asking better questions, etc.

For me, creativity has helped me suggest new solutions to business problems. For instance, seeing how to organize and optimize business processes into one collaborative environment, cutting implementation from five days down to two.

Recommending and organizing a new support team to benchmark our software and provide best in class customer service to major IT corporations. Optimizing a three week training course for new managers to two weeks, yet increasing their take-away knowledge (stickiness factor).

Finding a new way manufacture heavy-duty tarps that could hold five gallon water containers every five feet and not tear to cover sawdust. Recommedning the use of electronic scanners to read shipping packages for UPS, years before FedEx started doing it. (Don't worry, they rejected my idea and I lost out on millions for not patenting it! Lol.) Reducing a two day training to half-a-day, saving seat time in a classroom.

Or, asking find out questions about the reasons for certain processes that result in savings of time and monies - which resulted in the changing of strategic direction for a 5 year learning plan, or, the last one, saving the organization over $400k by switching learning systems.

The important thing here is to align your strengths with your role and way you approach your responsibilities. Use it to further the organization, while minimizing your energy and efforts.

It is also critical to know when to employ your strengths and not simply always suggest the solution is through the employment of your strength. Which, surprisingly, happens a lot in senior leadership and management. You must also know the strengths of those around you and help them succeed by using their strengths.

I think it's important to mention one other resource for personality tests - the VIA Character Strengths Survey at https://www.viacharacter.org/. It is free and identifies your strengths against 24 proven character strengths from thousands of leaders.

It provides recommendations for using your strengths and how they might play with other people's strengths to help you better apply them.

Here's probably the most important reason of all to find out your strengths and use them in your life: "If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get to get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you want to learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you." Warren Buffet to a group of students, as quoted in Now, Discover Your Strengths.

There's an associated happiness in life when you're doing what you love to do. It creates a "flow" that doesn't require as much effort to perform the day-to-day tasks. As you build your self-awareness, you come to know how your strengths can help you find that role fitted for your strengths.

And, in the meantime, it can help you find more ability to serve purposefully until you get the chance to pursue your dream job. It can help you in your personal relationships and professional pursuits.

Maybe you never have employment like Warren is talking about. That's OK, because by knowing your strengths, you still enhancing your self-awareness, which will help you. You can also pursue hobbies and interests outside of work to utilize your strengths.

So, what are your strengths? If you know a few of them, are you using them to help you find more happiness and increase your self-awareness? Are you using them in your family and personal life?

Self-awareness is a emotionally intelligent and mindful way of existing. It can help you in so many areas of your life, including to increase your sense of purpose and happiness. I know it's something I need and must revisit often to keep myself aware of my awareness.

Let's be more mindful about who we are.

#mindfulliving #healthandwellbeing