Personal development is a journey that begins with a crucial factor: self-awareness. Self-awareness is the bedrock upon which personal growth is built. It’s the profound understanding of who we are, our strengths, our development opportunities, and our behavioural patterns.
In our fast-paced world, self-reflection is often overlooked. But it is essential for the start of any personal development journey. You need to know where you are starting from in order to plan your route to your desired destination.
Personal development in action
Self-awareness comes in many forms.
It can be as light touch as to gain an understanding of key areas of your own personality
For example: What motivates me? What situations do I find most challenging? How do I best recharge my “batteries”? Do I consider myself to be resilient? How do I react to change? How empathetic am I? To what extent do I enjoy leading a situation? How do I prefer to express my views to others?
Or you may wish to go a little further, looking at some of the potential development opportunities associated with your unique characteristics.
For example: What are the potential “flip” sides to my level of resilience? What are the potential risks of my personal level of optimism/ concern for the future? What are the possible positive and negative impacts of my approach to change? How do I balance my preference to look at detail / the bigger picture? Are there any conceivable negative impacts to my level of social confidence?
You may want to delve even deeper. How do your preferred ways of working and behavioural patterns impact on the way in which you interact with those around you?
For example: How do others find my consultation style? What impact could my level of emotional expression have on others? What impact will it have if I hold back from expressing my views? How do others with a very different style find my approach to task completion? Are there ways in which I can make the best of my preferred influencing style? How do I make the best use of my different approaches to influencing others?
Personal development – It’s all about YOU
Only when you start to explore some of your own preferences, can you start to look at the potential strengths and development opportunities associated with them. These are completely unique to you and your environment. An infinite number of factors may come into play here. A small number of examples include: The requirements of your role. What success looks like for you personally. What success looks like for your role. The different personalities of the team you have / don’t have around you. The current agenda for your organisation. Any home / work life interactions that may come into play. There really is an infinite range of factors.
The challenge- the personal development maze
The challenge is to find your way through this maze of personal discovery. Once you have a clear understanding of your strengths and potential development opportunities, you can use this to plan the steps that you need…. For yourself, for those around you… to improve your journey.
Where to start?
There are many ways you can start this journey.
You could undertake some self-directed reflection.
There are a number of quick surveys, prompts and other resources available to help you think through your own needs. These often have the benefit of being free / very cheap. They could provide you with some insight and could be a very useful starting point. But they are likely to be limited in how much they could genuinely challenge and explore the areas of your personality that are so unique to you.
You could seek out some support for this process.
You might find it helpful to have someone to help you explore your personality. Someone to constructively challenge you on key areas. To tease out things that you might otherwise be blind to, that might be so important to your development. We would always recommend seeking a suitably qualified and experienced individual who has access to the relevant tools and resources to support you. Of course, the downside is that will incur an element of cost. On the flip side, this approach could enable you to gain a deeper understanding of your preferences and abilities, allowing you to prioritise your own development needs, before starting on your development journey.
Or, you could seek out a longer-term programme to support you.
This might involve some initial work profiling your strengths and development opportunities before moving on to a longer programme of coaching and support. This obviously may have more significant cost implications, but could reap significant benefits for you in the longer term.
Unlock Your Potential
Self-awareness is the compass that guides your personal development journey.
Whatever route is best for you, embrace the power of self-awareness and embark on your journey of personal development. Your future self will thank you.
If you’re interested in discovering how we support individuals, teams and organisations on their journey of self-awareness and personal growth, we’d love to hear from you.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via: Sarah.banton@deardenassessment.co.uk
or give me a call on: 07966 330310
You may also be interested to read a case study we produced about Increasing Self Awareness at the start of a Personal Development programme.
