Exploring awareness: Awareness is a superpower. Maybe we all know that already, but it's so hard to be aware. Why? Because it's difficult to have the discipline, hard to find the space, and perhaps find tools to help. We get on with our back-to-back lives, and it is so much easier to just keep going, blissfully unaware of what's going on around us.
Awareness is key in all areas of our lives:
a) In Marketing: it's one of the most important skills...knowing your customers, consumers, patients, physicians (your target will vary depending on the industry). Being aware how they feel, do and think, now and in the future. Being aware of how your brands are perceived, aware of your direct and adjacent competitors' next moves, aware of market dynamics and trends, and so much more.
b) In Leadership: being aware of your values, feelings, your purpose. Being aware of your teams' dynamics,, and aware for what is going on in your organisation.
c) In your personal life: being aware of your emotions, beliefs and fears. Being aware of your impact on others, how you are showing up, and how you react to what happens to you.
So today, I would like to share a simple and useful tool. It's called the Johari Window. It is designed to help people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955. It is about getting everybody on the same page. Good exercise for self awareness practice, for one-to-one sessions with your teams, or done as a team. It could also be extended to your products or services, if you are in a Marketing or Sales role.
1st Quadrant
Aim is to expand the top-left / ‘open area’ = Most productive and effective area in which to be working.
Communication and cooperation are optimal in this area; whereas conflict, confusion and misunderstanding are minimized.
Aim is to grow this area with disclosure and feedback.
2nd Quadrant
This is the area populated by characteristics identified by the group, but not the participant. These are qualities that the person may be unaware of. As such, they might find the group interprets them differently from how they expect. Maybe they sometimes talk over people without realising, or underrate certain abilities.
The aim is that, through increased self-awareness and understanding, the blind spot can be minimised.
3rd Quadrant
This is the area in which personal characteristics are known to the person, but not to the group as a whole.
This area is likely to be larger with new starters, for instance, who haven’t become well-known among the group yet. With disclosure, this area can be shrunk, and the group will be able to communicate more effectively with the participant, and understand their motivations.
It may also be an area containing some characteristics which the participant wants to keep guarded. As such, it’s important to realise the person may not wish to reveal everything about themselves, and it should be handled with sensitivity.
4th Quadrant
This is the section populated by characteristics that neither the group recognise in the participant, nor the participant recognises in themselves.
This section can be used by the participant for self-improvement: eg identifying skills they may not recognise that they have.
But for the purposes of the group exercise, this section is essentially ‘other’ – ie the area the group doesn’t focus on.
How well do you think you know yourself? It's one of my favorite questions, specially when running Leadership sessions with my clients. If you are like most people, the answer will range around 70-85%. I then ask a follow-up question: "How much do you wish you knew yourself?" And the answer is typically around 90%, but rarely 100%. I then ask why, and get: "I want to leave some room for surprises". And my main point is then to say: "But life is already full or surprises....let's hope the surprise is not you!!".
Extreme focus: I have just finished reading a great book from Cal Newport called Deep Work. Cal suggests that the two core abilities required for thriving in the new economy are: a) The ability to quickly master hard things; b) The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed. And he argues that the the only way to be able to master these two abilities, is to spend more time doing Deep Work. Cal defines deep work as "Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skills, and are hard to replicate". Click here for a little video summarising his book. It made me reflect on how organisations are set-up, and how hard it is to do deep work...slack messages popping up, 1:1 meetings, stand-ups, alignment meeting, and the list keeps growing. It's just amazing how much time we spend time in shallow work, which is define as: "Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate". It's easier, quicker, but rarely creates impact".
What was the last time you've spent time doing Deep Work? How can you shift the balance, so you can spend more time on deep work vs. shallow work?
Excellence pursuit when you are "on the hook": “Askıda ekmek: there is bread on the hook. It’s an ancient tradition in Turkey. When buying a loaf at the local bakery, you can choose to pay for an extra loaf and, after bagging your purchase, the owner will hang the second loaf on a hook on the wall. If a person in need comes by, he or she can ask if there’s anything on the hook. If so, the bread is shared, and the hunger is relieved.” - Seth Godin on his great book The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
Seth explains the metaphor and the so what for us: most fish don't want to be on the hook. Like the whole idea if you're afraid, you're not gonna brag about the fact that you want to be on the hook. But if you're a professional, that's what you sign up for. Because it's about putting yourself on the line to make a commitment.
What are you currently 'on the hook' for?
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