Are You Self Aware?

June 22, 2017

Do you know how others perceive you?If not, ask a friend, family member or colleague to tell you how they view you. In other words, do they see you as positive or negative? Critical or encouraging? Engaging or aloof?

Self-awareness is essential to helping to define your personal brand. Your inner circle of friends and family can become your informal focus group. When a company wants to determine how consumers view its products and services, they conduct focus groups. The feedback received from the focus groups help them position or re-position their products. Getting feedback is critical to understanding your personal brand because some people have a completely different personal perspective about themselves than others. For example, one of my friends often refers to herself as a people person. And, at times she is a very engaging, fun-loving person. However, more times than not, she comes across as one of the most introverted, moody persons I’ve ever met. Some people are high energy, while others are low key. In other words, you couldn’t get them excited if you struck a match under them.

Then there’s the extrovert. We all know the type. You’re standing in line waiting for your movie ticket, and they launch into a friendly conversation with you. They will talk to you right up until the time you walk into the theater door. “What have you heard about the movie?” “Do you live around here?” “What was the last movie that you saw?” “The last one we saw was …..” They will go on and on about anything and everything, and you never get a word in edgewise. Then there are the quieter individuals. Wild horses couldn’t drag a conversation out of them. They just don’t like lengthy conversations. They only provide “yes and no” answers.
“Do you like music?”
“Yes.”
“Will you being going to the concert tonight?”
“No.”
By this time, you are asking someone to rescue you from this boring conversation.

Others can be perceived as intellectual. No matter what conversation topic, they have to add some anecdote to the story to prove that they are smarter than the rest of us. I find it interesting that people didn’t begin labeling me as an intellectual until I became an adjunct professor at New York University. If I had known how much I was going to move up the intellectual chain, I would have emerged as a teacher many years ago.
The point is that you can be labeled many ways. These labels become a part of your personal brand. Once you become self aware, you can leverage it for career success. How do others label you? Let me know what traits describe you best.

“Without self awareness, we are babies in the cradles.”
Virginia Wolf