Inaccuracy of present awareness

And yet how often do we act in ways that we look back on as truly unhelpful!

These moments can damage our confidence and lead us towards stepping away from that which is most needed from us as leaders. It is extremely hard for us to understand what we are experiencing at the moment – most of the time it feels like we are

• being rational,
• making good choices and
• doing the best thing we can.

In hindsight we often see that we have

• missed key information,
• acted from our fear or stress state, or
• chosen actions that don’t align with our intentions.

How can we shift this?

Self-awareness is a key tool for leaders to develop to address this. Practising regular intentional reflections around our actions – what worked / what didn’t (rather than circular re-runs of the moment in our heads) – nurtures our self-awareness and develops our capacity to be more aware of our actions in the moment.

Also creating a habit of consistently asking yourself one or two key questions that help to activate your metacognition – your thinking about your thinking – in the moment. For example,

“What am I missing here?”

“What else could be going on here?” or

“How might I look at this completely differently?”