“DEEP SELF-AWARENESS” ILLUSTRATION
Please find on the following page a detailed testimonial from one of the participants named “Michelle” as she explored the five components of Deep Self-Awareness and learned what creates her very being. The illustration signifies the process and the professional and personal impact that “Michelle” realized through purposeful deep self-examination and self-reflection.
In effect, we first ask individuals like “Michelle” “WHO are you?” since this is the origin of all one becomes and does. Even professionals who are well along in their careers still do not know WHO they are, let alone those in their early stages of their vocation. As a result, Deep Self-Awareness (along with other 4 behaviors) is a must for those in leadership positions who are leading/advising professionals in non-leadership roles to succeed in today’s VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) environment.
But these professionals also must know themselves lucidly since they have to lead up, down and across the organization despite not having a formal leadership position. In fact, their success depends on deeply understanding themselves.
My work is foundational and ALL need to have this base from which they can operate. My program serves as a unifier and common platform from which all can function and build on future leadership development opportunities. No matter the challenge, rooting the solution in deep self-awareness can build a solid foundation for transformation and success.
I have seen, firsthand, the power of deep self-awareness. I know it can open us in ways we cannot even imagine. It can humble while, simultaneously, strengthen us. In addition, deep self-awareness can bring us insights that can transform us. Finally, those transformations can, in turn, drive business and personal value in unique and often unforeseen ways.
Best regards.
Alpesh Fadia
First Lead Self
Participant “Michelle” – Deep Self-Awareness Illustration
“Michelle” traveled through the entire process of establishing a critical missing foundation of effective personal leadership during a full-day session. She completed the exercises in the pre-work packet and the Exercise Book in the Workshop. The Deep Self-Awareness illustration below provides insight into the outcomes and some transformation that resulted in her adopting/adding a new mindset, etc.
Program Assessment - First 60 Days
- The 5 components offer a very unique angle from which I learned much more about myself.
- Didn’t know that the 5 components collectively make up an individual’s inner most core. Nice to have a package (instead of piecemeal revelatory programs) that discloses who I truly am at my deepest core.
- Never realized that the 5 elements are like peeling off layers of an onion one-by-one to get to the very core and that this is a component that ultimately determines our behaviors and habits which we exhibit daily in public to our colleagues, friends, etc.
Below is what “Michelle” learned from exploring the 5 components:
Component 1
- Parents – Never thought that at my age,
- they would still serve as guides in my life.
- Discovered that my ethnic background affects my thoughts, mindset and behavior.
- My colleague – She is so focused on developing people and leading others. I continue to learn from her.
- My husband – Has a “can do” attitude and does not give up so easily.
- Wildlife – Never thought that watching wildlife shows would teach me to persevere, be patient, how to work effectively in a team and take risks. My wild friends now have become my new teachers.
Principles
- Values – Honesty, fair-mindedness, justice, putting people ahead of money, respect and value others as human beings, their thinking, experience, ethnic backgrounds, etc.
- Beliefs:
- * If I follow my instincts then I can not go
- wrong
- * I can produce anything if I work smart,
- hard and be patient
- * Fail to succeed
- Etc. (there are 3 other elements that make up the “Principles” component)
“Mindset”
- I have a “can do” attitude considering that I was a competitive athlete and that my husband possess the same mindset. He has deepened this mindset in me.
- I have, as a result, take on greater responsibilities and challenges at work in addition to setting higher level athletic goals in my personal endeavors.
- The challenges I will confront will only help me grow and make me a better individual (Growth Mindset.).
- Developed an Entrepreneurial Mindset since I want to introduce a program to enable non-managers and new managers acquire leadership skills and behaviors using another leadership development program I attended and benefited from. This will give these individuals the tools they need since they receive minimal leadership development opportunities today.
Component 4
- Persevering – I have come to rely on this over the years during my athletic and school life, and now I have carried it over into my professional sphere. My parents and others have taught me to be stronger in confronting life’s tests.
- Exercising my values of honesty, respect for others and placing them ahead of everything else during my most severe tests and challenges as a professional. Without my staff and colleagues, I am nothing.
- Operate in the present moment.
- Actively seek feedback even from those I don’t see eye to eye. Before, I only heard my bosses because I had no choice. Others have a different perspective since I work with them all day. They offer a more broader view. Ultimately, I am seeking to improve myself, so all angles are worth considering. I can probably reach my destination quicker.
Component 5
- Persevering. There are many intense challenges I have had to overcome from athletic injuries to personal goals of becoming physically fit to professional goal of introducing an new approach to leadership development to senior members who are entrenched in old ways of doing things in my organization.
- Placing people’s interests first since they help me and our clients succeed.
- Look to self before running to others when challenges arise.
- Trusting myself now that I really know myself better at my core level.
“Bringing it All Together”
- I completed the provided graphic in the Exercise Workbook with responses I cited for each component.
- The graphic gave me a holistic view of myself at my inner most core level and it serves as a visual aid that I can carry with me to refer to and/or add content as I continue to gain deeper self-awareness through my experiences.
Note:
- This testimonial is a glimpse of the benefits “Michelle” realized.
- The entire program is about long-term gain and not quick fixes. Participants can expect to realize improvement every 30-days segments to ultimately reach their long-term vision and goals if they adhere to the plans they create for each behavior.