Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Sukh Pabial from pabial.wordpress.com.
If there’s one thing I think makes a big difference in the way someone works it’s how they express their self awareness, and to whom.
This isn’t restricted to leaders in our businesses. Authenticity is a much-used word in our reading material. That, together with “being genuine”, “emotional intelligence”, “high value thinking”, and many other interesting buzz words.
What I appreciate though is someone’s ability to acknowledge a shortfall, and express it, to the right person in the right way.
What do I mean by this? Let’s look at what I don’t mean!
Think about someone at work who moans about their work load. They not only moan about their work load, they also moan about their commute. They not only moan about their work load and commute, they moan about not enough support. They not only moan about their work load, their commute and not enough support, they moan about others in their team.
And it goes on. And on. Draining just reading it, isn’t it?
That’s a good example of what I don’t mean but how about what I do mean?
Think of someone at work who is discreet about who they talk to, and about what. I’ve seen really good – successful – people do this. And they do it well.
They understand that only certain people need to know certain information. It shows me that people have the desire and motivation to do better, for no other reason than that they know they can. That’s really heartening to see.
What can we learn from people like this?
- They appreciate the value of discreet personal relationships.They don’t spill their guts to anyone that will listen. They take the time to get to know their ‘audience’ and carefully choose who, for them, is reliable and helpful.
- They are open to receiving feedback and acting on it.This is so powerful. It is something we should all be taught how to do, yet only a small percentage will ever do it well.
- They are highly self-critical.That’s why they’re so good. Because they recognise that they haven’t reached a height that is acceptable for them. This in turn means seeking advice and support.
- They listen to what’s going on around them.That is, they take in information from a wide source. This feeds their minds with a lot of useful opinions and thoughts that they can take, digest and decide what needs to be done.
- They have different avid interests.You can’t concentrate on only one thing and be consistently successful. You need a distraction which helps relieve your mind and exercise other muscles.
I’m sure you do things which are equally successful. But therein lies the other key – learning from others to improve yourself. What do you think?
Sukh Pabial writes and thinks about learning at pabial.wordpress.com. You can also talk Twitter with him (@naturalgrump)
