Interpersonal skill- understanding others, being aware of what makes them tick.
Self awareness- beginning of a lifetime of growth and learning
Motivation is a powerful influence on our success
Behaviors that feel comfortable, that you do without thinking, that just seem natural, that you resort to
when under stress, or that you simply identify as "the way you do things" can all be considered to be
natural tendencies, or you personal preferences.
Ways to enhance your self knowledge:
* Introspection - pay attention and take note of your own experiences, actions and reactions. Body
language can also offer helpful clues. If your body is responding positively to the situation, it is likely
there are elements there that agree with your personal preferences.
Examples:
1. Do you feel happier when working in a group, or alone?
2. Do you feel satisfaction when you accomplish a difficult task?
3. Is it easy or difficult for you to tell others what to do?
* Observation - in addition to what you see in yourself, the observations of others can also be helpful.
Sometimes others see behaviors in us that we don't see, especially when we are too involved in activities
to pay attention. There are several key concepts to keep in mind if observation is to be a truly valuable
self-discovery process.
Situation---- what is going on?
- in terms of the situation, get a sense of environment in which a behavior occured.
Specific Behavior---- What happened?
-for an observation to offer objective information rather than subjective, or merely an opinion, it needs
to be specific. Since behavior arises from complex factors, this protects us from being offensive or
narrow in our interpretation, and allows for the process of communicating our thoughts and asking
questions to understand even more about others and ourselves. Jumping to conclusion often leads to
errors or an icomplete pictures.
Impact---- What is the result?
-the impact also needs to be described in concrete terms when making an observation. Some results
that could be observed include:
1. Change in body language
2. Increased energy or animation
3. Decreased energy or animation
4. Focus changes
Including impacts observed in reaction to specific behavior gives people a lot of information about not
only what they are doing but how that influences people and situations.
* Feedback (giving and receiving) - sharing observations with others is a responsibility and a privilege.
Sharing an observation is an interpretation of reality.
-feedback from others is simply their impression or opinion,
particularly when a belief or value judgement is included. Observations are more reliable when they are
based on fact. An opinion is more understandable when backed up with specific examples.
* Assessment Tools - putting some structure around observations, inner thoughts, feedback and specific
examples helps to make sense out of all this information. That's where assessment tools come in. They
are valuable instruments that you can use in your quest for self-knowledge.
One set of extremely applicable tools is Winning colors. The winning colors process supports self-
discovery in a positive and affirming way. Winning Colors is about what you can do, not what you can't.
Winning Colors
-like other assessment tools, winning colors groups human behavior into categories. Categories help us
to understand complex information, by associating related data. To associate means to group things
together when they have common characteristics. To differenciate means to make a distinction or state a
difference between things so we can tell them apart.
Purpose and Process
Winning colors is a present time behavior indicator. It can be used to:
1. Improve understanding of how to cooperate and communicate with others
2. Provide clues to motivation
3. Clarify learning styles
4. Offer insight to conflict resolution style
5. Uncover essential aspects of communication
