Investing in Self-Awareness to Supercharge Your Career and Your Happiness

During the Great Reshuffle, I’ve had a lot of thoughtful career chats in and outside my network. An interesting thread has emerged across these conversations: our self-awareness varies widely and situationally, and investing in it absolutely leads to happier, more fulfilling careers. If you're anything like me, your self-awareness can also ebb and flow; sometimes you're very keenly aware and other times you're very consciously or subconsciously pushing it aside. Self-awareness is also that all-important foundation of emotional intelligence. So how well do you know yourself at work? How do you get to happy and more fulfilled? Here's a quick framework I've found helpful to hold up that mirror and see what's going on.

?? Examine what you’re excellent at and where you have room to grow.

Think about what you’ve seen on annual reviews or received praise or feedback about and what you observe about yourself relative to peers.

Then for each, note:

? Frequency (are you good/not so good at this 10%, 50%, or 100% of the time?)

? Importance to your boss and team (is it promotable work, or will it derail your trajectory?)

? Impact (what’s on the line—are you great at something not core to your job or not great at something really important to your role?)?

At the end of the day, you probably know whether you’re competitive talent in your peer group or whether you have things to work on. Are the behaviors and tasks that are core functions of your job on your list somewhere, or are they absent? Then find your “so what?” in there. What will you do with this information about yourself?

For example: I’m off camera (because of chronic back pain and Zoom fatigue) around 40-50% of the time. It does matter to my boss and team to have that visual connection to me in remote life, and the impact is being less influential in meetings on audio when peers are on video. My “so what?” has been to go all in on audio with other audio-friendly colleagues (hi, and thanks!), turn video on in key meetings, and switch to standing in another part of the house when I can’t sit comfortably any more.

This is also where you find out if you’re over-indexing on being great at something that doesn’t matter to your boss. Or that you're letting something that’s 70% of the job slip through the cracks when you could make a small change and get a lot of mileage out of it.

?? Track what gives you energy and zaps your energy for a week.

Observe the people, projects, and processes. Ask yourself if you’re working with and for people who make you better on projects that light you up and in a way that’s sharpening your skills. If you’re missing a match on any of these fronts, that’s a good clue to what you’d need to do your best work or in a role change.

?? Are You in Go Mode or Slow Mode?

Be honest with yourself about your interest in growing and how it relates to your happiness and fulfillment. Are you at a company where you can get by with an average year, or does every year require 110%? You know when you’re sliding by and hoping you can get away with the minimum versus bringing your best every day.?

At the same time, ask yourself: would they fight to keep me today if I left? It’s good to know where you stand and how valuable you are. Conversely, would you fight to keep this job if it was in jeopardy tomorrow, or would you feel unburdened to walk away from it? Know what’s on the line for yourself relative to the energy you want to put in. This is your one, precious life.

If you’re looking for internal mobility, being one of the best at the job you do now writes your ticket to make a move because you’re held in high regard. If you’re not one of the top performers at the moment, you can start building a career changer narrative on why this other role lights you up and plays to your strengths. Read: here’s why another manager should invest in you.

If you’re looking for external next plays, inventory what you want to embrace and let go of in looking for new roles. This is a chance to reinvent yourself and play to your strengths rather than falling into assumed patterns.?Optimize for happiness!

This is a start, but the journey to self-awareness is lifelong. We're all in our work. It moves forward and then sideways and sometimes back. What helps you navigate your own self-awareness, and what a-ha moments have you had??Tell us in the comments!