The power of self-awareness

I recently started working with an executive, Peter, who wanted to take on another challenge within his company. He’s been successful in all his positions and doing very well today; his recent evaluation has been great - again.

Yet, there was a feeling of emptiness, of loss of joy. A feeling of disconnect inside. And a lot of questions about the future.

We started off working creating clarity on ‘who he is’: what are his energy givers, energy drainers, values, passions, what difference does he want to make, how does he want to show up…

During the process I saw an interesting shift – I call it the internal career shift: the moment a client gets complete clarity on who they are and they suddenly feel they are standing on firm ground, with both feet, confidently. Confidently not just about themselves but about their future. Even if they don’t know yet what that future entails exactly.

In his case, he came to the insight during our work that a big part of his work involved calling upon one of the two energy drainers he has, being selling and persuading. (Having only two energy drainers, this is ‘bad luck’.) It explained why he felt drained, and in his mind, this was a confirmation he needed to change job.

But once over this initial shock and a couple of sessions later while having worked around values and passions further, he came to another insight.

Yes, a part of his job involved persuading but he had many talents he could draw upon while working with his clients, which are more business partners. He could use his strategic thinking, his empathy, his love for team play, his entrepreneurship, his different types of creativity, his drive for sharing information/teaching.

His insight was that while drawing more on those energy givers, his attention would divert from ‘the need to persuade’ and allow him to develop his own style, his own approach and way to develop the relation with his clients even further. He had tried it out and realised he was standing in a completely different energy now. A positive one.

‘Looking at it this way, I don’t necessarily need to leave my job’ was his reflection. An alternative could be indeed to continue in his present position and develop an idea we had discussed which is in line with the strategy of the company and could have a great positive impact. However, realising the idea requires time. Thus while working towards something greater, he realised he could still have fun in his current position.

Let’s see how things develop for Peter. However, the message is clear: It’s all about self-awareness, talents, values, purpose. Self-awareness leads to clarity. Clarity leads you to make the right choices in line with who you are, in a grounded and confident way.

When have you experienced this power of self-awareness?