Why we need self-conscious people in companies

I forgot about it!”

“I did not hear you saying this.”

“Sorry to be impulsive, I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s not obvious; I thought that it will work this way!”

“This work makes me tired easily!”

“There is no need for change?”

“It’s not my responsibility!”

“I know what you hide inside your head.”

“Let’s make it as we do usually.”

When these statements appeared at business workplace and started to do so more often, managers began wondering why employees do not follow our vision and commitment as they were supposed to, what the problem in implementation was, why people deviate from their plans, and why some people behave like robots just mimicking and repeating other people’s activities without innovation. Nevertheless, being unconscious at workplace, easily distracted, and being impulsive spreads negative thoughts and emotions in the air.

Majority of these repeated acts become unwanted habits that are not seen by people themselves; they convince themselves and provide a justification, eventually drowning themselves in the heaviness of these layers of habits and becoming less productive and efficient.

Charles Duhigg, author of “Power of Habit”, points out that our habits are formed from a vicious circle between a trigger or cue and then linked by action, which is followed by rewards (Trigger-Action-Reward). When we realize that we are living amongst an enormous number of triggers from the environment such as people, thoughts, things, and events, these triggers shape our thinking, and our emotional and behavioral actions. The bad news that we unconsciously form habits out of realization. Most people do not think, but have opinions they have heard of; these opinions can become habitual – a habit of mind. For example, on a thinking level, people acquire analytical thinking skills because they are unconsciously triggered by an old teacher as they have gotten a reward for it. So they keep repeating this action as a thinking habit. Likewise, on an emotional level, being impulsive by certain triggers is a formed habit that keep elicited in similar situations, and behavioral habits and attitudes are meant to keep you survived in a deeper level.

When we indulge into our habits, we become less aware and alert – we become attached to our environmental triggers. In other words, our habits play like gravitational forces toward the environment in order to survive and be in control. People in companies act by their instinct to survive, and that is why they become more anxious and reactive when they feel insecure and threatened by their managers, they lose their energy and move away from the alignment with the company vision and higher management business message. Distracted employees will definitely miss some activities and go in their judgments jumping into conclusions because they are busy and tired from fulfilling environmental triggers despite what the main company goals have stated previously.

Self-conscious can be reached successfully by self-observation. A man should observe his thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Self-observation will provide an insight about what is happening now and one will accordingly be able to realize unwanted actions inside us, such as unwanted thoughts and feelings. Self-observation will allow us to economize our energy by following only the needed movements and actions at a specific time (for example, there is no need to move your legs while you are writing a letter or thinking about laundry). When we remove unwanted thoughts, negative emotions, and restless body movements, we definitely save our energy and become awake and conscious.

Employees with self-consciousness and awareness are precious assets to their managers; they have the power of attention and not being distracted by unexpected triggers, and they stay aligned with business objectives, working without fear but with more collaboration to achieve their aspirations and company goals. Managers should break employees’ unwanted habits, taking off these heavy layers that are formed by the environmental triggers, going with them into self-consciousness and support them in controlling their own actions and thoughts at workplace

Self-observation not only gives an opportunity to the employee to be more in self-control and deal with anxiety and frustration, but it will also have a positive impact on business itself. It will increase profit and provide more innovative solutions. This means that self-consciousness is a business need, as is serenity and being calm with your coworkers and managers.

As a manager, you can raise your subordinates’ awareness by giving them a chance to reflect on their activities, thoughts, and emotions from time to time. Regular business reviews are a very good example of an activity to help keep their activities aligned with the business plan. Interrupting their habit cycle with new assignments and roles is important, because they get more conscious when they have been received a designed shock. The manager must clearly and regularly transmit the company vision to their subordinates, setting well-defined Key Performance Index (KPI) and monitor and be alert of any kind of distractions they may encounter!

The manager should be the environment for their subordinates; this means that the manager should manage the type of triggers that may strongly affect and form people habits by either removing the unwanted trigger or minimizing its strength. Definitely your attitude, your words as a manager, and how you deal with people will trigger internal actions with observers, which will become their habits within this environment. For example, if you deal nicely with late comers, they will send their colleagues a message to remind them to come early. Many subtle triggers can be evoked as a manger, which can implant certain habits – wanted and unwanted habits. Finding that self-awareness is an inner work related to the person themselves, but the manger has the role to help people observe their selves, leading to making less mistakes, increasing the ability to think out of habits, and be cooperative and attentive in their communication.