Professional Self-awareness To Promote Your Development
There are different ways to promote your development. One of them is professional self-awareness. How can awareness-based practice promote your well-being? And how do you do that?
Before we dive into it, remember that your intentions are one of the keys to promoting such a development. In addition, it will be a learning path that you can gradually integrate into different parts of your life.
Professional self-awareness
The dictionary describes self-awareness as “awareness of oneself, one’s existence, one’s actions, thoughts, feelings, etc.”
A professional highlights this ability and links it with the activity in which they develop, which they have prepared for, and from which they receive the compensation.
Thus, it is about how you view your work environment and relate to it and the factors they contain. Here are some of the features associated with it:
- Responsibility. Individuals with professional self-awareness are responsible for themselves and take their duties into account along with any consequences of their impact.
- Ethics. This involves knowing and applying a moral set that regulates activities.
- Reflection on ethics of duty: One’s actions and interactions with others. Ethics of duty (deontology) is, according to the definition described by an expert in the subject, Córdoba Azcárte, “a set of norms required in a professional group.”
In addition, the assumption of rights and duties is necessary to acquire social and individual responsibility accompanied by self-regulation and actualization. It is therefore about constantly learning about the profession, interaction at work and the responsibility towards oneself and others.
Improving development
When you are professionally self-aware, you neither take things personally nor go on the defensive. Instead, you know that assumptions can lead to misunderstandings, and therefore you ask before drawing hasty conclusions.
You also do not have to please everyone. You know that is not the essence of the work. Thus, there is a difference in how you interact with others so that you can be most effective in what you do.
That way, you put yourself in the place of others when dealing with conflicts, and communicate as effectively as you can, so as not to get hurt. You do, but you recognize and hold on to your own boundaries.
Professional self-awareness is a way to improve your development. After all, you are an integrated being. Thus, what you do in one place may affect something in another . When you e.g. working on managing your emotions in leading a team, you are already working on your emotional side and it can have a social and physical impact.
In fact, your anxiety, insomnia and stress are reduced and your executive functions are improved. Among other things, it connects you to the now-and-here, promotes acceptance and activates your senses. It will differ from person to person and depend on their consciousness-based actions. Those that they can relate to their work and other aspects of their lives.
How to promote professional self-awareness
You can strengthen your professional self-awareness in several ways. On the one hand, it is crucial that you stay up to date on your profession at all times, as theories, parameters and techniques change or become obsolete. Thus, you will be able to work ethically if you stay up to date.
You can also elaborate on the concepts and ethical principles within your particular expertise. Read up on what guides and controls you.
It is also important to take responsibility for one’s actions. By continuing to learn, you can develop in all areas of your life. It will refresh your rights and your responsibilities to others.
Another way to do that is through feedback. You can not only learn from your own perspective, but will have to see things from others as well. Therefore, talk to your colleagues, friends, read, get a mentor, take part in supervision, etc.
You can also try psychotherapy, which can promote your inner well-being and give you techniques for your self-awareness. As you can see, here you will have a support to guide you and help you do your best and achieve your goals.
One last thing about professional self-awareness
Finally, we can say that professional self-awareness can have a positive impact in other areas.
In addition, you need to develop abilities to improve it, such as ethical awareness, self-awareness, reflection and personal awareness, internalizing the duties of your profession and, of course, how it is performed in practice. Through this, you will develop by exploring, rebuilding, learning and moving towards your goals in a responsible way.
