Chapter 6

Self-Awareness

Delivering and receiving feedback are key leadership skills to help you manage conflict.

By developing  your ability to deliver feedback, this allows you to hone in on your ability to:

• frame feedback in a positive and productive way
• be concise and specific about how someone can improve and grow
• actively listen
• ask for additional information and clarifying questions

This framework can help improve your self-awareness by  considering how well you receive feedback from your friends, family, peers, and supervisors. Reflect upon:

• embracing discomfort
• being open to someone else’s perspective
• setting and revisiting goals
• asking questions to further understand the feedback
• identifying your strengths and weaknesses

Receiving  feedback also provides interesting insight into what your triggers might be.  If someone gives you feedback on how to improve your work, and an important value you have is hard work, it might be hard for you to hear their feedback as relevant and valuable.  Your initial reaction will probably be defensive. You may try to explain how hard of a worker you are and why you always produce high quality work.

Receiving feedback means that we listen, fully and actively, to the feedback we receive, even if it makes us defensive and uncomfortable.  Feedback is where we learn and grow.  Working on becoming more responsive and less reactive to feedback is an important skill to master.

General Awareness Building

Delivering and receiving feedback also allows us to understand others in a deeper way. When someone takes the time to give us feedback, we can learn what is important to them, what their expectations are, and how they are willing to interact with us and develop our relationships with them.

When we deliver feedback to someone, this is an opportunity to learn more about them through their reaction and responses. We should ask questions and actively listen to their answers to understand their perspective.

 Relationship Building