9 MIN READ

Coaching to Develop Self-Awareness

Helping People Get to Know Themselves

Telling your story helps people get to know you.

Developing self-awareness is important for better relationships and for a more fulfilling life, both in the workplace and at home.

With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behavior so that we deal with them positively. By understanding what upsets us, we can improve our self-control. And by understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage them, and reach our goals despite them.

However, it's difficult to be objective when we think about ourselves, and how others actually see us can be quite different from what we think they see.

There are ways in which people can develop self-awareness on their own. However, coaching can be a better way of helping people view their own actions and reactions objectively, so it's useful for helping people to build self-awareness.

In this article we'll look at six approaches that you can use to help others build this self-awareness.

Tip 1:

Some of the approaches we describe are useful generally within the workplace, while others are only really appropriate in situations where the person you're coaching has a very close and trusting relationship with you. Choose the approach that suits the situation.

Tip 2:

As with all types of coaching, feedback is important. But feedback - even very accurate feedback - can be nothing more than interesting information, unless it causes the person being coached to change his or her perspective in quite a fundamental way. Do what you can to support these changes in perspective.

Approach 1: Using Psychometric Tests

Psychometric tests are useful for giving people an objective view of how they behave, and how they compare in outlook with others. The answers they give categorize them by the personality traits or preferences they show, and then provide some commentary on these.

Of course, none of these tools captures the richness and uniqueness of an individual person. But they can point out the similarities and differences between people. ...