Out of frustration I’ve become acquainted with the Pilcrow! It is the symbol for displaying all non-printing characters in a document. Paul O’Donnell, my co-author and I are writing a book called Humble Crumbles. We have different software packages. Sometimes as I incorporate his sections into our master copy the formatting goes askew. Other times as I type in my own section the formatting also goes askew. So I click on the Pilcrow to bring the underlying formatting into view and I can make adjustments and corrections.
Self- awareness
We learn our beliefs, values, standards and practices from our tribes. That is, groups we identify with and to which we belong. It could be our family, school, friends, church, gender and workplaces. These ways of thinking, behaving and making sense of our worlds become part of our “underlying formatting” and can become invisible to us.
This can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and resentment when others don’t respond as we would. It can also get in the way of achieving our business plans as we implicitly assume our colleagues see and experience the world as we do.
If we increase our self-awareness, instead of reacting from our habits, we can make more choices about how we engage with others.
It occurred to me that my frustrations with writing my document and not being aware of the underlying format is a useful analogy of what goes on for us when we are not self-aware.
What do you do to increase your self-awareness?
I invite you to have a conversation with me about how you can increase your self-awareness to improve your engagement with your team members. Send me a note sylvana@sylvanacaloni.com or call me +44 (0) 79520 68133 and we can arrange a time.
