What is self awareness?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, self-awareness is “the conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” To have a complete knowledge of oneself, then, seems like a difficult task. Is this knowledge something that can be learned in a day, or is it the result of a lifetime of learning? Like most things of lifelong value, there is a starting point and an ongoing commitment to learning, and it may be something we cannot do on our own. An old proverb says: “The purpose of a man’s heart is like deep waters, but the man of understanding will draw it up.” This seems to suggest a process rather than a one-time event.

The first step towards empowerment

So why is it so important to promote self-awareness for our coaching clients? Well, it may be that self-awareness is just the first step towards empowerment. Our clients may have a current problem (short-term goal) that needs to be explored. It could be something like taking your business to the next level, or settling a dispute in a relationship, or perhaps a transition in your career. But often the presentation problem is not the main problem. We have the opportunity as coaches to establish a long-term change in the mindset of our clients, promoting self-awareness.

Improving our clients’ self-awareness allows them to have a better understanding of themselves. They will be able to experience themselves as unique individuals. Empowerment through self-awareness helps them make changes and develop their areas of strength, as well as identify areas where improvement is possible.

Self-awareness helps unlock our strengths and weaknesses

A client needs to know what is going on, to be real with themselves. They can do this by knowing and establishing their strengths and weaknesses. They may not be fully aware in the early stages of the coaching relationship of what their strengths and weaknesses are. This is something the coach can help with, the role of the coach is to give some direction. Encourage them with the experience they already have and the achievements already made. The important thing here is to help the client know where he is at the moment.

Our clients are in the driver’s seat, so they need to know a lot about themselves. Know not only the strengths and weaknesses, but also the fears and failures, as well as the successes. Awareness of life events will help people make better decisions. They need to be real with themselves. It is well said that a man who thinks that he cannot be deceived, he is already deceived! Empowering our clients through promoting self-awareness will help them make better decisions.

A client with good self-awareness seems to know what is right for him at the moment. They know what works and what doesn’t. They know what they are doing right and what needs to be fixed. A coach can support and encourage a client in the things that they are doing well, that are helping them achieve their goals, even when they don’t realize it themselves.

Being self-aware for more powerful decision-making

Self-aware clients can make good decisions and give themselves good advice, even when the circumstances and people around them are trying to derail them. It is important that clients can confidently take ownership of their own decisions, especially important decisions. The role of a coach here is that good questions are better than good advice. Fostering self-awareness in a client helps him to know himself, to know what he knows and what he doesn’t know. Self-awareness helps all the factors come into play in such a way that you can predict the results.

By promoting self-awareness in our clients, we help them make powerful decisions and this, in the long run, adds great value to the coach-client relationship.