Let's back up a little
We've been working with individual colleagues and teams on increasing people-management skill and confidence since conducting our wellbeing research back in 2018/19
A big part of the blended training and coaching we provide looks at self-awareness and emotional intelligence. And time and time again, when we've started with these, and then we work through the programme content and look at styles and behaviours in many areas, one of the comments we hear a lot is "Oh god, that's me, I do that!"
And every time we hear that our response is the same "Great!, the more you recognise about yourself (or part of it) the more you're able to see when you might need to adapt or change an approach.
We don't do this to make people feel bad about themselves - far from it!
We use it so they can see how their actions and behaviours impact on others in different ways.
As examples:
What feels supportive and comfortable to one person will feel intrusive and too "touchy feely" to another.
What feels respectful and autonomous to one colleague will feel disconnected and aloof to another.
But recognising why a particular approach might feel so very differently to different colleagues, and understanding how to modify that approach so it is the right approach for each individual, is one of the game-changing learnings in being a people-manager
Some of these realisations have far less impact on colleagues than others.
But a lack of self-awareness can have significant ripples. In more than half of the workplace culture consultancy projects we've undertaken, the culture of an entire department or organisation has been impacted by one person, who has not been aware of their own behaviours or traits and how they have affected others
So for us, the far scarier and far more negatively impactful scenario is "what if you DIDN'T realise you were part of the problem?"
If you want to know more about where these skills, and the confidence to use them, are covered in our training programmes, drop us an email - hello@wearelift.co.uk