There’s no doubt that we are all doing a lot of deep digging in these days as we find greater levels of resilience and ways of coping with life in all its guises. That resilience building can often take a very intellectual and perhaps stoic approach as we tell ourselves that comparatively, we are doing pretty well – as people, as family members, as employees, as leaders, and so on.
One of the great gifts however of these times is the invitation to dig deep even deeper within, expanding our understanding of ourselves and how we relate to the outer world. We can undertake this journey by finding some time to reflect quietly and/or meditate. We can undertake it by applying a more conscious and aware, expanded perhaps, inquiry into that huge question ‘who am I?’ To which we might add…’who am I now…in this moment and in what way have I changed/am I changing?’
For many, the act of digging deep can feel scary or like a waste of time. For others, it may become a seemingly endless set of questions to which it is hard to see categoric answers. The truth is the act of digging deep is, in itself, an evolutionary process where most often we see the results come when we look in the rear-view mirror – that is with the benefit of hindsight.
We need to be patient and trust that by being willing to explore, to go in search of our heart’s messages and the deeper sense of our relationship with this world and its inhabitants.
Through this, we come to understand the path we are on and the path we are desiring to take.
As leaders, self-awareness is often quoted as a key differentiator of great leadership. This goes beyond knowing our psychometric profile or key strengths. It goes into the question of ‘who am I and how am I engaging with my world?’. Only then can leaders start to claim that they have a high level of self-awareness because true self-awareness is relational – in relation to ourselves and in relation to others.
As we all contemplate huge change in our lives, workplaces and across the planet, maybe as leaders we should commit ourselves to some deep digging too?