If there is anything I learn as I
get older, it is that information is power.
One famous book specifically addresses this fact: Freakonomics. Within it is example after example of how he
who has the most knowledge wields the power.
One only needs to look at leaders within different countries to see how
true this is. For example, compare what
the President can get away with here to what Kim Jung Un gets away with in
North Korea. We have a society full of
(relatively) well informed people that won’t allow their leader to abuse either
them or their rights. Over on the Korean
peninsula, Kim has absolute control over the country because he controls all of
the information the people receive – with essentially no internet or privatized
news organizations, they only source of knowledge North Koreans have is what
Kim gives to them. This allows him to
have complete dominance over them. Going
1 country to the north, you see have information can erode at the power base of
oligarchies. In China, the internet has
allowed for information to be spread to the masses that is outside of the
control of the government. As a result,
China has gone from a hardcore communist state to a much more liberal country
over the past 20 years (yes there is still a long way to go there but they are
moving away from communism). While this
might seem like it is irrelevant to self-awareness, I would say it is directly
related. Your level of self-awareness is
nothing more than knowledge that you have about yourself. Since knowledge is power, being self-aware
immediately increases the amount of power you can wield when required.
A quick
look at the 5 areas of Self Awareness will show this. Take for example core self-evaluation. The underlying aspect of this area is that
you are able to identify your own personality attributes (Whetten &
Cameron, 2011). The rhetorical question
that follows is how can you better yourself if you are unable to identify your
weaknesses? Knowing your strengths and
weaknesses will provide you with the ability to maximize on your strong points
while minimizing your vulnerabilities in any given situation. Values are another area of
self-awareness. In today’s world of
instant communications, a leader must walk the ethical path unless he wants to
find himself out of a job. Having the
ability to identify where your ethical code needs help will help prevent this
outcome. Another aspect of today’s world
is the constant state of change. Modern
times have seen an exponential increase in the rate at which technology is
changing. Obolensky astutely pointed out
that man went from being flightless to landing on the moon in 60 years after
spending millennia walking the earth (Obolensky, 2012). As such, a leader must be completely comfortable
with change, especially considering that the rate will only continue to
increase. Again, being able to identify
your weaknesses with respect to change will allow you to learn how to cope with
it for future situations. Speaking of
learning, knowing your learning style can greatly increase your effectiveness
and time management when it comes to learning.
For example, if you know you can memorize a book using flash cards in
only a couple of hours, why waste the time reading it over and over again? Finally, being able to identify and control
your own emotions is vital when dealing with other people. Given how important communication and
networking is in the modern business environment, it would be who of a leader
to know when his emotions are getting the best of him so that he can prevent a
boil over. The key point is that without
knowing where you could improve, there will come a point where accidental
improvement will stop and a focused effort at bettering yourself will be the
only way to continue improving yourself – if that stops you just became an
observer vice a player in the game of life.
Answering
the original question of how has my self-awareness changed since entering the
program can be answered in a classic Navy answer: it depends. On one hand, after spending 3 years in
college and 2 years in a nuclear training pipeline, I could already tell you
how I learned the most effectively. I also
had a broad understanding of all of the other areas of self-awareness. With that being said, raw information is
completely useless without the wisdom of where and when to apply it and this is
exactly where the program has helped me.
This program has turned my rather dull blade of knowledge about myself
and leadership into a sharpened sword – the material was there just not useful
yet. Something I have learned to
appreciate with this curriculum is that military officers really do get an
incredible amount of experience when it comes to leadership. This knowledge though isn’t necessarily
useful. For example, people always knew
that gravity existed since things fell to the ground when dropped; it wasn’t until
Newton came along and actually studied and clearly defined gravity that it
became useful. The same was true for me
and leadership and my self-awareness. I
had all sorts of notions and experience about it but couldn’t really tell you
anything about it; I just knew that some things worked while others didn’t. This program has shown me why things work and
why others do not thus turning my knowledge into a useful object. The same can be said with my
self-awareness. I’ve known for quite
some time where my strengths and weakness with my personality, learning styles,
values, etc. are; however it wasn’t until I actually studied them through this
program that I have learned to both capitalize and minimize them. Thus far it has been an incredible experience
and I look forward to continuing to learn about both myself and leadership over
these last several months of the program.
Whetten,
D., & Cameron, K. (2011). Developing management skills. (Eighth
ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.
Obolensky,
N. (2012). Complex adaptive leadership, embracing paradox and uncertainty.
Gower Publishing Company.
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