I have always had a degree of self-awareness and known that I have often used my personality traits to get what I want, but until my recent face-to-face coaching session I never really understood how this could affect others. So we had a concentrated session on this topic and this honest, and I admit sometimes uncomfortable, critique into what I do, how I do it and what my ‘Red’ personality means, has given me much to think about. My session gave me a level of understanding I hadn’t achieved before; I can now see how my behaviour and that of my colleagues can affect not only the day-to-day work I do, but also contributes to both the stress they and I am experiencing. It coined the theory of, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” nicely, and revealed much to think about going forward, even if Newton didn’t foresee this application for his theory.
The thing is, now I have to do something about it! The effort to produce change is mine and it won’t change overnight. But by taking time each day to re-examine my actions and behaviour (before and afterwards) I can see there is huge potential to not only make my life more productive and less stressful, but perhaps that of others as well. This could be an interesting phase of the process!