Hello KSKOers
I really enjoyed my conversation with Wendy Shooter in the latest episode of The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast. We talked about self-awareness and developing awareness about your energy through the use of Wendy’s App My PowerBar. We also talked about importance of feedback and embracing change.
Check the audio out on your favourite podcast player or click above to play the video!
Looking forward to joining you on your learning journey!
Here are my top takeaways from our conversation:
1. Managing Energy with My Power Bar: Wendy introduces us to her app ‘My PowerBar’, which categorises personal energies into mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. The app offers targeted strategies for energy management to help you reprioritise and do things differently. Together with the My PowerBar Journal, Wendy ensures you are fully equipped with exercises and insights to maximise your energy in the work place. Take the My PowerBar quiz to set your baseline and then use the tools to help you move to a better place. Click below.
2.The Four Energies: The "4 Energy Model’ helps people boost personal energy. Wendy explains that understanding which energy is high or low enables you to decide which energies you want to focus on. The energies are:
1. Mental - Clear thinking and focus; low levels cause confusion or indecision.
2. Emotional - Calmness and cooperation; low levels lead to irritability or impatience.
3. Spiritual - Passion and purpose; low levels bring apathy or despondency.
4. Physical - Strength and vitality; low levels result in fatigue or illness.
Wendy’s My PowerBar tool fosters self-awareness by encouraging reflection on our current energy states, moods, and their impact on our behaviour, supporting our personal and leadership growth.
3. Feedback as a Catalyst for Growth: Wendy emphasises feedback's pivotal role in personal development. Acknowledging and reflecting on feedback allows people to gain deeper insights and work through barriers like fear of change. Within organisations, tools such as 360-degree reviews are valuable for enhancing self-awareness and growth. Wendy advocates for regular, objective feedback to foster an environment where constructive feedback becomes the norma and a tool for continuous improvement.
4. Importance of Self-Awareness: Our discussion explores self-awareness as crucial for both personal and organisational success. Wendy’s My PowerBar model promotes reflection on current states, i.e. ‘how am I feeling right now?’, which boosts self-awareness. This really aligns with the third layer of my definition of self0aware leadership, regulating your behaviour. Wendy uses a model called ‘In My World’ which helps leaders to understand diverse perspectives, and prevents them from taking a ‘my way or the highway’ approach.
5. Embracing Change for Professional Growth: Wendy talks about adapting behaviours to suit changing environments, saying it’s a key to professional growth. She highlights that resistance to feedback often arises from fear or reluctance to admit mistakes. By normalising open performance discussions and regular, constructive feedback, organisations can support continuous learning, empowering people to embrace adaptability as a clear factor in both personal and organisational success.
Here are five ways that you can develop your self-aware leadership skills from my conversation with Wendy:
Normalise Feedback in Professional Settings: Encourage regular and objective feedback in your organisation, promoting a culture of performance discussions. Have one-on-one conversation that involve asking insightful questions to gather constructive feedback.
Embrace and Process Feedback: Practice acknowledging feedback, asking for time to reflect on it, and revisiting discussions to fully understand and learn from it - especially when it’s less than positive. This approach helps in cultivating openness to change whilst giving yourself a moment to breathe.
Utilise Tools Like My PowerBar: Leverage the My PowerBar app and journal to monitor and boost mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical energy levels. This will help you develop your self-awareness and boost your depleted energies.
Engage in Regular Reflection: Implement journaling practices like joy audits and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) exercises to grow your self-awareness, understand your energies better, and make more informed choices about your behaviour.
Develop Organisational Self-Awareness: Focus on understanding personal and others' perspectives through models like Wendy’s ‘In My World’. Use it gain insight into others views, ways of working and priorities to create better understanding and co-operation across the organisation
New Reflections Journal for 2025
The new Self-Awareness Superhighway Reflections Journal 2.0 is out now!! It has more space to assess yourself against the nine directions of the Self-Aware Leadership Compass, room to reflect, jot down your thoughts, take notes, doodle, draw and access the creative part of your brain alongside the analytical!
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If you’d like to advertise your services, resources and expertise on The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast or the Knowing Self-Aware Leadership Newsletter, you can now purchase perfect packages here. Terms and conditions apply!
Nia is an expert leader who talks the talk and walks the walk. She is an academically awarded thought leader in self-aware leadership and practices self-aware leadership every single day in her role as a Director in a Children’s Charity.
Find out more about Self-Aware Leadership by getting your very own copy of The Self-Awareness Superhighway! It’s an Amazon Best Seller in.....
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Harvard Reference: Thomas, N.D., 2024. The Self-Awareness Superhighway: Charting Your Leadership Journey. Knowing Self Knowing Others.
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