Introduction Notes
Reflective practice involves questioning the existing learning and understanding processes to create a more conscious and effective way of practice. Schon (1984, p. 102) defines Reflective practice as “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.” He also differentiates between reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action, which Johns (2004) further develops into ideas of ‘doing’ reflection or ‘being’ reflective.
These notions refer to the usage of reflective practices in life and in the working process. Most commonly, reflection is applied after some experience has happened, to analyse it and learn from it not to make similar mistakes in the future. However, “reflection-in-action” involves reframing the situation as it is happening, so that the preferable outcome can be reached.
Reflective practice, as stated in Shon’s quote, is part of continuous learning. Therefore, only consistently applying this technique and perfecting it can we get better at being reflective in our lives, and also in our profession. Becoming a professional is, undoubtedly, a life-long process of trial and error. There are many ways to get better at what we are doing in life and perform most efficiently, and reflective practice is one of the most useful and common ones.
Aim of the Research: To Increase Self-Awareness
Self-awareness, according to Egan (2010), allows us to understand ourselves better, know our potential responses to specific actions and situations. It also helps us understand why we react as we do in some cases. However, it is not easy to be self-aware of all the actions and behaviours, but it is essential in any profession and life in general. It is vital to develop a sense of self before we can start helping others, creating and reaching goals, and making changes in the world, which we think necessary. Nonetheless, the lack of knowledge and data can result in decreased self-awareness, so further research must be conducted.
This research will discuss the materials necessary to build up self-awareness, as well as the research context of the professional field of marketing. Further, research design will be provided, and also the methodology and methods will be described. In the end, a digital storyboard will be created to reflect on the researched data.
Research Context
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, there are several competencies, which are required to be successful in the marketing field. The listed competencies are a base for individuals and companies to become efficient marketers. The CIM divides the competencies into behavioural values, technical competencies, and core capabilities.
The behavioural capabilities are (2019, para. 5):
These values are closely connected to boosting self-awareness in the following ways:
- Influencing ability involves us being able to lead others to believe what we find right and beneficial. In this process, it is necessary to understand how our words and actions will affect people and what needs to be done to pass our ideas, that is why self-awareness is necessary.
- Collaborative ability involves communication and co-working with others, which requires understanding what we personally can bring into the process and how it will be useful for the common goal. To be self-aware will help to distinguish personal values to be able to cooperate with others productively.
- Innovative requires thinking differently, inventing ideas and products which are new and potentially beneficial. This cannot be done without an independent view and realisation of self-potential, which can only be fully accomplished with high self-awareness.
- Challenging competence refers to achieving change in the company, and for that one should be self-sufficient, unafraid of his ideas, which may contradict with commonly-accepted ones. Boosting self-awareness can happen by way of realising one’s abilities and how they can be used to improve the current situation in the company by implementing change.
Therefore, marketing competencies are directly linked to increasing self-awareness, but the ways to do so are relatively vague. Further, materials are described, which will be used in studying the process of increasing self-awareness and approach to reflection.
Literature Review
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary (no date, para. 1), self-awareness is defined as “an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality.” However, the terms “awareness” and “personality” also come with a spectrum of definitions, which make the notion of self-awareness very diverse. Williams (2003) names several areas, which are to be improved in the process of becoming self-aware.
- Personality
- Values
- Habits
- Needs
- Emotions.
Being more understanding of all of the abovementioned can lead to an increase in self-awareness. Increased self-awareness, in line, can make us more efficient, states Williams, through:
- Developing our skills
- Understanding our strengths and weaknesses
- Making decision-making skills more intuitive
- Upgrading our stress-coping abilities
- Making us more motivated
- Improving our leadership qualities.
All these benefits of self-awareness can be accessed by making different adjustments to our lifestyle and mindset. Here are some of the ways to become more self-aware, according to Harvard Business Review (2015, para. 3).
- Meditation helps us to be present with our thoughts and feelings and, therefore, bring clarity into the thinking process.
- Journaling to keep track of our goals, plans and progress. This will allow us to follow the patterns of success or failure and decipher their reasons.
- Psychometric tests can help us reveal some hidden traits or peculiarities about ourselves.
- Asking for the opinion of other people is necessary to get another perspective on our behaviours and actions, this way we can discover some facts, which we did not know about ourselves. This could refer to talking to friends or colleagues to get information on both personal and professional aspects.
So having established what self-awareness is and how it can benefit, the research design needs to be mentioned, also describing the methodology used in the research. The approach to writing is writing through the mirror because it will allow me to reflect most effectively and improve self-awareness from within.
Research Process
Research Design
For increasing self-awareness, work needs to be done on personal and professional levels, discovering out inner abilities, characteristics, behaviour patterns, as well as desires and goals. To be aware is to understand, and understanding ourselves can influence every part of our lives. Increasing self-awareness is an ongoing process, which needs to be continued throughout life, but to start with, this research is based on a few methods.
The primary research method used is the Johari Window, which is a model on gathering information about oneself. The assisting methods are the 16 personality tests and a questionnaire with the description and interpretation of their results. These methods were analysed, and the results were used to offer ways of improving self-awareness. These methods can be used to distinguish where there is lack of information, and then fill in the gaps.
The reflection associated with the analysis of test results and thinking on conclusions regarding self-awareness can be best described with the help of this excerpt:
soothing your soul self
a knowing within your heart
what is best for you
dream state magic
introspective sureness
living your truth
bathing your soul self
hearing yourself realistically
being the most healthy statistically
living your joy artistically
following your absolute truth mystically … (Krutsinger 2019).
The analysis of results can indicate that some areas related to self-awareness need to be improved. Self-awareness of a person characterised as the Mediator (INFR-T) can be improved through focusing on reflection, meditation, and creative tasks as these individuals are open-minded, and they value harmony. To improve self-awareness, such people should think over things that make them passionate and enthusiastically work on tasks and analyse aspects related to their altruism in relations with other people.
Methodology and Method
The methodology of the research concerns the means of creating knowledge about ourselves in our private and professional lives. Increasing self-awareness could be reached by way of reflexivity, which is a result of a reflective process. As Bolton (2010b, p. 152) states, reflexivity is “a response to critical reflective engagement with situations, events or relationships, is a dialogue with the self.”
The method of collecting and analysing data is a JOHARI window. This model was created by John Luft and Harry Ingham and depicts a way to gather information about our connection to other people and our way of communicating with them. The Johari window is presented below:
This model shows two differentiating aspects, which are the willingness to self-disclosure and openness to feedback. It is clear that if both aspects are low, there is no new information emerging, only what is already known by the person and others. Having a larger desire for both self-disclosure and feedback, on the other hand, leads to the discovery of new facts, which neither the person nor their acquaintances know.
For professional growth, it is crucial to be open to feedback, while self-disclosure can help become more empathetic and create helping relationships (Bassot, 2016, p. 42). Both the aspects contain a certain amount of risk, mentions Bassot (2016), and should be done with caution in a comfortable environment. Some believe that as much information as possible should be transferred to the Open area. Nonetheless, it is necessary to understand that every situation is unique, and not everyone is obliged to be completely open about their thoughts and feelings. In the professional sphere, sometimes it is even inappropriate to disclose too much.
To apply this model the person needs to understand what area prevails. For instance, if they are shy around their colleagues, as well as lacking self-awareness, the Hidden and the Unknown areas will dominate. Thus, opening up to people will be the key to fix that. It can be done by way of telling more about themselves and asking for feedback. On the other hand, not revealing some information to colleagues will make the Hidden area larger.
In the marketing sphere, the Johari window could be applied not only to increase self-awareness by way of decreasing the blind area but also to receive information about clients and management. This information can be necessary for developing technical and behavioural competencies. For example, one of the technical competencies defined by the CIM is Customer experience (Professional marketing competencies, 2019). To generate and realize the activities, which are most fitting for any particular customer, it is necessary to enlarge the Open area as much as possible. By doing so, the marketer will rely on actual information and will be able to appeal to the client’s needs and preferences.
To support the Johari window research method in the process of increasing self-awareness, some auxiliary methods were used, the first one being the 16 personality test. My personality was defined as INFR-T, or the Mediator, which implies being intuitive, feeling, prospecting, and turbulent. It also means that I take on the role of Diplomat often and am focused most on constant improvement. These results were partially insightful to me, but not completely surprising. Thus, the detailed description offered ideas like being idealistic and creative, which are a logical consequence of some of my qualities, but I did not consider them in the past. Doing this test made me think of my values and how they correspond to my personality, and I managed to link them to each other successfully.
Another subsidiary method used in this research was the questionnaire, which was offered to my fellow students, friends, and family members. The questions included asking about my strengths and weaknesses, me being guided by logic or emotions, being introverted or extraverted, my stress coping mechanisms, workflow, and the nature of my goals. The questionnaire revealed some facts offered by my parents and closest friends, which I did not take into account before. At the same time, people who know me less gave more shallow information, which did not broaden my understanding of self, but did confirm what I already knew.
Therefore, adding the test and the questionnaire’s results to the Johari Window method, the outcome can be represented by this change:
Before the Research
After the Research
Before conducting the research, I did not understand how my work can be influenced by my emotions and communication with others. I did not give enough information about myself, and people had known not enough to notice something I do not. I was confused by my reactions and thoughts, because they seemed illogical sometimes. Using the Johari Window helped me to be more interactive with other people, giving more information about myself and learning about them. Now I can be more open with others to help them to something they cannot. In the marketing sphere, it will help me to ensure better partner communication, improve work with clients, and management skills.
By way of doing the 16 personality test and the questionnaire, the open and hidden areas enlarged. Firstly, I learned more about myself from the test and was able to share it with other people, lessening the Unknown and Hidden areas. Secondly, the responses to the questions helped me increase the Open area by gaining facts about me from others. These auxiliary methods, supported by the Johari Window model, increased my self-awareness and also allowed me to understand how to interact with others to continue my personal and professional growth.
Digital Storyboard
Introduction
The main defining event in my life was probably the career choice. It is necessary for me to see where and why I am going in life, yet the motives were unclear to me for a long time. Going to university is a first step into adult life, and it was important to make the proper choice to move in the right direction.
Who was I?
Initially, I could never decipher my aims in life. I would always be intrigued by different professions and activities, but was unwilling to make a proper choice of what to dedicate my life to. My thoughts were always scattered and unstructured, which led to great confusion. I did not understand how I was supposed to make a choice that was supposed to be one of the most important ones in my life without proper vision. In the end, I decided to go into marketing, as it seemed worthwhile and profitable at the time.
Who am I?
Having learnt about the Johari Window made me understand how to improve my own and other people’s visions of me. The model describes four areas of knowledge about self, and it helps to figure out a way to fill in the gaps. To support this model, I did the 16 personality test and offered some people I know to do a questionnaire. The test revealed that I was the Mediator and described me as an idealistic person, and my inner goal was always to make the world a better place. This explains my multiple passions because each of them could help me improve different areas in life in small but meaningful ways. The test also identified that I am an emotional person who can work hard, but questions themselves a lot, which was also confirmed by the questionnaire’s responses. This made me understand why I give up under pressure sometimes, and that I need to work on my emotional reactions not to let them control me.
Who I Want to Be?
The insights received in the process of conducting the research will help me develop as a marketer. Now I know how to get to know people better and how to interact with my colleagues and clients to establish trusting and beneficial relations using the Johari Window. This will help me improve such behavioural competencies as being collaborative and commercially aware.
I will also be able to improve my influencing and inspiring abilities because I have more information about how I work, how I see myself, and how I relate to others. My personality type, being focused on continuous improvement of self and the world, will help me develop innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative abilities in the working process. The questionnaire helped me see that I needed to open up to some people, which will make me better at being influencing and inspiring.
Conclusion
Increasing self-awareness is crucial both in professional and personal spheres of life. While getting to know myself is an ongoing process, which should continue in the future, now I have already come a long way. Using the aforementioned methods helped me not only to know myself better but also to understand the motives of my past actions and will be a great tool in improving even more in the future.
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