In this post:
Another look at improving self-awareness with a focus on strengths and weaknesses.
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Welcome to this sixth and final post in this short series on self-awareness.
Covered so far are Values, Passions, Aspirations, Fit and Patterns.
This final post in this sub-series is about Reactions. That said, I’m not entirely sure why the topic of this set of questions is “Reactions.” Maybe as we walk through this, we’ll get a better understanding.
The questions asked in this post are as follows:
1 In the past, what have you picked up easily without a lot of training?
2 What type of work do you feel the most proud of?
3 What are your biggest failures and what commonalities exist among them?
4 When have you been most disappointed with your performance?
Reaction is defined as “an action performed or a feeling experienced in response to a situation or event.” Thanks, Google.
Maybe the idea here has to do with reacting to the actions we have performed?
Let’s press on.
1 In the past, what have you picked up easily without a lot of training?
Somehow, this is the first question in the series where we have to ask ourselves “What are you actually kind of good at?” My first thoughts – my initial reactions, if you will – are that I’m not naturally good at anything, and I have to get a few reps in on something to feel like I’ve picked it up.
However, that’s not what the question is asking.
If I reach back through the past fifteen or so years and consider the variety of things I’ve done in that time, I think I have some strengths in analyzing data, conveying ideas (regardless of idea quality, mind you), and narrating.
I’ve taken a handful of statistics classes now, and while I have not exercised that skill much overall, I’ve found a small variety of opportunities throughout my time at college and even at work to apply statistics effectively.
It’s tedious and difficult to interpret sometimes, but it was often fun.
I think I’m a decent writer. I’ve had a handful of people tell me as much.
This one is honestly my biggest answer to this question: I’ve gotten consistent, unsolicited feedback on my narrating quality. Many people – including strangers – that have attended events I narrated have gone out of their ways to provide kudos to me for my narrating voice. I’m not sure where I picked up this apparently laudable skill, but I do know that I enjoy narrating.
2 What type of work do you feel the most proud of?
Hands down, my time as the president of a student organization while I was in college remains my favorite ‘work’ that I’ve done.
It was not as successful as I think it could have been, but I saw a need among a small, growing community, developed a plan and courses of action, executed those plans, and stumbled gleefully forward until the organization was running well enough to sustain momentum for about two years after my departure.
I convinced people to support my cause, I did something I really enjoyed, I exercised managing expectations (including my own), I dug a deep well of patience, and had to communicate, narrate, and perform some statistical analyses throughout the experience (and made good friends along the way)!
If I ever feel like whatever I am facing in the present is overwhelming, I think back to that experience and remember that sometimes, you simply have to apply some relentless passion.
3 What are your biggest failures and what commonalities exist among them?
My biggest failures…
…and I thought it was hard to think about stuff I’m good at…
I do not feel comfortable sharing my biggest failures, but I have a couple of other failures that still sting when I remember them and still share commonalities.
I suppose the first failure had less to do with a work activity, but during my master’s program, I remember being overly enthusiastic. I was a very active participant in classes and eagerly answered questions any time any professor extended questions to the class.
I am fortunate this happened early in the program, but after one question, one of my classmates expressed that she wished she had gotten a chance to answer a question because it was actively outside of her comfort zone to assert herself.
The idea that my energy for participating in this program might actively be restraining others had literally never occurred to me up to that point. I felt a degree of shame. Even though I had not intended to have that effect, I felt like I’d actively harmed her to an extent.
Similarly, I’ve continued to catch myself being overly serious for the circumstances I’m in, which is not often great when joining new organizations or teams. My first week or so at Squadron Officer School was negatively impacted because of this. I have improved over the years since, but I’ve also still got plenty of space for improvement.
4 When have you been most disappointed with your performance?
I think I developed a degree of resilience in the face of failures over the years, especially early on. Just go for it, get the feedback, make adjustments, and move on.
“Don’t worry; they’ll let us know.”
I am sure there is some performance I’ve executed that I was most disappointed with, but I’m afraid (and perhaps fortunate?) that I genuinely cannot think of a work-related instance off the top of my head.
I think part of this is due to my interest in the philosophy of stoicism. I approach a lot of my professional life with a mix of seriousness and aloofness. I recognize that life is unpredictable and that much lies outside of our individual control, and I am not terribly attached to many things.
Alternatively, perhaps I should care more? What sense does it make to take my work so seriously if I don’t also care deeply about it or my performance?
…I’m still not sure answering these questions really helped illuminate why the topic for these questions was “Reactions.”
It does feel like this is supposed to be a matter of reacting to your strengths and weaknesses – recognizing what’s been good and bad, and how you’ve taken lessons from both to make changes going forward.
That’s how I’ll choose to interpret this, in any case.
So – what are you good at? What have you done that felt like a significant accomplishment to you? What are you bad at? What’s the worst you’ve ever done at something at work?
Do you think thinking through these questions and their answers is helpful?
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