Developing Situational Awareness

SUMMARY

Do you struggle to read the social and political currents at work, at home, in the community? Or are you able to accurately assess what is going on around you?

When you can learn to accurately read a room, detect crucial social networks, understand the underlying values, and then positively influence others around you, you're going to get more done without all the conflict and stress.

To do this, you need to develop the Social Intelligence competency of Situational Awareness

Let me unpack some key strategies that you need to develop to be more of a positive influence in your world.

Number one is to Pay More Attention.
Number two is to Feel the Room.
Number three is Enter the Conversation.

When you develop these skills and go through these strategies, you understand what's going well, what people are enjoying, things that are bothering them and making them disengaged and not produce what you want to produce together as a team.

Well, that's it for me for another week.

Join me again next week when we continue this conversation around Social Awareness by talking about becoming more of a servant.

I'll see you then.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you struggle to read the social and political currents at work, at home, in the community? Or are you able to accurately assess what is going on around you?

Well, stick with me in this episode, and I will show you how to increase your awareness.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Emotional Intelligence Speaker and Trainer of the Year, and Master Coach Trainer. Today, I want to continue our conversation around the third quadrant of Emotional Intelligence, Social Awareness, by helping you Develop Situational Awareness.

Perhaps you find it difficult to get other people to do things for you, or you can be a little bit like I was and offend people unknowingly. You made mistakes because of misunderstandings, and the result of that is poor results and relationships.

But it doesn't have to be that way. When you can learn to accurately read a room, detect crucial social networks, understand the underlying values, and then positively influence others around you, you're going to get more done without all the conflict and stress.

To do this, you need to develop the Social Intelligence competency of Situational Awareness. In some circles, it's called Organisational Awareness. So wherever you are- home, community, work, or in the entire organization - you can learn the skills of knowing what's going on around you and why.

Let me unpack some key strategies that you need to develop to be more of a positive influence in your world.

Number one is to Pay More Attention.

I know in my own life, in my career, when I was in the corporate world, I used to be quite diligent and was a high achiever. I had tunnel vision and kept working on what I was doing, and I tended not to know what was happening around me.

Last week, when I talked to you about empathy, you learned that you need to be tuned in to what's going on around you. It's like a meerkat who scurries around doing work, and now and then pops up and looks around to see what else is going on.

So, to become more aware of what's going on in the situation or the entire organisation, you need to pay more attention. You need to look around beyond what's going on just in front of you.

You need to pay more attention to what people are saying, what you're seeing, and hearing.You need to pay more attention to conversations and read the emotions that are coming through from them.

You need to notice patterns and things happening right in front of you that could give you a clue to what the actual current is in that area of your life that you're working.

So, what do you need to do so that you can pay more attention?

Do you need to have a balance between getting your stuff done and investing energy and time with others?

For me, that was what I needed to do. So, let's pay more attention.

Number two is to Feel the Room.

Whenever I was in a meeting, I used to listen to what people were saying. I might even see the activity that was going on around me and the body language. When I learned to feel what was going on by being tuned-in to the emotions that I'm seeing in the room, when I went deeper than that surface level and got more involved, and used reflective, active listening (like we talked about over the last few weeks) it enabled me to see, hear, and know things that the words weren't giving me.

By tuning in and being open to what others could be feeling as individuals- whether it be in a meeting, or across your organization or in your family, or somewhere in the community - you're going to get vital cues and clues that you need to know what the overall situation is.

By using the skills of checking in, you can find out what is going on.

I know for me that this was a big one, to be able to go beyond that surface level of thinking, “yeah, everything looks okay.” Then suddenly, having something come and bite me in the rear end, and I was oblivious to what was going on.

To feel the room, you need first to start knowing what emotions you're going through and developing that Emotional Self-awareness. Then, you need to develop those skills of being able to read what could be going on in others and show an interest and a concern so that they can then let you know exactly how they're feeling

So, number two is to make sure that you don't just hear what's going on in the room; you feel the current of the room as well.

Number three is Enter the Conversation.

Conversations happen throughout organisations. Some of these conversations have nothing to do with you, and you don't need to be involved. Depending on the context you're listening to this for, will determine whether or not there are places that you could enter a conversation that you're currently staying away from.

The type of conversations I'm talking about, and that I work with leaders in many organisations, is checking in with people.

It is being able to ask people how they are doing.

Being more than task-oriented and finding out where they are up to with the things you’ve asked them to do.

Then, get involved in conversations by getting around more in the organisation and listening to what you're hearing. Not listening in an eavesdropping, weird sleazy sort of a way, but being in proximity to allow yourself to hear, see, feel what's going on, and then enter that conversation when it's at a level that you could add some value and stop it from escalating. It could be having individual conversations with members of your team or your family, whatever it is. Then, getting a dialogue going that uncovers what the actual situation is.

So there’s the three things that you can work on this week to become more situationally aware.

When you develop these skills and go through these strategies, you understand what's going well, what people are enjoying, things that are bothering them and making them disengaged and not produce what you want to produce together as a team.

Situational awareness, organisational awareness, is a key strategy that every single one of us need; whether you’re leading yourself, leading a team, whether you’re part of a family, or just in the community.

Paying more attention. Feeling the room. Entering the conversation.

These are critical skills that you need to employ so that you have a full picture of the environment you’re in, and therefore you can add value where you need to.

Well, that's it for me for another week.

Join me again next week when we continue this conversation around Social Awareness by talking about becoming more of a servant.

I'll see you then.