166: The Politics of Self-Awareness - Michael Bunting

Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don't align with your internal standards. Self-awareness sometimes feels uncanny and a bit intangible. I feel like my own self-awareness, my moral compass and all its EQ friends have become stronger and louder in my late 40s.My guest today Michael Bunting is a best-selling author and leadership expert who has worked with global brands such as Qantas, Novartis, HSBC, Kellogg’s, OMG, Swarovski, Hilton Hotels, CSIRO and the big 4 accounting firms. He believes that less than 1% of the population is truly self-aware and would like to share his top insights for how people can grow vertically to cultivate more self-awareness in their lives. Michael has also recently written a book called Vertical Growth, published by Wiley.

He also has written other #1 bestselling books, The Mindful Leader and A Practical Guide to Mindful Meditation and co-authored Extraordinary Leadership in Australia & New Zealand with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, the world’s premier researchers in the field of leadership. Michael is a global expert on the integration of transformational leadership development, mindfulness, adult development, mental health and culture change.

His latest book focuses a lot on self-awareness.  For Michael, the answer to improving how we work, and lead is called ‘vertical growth’- growing beyond your self-sabotaging patterns like self-doubt, insecurities, fear of failure, or impostor syndrome, to reach your full potential and ultimately becoming the sort of person that leads others authentically and stays true to your core values no matter what life throws at you!

We chat about:

1. How do you define self-awareness and why does it matter?

2. What is vertical growth and how does self-awareness lead to this growth? A few examples please!

1. The issue with workplace image management and you say that 40% of the time we spend at work is focused on managing our image rather than on core tasks that add value to the company. If you’re someone who struggles with perfectionism or imposter syndrome, this could be exactly the issue that’s holding you back from achieving your career and life goals. How does that create issues for us and isn’t that part of working with others in a company or organisation?
2. What are the best ways to kick aside imposter syndrome and make self-awareness a core part of our success story every day?

5. Takeaway: What is your final takeaway message for us on The Politics of Self-Awareness?

CONTACT INFO:

LinkedIn Connect with me on LinkedIn here.

Book: Order my new book here.

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