essentials of
Social
Astuteness
Welcome to Module 4
At the end of this session, you will be able to identify the 2 key principles of Social Astuteness in the workplace environment.
Self-awareness and Self-management
​Manage yourself
Having a Core Self Evaluation (see Networking​ Skill) is a great start, but this is not enough. You need to know what is the impact of your behaviours on others and be able to manage it.
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Have you heard that the overuse of a strength could become a derailer? For example if Critical Thinking is your strength, could you be overusing it at the expense of Active Listening? Could you be busy analysing instead of curiously listening?
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​To manage your behavioural impact on others, you could solicit feedback, journal self-reflection and development plans.
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​How could you be self-aware and not be self-conscious?
A practical approach is to ask for help. Invite someone who has frequent opportunities to observe you to be your development partner.
Use a 360 tool to obtain feedback from stakeholders. Discuss the feedback results with a mentor or a Coach.
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Work on one or two development areas at a time. Conscious practice over time will yield unconscious modified behaviour.
Interpersonal Awareness and Interpersonal Management
Be perceptive of others' wants and needs
Having a "map of the world" enables you to navigate in it.
Likewise, apply your self-awareness tools onto others. With the psychometric tools you used in Core Self Evaluation (see Networking Skill), you could apply the psychometric concepts to analyse them.
Be aware of their personality traits.
Work with their behavioural preferences and support their development areas with your strengths. Their development areas could be your opportunities.
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Be aware of their motivations, interests, goals and objectives. Acknowledge that which are spoken and clarify that which are not spoken.
Work with their agenda and find alignment with yours.
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How could you manage yourself and others simultaneously?
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Keep a clear focus on your own strengths and areas of development. Have a simple action plan, work on one area at a time.
Value others' strengths and find opportunities to complement their development areas with your strengths.
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​Focus on mutual alignment and develop synergy.
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WHAT RESEARCHERS SAY
about Social Astuteness
Ruolian Fang, Lei Chi, Manli Chen and Robert A. Baron (2015)
"employees high in self-monitoring are more likely than those low in self-monitoring to occupy central positions in their social network: they can 'take advantage of their personality orientation to forge different types of network structures' favourable for them (Mehra et al., 2001)"
