Utilizing Johari Window for Greater Self-Awareness
Previously, I had written about self-awareness as an ingredient for success here. In this article I’ll share about how to cultivate self-awareness using the Johari Window model. There surely are a lot of ways, but I choose this model as it is able to cover most tips and tricks. It can also help you discover more ways towards a greater self-awareness for you, your team members, or other people.
What is the Johari Window Model?
Johari Window model is a framework for understanding and training self-awareness. It was proposed by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 — its name “Johari” a combination of the creators’ first name “Joe” and “Harry”. This model has been used in management training and counseling to help people understand the differences between their self-perception (internal self-awareness) and others’ perception of them (external self-awareness). Through this understanding, people have used this model to improve communications, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, team development, and inter-group relationships.
The Johari Window represents information about a person — feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions, motivation, etc according to that person and other people. As seen below, it has four quadrants, each depicting a different level of self-awareness.
Interestingly, the size of each quadrant can change over time. An example in the context of work — in new teams, the ‘open self’ is usually small as we haven’t revealed a lot about ourselves to others and others haven’t known much about us. However, it can increase as relationship deepens and team member becomes more established and known in a team. Enlarging team members’ ‘open self’ itself is greatly beneficial as we are most effective and productive when we work in this area — greater communications and less mistrust, confusion, conflict and misunderstanding.
How to Cultivate Self-awareness?
One of the ways to enhance our self-awareness is through bigger ‘open self’ area. The bigger this area is, the more aware we are of ourselves and others of ourselves. Based on Johari Window’s ideas on how to broaden this area along with research and my experiences, here are what we can do to grow our self-awareness:
- Reflect
Sometimes you have to ask yourself questions and take time to think about it. One time when I was applying for a job, I faced a question: “Describe achievement (s) that you are most proud of within the last three years.” It seems like a simple question, yet I struggled to find the answer. After that, I thought a lot about it and the result was amazing. Not only that I was able to find my answer and submit my application, I also became more aware of myself. I came to realize how I rarely appreciate my own progress and achievements as I’ve been too focused on my ideals and how far I am from it. Unconsciously, it causes me to feel insecure, which leads to working harder — sometimes to the point of being burnt out. I wasn’t aware of this unhealthy tendency before I reflected upon the question — so that is why asking questions to yourself can greatly help you be more aware.
One note about questions is that we have to be careful in asking. Eurich (2018) said that questions starting with “why” can lead to unproductive negative thoughts especially when we try to explain undesired outcome. We can ask “what” instead to help us be more objective, future-focused, and empowered to act. As an example, instead of asking “Why do I feel so terrible” we can ask “What are the situations that make me feel terrible, and what do they have in common?”
2. Share information to others and ask for feedback
Self-introspection in point one can be good, but we also need other people’s views about us in order to avoid cognitive bias and see ourselves more objectively. We can share relevant informations about ourselves to relevant people (disclosure) to reduce ‘hidden area’ while also ask for their feedback to minimize ‘blind area’. One thing that I often do is sharing my reasoning behind my work (when it is necessary) and ask for feedback towards my work. By doing this, others are able to understand more about my thoughts and provide feedback that is more relevant. Receiving feedback also allows me to know how others see me and my work quality as well as how to improve it.
I believe that this applies to everyone in their career regardless of their position. Fascinatingly, Eurich (2018) stated that experience and power can hamper self-awareness. A study found that more experienced managers are less accurate in assessing their leadership effectiveness compared to less experienced managers. Therefore, be careful as to not see yourself as highly experienced and becoming overconfident about your level of self-knowledge. Keep asking for feedback instead — Folkman (2015) said that top-ranked leaders are at the top in asking for feedback!
I know this might not be easy for everyone. I notice from most Indonesians (including me) are rather hesitant to give feedback to others, so we do need to be proactive in asking for feedback so they know that their feedback are welcome. At the same time, receiving feedback can also be difficult as it might ‘attack’ our self-esteem sometimes. Nevertheless, I’ve learned to see that the feedback given doesn’t define you as a person but it is an opportunity to grow and become more aware about yourself. So simply take your time to learn how to ask and receive feedback.
3. Discovery
If the previous point speaks about how to reduce ‘blind self’ and ‘hidden self’, discovery can minimize ‘unknown self’ such as abilities/talents, feelings, thoughts, behaviors that are not realized by both ourselves and other people. This can be done through self-discovery or collective discovery by trying out new things, counseling, psychological tests, etc. Along with the first and second point mentioned above, we can greatly enhance our self-awareness even more.
I am thankful that during my internship experience, I was given the opportunity to explore many areas — thus I am able to experience various projects. Through this experience, I start to see what I am good at and less good at, what I enjoy and what I less enjoy. By being aware, I am able to know more about my own career aspiration in the future. Other than that, joining webinars, sharing, and courses can also help this process.
These three actions has helped me to be more aware of myself. I believe that this is also due to my working environment which really supports those actions. I learn the most from my seniors at work (Kak Edo, Kak Icha, Kak Yara, Kak Mia, Kak Gaby — this is for you!) — despite having higher positions, they themselves humbly ask for feedback and they even welcome my feedback. They also gave me the chance to help many tasks and provided me with constructive feedback. Such positive culture at work has made my self-awareness grows over time.
This supports what is suggested here: top-performing groups, departments, companies, and organizations tend to have a culture of open positive communication — encouraging the development of ‘open self’ area, facilitating feedback and disclosure among group members, giving feedback about individuals’ blind areas, and promoting discovery. So those three actions that I’ve shared can also be something that leaders and managers encourage in the organization in order to develop their employees’ self-awareness.
At the end, please be reminded that self-awareness is a continual process. Avolio and Gardner (2005) said, “Self-awareness is not a destination point, but rather an emerging process where one continually comes to understand his or her unique talents, strengths, sense of purpose, core values, beliefs and desires”. So keep going — there is always something new you can learn from yourself and enjoy the benefit of being self-aware later on.
This is a topic that I am passionate about as I have felt the impact of self-awareness so I hope that you enjoy this article! If this article is insightful for you, please give it a clap and share it to your friends! Or if you have any feedback or opinions or maybe ideas for the next article, feel free to connect with me here or e-mail me at janicealberta@gmail.com and share your thoughts! I’ll be glad to talk and discuss about self-awareness as I am passionate about it. Thank you for reading!
References
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338.
Businessballs (n.d.). Johari window model and free diagrams. https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/johari-window-model-and-free-diagrams/
Eurich, T. (2018, January 4). What self-awareness really is (And how to cultivate it). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it
Folkman, J. (2015, January 8). Top ranked leaders know this secret: Ask for feedback. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joefolkman/2015/01/08/top-ranked-leaders-know-this-secret-ask-for-feedback/#70eb9d473195
The Insights Group (n. d.). What is self-awareness. https://www.insights.com/resources/what-is-self-awareness/
