Know yourself before trying to understand others

Know yourself before trying to understand others

One of the most challenging things that managers are facing in contemporary organisations is to understand their employees in a diverse workplace culture. A place where there are different nationalities, religions, ages and gender working in one department and expected to achieve one goal.

One of the leadership skills required here is to understand the team members. Their level of expertise, their thinking patterns and talents. Many management schools here emphasise that you need to put yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand the reasons behind their thinking, feelings and behaviour. But, would you actually like to walk in someone else’s shoes in order to understand them? Can you really understand others so easily? For example, having a diversified team, you will really put efforts to understand the various characteristics to be able to work harmoniously and be motivated in achieving the department’s goal, but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Instead of putting so much effort in understanding others, you must begin understanding yourself before you can effectively be in other people’s shoes. Keep in mind that the people you are working with are unique and possess different skills and talents, belonging to different backgrounds.

Before you look to recognise your team members’ personalities, you must learn how to understand the reasons behind your thinking, feeling and behaviour first. Understand yourself and walk in your own shoes for a while because someone else’s shoes will not always fit. By realising your inner power, why are you in this organisation, what you can do for your team’s development and where you can take them, you will be able to understand others.

— The reader is a Bahraini human resource development lecturer and writer based in Manama, Bahrain.