4 powerful questions to discover your best selves

I am constantly looking for new ways to enhance my self-awareness and help others become more self-aware. I found these 4 questions recently, embedded within a McKinsey article, which caught my attention.

These questions were part of the onboarding study of newcomers to organisations by Daniel Cable et al of Stanford. The questions were asked to encourage new hires to bring their best selves to work. Research showed that new hires who brought their authentic selves to work were more engaged, satisfied, energised, and performed better, were less likely to leave their jobs.

I have edited the questions slightly as I feel they are relevant both in work and life. Simple yet powerful questions:

1. What 3 words best describe you as an individual?

2. What leads you to your happiest times and best performance at work and outside work?

3. Reflect on various times when you were acting the way you were born to act.

4. How can you repeat the behaviour in a new role or your current job or daily life?

Daniel Cable’s work is based on research done by Stanford’s Hazel Rose Markus about exploring our range of ‘best selves’. Her findings state that when people explore a wider range of their ‘possible selves’, they develop more self-awareness, a wider range of abilities, and deeper understanding of how and when to draw on their best selves (and stifle their worst selves).

I like the concept of the ‘possible selves’. After all we are multi-faceted beings with many abilities dealing with various circumstances along our journey. We carry with us many versions of ourselves and we choose which version is appropriate for a particular circumstance. All these versions are authentic parts of us.

However, some of these versions may have been let go over time because we think they are no longer appropriate. Or that the love and compassion with which we interact with family or pets is not proper when interacting with team members at work.

These are limiting beliefs we place upon ourselves. What if we lifted these limiting beliefs? Wouldn’t we see a wider range of ‘possible selves’, a wider range of abilities and thereby a wider range of best selves to draw upon?

David Pullan refers to the ‘possible selves’ as the Passengers on the Authenticity Bus, in his article. It’s a fantastic read. He concludes by challenging the reader to resurrect those parts of themselves that they may have let go along the way, to have a wider range of authentic selves for future circumstances.

Back to the 4 questions. I find them a powerful way for anyone who wants to become more self-aware or to at least use them as a chance to pause and reflect. You just might discover some hidden gems.

Answer these questions and see where this discovery takes you. For advice and support with your discovery, email me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com

This article was first published on Medium.com under Innovation.