Before founding social enterprise and coaching centre, Growthbeans, Ms Shane Yan had attended a personal development coaching course. Then, she confidently expected to interact easily with fellow participants, believing herself to be naturally outgoing. To her surprise, she noticed that while everyone else mingled effortlessly, she was finding it difficult to make new friends.
“I later realised, based on honest and constructive feedback from another participant in the class, that I was wearing a very serious face and exuding vibes that said, ‘stay away’,” she recounts. “Nobody dared to approach me.”
Upon further reflection, Ms Yan realised that during the class, she was actually more focused on her learning than on making friends. “This led me to make adjustments to my intentions and thought processes, so I could forge better connections with others,” she shares. “I didn’t know that was how I was being perceived until I received the feedback, which I was grateful for.”
The power of being self-aware
Ms Yan’s experience underscores the significance of self-awareness, which she defines as “knowing how we perceive ourselves and how other people perceive us.” She elaborates, “If how we perceive ourselves matches how others perceive us, then we have greater self-awareness.”
Research indicates that being highly self-aware is associated with greater well-being, lower anxiety and depression, and more effective leadership. However, unlike physical self-awareness, which can be cultivated by looking into a mirror, true self-awareness requires feedback from others. “We are not able to see our own blind spots and need others to reflect ourselves back to us,” Ms Yan explains.
This process involves seeking external feedback on our actions and speech, as well as how we appear to be thinking and feeling. “As self-awareness evolves with our changing, ageing selves, we need to continuously engage in reflection,” she says.
And this is a topic Ms Yan has put years of thought into.
The Growthbeans journey
Ms Yan started Growthbeans as a monthly community initiative in Beijing, China, in 2015. Called Growthbeans Sharing Circles, the platform allowed people from diverse backgrounds to come together in a safe space to learn, share and grow with one another.
Buoyed by participants’ stories of increased confidence and success in education and work, Ms Yan and her co-founder and sister, Shamantha, brought Growthbeans back to Singapore in 2016 and ran sharing circles locally until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“More people came forward to join us as a result of COVID-19, which highlighted the need for self-awareness, employability, relationships and well-being,” recalls Ms Yan. “That was when everything we stood for started to make sense.”
Applying self-awareness at work
Growthbeans has since taken its coaching-centred methodology to organisations in Singapore, helping employees develop the self-awareness needed to strengthen their careers, manage relationships and grow as individuals and leaders.
“In our mentoring and coaching, we’ve realised that people often experience this conflict: they want to be treated with respect, but they see others as tools to get their work done,” shares Ms Yan.
This belief impedes their ability to complete tasks, as people tend to do more for colleagues or leaders they feel connected to and have stronger relationships with. Self-awareness helps individuals recognise this conflict and adopt a more successful approach at work.
“Recognising our blind spots enables us to step back, see things from a different perspective and identify the real problem, so we can empower ourselves to do something different,” she says. “This can help in solving disputes, gaining recognition, finding purpose, making career decisions and more.”
First steps to cultivating self-awareness
For those wishing to nurture greater self-awareness, Ms Yan advises starting by putting away digital devices. In an overstimulated world, the chances of being distracted from our real needs are high. “Self-awareness requires time and space to reflect, and this is a muscle that tends to be underused. While digital tools can promote self-awareness, the level depends on how one pauses to introspect and pays attention to emotions,” she explains.
Ms Yan recommends exploring your feelings and thoughts by asking yourself questions that begin with ‘what’ rather than ‘why’ to avoid self-justification. The next step is to gather personal feedback from others by asking open-ended questions and listening to their responses.
You can also expose yourself to new experiences, speak to a coach, or make yourself vulnerable by sharing your thoughts in a psychologically safe space. “All aspects of one’s life are connected and influence other aspects,” says Ms Yan. “The best way to be self-aware is to collect all the data points in our lives and analyse the patterns. This requires vulnerability and open sharing.”
Engage with Growthbeans
To make the Growthbeans framework more accessible, the company has developed card games featuring cute bean-themed characters.
Beantastic enables players to explore their stress coping strategies and determine if they are truly helpful, while also developing empathy and gaining perspective by learning about other players’ stressors and coping strategies.
Gro! Cards features interactive gameplay about farming and sustainable ecosystems, perfect for honing teamwork. Players can identify their own resilience strategies, values, and working styles during the game.
Both the Beantastic and Gro! Cards games will be available at the Growthbeans booth at Public Service Sports and Family Day 2024 on 27 July.
“Being self-aware enables us to live our lives with intention, and in accordance with how we define success and fulfilment,” reiterates Ms. Yan. “Come by the Growthbeans booth and play the Beantastic and Gro! Cards games to discover more about yourself and others.”
Meet Growthbeans in person at the Public Service Sports and Family Day 2024 on 27 July, 8 am to 1:30 pm, at the Singapore Sports Hub. Growthbeans will be giving away up to 75 self-discovery tools, which you can use online to self-reflect and learn about what drives you and what you value in life.