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The Neuroscience of Self-Awareness and How to Level Up This Soft Skill in the Workplace

Victoria Sambursky

Cognitive neuroscientist Stephen M. Fleming, author of Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awarenessrecently suggested in his book that there has been some progress in understanding self-awareness. In his book, he refers to a part of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the “association cortex,” which is well-developed in humans relative to other primates. It is these regions of the association cortex that seem especially significant for human self-awareness.

Below, we examine this new research and what this means for the processing-power of the human mind. We also discuss the categories of self-awareness and highlight an interview with Elizabeth Solomon, certified Emotional Intelligence Coach and workplace strategist, to reveal concrete ways to level up this critical soft skill.

The Neuroscience of Self-Awareness

In Stephen M. Fleming’s new book, he discusses the work of neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel and how she compared groups of species by pureeing the dead brains of different groups with detergent and then counted the number of nuclei that remain. By conducting this experiment, she was able to plot the number of cells in a brain against the brain mass. Fleming states, “After several studies of brains of all shapes and sizes, a fascinating pattern emerged. The number of neurons in primate brains (which include monkeys, apes, and humans) increases linearly with brain mass. If one monkey brain is twice as large as another, we can expect it to have twice as many neurons.”

What does this research tell us? It suggests that having more neurons may mean more processing power devoted to higher-order functions, like self-awareness. Fleming reveals, “We now know that there are large swaths of cortex in the human brain that are not easy to define as sensory or motor, and are instead labeled as ‘association cortex.’ This term refers to the idea that these regions help link up different inputs and outputs.” When examining this area under a microscope, scientists would sometimes find an extra layer of brain cells in the ribbon-like sheet of the cortex known as a granular layer. This portion of the PFC is considerably more folded and enlarged in humans than monkeys and does not exist in rodents. It is these regions of the association cortex that seem essential for human self-awareness.

With this knowledge, Fleming runs experiments to understand how these parts of the human brain support self-awareness. He measures the brain scans of volunteers and asks them reflective questions such as, “How confident are you that you got the answer right?” Fleming suggests that when he asks subjects to think about themselves, he would observe changes in activation in two parts of the association cortex: the medial PFC and the medial parietal cortex. Strong activation of the medial PFC is seen in experiments where people are asked to judge whether adjectives such as “kind” or “anxious” apply to themselves or someone famous, such as the British queen. Retrieving memories about themselves also activated the same regions. While Fleming believes these findings offer clues as to the neural machinery of self-reflection, he does state, “We are still maddeningly far from a complete understanding of how this machinery works. Self-awareness is a continuum rather than an all-or-nothing phenomenon.”

Internal and External Self-Awareness

Even though the answers to the neuroscience of self-reflection are still being studied, experts have found two broad categories of self-awareness. According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich and her research team discovered these two categories including:

Internal Self-Awareness:  How we see our passions, values, and aspirations fit with our environment, reactions, and impact on others. Eurich and her team found that internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, happiness, and personal and social control. It is also negatively related to depression, stress, and anxiety.

External Self-Awareness: Knowing how other people view us in terms of the same circumstances listed above. Eurich’s research shows that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others’ perspectives. For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.

Eurich states, “When it comes to internal and external self-awareness, it’s tempting to value one over the other. But leaders must actively work on both. The highly self-aware people we interviewed actively focused on balancing the scale.” To gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to increase self-awareness, Endominance asked certified Emotional Intelligence Coach Elizabeth Solomon, founder of New Realm Coaching and Consulting, to offer ways managers and leaders can boost this critical trait.

Self-Awareness: The Homebase of Emotional Intelligence

In addition to her successful consulting and coaching career, Elizabeth Solomon has written several inciteful self-awareness articles. She shares how this skill is the “home base” of Emotional Intelligence (EI), or the capacity to be aware of, express, and control one’s emotions and handle interpersonal relationships empathetically. When asked to discuss what she means by “home base,” Solomon tells Endominance, “It’s almost impossible to develop oneself without first having a basic understanding of how you think, feel, and respond in the world. How can you improve something you can’t recognize? To develop across the suite of EI competencies, we need to know at least where we are starting. This is why feedback, introspective practices, or assessments are so important. These exercises help us learn more about ourselves and thus, illuminate more clearly how and where to approach our development.”

One introspective process Solomon works on with her clients is to focus on their purpose. She reveals, “People think that to have a purpose, they have to be saving lives or working in a job that has a compelling impact on society or the planet. We call this feeling the “Big P,” or the great purpose some people feel connected to. People often discount the “Small P,” or the way purpose shows up in everyday interactions. For example, it can feel meaningful to look a stranger in the eyes and ask how they are doing. This act is smaller than, say, curing cancer – but it can feel just as meaningful and essential. I often find that my clients communicate their sense of purpose without saying it directly; they share it through stories, anecdotes, and casual reflections on their values. Then, it is my job as a coach to reflect that back to them and help them articulate the places of meaning and purpose in their lives to build upon that. When they know where those places are, they can intentionally put their time and attention into the actions and moments that are most meaningful to them. This action bolsters their confidence and sense of wellbeing.”

Paths to Building Self-Awareness

Solomon believes there are many routes to building self-awareness. However, she shares practices that she feels touch on several aspects of life, such as work, family, and relationships. Solomon reveals, “Many clients that come to me are looking to improve as leaders in the workplace. But what we quickly find is that the habits they are working on show up at home too. They are habits of thinking and relating that permeate multiple areas of a person’s life. Regarding methods to building self-awareness, I think the body scan is a practice too many people are unfamiliar with. Some people are profoundly disconnected from their body, unaware of its signals and of just how much information they can get about the inner and outer environment by becoming more closely attuned to their physical sensations.”

According to Solomon, the practice of body scanning includes closing your eyes and tuning in to your body to help track how emotions show up in your physical experience. She believes there is a robust bidirectional relationship between your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and the body. Solomon also shares, “Journaling is a great way just to let go and write what comes without judgment and without having to face another person. It is an excellent method for someone to surface things they may not be ready to talk about with a coach or with someone giving them feedback.” Solomon also believes that simple mindfulness practices, even just two minutes a day, influence our ability to experience pleasure, reduce emotional reactivity, and increase attention.