More Answers... (01/15/26): Self-Awareness a Key to Work Satisfaction

Hi Everyone, 

Here are More Answers... to help you head into the work week. Remember, you can see previous newsletters at askchrista.com/MoreAnswers.

Today’s topic: Self-Awareness as the Key to Work Satisfaction

This one may feel a little uncomfortable. Stay with me.

Chronic Dissatisfaction: Is It Them or You?

We all experience dissatisfaction at work, even at places where we enjoy our work, our team, our boss. Dissatisfaction is complex, related to a variety of factors, including boredom (which could happen during high vacation times if you're the one holding down the fort).

Plus... work is hard. It's almost 100% about people. Then there are various processes, systems, clients, suppliers... so many things can create instances where we feel like we're mismatched from our work and workplace.

But when it becomes chronic, when no matter where you are you feel dissatisfied, it's time to take a pause and ask: is it outside of me or inside of me?

Self-Awareness as a Key Factor to Workplace Satisfaction 

There are only so many moments we can attribute to everyone else-- at least if we're brave enough to be honest.

Research consistently shows that self-awareness is a foundational capability for work satisfaction and well-being. Individuals with higher self-awareness are better able to understand their reactions, values, and patterns, which in turn supports better decision making and greater alignment at work (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015). 

In doing so, those who have higher self-awareness are often ready and able to see when values and interests are misaligned with the work and/or workplace. 

If you're feeling chronically dissatisfied or feel like every manager is bad, every workplace is bad, every work assignment is bad (bad = dissatisfying), ask yourself some questions before pointing outward for all the reasons:

• How do you respond to authority and/or different management styles where you perceive authority?
• How do you respond to feedback?
• Are you comfortable with ambiguity?
• What is your conflict style, and how can you use conflict insights to enhance your workplace satisfaction?
• Are you ready to consider that your dissatisfaction maybe because of you and not always because of everyone around you

Asking these questions are just the beginning, and your answers may signal a misalignment related to your expectations more than your values and your workplace.

Research on adult development and career satisfaction supports the importance of self-reflection: that people experience greater fulfillment when they consider and feel responsible for their internal drivers and expectations instead of looking at external drivers and expected external conditions (Hall, 2004). Without self-reflection, it becomes easy to assume the problem always lives outside of us: it's my manager, it's the workplace, it's the assignment.

Now, I DO want to emphasize that there are plenty of external conditions and issues that can drive dissatisfaction in the workplace. There are for-sure abusive managers and leaders and shoddy work structures, but if you are finding an issue with chronic dissatisfaction, where job after job and company after company you are complaining about the same issues, it's time to look inward. Plainly stated: you are the common denominator in every job you're dissatisfied with.

It Takes Courage, But It's Worth It! 

Self-awareness can be scary. It means you're willing to be honest with yourself and examine where the roots of chronic dissatisfaction may come from. Here's what's just as important, though: you must do so with full respect, patience, and zero shame. The goal of self-reflection isn't to find flaws and beat yourself up over them. The goal is to find patterns that aren't working for you. 

It often surprises those I advise when I say that work satisfaction isn't from the perfect job-- it's usually about how well you can go-with-the-flow in ANY job: feel less anxious, feel more grounded, feel OK with trusting others, reducing our own unrealistic expectations of those around us, and not insisting that those on the outside of us are responsible for whether we are satisfied with our worklife. 

It's a tired expression, but work satisfaction is often like life satisfaction: it's starts with us, on the inside.

BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK

This week I recommend this short Harvard Business Review article from Tasha Eurich (2018): What self-awareness really is (and how to cultivate it). 

The article draws on empirical research to explain why self-awareness (ACTUAL self-awareness) is rare, why it matters for satisfaction and effectiveness at work, and how leaders and professionals can begin developing it without falling into the self-criticism trap.

With kindness,

Christa

(And if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue, Ask Christa!)

References

Hall, D. T. (2004). The protean career: A quarter-century journey. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.006

Sutton, A., Williams, H., & Allinson, C. (2015). A longitudinal, mixed method evaluation of self-awareness training in the workplace. European Journal of Personality, 29(3), 344–360. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1995

(remember: most public libraries in the USA offer access to academic papers; however, if yours does not, then Google these papers to see where they are listed, how you can learn more about them, and how you can find similar papers to learn more about conflict management and conflict resolution in the workplace)