During PAF Spring Training, the PAFs engaged in an interactive session on the self knowledge professional development competency. The primary objectives of this activity were to engage PAFs in exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations.
Overall, self knowledge is the ability for an individual to know what they are good, average, and bad at, in addition to knowing what one is untested in or overuse. People can be divided into a combination of 3 areas, the unskilled, the “overuser,” or the skilled:
- The unskilled person is one who does not know themselves well—they are unaware of their strengths, weaknesses, or limits. One who is aware of their shortcomings, but does not disclose this information is still considered to be unskilled.
- The “overuser” is typically one who is too self-critical, may overly solicit feedback, or may not move past knowledge to improvement or action.
- Ultimately, we should all strive to be someone who is skilled. A skilled person knows their strengths, weaknesses, and limits, seeks feedback, and gains insights from their mistakes.
The PAFs conducted a S.W.O.T. analysis on each other focusing on each PAF’s strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the presentation, there was time for self-reflection, which allowed the PAFs to take some time to read over their results. Regardless of where we may find ourselves on the spectrum, we should all work to become skilled in the area of self-knowledge.