personal attributes

outline

How we present ourselves to the world makes an immediate, and often lasting, impression on people.

The way we look, dress and act, our manners, our attitudes, the way our experience and values inform our behaviour: all combine to give other people an impression of who we are. These impressions may be accurate, or not, but once made it is difficult to change them. People read us through our behaviour: the person who is always complaining, the one who never laughs, the one who always gets people to think, the person who offers support; these people are noticed and assessed on their personal attributes and the ways they express them in their behaviour.

Personal attributes underpin everything else: all our skills, learning and experience has as its foundation our presentation of ourselves to the world. For people in positions of authority this is crucial and is one of the reasons why so much emphasis these days is put on spin and PR: some of it a valid attempt to place the subject in the best possible light, some of it a blatant attempt to deceive. You have a great degree of control over your personal attributes and approach. Manners, tact, grace under pressure, courage, cheerfulness, directness, honesty, humour, thoughtfulness, risk-taking and so on are all completely within your control.

It is important that people in authority over others have self-knowledge and understand what their presentation of themselves says to others, their credibility and ability to work effectively with others rests, in large part, on this.

aim

To understand how you present yourself to the world.

objectives

To be more aware of the personal attributes you possess.
To be able to present yourself in the best possible light.
To understand what attributes are seen as important by others.
To be able to modify your approach if and when it is not effective.
To be able to be authentic i.e. yourself.

outcomes

Awareness of your personal attributes and becoming better at expressing them in your behaviour.
Understand the practical relevance of this to your performance.
You will stop wasting energy faking it.