How comfortable are you talking about Yourself? No. Me neither

The workplace is evolving, recognising that work-life and team dynamics are enhanced by authenticity and psychological safety – being able to “bring your full self to work”

But what if you’re not ready to do so? Or you don’t know what your “full self” is?

The Visual Agile Coach Toolkit 4-Dimensions of You helps with personal exploration and achieving a balance between what you will and won’t share – an important 1st step to coaching your team to be able to do the same

The @Visual Agile Coach Toolkit includes tools and templates for Team Sustainability – to help cultivate and maintain the long-term health and wellbeing of teams.  

What are the 4 Dimensions of You?

1. The obvious: What is plainly seen or known by others – mostly physical but also facts like job title
2. The open - what you chose to show and share: age, weight, where you live, likes and dislikes, your personality (introvert v extrovert), your purpose and values
3. The I’ll tell you when I’m ready: maybe some of the items from 2 above – maybe things you will be prepared to share once your confidence and understanding of your team grows
4. The closed - what you choose not to share: there maybe things that you want to hold on to, decide not bring to the workplace – not just your deepest darkest secrets – and that’s OK!

When to explore the 4-Dimensions of You?

You want to invest some time in yourself with structured with personal exploration

You and your team want to add Emotional Intelligence to your ways of working

You want to build foundations for establishing psychological safety and a sustainable work environment

How to explore the 4-Dimensions of You?

1. Your Wheel of Life:  Using the Wheel of Life (find 1 online or create your own), consider the many component parts of your life that require, demand or your freely give your time to – understanding the full picture and the inter-plays between each component is an important exercise in its own right. (Consider working with a coach)
2. Your 4-Dimensions:  Each dimension is made up of your facts, emotions, personality, values – and stuff.  This may differ across your Dimensions and within your Wheel of Life contexts
3. Put it together: You’re right – it’s a complicated matrix so take your time considering how what you present outwardly and what you retain inwardly differs per Dimension and per Wheel of Life context
4. Explore with your team: You’ve “self-coached” Yourself to a better understanding of how your own Dimensions are affected by different contexts - to make You, now help others on their journey

Visual Agile Coaching Tips

• Illustrate your own Dimensions, bring them to life with you they look and feel to you
• Same with your Wheel of Life – bring it to life with visuals
• Use visuals to express your feelings and emotions when words may be difficult to use
• For guidance – try the Johari window (a 4-box model for self-reflection and discovery)

Propose the 4-Dimensions of You as a team development exercise and begin to share the results to build psychological safety, emotional intelligence and understanding within your team

It starts with you – get comfortable with Yourself to help others discover their own Dimensions