In this article, we explore the importance of self-insight and how you can strengthen it to build healthy working relationships, enhance psychological safety, and achieve even better results in your workplace.
What is Self-Insight, and Why Does It Matter?
The American author and psychologist, Daniel Goleman, describes self-insight as one of the key components of emotional intelligence, defining it as the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions and how they influence your thoughts and behavior.
Self-insight is a crucial skill that forms the foundation for making good decisions, communicating clearly, and developing both personally and professionally. Through reflection and openness, you can gain a deeper awareness of your strengths and weaknesses — strengthening both your self-understanding and your relationships with others.
Learn more: Diversity and Inclusion: The Key to Success
Benefits of Self-Insight in the Workplace
A high level of self-insight is generally a valuable asset. Your self-insight positively influences both your personal and professional life, helping you maintain balance by fostering confidence in yourself and a sense of security in knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Below, we’ve outlined three key benefits of increasing self-insight in your work life:
- Stronger Self-Regulation
By understanding your own reactions, you can better manage them to avoid damaging your relationships. Greater self-insight also enhances your understanding of your relationships with colleagues and helps you recognize your own response patterns in interactions with them.
- Improved Conflict Management: Self-insight makes it easier to understand why conflicts arise — especially the ones you are part of — and how to resolve them constructively. At the same time, you become more aware of your own role in conflicts and how to handle them in a balanced and appropriate way.
- Increased Well-Being: A high level of self-insight reduces stress and enhances job satisfaction. This happens because you naturally become more at ease in your work when you understand your strengths and weaknesses — and, at the same time, accept and acknowledge them. By making self-insight an intentional part of your work life, you can actively improve your overall well-being.
There are many valuable benefits to increasing your self-insight — so where should you start?
How Can You Strengthen Your Self-Insight?
Having a high level of self-insight is not something you can take for granted. At its core, it requires you to become aware of yourself — your values, your weaknesses, and your response patterns — essentially, the whole package and more. Developing strong self-insight can be challenging because it demands constant attention to your entire sense of self. It’s a process that can take time, but it is always worth the effort.
Here are three concrete steps you can take to start strengthening your self-insight:
- Reflection: Take time to reflect on your reactions in different situations. They reveal a lot about who you are and how you handle external influences. We rarely fully understand our own reactions in the moment, but through thoughtful reflection afterward, you can gain deeper insight into why you responded the way you did — and what triggered your response.
This process helps you become more aware of your patterns and paves the way for greater self-insight.
You can ask yourself questions such as:- What triggered my reaction in this particular situation?
- How could I have responded differently to achieve a better outcome?
- Why did I react the way I did? What was it about the situation that touched something in me — perhaps my values, beliefs, or past experiences?
By digging into these questions, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and begin to actively work on your response patterns and self-insight.
- Feedback
Ask your colleagues for honest feedback to gain insight into how others perceive you. It’s important to pay attention to how you react to the feedback you receive.
For example, some people tend to perceive developmental feedback as criticism, which can trigger a defensive reaction. If you notice this in yourself, you can use that reaction as a valuable opportunity to reflect on why you respond that way and what underlying beliefs or experiences shape your view of feedback.
Learn more about feedback: How to Give and Receive Constructive Feedback
- Personality Tests
Consider using personality tests such as DISC or MBTI to gain deeper insight into your behavioral patterns, strengths, and preferences. These tools can help you understand how you typically respond in different situations, how you collaborate best with others, and which environments you thrive in.
Ask yourself which parts of the test results you recognize in yourself — and how you can use this awareness to grow both personally and professionally.
Also, reflect on how your test results can contribute to better communication and collaboration with your colleagues. For example, if you score high on D (the dominant personality type), this could explain why you might find it challenging to receive feedback.
Lær mere om dit personlige ledelsesgrundlag og hvordan du mestrer det
What is Psychological Safety, and Why Does It Matter?
Psychological safety is defined by American professor Amy C. Edmondson as a work environment where employees feel safe to express themselves freely without fear of negative consequences. Psychological safety is a critical factor for innovation, well-being, and success.
Self-insight has a clear correlation to psychological safety. But before we explore how the two are connected, here’s a brief overview of how psychological safety typically shows up in the workplace:
- Employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas without fear of embarrassment.
- Mistakes are seen as learning opportunities, not failures.
- There is mutual respect and trust among team members.
Psychological safety is a nuanced topic, and you can explore it further right here: How to build psychological safety at work
3 Concrete Steps to Create Psychological Safety Through Self-Insight
To build psychological safety in a team, self-insight is a crucial starting point. When you, as a leader or team member, understand your own strengths, weaknesses, and response patterns, you can contribute more consciously to creating a safe environment where both you and others feel seen, heard, and respected.
Here are some concrete steps:
- Lead by Example
Acknowledge your own mistakes and be open about what you’ve learned from them. By demonstrating vulnerability and self-insight, you signal that it’s okay to fail — which helps foster a culture where learning is prioritized over the fear of criticism.
- Listen with Presence
When you understand your own response patterns, you become better at listening without judgment. Make space for all voices, show curiosity about others’ perspectives, and demonstrate genuine interest. This sends a clear signal that every contribution is valued.
You can also learn about: Trust-Based Leadership: Create Success Through Trust
- Build Relationships Through Empathy
Self-insight helps you better recognize and acknowledge the needs and emotions of others. Use this awareness to strengthen social bonds within the team through regular check-ins, shared activities, and open communication.
Read and learn more: Become a good relational leader
Self-Insight as a Core Element — and Its Link to Psychological Safety
Self-insight forms the foundation for both personal and professional development, as it is about understanding your own emotions, thoughts, and behavioral patterns. This understanding enables you to navigate social interactions more effectively, make better decisions, and foster healthy collaboration.
Self-insight is therefore not just an individual competence — as previously mentioned, it is also a key factor in contributing to psychological safety.
When team members are self-aware, they are better able to regulate their own reactions and create an environment characterized by respect and empathy. For example, self-insight can help individuals recognize and manage feelings like frustration in challenging situations, promoting more constructive and inclusive dialogue.
The connection between self-insight and psychological safety can be seen as a dynamic process where one reinforces the other. Employees who develop their self-insight are better equipped to create and maintain a culture where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities, and collaboration thrives. At the same time, psychological safety provides the space for self-insight to grow — through honest feedback and meaningful reflection.
Learn: Why the Self-Determination Theory is a gamechanger
4 Tips for Combining Self-Insight and Psychological Safety
We’ve gathered these simple yet effective methods to help you strengthen your self-insight while also fostering a culture of openness, trust, and collaboration. Small actions can make a big difference — both for yourself and those around you.
Reflection Exercises
End your day by noting what you’ve learned about yourself today and how you contributed to your team’s psychological safety. Regular small reflections build greater awareness and support continuous development. Reflect on both positive and challenging moments — but remember, the focus of the reflection is on yourself, not everyone else.
Feedback Culture
Establish a clear structure for feedback and reflect on what type of feedback (based on the three types of feedback) you need in a given situation. Don’t hesitate to actively request feedback or specify what you’d like feedback on. Framing the feedback dialogue is a smart way to ensure it becomes valuable. This strengthens trust and creates space for honest and meaningful conversations, where both giver and receiver can grow.
Check-ins
Start meetings with a short check-in round where everyone shares their current mental state. This provides insight into team dynamics and ensures everyone has a voice and feels included.
Setting the stage by sharing what’s on your mind — both professionally and personally — helps everyone work better together. For example, if you’re going through something challenging in your personal life, briefly sharing this with the team can help others understand why you might be quieter than usual. This way, you avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and reduce pressure at work.
Create Space for Openness
As a leader, you can set the tone for making it safe to share vulnerable thoughts and experiences. One way to do this is by openly acknowledging your own mistakes. This demonstrates that honesty — and making mistakes — is a natural part of learning and growth.
An Investment in Well-Being and Results
Both self-insight and psychological safety are essential for success in modern organizations. They enhance individual well-being, strengthen teamwork, and lay the foundation for innovation and efficiency. By actively working with both, you and your team can reach new heights — both professionally and personally.
Start by asking yourself: What can I do today to strengthen my self-insight and contribute to psychological safety in my team?
Ready to take the first step? If you’re unsure where to begin, you’re always welcome to reach out to us.
