Being the third step in developing emotional intelligence, social awareness is a skill that we all must work to build within ourselves. In a broad sense, it means having an awareness and understanding of the world around us.
This includes environments, cultures, communities, societal norms, problems, struggles, and all other areas that make up the social atmosphere in which we live.
But the way I am discussing social awareness is in a much more narrowed sense. I want us to look at how social awareness leads to the development of emotional intelligence.
One of the most prominent figures in the field of emotional intelligence is Daniel Goleman. He breaks emotional intelligence down into four subsects: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
In relation to emotional intelligence, social awareness is best defined as our ability to accurately understand the emotions of other people and empathize with them.
Empathy is a large component of effective social awareness, and something we will go into more depth later on in the article.
Social awareness is all about taking the focus off ourselves for a moment and beginning to think about those around us. This can be very difficult to do for some of us, especially if we are often wrapped up in ourselves and consumed by our own thoughts.
It requires suspension of selfishness and self-absorbed thinking in order to accurately identify and understand how those around us think and feel.
The easiest way for me to understand social awareness is by one simple word: consideration. It all boils down to taking a second to consider how our thoughts, emotions, and actions impact others. This is a large aspect of external self-awareness which is why the two skills are often intertwined.
Consideration to me is a much simpler way of thinking about social awareness because since I was a kid, I’ve heard the phrase, “Be considerate of others.”
This refers to how my actions impact those around me. If I say something hurtful, how will it make the other person feel? If I act without thinking, could it possibly harm someone else? Or, on a more positive note, how can I be of the most service and benefit to other people?
Taking all of these questions into consideration, as well as many others, can help ensure we will be acting in a socially aware manner.
But, however you best understand social awareness, the fact remains the same that it is an important skill to build within ourselves.
"The easiest way for me to understand social awareness is by one simple word: consideration. It all boils down to taking a second to consider how our thoughts, emotions, and actions impact others."
