How Tapping Into Self-Connection Can Help You Succeed at Work

Taking small moments to reflect during our workday can help improve our self-awareness, our interactions with others, and our stress levels.

Over the course of a typical workday, you might experience feelings of productivity and focus, and you might experience feelings of stress and overwhelm. There are so many emotions that factor into our meetings, our projects, and our everyday interactions — but most of us don’t take the time to reflect on any of them. Without taking time to look inward, we might not be processing the conversations we’re having or celebrating the tasks we’re crossing off our to-do lists, which could eventually lead to stress and burnout. Instead, taking time for self-connection can help you grow as an individual and a team member.

“Employees who tap into self-connection at work have the benefit of building both self-awareness and emotional resiliency,” Susan Schmitt Winchester, CHRO and author of Healing at Work, tells Thrive. “By creating simple rituals or habits that promote self-reflection, employees can take a proactive approach to self-connection and by doing so, manage their emotions more effectively.”

Here are four powerful effects of tapping into our self-connection at work:

It can help you stay calm during frustrating moments

Taking a moment to reflect after a high-stress interaction can help you pinpoint what exactly is causing you stress, and take action accordingly instead of ignoring it altogether. “When you experience workplace conflict, it is common to become emotionally triggered,” Schmitt Winchester says. “Rather than having a purely emotional reaction (which you might regret later), you can use self-connection to examine the source of your reaction and decide to have a different, in-the-moment interpretation.” To do this, try taking a moment to pause when you feel irritated or frustrated. You can even write down what’s bothering you, or what may have been evoked from a certain interaction. “Over time you’ll become more self-aware and build emotional resilience,” she adds. “And probably save some relationships along the way.”

It can help you become more mindful

You don’t even have to wait until you become overwhelmed or stressed to check in with yourself. Schmitt Winchester says taking moments throughout the day to ask yourself what you’re feeling, whether in between calls or during your breaks, can help you become more mindful of your stress signals. “Check in with yourself periodically throughout the day to name what you are feeling,” Schmitt Winchester says. “It doesn’t have to be a long process either. You’d be surprised what good a deep grounding breath between meetings can do.”

It can help you find ways to prioritize better

Doing an audit of your workload is a form of self-reflection. If it’s been a while since you’ve taken some time to look at your recurring tasks and see if there are any you could take off your plate, now might be a good time to do so. It can help reduce stress and allow you to prioritize what’s important. “Try the ‘4 D's of time management’ which are: delete, delegate, defer, and do,” Schmitt Winchester suggests. “Take a quick look at your tasks and see if there are any you can assign to others, take off your list completely, or if there are some that don’t have to be done that instant.”

It can help you be a better leader

If you are a team leader, a manager, or any individual on a team, taking time for self-connection can help encourage your teammates to do the same. “Managers’ behaviors set implicit norms for the rest of the team,” Schmitt Winchester says — a reality that some refer to as the “shadow of the leader.” Just like signing off after hours helps encourage your teammates to set boundaries with their working hours, taking time to model self-connection can be a powerful way to urge your team to do the same. “Ask yourself how you are outwardly demonstrating self-connecting at work, and what you can be doing to role model this behavior more effectively,” she adds. “It empowers the rest of the team to feel comfortable starting the process and works to create a culture of psychological safety."