Compassion at work is too often conditional on disclosure. This final piece in the series asks leaders to start from the assumption that there is more going on than they can see, and to make space for whatever someone chooses to share, or not share.
Resilience is an overused word. We often use it to describe someone who barrels through without acknowledging the emotion, the fear, or the sheer suck of what is happening. That is not how I define resilience.
You are allowed not to be okay yet. You are allowed to find things harder than you expected. You are allowed to have less patience for workplace shenanigans that once barely registered.
It’s October, which means it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is the first of four Rewriting Leadership Norms pieces bringing that awareness into the leadership conversation.
I watched an executive delay a piece of work for three weeks because it was not quite ready. It was good in week one. By the time it reached the room, the decision had largely been made without her. Perfectionism has a good reputation. The question is when it stops helping.
Nothing is worth capitulating to somebody else's inferiority complex. Being nice to others at the expense of kindness to yourself and the others who be better for hearing what you have to say is an act of self-erasure, not generosity to others.
The nice action is actually an unkind action. One step further, the nice action isn’t altruistic. It’s not really being done for the other person; it’s being done because you don’t want to be uncomfortable.
Reliability is a genuine organisational asset and it earns real credibility in the earlier stages of a career. But at a certain point, it stops compounding. The shift from reliable executor to credible strategic voice is about what becomes visible.
Disagreement handled well is a credibility accelerant. Disagreement handled poorly is a credibility tax. The issue is not whether to disagree, it's how to frame it as analysis rather than noise.
For years I've told leaders to embrace failure as the cost of building anything new. Then a few people asked if I'd really give up a steady income to go out on my own, and I caught myself holding my own risk to a harder standard than theirs.
