One of my favorite activities is to flip through old photo albums with my daughter, poking fun at outdated hair styles and clothes. As we were going through this ritual one evening, my daughter looked at me and said, “Papa, you should smile more.”
At first, her words did not resonate with me. ”Don’t I display humor in my day-to-day life?” But the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was commenting on something entirely different.
My daughter was encouraging me to display my emotions, to be human.
Many leaders believe that they need to be in control all the time. Their teams look up to them for answers and if they display any weakness or waver in their resolve, then the whole organization can crumble around them.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
It is incredibly powerful for your team to know that you can get frustrated, happy or concerned and that you are even stumped by professional situations. It encourages them to seek ways to succeed even as they experience these emotions themselves. It reduces self-doubt and increases our ability to reach out, collaborate and generally become better professionals and human beings.
It takes the focus away from ourselves and puts it on the problem at hand.
Being human is not a sign of vulnerability, it’s a mark of strong leadership.
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