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Your imperfections as a leader are a gift to your team, when you own them and allow them to be seen.
Without them, how can your imperfect team members relate to you?
Vulnerability breeds trust.
And trust is the number one ingredient of workplaces that attract and retain top talent.
Yet research from MIT Sloan shows that roughly 1 in 4 employees don’t trust their employer.
How can you use your imperfections to create more trust in your team?
Speak about them openly and vulnerably – not to generate pity, but to show your human side as well.
Share about what you do when you notice yourself veering into unhelpful patterns.
What have you learned about yourself through your imperfections?
Be the person who apologizes when needed, and takes the first step in speaking straight and listening generously when workplace conflicts arise, while being for others’ success.
Most of all, practice self-leadership – develop increasing self-awareness of how you speak to yourself when you make mistakes – is it kind?
If not, it will be much more difficult for you to think helpful thoughts when others makes mistakes and demonstrate imperfection.
Learn to develop a loving self-talk with YOU, first and foremost, so you can guide your team members to also find the gifts in their own imperfections.
Acknowledge yourself, silently, frequently, for how you gracefully handle your missteps.
There is no vulnerability in perfection.
Your imperfections are a gift – how will you use these gifts?
How will you BE the gift to your team, through how you BE with yourself?
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