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As the leader of mental health org @TakeThisOrg I try to walk the walk in terms of emotional honesty and clarity - we check in a lot about how we're all doing and what kind of support we need. 1/9
This kind of openness can sometimes be hard to model, and to manage (it takes vulnerability for the former and good boundaries for the latter). 2/9
BUT it creates trust and helps people show up as their whole selves, especially during hard times. One of those hard times, for me, is right now. I just returned from a 5 week trip to see my terminally ill dad. With my kiddo. 3/9
I'm so, so grateful to be (sort of) home again with @djedery and in my own space, but I'm missing my family terribly and still have to quarantine and COVID test before I can do things like kiss my husband and hug anyone. 4/9
I could easily bottle all this up - and in the case of a dying parent, that's often what happens - BUT by sharing this experience I'm able to do a number of really profound things: 1) let people know I'm having a hard time, and get support for that, 5/9
2) provide others with the tacit validation to share their own hard time (and that happens, especially with my team, on a regular basis, giving me crucial information as a manager about how they're doing), 6/9
3) change the conversation about what is OK to talk about and share (I'm thinking of a @washingtonpost article I read last weekend about the lack of intimacy among affluent white men pre-COVID), 7/9
4) and create a new paradigm for work culture that emphasizes mutual care and support while also focusing on the work that must be done. That's where boundaries are important - maintaining empathy while always keeping the work in sight. 8/9
I work @TakeThisOrg because I care about the mission, but it's another thing entirely to LIVE the mission and make it a breathing thing. In what ways can you invite both vulnerability and good boundaries into your work environments? 9/9
