Soup splatter art/vulnerability is a good thing.

TL;DR - vulnerability matters, it's okay to fail, model it for others.

One of the best parts of my job is partnering with leaders and organizations to cultivate more psychologically safe teams and workplaces. A critical practice we discuss is having the vulnerability to share when things don't turn out the way we intended, to be open about our mess-ups, or even (gasp!) our "failures."

Here’s my "fail" from this morning - an entire carton of broccoli cheddar soup splattered on the floor. This came after oversleeping, navigating some big feelings with my three-year old, and convincing my almost-six-year old that as awesome as her Girl Scout vest is, she isn't allowed to wear it to school (even during cookie season)!

We were running behind and I was just moving too fast. Luckily my kids brought some levity while I went into clean-up mode and was humbly reminded of a few things:

1. Slow. Down. Most things in our day-to-day are not actually as urgent as we make them, so we should give ourselves and our people permission to take the time needed to take intentional action.

2. Things often don't go as planned - for ourselves and the people around us. We can't always control what happens but we certainly get to choose how we respond.

3. Own your stuff, learn from it and keep moving forward. The next time can be better.

*How are you leaning into your own vulnerability as a leader? Are you willing to share how you've been less than perfect today/this week/this month? The psychological safety of your team is counting on it...*