Walking a Fine Line

The gift of being a human is both exciting and exhausting, all at the same time.

Now, I could really go anywhere with that opening statement, but I want to focus in on the fine line that we have to walk as humans constantly. Let me narrow in more than just in general on humanity, let’s take a look at that fine line when it comes to the corporate professional world – especially for those of you that are leaders.

This fine line, you can see it everywhere. You can see it with certain people, events, experiences, characteristics. Let me give you some examples of how I am thinking about this constant fine line, or this dance between two things. For example, just deciding the clothing that you wear – you might be judged as too stuffy and corporate, versus too casual and not taking your job seriously.

Or when it comes to your delivery, maybe you’ve been between this, you sound too pushy, too direct versus too soft. Or when it comes to vulnerability, I have personally seen leaders where it has been way too vulnerable, meaning my leader is crying in the office with me versus leaders who show zero emotion and I have no idea what they’re experiencing.  This fine line absolutely makes things much more challenging in the workplace.

So I want to offer for you to first of all, give yourself some acknowledgement and a little bit of grace. Know that this is reality and this is not unique to you – regardless of your gender, your race, your ethnicity; everybody experiences this fine line in some shape or form.

Now, of course, for some people it’s more challenging, I acknowledge that, but everybody goes through it. So first, acknowledge that this is a topic. Know that this is out there, and give yourself a little bit of grace. But then, how do we address it, how do we approach this? What does that look like?

There are no hard and fast rules for the level of vulnerability to showcase.

There are no hard and fast rules for exactly how you should dress, or exactly how you should deliver your message. In fact, it really depends upon the environment and the culture that you are in. So take the opportunity to observe. Pay attention to what’s working. When you see successful leaders, what is their style? What do you notice about them?

When you think about the fine line of certain emotions or topics, how are they addressing that fine line? What does that look like? Because certainly any of those characteristics, even if I just stereotype between a startup company versus an established multi-billion dollar organization, they’re going to be different.

So instead of trying to come up with these hard and fast rules for yourself and trying to find this place and stick to it, acknowledge it, give yourself grace, and pay attention. Find ways that you can incorporate those things that best match your culture, as well as where you want to go in the future.