The New Crop: Issue #73
what actors can teach us about perfectionism + "get your work recognized: write a brag document"
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: What actors can teach us about perfectionism
😆 Today’s Laugh
💭 Today’s Thought
Leaders fear others won’t respect them if they reveal their faults. The problem is, it’s difficult to form a relationship with a perfect person.
Actors know this. They must reveal some chink in the armor of the characters they play, because the audience cannot identify with a character without fault or vulnerability. At the same time they face the same problem leaders face: If the faults are too great, it will make them unappealing. What both the actor and the leader need is the paradoxical ability to assert power effectively and be vulnerable at the same time.
- Kathy Lubar and Belle Linda Halpern, Leadership Presence
Perfection is hard to relate to.
It aims to portray strength and instill trust, but in reality, it creates the opposite…
Distance.
Distrust.
If I reflect on the leaders I’ve worked for and with over my career, the ones I trusted the least were generally the ones who were reluctant to reveal the “chinks in their armor” — who had to portray strength at all times.
But just like perfection is hard to relate to, so is an over-abundance of humility and/or self deprecation.
So the question becomes: as a leader, how can you hold both power and vulnerability at the same time?
What permission do you need to give yourself in order to do this effectively?
📚 Today’s Read
Get your work recognized: write a brag document
There’s this idea that, if you do great work at your job, people will (or should!) automatically recognize that work and reward you for it with promotions / increased pay. In practice, it’s often more complicated than that – some kinds of important work are more visible/memorable than others. It’s frustrating to have done something really important and later realize that you didn’t get rewarded for it just because the people making the decision didn’t understand or remember what you did.
Read up on how creating a “brag document” can help you self-advocate during performance reviews and interviews, and deepen your own understanding of work that you love and are good at.
See you next week!
xo,
Anne