Being Present as a Leader to Create a Safe Space for your Team
15 minutes before the start of a leadership program that I was co-facilitating, a member of my team broke down in tears.
It wasn’t about the event taking place that caused the tears but rather, tt was about the space that was created that allowed for the tears.
Before each day of the training, I huddled with my team and we each took a turn answering these three questions:
How do you feel?
What do you need?
What updates do you have to share?
My teammate was already feeling a little anxious for the first day at the program. She started crying as she was talking about how she was feeling. Quite frankly, she didn’t feel worthy of being in her role at the training.
She was releasing emotions that, had she not decided to express how she was feeling, would have kept getting buried further down as the day went on.
She would have kept ignoring the feelings of inadequacy and allowed them to grow, all while I was facilitating a workshop on the importance of identifying and expressing emotions in order to bring our best performance every day in our careers.
When asked what she needed, she shared with us that she needed reassurance about her place at the table. Each team member in the huddle jumped in to share about their authentic experience of her as a human being and about her in the role she was playing at the workshop.
Her energy immediately started to shift. It was clear that it was important for her to get that reassurance because soon after, she was fired up, standing in her power, and ready to go for the day.
It was a huge lesson for me in practicing what I preach. I don’t just tell leaders how to lead, I must also operate with the same principles and strive to do it daily. It was also a practice that was so beneficial but didn’t take a lot of time to do. It only took 15 minutes. If you are truly present, you can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.
We all can find ourselves feeling busy, running in a million directions, and crunched for time. We must create the time to check in with our team. We must create spaces where our team members can be vulnerable with us and share what’s really going on for them.
Remember: It was only 15 minutes of my day. Make sure you are being truly present and you’ll be able to accomplish things like that for your team and so much more!
