Don’t Be Fragile

There have been times in my professional life where I have been emotionally fragile. Looking back, I can identify eleven ways I showed up as such sometimes, and I’m sure some of these will sound familiar to you, too.

• You hide behind your title, position, and authority.
• You fish for compliments and validation of others.
• You ignore and belittle team members.
• You hide your mistakes.
• You won’t say “I don’t know”.
• You are unwilling to listen and ask questions.
• You steal credit for other’s work.
• You refuse to ask for help.
• You micromanage.
• You don’t like being challenged.
• You never admit to personal failures.

Being self-aware of these tendencies is critical if you want to work on overcoming them to become a more emotionally resilient professional.