When you feel awkward, do you allow it to keep you stuck or to grow? The difference between good and bad awkward is that good awkward allows you to grow when experiencing uncertainty. To start navigating the good awkward, it’s important to understand how you experience it and reframe its role by naming it.
In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Henna Pryor, a highly sought-after Workplace Performance Expert and an award-winning 2x TEDx and global keynote speaker, virtual presenter, team facilitator, and professional executive coach. Her clients call her their “secret weapon for impossible change,” an honor she wears proudly. She’s also a lifelong learner – she’s been studying human behavior and performance for over 2 decades and loves to bring a fresh energy to business practices and conversations. Her highly anticipated book, Good Awkward, publishes in September and is available for pre-order now.
Listen in to learn the importance of owning awkwardness as an individual and normalizing awkward feelings as a team to create deeper connections. You will also learn how to create intentional moments as a leader to rebuild social skills for the desired communication culture in your organization.
Key Takeaways:
- How to navigate good awkward to grow when experiencing uncertainty.
- The benefits of reframing the role of awkwardness in your life and naming it in those moments.
- How expressing awkwardness implies confidence and authenticity in the workplace.
- The importance of owning awkwardness as an individual and normalizing awkward feelings as a team.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- [03:01] Henna shares her childhood and career background and how she got into executive coaching, speaking, and training.
- [05:30] How she got curious about the meaning of staying awkward and wrote a book on awkwardness.
- [07:53] The difference between bad and good awkward and the importance of navigating the good awkward.
- [10:23] She explains how she has learned to navigate ambition and awkwardness in new spaces.
- [12:43] Understanding how you experience awkwardness, plus the steps to help you reframe its role in your life.
- [16:10] The importance of expressing awkwardness to avoid hindering inauthenticity at the workplace.
- [20:45] How to create intentional moments as a leader to rebuild social skills for the desired communication culture.
- [24:43] How to avoid optimizing for smoothness to allow the path to be bumpy for skill building.
- [29:30] Henna on why she’d like to see more awkwardness on individuals and teams creating space for blunders.
- [33:26] Why it was fascinating for Henna during her study to recognize that awkwardness is universal.
- [35:17] Why you should do it awkward and do it anyway when at a crossroads.
Standout Quotes:
- “Confident people feel awkward just as much if not more than people who don’t describe themselves as confident because to avoid awkwardness implies avoiding uncertainty, which is never happening”– Henna [16:19]
- “When a confident person expresses awkward discomfort, it actually comes across as more confident because their lack of perfection puts other people at ease.”– Henna [16:55]
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Resources Mentioned:
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