maybe we need to begin before we are ready

They are not ready for you or for this work.

I hear some version of this a lot when talking with organizations about bringing the courage work to their teams.

And I get it.

I am the big scary soft skills – feelings, hard conversations, trust, shame resilience, empathy, etc.

Except you don’t get your technical skills or a healthy team (or family for that matter) without these “soft” skills.

And I wonder what will have to happen before we get ready?

Because I have led those workshops, the ones where we must repair damage and trust because something really hard has happened.

Or maybe we need to begin before we are ready.

Now more than ever, people need to know they matter at work, to feel seen, and to be their whole selves. Now more than ever, teams need a common language and skillset to turn toward one another in creativity and innovation, in the day-to-day to-do’s, in the new, different, and difficult ways of working and the world, and because we spend more time awake with one another at work than we do at home with the people who love us the most.

Perhaps courage is beginning before we are all the way ready.