Brené Brown

Attend funerals.

Really?

If you can, geographically, to attend the funerals that matter to the people with whom you work.

Wow.

And I just remember doing a Dare to Lead intervention at a big tech company and hearing a story about, I think, I don't know if this matters, but to me, for some reason, obviously it mattered because she was the only woman on a software engineering team.

And her sister died by suicide.

And very few people showed up at the funeral, which is not unusual in a death by suicide.

And I think sometimes we can say it's because people think they're being respectful or not wanting to bring it up, but sometimes it's people being comfortable in their own, you know, people privileging their comfort over other people's grief and needs.

And she said when she walked in, her entire team was there, including two people who'd flown in.

Then when she, oh yeah, she said it was one of the most important moments of her life.

Then she said on her first day back to work, she was so stressed out about how to bring it up.

But her team leader said, we want to let you know that we are excited that you're back.

We've all talked.

And we are ready to talk about this.

And we are ready to not talk about it.

But we are comfortable talking about it.

And we are comfortable not talking about it.

And we will follow your lead.

Like everything.

That's a masterclass in emotional intelligence right there.