Henna Pryor

When I was preparing my notes, I brutally mispronounced this name.

I had to practice it three times before we came into the meeting.

That's an embodiment of good awkward.

Having a moment that goes sideways in a meeting and then owning it in real time.

There's a, my friend Bob Russo worked for IBM for years and he says a great story about how his boss made a joke in a meeting.

So head of the company executive made a joke in a meeting that did not get a laugh.

Just, I don't know if it was off color or it just wasn't there.

And the next thing out of his mouth was, well, that just went over like a fart in church.

which I thought was just great.

So everyone laughs, it pops the tension, but the bigger learning is he swung and he missed, and he made it okay for that to happen.

And Bob said after that, the rest of the meeting, people tried stuff,

that they didn't normally say out loud because he made it OK.

So embracing awkwardness, taking all of the bad out of it, trying to find the good in it is, in my opinion, a way to operationalize that psychological safety we talk so much about is lean in, don't shy away, lean in, own and model what you want other people to be doing.

I'm gonna give you my favorite reframe just to, if one thing, if this is all you do, I want you to leave this conversation thinking of this differently.

There is no such thing as a factually awkward person.

No such thing by definition, awkwardness is an emotion or a characteristic, and it is subjective.

There is no such thing as a factually awkward person.

So the very first thing I want you to do is choose the language you're using to describe yourself.

If you are walking around this world saying,

I am awkward.