Simon Sinek argues that emotional professionalism means acknowledging how you feel at work without losing composure. Admitting "I don't know" or "I need help" lets others support you, reduces hidden stress, and strengthens teams. Leaders don't need to be better at every task; they equip people and create safety for others to excel.
Chapters
I think some people turn off the humanity when they go to work. You know, they may be, you know, loving parents and loving friends and loving, you know, children to their own parents. And yet for some reason there's a switch that they think that that's irresponsible to do at work. Now, I'm not talking about necessarily wearing your heart on your sleeve every day. There is something called emotional professionalism. You know, if you're having a bad day, you can say, listen, I'm a little off my game today. But you can't sit in a meeting with your arms folded and be grumpy and give one word answers. That's emotionally unprofessional. You know, you can have hard feelings, but you can't go around screaming and yelling at people you know, you can have. So I think there's emotional professionalism, but I think for some reason, especially as people make their way up the ranks, they think that expressing any kind of emotion is a sign of weakness. Even that word vulnerability. We talk. You know, it's such a common word now being talked about in the business world that you have to be vulnerable to this day. It makes some people feel very uncomfortable. I don't want to be vulnerable. Well, all vulnerability means is saying things like, I don't know, or I need help or I'm overwhelmed or can you, you know, can you help me do this because I don't know how to do this? Or I've been promoted to a position where maybe I need more training. And the reason we're afraid of saying that is for fear that it makes us look weak, which will then damage our careers. The reality is the total opposite. By saying I don't know means someone can help us. But instead we choose to lie, hide and fake very often, which eventually gets revealed. Enough stress piled on and that lying, hiding and faking collapses. Either professionally or personally. We either feel the stress or the projects that we're working on start to go haywire. And very often when we get to those points, everybody knows anyway. And the amazing thing that I've learned is when you say, can somebody help me? We're surrounded by people who would love to help us. They just didn't think we needed it because we acted as if we didn't. So I think a large part of it is, quite frankly, fear. Fear that if I express these things, that people will think I'm not qualified for my job.
Where.
The opposite is true. And remember, when you are in a position of leadership, you don't actually have to be better at doing the job than the people you lead. You have to be responsible for taking care of them to make sure they're good at their job. But for some reason, we think that I have to be better than you at your own job because I'm the leader. Completely false. I just have to make sure that you're equipped, you have the tools, the training and the psychological safety to be the best you can be. Even if it's better than me.
