Success in a Spectacular Failure

Meet the Author events via Zoom replaced a low-key in-person celebration.

Leading in Crisis webinars replaced in-person speaking engagements.

This is NOT how it was supposed to be.

Yet, this is how it was to release a book on March 23, 2020.

The landscape was different, but the competencies of strong leadership remain unchanged.  The world will always need leaders who are not afraid to bring forward compassion, candor, and courage.  Which is why author Danessa Knaupp, self-professed Failure Junkie, stayed the course in releasing her book Naked at Work: A Leader’s Guide to Fearless Authenticity even amidst the growing effects of the Pandemic.

Naked at Work was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the 8 books to help you grow during the Pandemic.

“While it may sometimes be difficult to admit your own fears to yourself, doing so will allow you to lead, especially in tough situations.”

Growth in a Pandemic?!?  And does Naked at Work still resonate as a leadership guide one year later?

YES! And YES!

A leaders’ authenticity is the most valuable item in their toolkit for making pivots with enduring impacts.  In this post, we recap the process provided in Naked at Work which guides leaders to bring their full-self to work in service to others.

All of the lessons that 2020 presented us – on social justice, equity, public health, work-life balance – could swallow us, engulfing us in shame.  But that won’t serve us.  Or allow us to serve others in our organization.  We can choose whether to focus on defense and survival or growth and thriving.

Emerging from 2020, on the brink of returning to some much-anticipated activity, we are not picking up from where we left off last March.  We are starting from a fresh spot.  What does your team need?  How can you better relate to your stakeholders?  It’s okay and even necessary to do things differently or look at them through a new lens.

Initially, it is simply easier to chalk 2020 up as one, big SPECTACULAR failure as we think about hardships, losses, mental health challenges, and social injustices.  But that’s not the full story.  We can reframe those obstacles as times to pivot from darkness and head in a new direction.

2020’s failures offer us A LOT of feedback.  This presents opportunities for reflection, iteration and innovation, grit, and community. Facing your failures is the best way to develop grit, which is the key ingredient for gravitas, the strongest driver of executive presence. Simply put, fearless leaders are people who have faced their failures and learned from them.

2020’s challenges stripped many leaders of all they believed they were capable of, left feeling, well, naked.  It was a time for trusting that you are good enough to lead. Your experiences up until now, including your mistakes and your failures, have prepared you exactly for this. Trust that you can access the full breadth of your learning to support your team. You can tap into the power of your failures to drive innovation and share your mistakes to foster connections. Getting naked is about being human and giving yourself permission to lead without fear and hesitation.

In 2020, Leaders had to simultaneously problem-solve caring for employees as they ventured into the virtual world of WFH, as office doors were shuttered and maintaining profitability for the organization.  Mistakes were made.  And mistakes are opportunities to reassess and learn.  By that metric, 2020 was a year of growth.

These lessons fuse together to forge our authenticity – clothed, but genuine. Allowing authenticity to shine through will remain a work in progress, but Naked at Work’s process is a timeless and essential guide.

Cheers to Naked at Work’s First Year, a Success in a Spectacular Failure!

Haven’t read it yet?  Get NAKED now.

Naked at Work Author Danessa Knaupp is an executive coach, CEO, and keynote speaker shifting the global conversation on leadership. She has coached hundreds of executives across every major industry and has developed a reputation as a candid, compassionate and courageous leadership partner. She is the author of the leadership manual, Naked at Work: A Leader’s Guide to Fearless Authenticity and regularly addresses C-suite audiences on how to harness the power of real authenticity (not #authenticity) to drive measurable business results.  For more, visit www.danessaknaupp.com