Your days can't all be 100%

Neither can your team’s.

Yes: those days where everything seems to click and flow are lovely. Sometimes you’ll get a few of them in succession, and it feels like you’re going to conquer the world!

But we live in reality, as staunchly as some might deny it, and Life happens. Not only do folks have ups and downs–they’re also not evenly distributed. Which is to say: sometimes you or someone on your team is going to get the shit kicked out of them by life events, and to expect streaks of amazing performance without occasional streaks of having to focus on getting through the day is setting yourself up for surprise and disappointment.

People will miss a habit. Twice. You might well do so, too!

The key is not set the expectation that folks show up perfect every day, or to devise some ingenious system that makes every day perfect for them regardless of how they show up. It’s to check in with yourself and your team in a way that works for all of you—which might be deep, or might involve scaled questions, or might just be a weekly vibe check—while setting the example and expectation that shit days and weeks happen.

You can’t keep people from falling—yourself included. But if you can ensure there’s no judgment against someone when they’re down, and sometimes even help them get back up.

And I’ll take that over trying to force or fake a 100% day any time.