Did you know that awkwardness is  your greatest asset for professional and personal growth? My guest today is here to tell us all about it. She's my dear friend, Henna Pryor. Henna is an author, sought-after workplace performance expert, executive coach, and award-winning, two-time TEDx speaker. Following two decades in the corporate world, a few career pivots, and a wildly successful leap to entrepreneurship, she shares her work from the stage and screen to expand on her belief that the key to most people's success is embracing their bumpy edges.

Henna and I discuss the importance of owning your uniqueness and how leaning into awkwardness can actually strengthen your relationships.

Show Notes

6:37 - Henna's origin story that led to her book, "Good Awkward."
7:51 - Henna's awkward story from 5th grade that still lives with her today
8:50 - Leaning into the awkward and embracing it changes everything
9:17 - How does Henna define 'awkward'
11:36 - The important difference between awkwardness and ineptitude
12:29 - The pratfall effect
12:57 - How the pratfall effect is similar to the service recovery paradox
14:13 - The key skill is to learn how to 'repair'
16:08 - People are almost untrained to deal with awkward situations now because we hide behind technology
18:18 - How technology has hindered certain interactions
20:08 - How Henna slowly embraced her uniqueness at her corporate job and boosted her performance
21:48 - The avoidance of awkwardness increases awkwardness
23:13 - Awkward versus vulnerable
27:58 - The one thing that Henna fought for when writing her book
29:40 - Henna shares some of her awkward experiences that ended up getting cut from the book
31:21 - The biggest takeaway Henna has from her research
32:15 - Henna's embarrassing moment from a recent TV interview promoting her new book

Get your copy of Good Awkward