We're not perfect!

Pas parfaite et tant mieux!!

And that’s perfectly okay!!

Not one of us can predict with certainty what the job market of the future will look like.

And when I talk about the future, I’m not talking about ten or fifteen years from now. I’m talking about next year. Possibly the next five at most.

Voices like Simon Sinek and Mel Robbins internationally, but also several experts and economists here in Quebec, highlight the same reality: the place of the human being is going to become even more central, that’s also what I deeply believe.

They come from completely different backgrounds. They don’t have the same paths, nor the same realities.

And yet, one point keeps coming back in their conversations.

A concern that seems shared, yes, but it also seems to be a conviction.

What will be the place of the human being in a world where artificial intelligence and robotics are taking up more and more space?

Which means that what truly sets us apart, our presence, our ability to connect, to feel, to understand, to adapt, is going to become even more valuable.

All the more reason to develop what separates us from a machine.

Our soft skills, those human abilities that separate us from a zucchini. 😉

Our self-awareness, our posture, our ability to be deeply human.

We often talk about performance.

But we talk less about what happens when we stop trying to be perfect.

Because by trying to be flawless, to give the right answers, to prepare well, to demonstrate what we’re capable of, we sometimes forget something essential:

It’s not perfection that creates connection.

And all of this is important in my opinion.

But there is something deeply human that happens when, in the middle of this ''performance'' of performance, an imperfect moment shows up.

And sometimes, that’s exactly where real connection begins.

When imperfection shows up

I remember a meaningful interview I had for a leadership position.

A big interview.

The kind you mentally prepare for long in advance.

When I arrived, I was ready, very ready.

I had also worked on my mindset. Singing at the top of my lungs in my car on the way there ;) I wanted to clearly demonstrate what I was capable of. I was in a posture very focused on performance and probably a bit on perfection too.

The beginning was going well. I was giving good answers, I was structured, confident.

But looking back, I remember that the connection wasn’t fully there yet. Not that it was cold, or tense, but I wouldn’t say it felt natural either.

Then something unexpected happened.

We were in a room rented in a hotel for the interviews. A conference room, with a small window next to the door.

At one point, in my blind spot, I started to feel a presence. Someone was there, behind the window, clearly trying to get my attention.

I did everything I could to ignore it.

In my head, it was: '' Stay focused, don’t let yourself get distracted. Keep going as if nothing is happening. ''

I especially didn’t want to seem distracted. I was still in performance mode.

But the person kept insisting, small gestures, signals, movement. And less and less subtle.

At one point, I couldn’t pretend not to see them anymore.

And I burst out laughing.

A real, genuine laugh. Impossible to hold back.

The interviewers, my future bosses and colleagues, looked at each other. They asked me: '' What’s going on? ''

I apologized, still laughing, and I simply said: '' I’m really sorry, but there’s someone at the window desperately trying to get my attention and I have no idea what she wants. ''

And just like that, everything changed.

The dynamic shifted instantly.

We all looked toward the door. The person was completely confused. She thought she was late for a meeting and believed she had found the right room.

It was a completely imperfect moment, just unpredictable enough to be a little funny.

But after that, the atmosphere wasn’t the same.

I was no longer performing, no, I was exchanging.

They were too, by the way.

We had stepped out, together, from the very rigid frame of the interview.

And the connection became much more natural, much more human.

Looking back, I often think that this little moment made a big difference.

It wasn’t perfect. It was real.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what creates the space for trust to settle in.

Pratfall Effect

In social psychology, there is a concept called the pratfall effect.

It demonstrates something quite fascinating: A competent person who makes a small mistake becomes more likable and more trustworthy.

Why? Because competence inspires respect, but humanity creates connection.

And when the two meet, trust settles in.

But be careful

If someone tries to appear competent without truly being so, you can feel it.

When we play a role or when we try to convince instead of being real, then the slightest awkward moment doesn’t bring people closer. Quite the opposite, it creates distance. I believe Sylvain Boudreau, who is a well-known speaker in Quebec for his “moi inc.” approach, talks about being likable and professional (very important according to him to be professional too, because as he says so well, likable and clueless, that doesn’t work)

Because at the end of the day, we don’t connect with perfection. Perfection is boring, it has no flavor.

If you are solid in what you know, if you speak from knowledge, if you simply explain why you are competent, you don’t need to be impeccable.

You can be human. You can be you.

And that’s when something beautiful happens.

It also makes me think of a moment from Mel Robbins’ first TEDx, I think it dates back to 2012.

She was on stage, talking to her audience and in her desire to connect, she stepped down to go meet them. But when it was time to get back on stage, she had the hardest time. A slightly awkward moment, very human. I remember watching her and thinking: '' That would have totally been my kind of thing, to go down and talk to people, then find myself trying to climb back up all awkward, legs all over the place. ''

And that’s exactly it, at the end of the day.

When competence is there, those real moments don’t break credibility. They make it human and the connection even stronger.

In a team, it changes everything

Imagine a leader who:

• admits they were wrong

• searches for their words sometimes

• rephrases an idea, live, without rehearsing

• laughs at a slip of the tongue

  
  

Even if sometimes we might fear a loss of credibility, I’ve often fallen into that trap, it still happens to me, but it’s actually a signal of safety, of mutual trust.

It tells the team: '' I am competent AND I allow myself to be real with you ''

That’s often when trust grows even more.

My little awkward side

I long saw my clumsy side as something to fix.

I get tangled in my words.

I bump into door frames, probably once a day.

My little quirky side, as I call it.

Before, I wondered if it hurt my credibility. Today, I see it differently.

And the more I move forward, the more I embrace it, the more I love it.

So the rest, it’s just part of me, that’s all.

And what if we changed the target?

And what if, instead of trying to be flawless, of trying to get closer to machines, we simply gave ourselves permission to be human?

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, I’m speaking for myself here, I confirm that I still tend to impose high standards on myself. Saying the right words, not hesitating, not making mistakes and mastering everything.

But when you know what you’re talking about, when the competence is there, that pressure becomes unnecessarily heavy.

Giving yourself permission to search for a word, then correct yourself. To laugh at a moment of awkwardness, when you’ve ''messed up''.

It’s liberating, it allows us to breathe.

And when we breathe, we’re often more real, more present.

This year, I want to come back to something very simple that has always guided me:

Have fun.

Not in the sense of taking things lightly. But in the sense of reminding myself that I know what I’m doing and that I have the right to be fully myself while doing it.