Are you taking yourself too seriously?

As a leader, you often handle delicate situations, high-pressure negotiations, and impactful decisions. And while there’s a time and place for formality, you also shouldn’t take yourself too seriously as a leader.

Embracing a degree of levity and fun can transform your leadership and help build a positive and welcoming culture.

“Why does our business life look so different from what we do at home or in our personal life? Why are those not much more blended?” askedScott Paul, co-founder of Convoi Ventures. “I feel like companies that don't take themselves so seriously have a lot of success. They connect with a lot more humans and have a lot easier job doing marketing and connecting through messaging and having their stuff get shared more virally because they're being themselves.”

Not taking yourself seriously doesn’t mean turning your office into a circus and joking your way through the day. It means being true to yourself, letting your personality shine through, and not being afraid to have fun and build connections with people. Leaders who don’t take themselves too seriously treat their teams and customers like people, not machines focused on output.

Humility is at the heart of not taking yourself seriously. Leaders often take themselves too seriously when they demand to be in the room and make every decision. However, when leaders build diverse and talented teams, they can delegate tasks and know their teams and managers will make strong decisions. They empower the people around them to be their best and build trusting relationships.

Everyone makes mistakes at work, including leaders. But when leaders are too serious, they may end up making excuses for mistakes or spiraling because something went wrong. That behavior sets a tone: Leaders who don’t let themselves make mistakes create an environment where employees don’t feel they can make mistakes, which can limit innovation and collaboration because people are afraid to fail.

Strong leaders find the balance between seriousness and fun. They treat failures and mistakes as learning opportunities, acknowledge and own their mistakes, and then move forward and find ways to improve.

When you take yourself too seriously as a leader, you create an unrealistic expectation for yourself and set yourself up to fail. No leader will ever be perfect, make all the right decisions, and be able to grow their company without running into challenges. But if you take yourself too seriously and expect that of yourself, you’ll be sorely disappointed when it doesn’t happen. You may hide your flaws and, in doing so, hide your personality and ability to connect with people.

Being a leader means being humble and giving yourself grace. Be confident in your abilities and decisions, but be open to being yourself and making mistakes. Even when work is serious, find ways to connect with people, find a balance between your home and work life, and do something that makes you smile.

As you lean into your true self, you’ll find yourself enjoying work more, not feeling as much pressure to perform, building stronger employee and customer relationships, and — perhaps most importantly — setting the tone for your company and building a supportive and inventive culture where good ideas are fostered, and employees can grow and develop.