The concept of grace doesn’t always come easily to me. Giving grace is letting go. Forgiveness. Allowing for others to be not-perfect and not hold it against them. Now is a time to give as much grace as possible.

I wrote about giving grace a long time ago. The idea at the time was to recognize how often you ask for grace rather than give grace. In a normal, healthy relationship the balance is important. You don’t want to be always asking for favors or forgiveness. And you want to be giving forgiveness freely when you can.

I’ve seen some amazing stories of grace in the last few weeks. I just read this powerful thread from a professor and how hard it is to teach. How much grace needs to be extended to her students. We are all going through something unprecedented. We cannot underestimate the toll on each of us, nor can we expect everyone to share their struggles.

The concept of extending grace can be doubly hard for yourself. We have high expectation of ourselves. We can be our worst critics. One simple framing I have used is to consider what your best friend would say to you (regarding anything) and then say that to yourself. Or what would you say to your friend if he failed to deliver on something right now. You might say “it’s okay, I understand.” Extend yourself some grace in this tough time.

I propose our first response needs to be to extend grace to each other right now. I know I am not having the toughest time that many others are right now. Whether the stress is coming from family or sickness or money. As leaders, now is not the time to be a hard-ass. The more we can be empathetic and care about the people around us, we will reap the benefit through our relationship forever in the future.