Note to readers: Given my commitment to be thoughtful and relevant with my current series of posts, combined with the general havoc that the pandemic has wreaked on life and work life, my weekly Tuesday cadence has been disrupted. I appreciate your patience and understanding.

I have written the last four tips specifically for corporate White people like me, reflecting both my personal passion and my professional mission to promote masterful work relationships that make space for all people’s spirits to come alive. I’ve been sharing what I am learning and believe are fundamental lessons on important topics like White privilege and implicit bias, along with my more traditional self-revelatory exposes, like the five trust lessons I learned from my own churn about this series, and now this one about a compelling force that recently almost stopped me from practicing what I preach.

Note to readers: Given my commitment to be thoughtful and relevant with the current series of posts, my weekly Tuesday cadence has been disrupted. I appreciate your patience and understanding.

Two tips ago was the first in this series that I’m writing specifically for corporate White people like me—a focus that reflects both my personal passion and my professional mission, as I’m seeing compelling connections between racial justice and the vast majority of nearly everything I’ve written on trusted advisorship. For one thing, if we want to have extraordinary work relationships, they must be conscious relationships. And for White professionals, I believe that means working on our own racial literacy.

I have three draft Weekly Tips in various stages of completion, and I have a lot of internal churn about all of them. This is unusual for me. I normally try not to overthink it, crank out a draft tip in 90 minutes or so, print and proof, and hit the “go” button with my team.

There is a recorded exchange making the rounds right now that is both comedic and poignant. It’s between James Corden, host of The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Olivia Hareman, a writer for the show. I believe its message is so important that I’m basing this week’s tip on it.

Full disclosure, there’s no new tip this week. I simply didn’t get ‘er done. And instead of trying to shoe-horn one in, delivering something sub-par that comes with a lot of stress as its price tag, I’m choosing a little reprieve for me and my team. Because if there’s one thing we all need less of right now, it’s added stress of any kind.

This week’s tip showcases a retailer that we should all aspire to emulate, regardless of industry or subject matter expertise. Why? Because of the way it lives by the five words that define what it truly means to be a trusted advisor.