Imagine all the Disney princesses working together at the same company. They’re on the same team, in the same Zoom meetings, on the same Slack channels sending gifs to each other.
Think about that.
It’d be a shit show.
The Brilliant One (Elsa)
Let’s start with Elsa.
She’s the quiet one on the team.
She’s brilliant. But when shit starts happening, when things get even a little stressful... she goes quiet.
She calls it focusing. She says she’s just trying to let it go.
But there’s nothing there. It’s like her brain is frozen.
Her teammates rarely have an idea of what she’s thinking, which is annoying because she’s probably more capable than almost anyone there, but she wastes her energy making sure nobody can get close enough to really understand and experience it.
The Enthusiastic One (Anna)
And then there’s Anna.
She’s the one who volunteers first.
For everything.
Before anyone even finishes explaining what the project is about.
She moves fast, talks fast, and occasionally realizes, halfway through doing something, that she really has no fucking idea what she’s supposed to do.
Her enthusiasm is real. It’s too bad she’s not really listening, because her follow-through is complete crap.
The Perfectionist (Rapunzel)
Oh, and Rapunzel.
She gave an absolutely mind-blowing presentation. It was insightful. Everyone who saw it was impressed.
But she hasn’t sent the follow-up email yet, and that was three weeks ago.
She says she’s still working on it. She’s only going to send it when it’s perfect.
That’s typical Rapunzel.
The Organizer (Snow White)
Snow White, on the other hand, shows up to every meeting with a printed agenda and color-coded notes.
She reorganized the shared drive three years ago and is now so ridiculously frustrated when people don’t use the structure and naming standards that she set up.
In fact, the person who named a file in ALL CAPS nearly sent Snow White into a tizzy last week.
She’s not wrong about her systems, maybe just a little too intense about it.
The Imposter (Mulan)
And then there’s Mulan.
She’s the hardest worker on the team. She’s always the first one in and the last to leave. She volunteers for everything that Anna didn’t get to first.
She says she’s dedicated. She acts like she’s dedicated. But if you look close enough, you can tell she’s really driven by fear. And it’s the fear of feeling that she doesn’t belong.
The Important Question
Now I’m guessing some of these behaviors sound familiar to you.
Maybe you thought of specific people who act like specific Disney princesses.
And I suppose that leads me to the main question I have, which is this:
