Showing vulnerability is something that doesn’t come naturally to many of us but it is an essential ingredient to leading today. It helps foster creativity and innovation, improves our communication and authenticity and builds a platform for deeper engagement within our teams.
Most importantly being unable to share our vulnerability affects our mental health, and the health of those around us and it gets in the way of creating human connections with our peers.
In this article, I go into a bit more detail on why vulnerability is so important and a characteristic of our best leaders.
Are you struggling to connect with your people? Here are five reasons why being vulnerable may help you to build strong connections with your people.
How do your people see you?
In many cases, the leader is the great booming voice from on high an approach often referred to as the “leader-follower” mentality. It stifles communication and means you don’t connect with your people, which means you can’t inspire them.
Hopefully, you’re not the great booming voice. But you may still struggle to connect with your people for other reasons.
I suspect that many leaders unintentionally create this situation due to their efforts to mask their vulnerability.
That’s a mistake in the modern workplace. As Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz puts it:
“The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability… When the leader demonstrates vulnerability and sensibility and brings people together, the team wins.”
The simple fact is that the best leaders show their vulnerability. Here are five reasons why
Reason #1 – Vulnerability Alleviates Tension
Your people have a greater sense of how you feel about situations than you may realise. There’s a tension that you create whenever you try to hide your vulnerability from your people. This can make them hesitant to share their ideas with you.
Think about whether the following scenario rings any bells. There’s trouble with one of the initiatives that you’re working on. That’s causing you a lot of stress and there’s a palpable tension whenever you walk in the room. Your teams’ backs seem to stiffen and everybody goes a little quieter when you’re there.
They can sense something’s wrong and you’re keeping it from them. You are the proverbial elephant in the room. Worse yet, your stress carries over to the team. They know something’s wrong and can’t figure it out. That means they’re going to feel stress too.
This is not conducive to innovation or even effective operation within the workplace.
The best leaders know that the uncomfortable issues are the most important to talk about. They’re not showing weakness by opening up about the problems that cause them stress. Instead, they’re opening the floor for discussion on how to solve the problem.
Openness creates the freedom that your team needs to discuss ideas. This creates a more collaborative work environment. Plus, it means that you’re not at risk of having high blood pressure.
Reason #2 – Vulnerability Leads to Creativity
There’s a big problem with the “leader-follower” mentality. It suggests that you have all the answers. You don’t, but that impression makes your people hesitant when it comes to sharing new ideas.
Acknowledging that you don’t know everything empowers your people. It makes them feel more able to share ideas. Furthermore, admitting mistakes shows your people that it’s okay to miss the mark every so often. This emboldens them further, which fuels creativity. You establish that taking risks is both okay and encouraged.
Brené Brown, who’s an author and professor at the University of Houston, goes into more detail. She says that the fear of shame stifles creativity. It’s that very fear that may hold your people back. If you’re unable to admit to making mistakes, you’re attaching shame to those mistakes. Your people see this and want to avoid that shameful feeling, which means they don’t share ideas.
Branding expert Marina Miller also points out that vulnerability is a wellspring for creativity. She’s created branding campaigns for institutions like the Southbank Centre and the Tate. Miller says:
“[Feeling vulnerable] makes you face the experience fully and almost embrace it. Those moments can bring a lot of creativity and make ideas flourish.”
Vulnerability inspires creativity in yourself and your people.
Reason #3 – Vulnerability Creates More Impactful Communication
You’ll notice a common thread running through these reasons. Vulnerability opens the door to more impactful communication.
Remember that you play a large role in setting the tone for the flow of communication through your company. Your people look to you for the example on how to communicate within the company’s boundaries. If you close off and refuse to offer openness when speaking to your team, they’ll emulate that behaviour. This creates a secretive culture that negatively impacts creativity and stifles innovation.
Showing vulnerability means showing your people that it’s okay to communicate openly. That extends to more than just the professional setting too. What’s happening in people’s personal lives affects how they perform in the workplace. A little openness in this area also encourages your people to discuss the issues they’re experiencing.
This can give you more insight into the challenges each individual faces. Plus, you’ll understand what’s motivating them at a particular point in time.
There is a caveat to this though. You need to have some boundaries in place in regards to sharing information about your personal life. The aim is to encourage empathy without damaging professional relationships.
Reason #4 – Vulnerability Humanises You and Encourages Engagement
There’s a prevailing sense that vulnerability equals weakness in the eyes of many leaders. That’s what causes them to avoid it altogether.
The issue with this thinking is that it dehumanises you in the eyes of your people. They don’t see someone who’s dealing with the personal challenges that come from the professional setting. You’re just an automaton in their eyes, which means they can’t engage with you.
It’s this idea of “weakness” that causes so many issues. Showing vulnerability does not mean that you’re weak. In fact, it demonstrates that you have the courage needed to confront challenges.
Brené Brown covered this issue in more detail during a talk she held for Inc.’s Leadership Forum.
She says:
“I cannot find a single incident of courage that is not completely underpinned by vulnerability …Think about the last time you saw someone do something that was brave, and I guarantee you vulnerability will be there.”
Courage is key when it comes to innovation in business. By being vulnerable, you show your people that you have the courage to make mistakes and confront challenges. That humanises you and ultimately inspires people.
Reason #5 – Vulnerability Creates Authenticity
Trust is key for engaging your people. Unfortunately, trust is an element that’s lacking in many modern businesses.
A survey by the Harvard Business Review reveals the extent of the problem. It says that 58% of people trust their managers less than they’d trust a complete stranger. This suggests a lack of authenticity in management that harms teams.
If you’re going to build trust, you have to offer authenticity to your people. It’s impossible to be authentic without showing vulnerability. Authenticity means owning up to mistakes and breaking down the manufactured façade that you may have used in the past.
Researchers at Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Australia examined this issue further. They conducted a study that looked at seven CEOs who’d achieved success in business.
One of those CEOs talked about how a lack of authenticity in his approach led him into an identity crisis. He flipped from cracking the whip to acting overly nice in front of his people. This lack of authenticity meant his people didn’t trust him, which affected the company’s bottom line.
He said that going back to his core values of fairness and accountability allowed him to regain his authenticity. This meant being vulnerable in respect of his own failures as well as others. His team engaged with him again and the business’ profits increased over the next five years.
Conclusion
Vulnerability is not a weakness. In today’s workplace, nobody expects you to be some sort of rock that’s unshakeable. They want to see that you’re accountable for your action and that you’re willing to show a little more of yourself to them.
This humanises you and allows your people to engage with you. Vulnerability requires courage and it’s essential for establishing authenticity. This creates trust and openness, which ultimately inspires creativity
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