Throughout the Applied Leadership Seminar we repeatedly refer to vulnerability as a leadership attribute.  Those who have attended the seminar will remember the following:

• You are authentic when you, and not someone else, become your own benchmark.
• We choose not to be authentic for fear of being humiliated, mocked, or diminished.
• We trust people who are vulnerable because we feel that we know them.
• Being the first be vulnerable is essential for leaders to nurture high-performing “Esprit” teams.
• Building trust is a process that begins when one party is willing to risk being the first to open up, being the first to be vulnerable, and being the first to let go of control.
• You emerge as a leader by your willingness to be vulnerable.

Brene Brown in her book, Daring Greatly, takes a deep dive into vulnerability.  She says that vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.  It’s about uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.  She states, “When we spend our lives waiting until we’re bulletproof before we walk into the arena, we ultimately sacrifice relationships and opportunities.”  We need to feel trust to be vulnerable and we need to be vulnerable in order to trust.

She notes that vulnerability and courage are contagious.  Leaders spark and sustain change, like a snowball, because the act of vulnerability is perceived as courageous by team members and inspires others to follow suit.

She believes that fear of shame is what keeps us small and a sense of worthiness inspires us to be vulnerable.   In shame-prone cultures, where parents, leaders, and administrators encourage people to connect their self-worth to what they produce shame emerges.  The deep fear of being wrong, of being belittled and of feeling “less than” is what stops us form taking the very risks required to move our organizations forward.

And her advice to aspiring leaders is to create connection with your people, i.e., the energy that is created between people when they feel “seen, heard, and valued.”  She offers that, “who we are matters immeasurably more than what we know or want to be.”  When we are not vulnerable our integrity is at risk.  She stresses that we must pay attention to the space between where we’re actually standing and where we want to be.   She ends with her own definition of a leader, “A Leader is anyone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding the potential in people and processes.”

I like Brene!  I want to dare greatly.  She clearly has had some life experiences that have made her deeply reflective about vulnerability.  Her book is based on extensive research and is very well written.  I recommend the book to all those who want to up their game as a leader.