WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.571 --> 00:00:06.093
If this is your first time tuning in, my name is Jacob Morgan, and I'm a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist.
2
00:00:06.213 --> 00:00:13.175
And my goal with all of this content is to create great leaders, engaged employees, and future-ready organizations.
3
00:00:13.535 --> 00:00:23.578
So if you want more content like this every single week, then make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and you'll get notified whenever new episodes like this are released.
4
00:00:31.975 --> 00:00:38.420
A couple years ago, I had a series of panic attacks and that completely changed my perspective of vulnerability.
5
00:00:39.101 --> 00:00:50.190
And it turned out that I was having these panic attacks because I had committed to writing a book about vulnerability when I myself did not believe in vulnerability.
6
00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:52.631
So that's kind of the personal journey that I had.
7
00:00:53.432 --> 00:01:11.317
On the business side, over the past few years, even in my previous book, The Future Leader, which came out in 2020, as I was interviewing a lot of executives, specifically CEOs of companies around the world, I would hear the theme of vulnerability and emotional intelligence come up a lot.
8
00:01:12.078 --> 00:01:15.859
But at the same time, these CEOs told me that they were faced with two very specific challenges.
9
00:01:16.679 --> 00:01:31.766
The first challenge is that a lot of these executives, a lot of these CEOs acknowledged that while vulnerability is important and powerful in their personal lives, for example, with their friends, their family members, their spouse, their significant other, very important to be vulnerable with those types of people,
10
00:01:33.006 --> 00:01:34.347
It was very different at work.
11
00:01:34.927 --> 00:01:37.809
And that's because inside of your organization, it's a very different dynamic.
12
00:01:38.369 --> 00:01:46.914
Because at work, you have a boss, you have leaders, you have a hierarchy, you have projects, you have deadlines, you have customers, you're being paid a salary to do work.
13
00:01:48.034 --> 00:01:52.657
It's just a very different dynamic at work versus in your personal life.
14
00:01:53.737 --> 00:02:01.544
The second thing that a lot of these leaders were telling me is that they were very confused by the message they were getting from their employees.
15
00:02:01.964 --> 00:02:07.028
Because on the one hand, employees were saying, well, we want you to be strong and competent and visionary.
16
00:02:07.428 --> 00:02:15.915
We wanna know that you always have a plan, that you can figure out the next path forward for the company, that you can figure out how to get us out of a tough spot.
17
00:02:16.456 --> 00:02:21.140
But at the same time, these employees were saying, we also want you to talk about your challenges and your weaknesses and your struggles.
18
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.901
And a lot of these executives were saying, wait a minute, what kind of a leader am I supposed to be?
19
00:02:25.422 --> 00:02:28.123
Am I supposed to be the strong, competent, confident leader?
20
00:02:28.543 --> 00:02:32.805
Or am I supposed to be someone who's very comfortable talking about my challenges and weaknesses and struggles?
21
00:02:33.585 --> 00:02:40.889
And so I thought it was a very interesting time to write a book specifically about vulnerability at work for leaders.
22
00:02:41.509 --> 00:02:47.092
Because one of the things that I realized is that vulnerability for leaders is not the same as it is for everybody else.
23
00:02:47.992 --> 00:02:50.593
I don't advocate for being vulnerable at work.
24
00:02:51.213 --> 00:02:51.513
I know.
25
00:02:51.813 --> 00:02:53.033
I know that sounds a little bit crazy.
26
00:02:53.513 --> 00:02:55.254
I don't advocate for being vulnerable at work.
27
00:02:55.894 --> 00:03:00.175
Instead, I'm a big believer in leading with vulnerability.
28
00:03:01.095 --> 00:03:01.796
What's the difference?
29
00:03:02.236 --> 00:03:06.797
Now, to illustrate that difference, I want to share two stories for you.
30
00:03:07.937 --> 00:03:11.398
The first is a story that comes from Hollis Harris.
31
00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:13.919
He's the former CEO of Continental Airlines.
32
00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:19.101
Now, when Hollis Harris was the CEO of Continental Airlines, the company was going through a tough time.
33
00:03:19.942 --> 00:03:31.246
And so in the late 80s, early 90s, Hollis Harris was asked to write a memo to his entire workforce of around 30,000 plus employees to talk about what was going on in the business.
34
00:03:32.216 --> 00:03:42.819
And so he sends out this memo to his workforce and he talks about the challenges and the struggles, the macroeconomic factors, and he addressed all the difficulties that the business was going through.
35
00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:46.681
But he didn't end up providing any kind of solutions or ideas or path forward.
36
00:03:46.781 --> 00:03:53.183
In fact, he ended that memo by saying that the best thing that employees could do is to pray for the future of the business.
37
00:03:53.938 --> 00:03:54.599
Now imagine that.
38
00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:57.022
You're an employee working for Hollis Harris.
39
00:03:57.603 --> 00:04:01.587
You've just been given this message, and at the end it says, pray for the future of our company.
40
00:04:01.808 --> 00:04:03.990
The next day, Hollis Harris was fired.
41
00:04:04.731 --> 00:04:07.855
Now it contrasts this to a story about Fleetwood Grobbler.
42
00:04:08.416 --> 00:04:11.199
He's the CEO of a South African energy company called Sasol.
43
00:04:12.153 --> 00:04:15.555
When he took over as CEO, the company was near bankruptcy.
44
00:04:15.956 --> 00:04:18.137
It was $13 billion in debt.
45
00:04:18.838 --> 00:04:25.682
And he too was asked to give a town hall, an all hands meeting and to address his workforce.
46
00:04:26.623 --> 00:04:29.024
And his message was a little bit similar, but different.
47
00:04:29.405 --> 00:04:40.832
And he started off his message also acknowledging the challenges and the problems, talking about how the company was going through a tough time, that there were a lot of struggles, that he wasn't sure what the future of the business was going to look like.
48
00:04:41.833 --> 00:04:45.294
But he also said that he had a vision and a path forward.
49
00:04:45.775 --> 00:04:51.537
He believed that if employees could come together, that they could rebuild trust in the eyes of their customers and their employees.
50
00:04:52.097 --> 00:05:00.440
And he told his workforce, he said, if you come with me on this journey and help me figure out that path forward, then I'm sure that we will be able to turn this business around and become successful.
51
00:05:01.020 --> 00:05:01.520
And guess what?
52
00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:03.421
That's exactly what they did.
53
00:05:04.241 --> 00:05:06.603
Now, what Hollis Harris did was vulnerable.
54
00:05:07.123 --> 00:05:10.686
What Fleetwood Graubler did was lead with vulnerability.
55
00:05:11.046 --> 00:05:14.209
So let me give you a couple more examples of the difference between those.
56
00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.672
One of the classic examples of vulnerability is being able to admit to a mistake.
57
00:05:19.552 --> 00:05:26.075
Now, it's of course important to have that psychological safety where you feel like you can admit to a mistake.
58
00:05:26.755 --> 00:05:33.278
But just because you have that psychological safety to be able to do that doesn't mean that there isn't a right and a wrong way to approach it.
59
00:05:33.798 --> 00:05:37.739
So being vulnerable would mean that let's say your boss gives you a project and you mess it up.
60
00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:40.661
And you go to your boss and you say, I am so sorry.
61
00:05:40.901 --> 00:05:43.662
I know how important this project was, but I really messed it up.
62
00:05:44.898 --> 00:05:45.639
That's vulnerability.
63
00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:55.612
Now, you have to imagine that your leader, he's not gonna look at you, or she's not gonna look at you and say, oh, thank you so much for telling me about this mistake.
64
00:05:56.734 --> 00:05:59.277
Right, your leader's gonna say, okay, now what?
65
00:06:00.369 --> 00:06:01.029
What's the solution?
66
00:06:01.069 --> 00:06:02.290
The customer is still unhappy.
67
00:06:02.310 --> 00:06:03.630
The product is still not completed.
68
00:06:03.690 --> 00:06:04.851
We still didn't meet our deadline.
69
00:06:04.911 --> 00:06:06.192
We still didn't meet our revenue goals.
70
00:06:06.692 --> 00:06:18.017
In other words, yeah, it's great that you feel safe to talk about the fact that you made a mistake, but in the eyes of your leader, in the eyes of your team, they wanna know what now?
71
00:06:18.857 --> 00:06:21.478
What are you gonna do about the mistake that you made?
72
00:06:22.118 --> 00:06:24.559
So leading with vulnerability in that situation would be,
73
00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:27.461
I'm really sorry I made this mistake.
74
00:06:28.221 --> 00:06:35.325
Here are three things, or here's what I learned from the mistake that I made, and here are three things that I'm gonna do going forward to make sure that that mistake never happens again.
75
00:06:36.085 --> 00:06:40.167
That's the big difference between vulnerability versus leading with vulnerability.
76
00:06:40.747 --> 00:06:52.313
In other words, vulnerability in the context of work is really about exposing a gap that you have, a gap in competence, a gap in experience, knowledge, emotion, whatever it might be, but you're basically saying, I have a gap in this area.
77
00:06:53.153 --> 00:06:55.575
Leading with vulnerability is, hey, I have a gap in this area.
78
00:06:55.815 --> 00:06:57.517
Here's what I'm trying to do to fix it.
79
00:06:57.737 --> 00:06:59.158
Here's what I'm trying to do to close the gap.
80
00:06:59.218 --> 00:07:01.460
Here's what I'm trying to do to get better, to learn, to grow.
81
00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:04.802
And that is a very important distinction to make it work.
82
00:07:05.763 --> 00:07:08.405
Nobody just wants to hear about the gaps that you have.
83
00:07:08.525 --> 00:07:13.890
People want to know what you're doing to try to solve that problem, to get better, to learn, and to grow.
84
00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:20.895
So the way that I define a vulnerable leader is a leader who intentionally opens themselves up to the potential of emotional harm.
85
00:07:21.356 --> 00:07:22.196
That's vulnerability.
86
00:07:22.817 --> 00:07:25.419
But while taking action to create a positive outcome.
87
00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:28.001
While taking action to create a positive outcome.
88
00:07:28.141 --> 00:07:28.742
That's leadership.
89
00:07:29.442 --> 00:07:32.745
And so the big message from everything that I'm going to talk about today is...
90
00:07:33.906 --> 00:07:36.771
What is the action that you can take to create that positive outcome?
91
00:07:37.412 --> 00:07:42.379
Whenever you are faced with vulnerability, ask yourself, how can you add leadership into the mix?
92
00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:43.841
How can you add competence?
93
00:07:43.861 --> 00:07:48.969
How can you demonstrate that you're trying to close that gap in any situation where vulnerability is present?
94
00:07:49.690 --> 00:07:55.092
And if there's one thing that I hope that you remember from anything that I talk about today, it's this concept of the vulnerable leader equation.
95
00:07:56.232 --> 00:08:02.254
And this is a very simple visual for how you can think of leading with vulnerability.
96
00:08:02.734 --> 00:08:07.375
And that is vulnerability plus leadership equals leading with vulnerability.
97
00:08:08.055 --> 00:08:09.415
Competence plus connection.
98
00:08:10.716 --> 00:08:13.677
Connection is the vulnerability, competence is the leadership.
99
00:08:14.077 --> 00:08:17.638
These are the two most important aspects, the two most important roles.
100
00:08:18.738 --> 00:08:35.270
that any leader has to connect with your people and to demonstrate that competence to be good at your job if you can do those two things i think the sky's the limit now the problem is that oftentimes we focus on either one or we focus on the other but we really need to be focusing on both
101
00:08:36.411 --> 00:08:48.595
Now I did a survey with DDI and we asked a lot of employees and a lot of leaders around the most frequent leadership behaviors that successful leaders do, that they practice.
102
00:08:49.035 --> 00:08:56.517
Some of the most successful behaviors that leaders do most frequently are things like maintaining high trust and confidentiality,
103
00:08:57.978 --> 00:09:00.921
sharing your thoughts and your rationale for a decision.
104
00:09:01.201 --> 00:09:04.324
These are very common things that leaders are known for.
105
00:09:04.384 --> 00:09:06.026
These are very common leadership attributes.
106
00:09:06.587 --> 00:09:16.216
But if you look at the very bottom of this chart, you're gonna see things like showing a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable, genuinely acknowledging failures or shortcomings, inquiring and caring about my well-being,
107
00:09:17.157 --> 00:09:19.398
These are things that leaders are most uncomfortable with.
108
00:09:19.778 --> 00:09:22.960
These are things that leaders are not doing nearly as often as they should.
109
00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:27.482
And I kind of categorize this as emerging versus traditional leadership behaviors.
110
00:09:28.022 --> 00:09:37.307
The traditional ones are kind of like what we talked about, being able to share your rationale for a decision, being able to maintain high trust and confidentiality.
111
00:09:37.327 --> 00:09:39.528
Those are very traditional leadership attributes.
112
00:09:40.108 --> 00:09:51.259
But the emerging leadership attributes are things like the being able to show vulnerability, inquiring about well-being, talking about failures, challenges, and weaknesses.
113
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.124
And what we found when we looked at this data is that the more senior you become inside of an organization,
114
00:09:57.505 --> 00:10:02.806
the less likely you are to practice these emerging leadership behaviors.
115
00:10:03.547 --> 00:10:09.048
Again, the more senior you become inside of a company, the less likely you are to practice these emerging leadership behaviors.
116
00:10:09.608 --> 00:10:19.590
When we specifically look at showing a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable, we find that the more senior you become, the less likely you are to show a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable.
117
00:10:19.950 --> 00:10:25.172
And you see a really big drop when you go from mid-level leadership to senior level leadership.
118
00:10:27.192 --> 00:10:30.255
Thanks again for tuning in.
119
00:10:30.495 --> 00:10:46.549
And if you want to continue your leadership journey and get access to episodes like this every single week, then please remember to hit that subscribe or follow button on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify so that you can get notified when new episodes like this are released.
120
00:10:46.790 --> 00:10:48.972
We do one of them every single week.
121
00:10:49.552 --> 00:10:59.006
And if you enjoyed today's content, please share it with a boss, a co-worker, a peer, a leader, somebody who you would like to see become a better leader.
122
00:10:59.466 --> 00:11:01.549
Thanks again for tuning in, and I will see you next week.
1
00:00:00.571 --> 00:00:06.093
If this is your first time tuning in, my name is Jacob Morgan, and I'm a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist.
2
00:00:06.213 --> 00:00:13.175
And my goal with all of this content is to create great leaders, engaged employees, and future-ready organizations.
3
00:00:13.535 --> 00:00:23.578
So if you want more content like this every single week, then make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and you'll get notified whenever new episodes like this are released.
4
00:00:31.975 --> 00:00:38.420
A couple years ago, I had a series of panic attacks and that completely changed my perspective of vulnerability.
5
00:00:39.101 --> 00:00:50.190
And it turned out that I was having these panic attacks because I had committed to writing a book about vulnerability when I myself did not believe in vulnerability.
6
00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:52.631
So that's kind of the personal journey that I had.
7
00:00:53.432 --> 00:01:11.317
On the business side, over the past few years, even in my previous book, The Future Leader, which came out in 2020, as I was interviewing a lot of executives, specifically CEOs of companies around the world, I would hear the theme of vulnerability and emotional intelligence come up a lot.
8
00:01:12.078 --> 00:01:15.859
But at the same time, these CEOs told me that they were faced with two very specific challenges.
9
00:01:16.679 --> 00:01:31.766
The first challenge is that a lot of these executives, a lot of these CEOs acknowledged that while vulnerability is important and powerful in their personal lives, for example, with their friends, their family members, their spouse, their significant other, very important to be vulnerable with those types of people,
10
00:01:33.006 --> 00:01:34.347
It was very different at work.
11
00:01:34.927 --> 00:01:37.809
And that's because inside of your organization, it's a very different dynamic.
12
00:01:38.369 --> 00:01:46.914
Because at work, you have a boss, you have leaders, you have a hierarchy, you have projects, you have deadlines, you have customers, you're being paid a salary to do work.
13
00:01:48.034 --> 00:01:52.657
It's just a very different dynamic at work versus in your personal life.
14
00:01:53.737 --> 00:02:01.544
The second thing that a lot of these leaders were telling me is that they were very confused by the message they were getting from their employees.
15
00:02:01.964 --> 00:02:07.028
Because on the one hand, employees were saying, well, we want you to be strong and competent and visionary.
16
00:02:07.428 --> 00:02:15.915
We wanna know that you always have a plan, that you can figure out the next path forward for the company, that you can figure out how to get us out of a tough spot.
17
00:02:16.456 --> 00:02:21.140
But at the same time, these employees were saying, we also want you to talk about your challenges and your weaknesses and your struggles.
18
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.901
And a lot of these executives were saying, wait a minute, what kind of a leader am I supposed to be?
19
00:02:25.422 --> 00:02:28.123
Am I supposed to be the strong, competent, confident leader?
20
00:02:28.543 --> 00:02:32.805
Or am I supposed to be someone who's very comfortable talking about my challenges and weaknesses and struggles?
21
00:02:33.585 --> 00:02:40.889
And so I thought it was a very interesting time to write a book specifically about vulnerability at work for leaders.
22
00:02:41.509 --> 00:02:47.092
Because one of the things that I realized is that vulnerability for leaders is not the same as it is for everybody else.
23
00:02:47.992 --> 00:02:50.593
I don't advocate for being vulnerable at work.
24
00:02:51.213 --> 00:02:51.513
I know.
25
00:02:51.813 --> 00:02:53.033
I know that sounds a little bit crazy.
26
00:02:53.513 --> 00:02:55.254
I don't advocate for being vulnerable at work.
27
00:02:55.894 --> 00:03:00.175
Instead, I'm a big believer in leading with vulnerability.
28
00:03:01.095 --> 00:03:01.796
What's the difference?
29
00:03:02.236 --> 00:03:06.797
Now, to illustrate that difference, I want to share two stories for you.
30
00:03:07.937 --> 00:03:11.398
The first is a story that comes from Hollis Harris.
31
00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:13.919
He's the former CEO of Continental Airlines.
32
00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:19.101
Now, when Hollis Harris was the CEO of Continental Airlines, the company was going through a tough time.
33
00:03:19.942 --> 00:03:31.246
And so in the late 80s, early 90s, Hollis Harris was asked to write a memo to his entire workforce of around 30,000 plus employees to talk about what was going on in the business.
34
00:03:32.216 --> 00:03:42.819
And so he sends out this memo to his workforce and he talks about the challenges and the struggles, the macroeconomic factors, and he addressed all the difficulties that the business was going through.
35
00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:46.681
But he didn't end up providing any kind of solutions or ideas or path forward.
36
00:03:46.781 --> 00:03:53.183
In fact, he ended that memo by saying that the best thing that employees could do is to pray for the future of the business.
37
00:03:53.938 --> 00:03:54.599
Now imagine that.
38
00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:57.022
You're an employee working for Hollis Harris.
39
00:03:57.603 --> 00:04:01.587
You've just been given this message, and at the end it says, pray for the future of our company.
40
00:04:01.808 --> 00:04:03.990
The next day, Hollis Harris was fired.
41
00:04:04.731 --> 00:04:07.855
Now it contrasts this to a story about Fleetwood Grobbler.
42
00:04:08.416 --> 00:04:11.199
He's the CEO of a South African energy company called Sasol.
43
00:04:12.153 --> 00:04:15.555
When he took over as CEO, the company was near bankruptcy.
44
00:04:15.956 --> 00:04:18.137
It was $13 billion in debt.
45
00:04:18.838 --> 00:04:25.682
And he too was asked to give a town hall, an all hands meeting and to address his workforce.
46
00:04:26.623 --> 00:04:29.024
And his message was a little bit similar, but different.
47
00:04:29.405 --> 00:04:40.832
And he started off his message also acknowledging the challenges and the problems, talking about how the company was going through a tough time, that there were a lot of struggles, that he wasn't sure what the future of the business was going to look like.
48
00:04:41.833 --> 00:04:45.294
But he also said that he had a vision and a path forward.
49
00:04:45.775 --> 00:04:51.537
He believed that if employees could come together, that they could rebuild trust in the eyes of their customers and their employees.
50
00:04:52.097 --> 00:05:00.440
And he told his workforce, he said, if you come with me on this journey and help me figure out that path forward, then I'm sure that we will be able to turn this business around and become successful.
51
00:05:01.020 --> 00:05:01.520
And guess what?
52
00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:03.421
That's exactly what they did.
53
00:05:04.241 --> 00:05:06.603
Now, what Hollis Harris did was vulnerable.
54
00:05:07.123 --> 00:05:10.686
What Fleetwood Graubler did was lead with vulnerability.
55
00:05:11.046 --> 00:05:14.209
So let me give you a couple more examples of the difference between those.
56
00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.672
One of the classic examples of vulnerability is being able to admit to a mistake.
57
00:05:19.552 --> 00:05:26.075
Now, it's of course important to have that psychological safety where you feel like you can admit to a mistake.
58
00:05:26.755 --> 00:05:33.278
But just because you have that psychological safety to be able to do that doesn't mean that there isn't a right and a wrong way to approach it.
59
00:05:33.798 --> 00:05:37.739
So being vulnerable would mean that let's say your boss gives you a project and you mess it up.
60
00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:40.661
And you go to your boss and you say, I am so sorry.
61
00:05:40.901 --> 00:05:43.662
I know how important this project was, but I really messed it up.
62
00:05:44.898 --> 00:05:45.639
That's vulnerability.
63
00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:55.612
Now, you have to imagine that your leader, he's not gonna look at you, or she's not gonna look at you and say, oh, thank you so much for telling me about this mistake.
64
00:05:56.734 --> 00:05:59.277
Right, your leader's gonna say, okay, now what?
65
00:06:00.369 --> 00:06:01.029
What's the solution?
66
00:06:01.069 --> 00:06:02.290
The customer is still unhappy.
67
00:06:02.310 --> 00:06:03.630
The product is still not completed.
68
00:06:03.690 --> 00:06:04.851
We still didn't meet our deadline.
69
00:06:04.911 --> 00:06:06.192
We still didn't meet our revenue goals.
70
00:06:06.692 --> 00:06:18.017
In other words, yeah, it's great that you feel safe to talk about the fact that you made a mistake, but in the eyes of your leader, in the eyes of your team, they wanna know what now?
71
00:06:18.857 --> 00:06:21.478
What are you gonna do about the mistake that you made?
72
00:06:22.118 --> 00:06:24.559
So leading with vulnerability in that situation would be,
73
00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:27.461
I'm really sorry I made this mistake.
74
00:06:28.221 --> 00:06:35.325
Here are three things, or here's what I learned from the mistake that I made, and here are three things that I'm gonna do going forward to make sure that that mistake never happens again.
75
00:06:36.085 --> 00:06:40.167
That's the big difference between vulnerability versus leading with vulnerability.
76
00:06:40.747 --> 00:06:52.313
In other words, vulnerability in the context of work is really about exposing a gap that you have, a gap in competence, a gap in experience, knowledge, emotion, whatever it might be, but you're basically saying, I have a gap in this area.
77
00:06:53.153 --> 00:06:55.575
Leading with vulnerability is, hey, I have a gap in this area.
78
00:06:55.815 --> 00:06:57.517
Here's what I'm trying to do to fix it.
79
00:06:57.737 --> 00:06:59.158
Here's what I'm trying to do to close the gap.
80
00:06:59.218 --> 00:07:01.460
Here's what I'm trying to do to get better, to learn, to grow.
81
00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:04.802
And that is a very important distinction to make it work.
82
00:07:05.763 --> 00:07:08.405
Nobody just wants to hear about the gaps that you have.
83
00:07:08.525 --> 00:07:13.890
People want to know what you're doing to try to solve that problem, to get better, to learn, and to grow.
84
00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:20.895
So the way that I define a vulnerable leader is a leader who intentionally opens themselves up to the potential of emotional harm.
85
00:07:21.356 --> 00:07:22.196
That's vulnerability.
86
00:07:22.817 --> 00:07:25.419
But while taking action to create a positive outcome.
87
00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:28.001
While taking action to create a positive outcome.
88
00:07:28.141 --> 00:07:28.742
That's leadership.
89
00:07:29.442 --> 00:07:32.745
And so the big message from everything that I'm going to talk about today is...
90
00:07:33.906 --> 00:07:36.771
What is the action that you can take to create that positive outcome?
91
00:07:37.412 --> 00:07:42.379
Whenever you are faced with vulnerability, ask yourself, how can you add leadership into the mix?
92
00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:43.841
How can you add competence?
93
00:07:43.861 --> 00:07:48.969
How can you demonstrate that you're trying to close that gap in any situation where vulnerability is present?
94
00:07:49.690 --> 00:07:55.092
And if there's one thing that I hope that you remember from anything that I talk about today, it's this concept of the vulnerable leader equation.
95
00:07:56.232 --> 00:08:02.254
And this is a very simple visual for how you can think of leading with vulnerability.
96
00:08:02.734 --> 00:08:07.375
And that is vulnerability plus leadership equals leading with vulnerability.
97
00:08:08.055 --> 00:08:09.415
Competence plus connection.
98
00:08:10.716 --> 00:08:13.677
Connection is the vulnerability, competence is the leadership.
99
00:08:14.077 --> 00:08:17.638
These are the two most important aspects, the two most important roles.
100
00:08:18.738 --> 00:08:35.270
that any leader has to connect with your people and to demonstrate that competence to be good at your job if you can do those two things i think the sky's the limit now the problem is that oftentimes we focus on either one or we focus on the other but we really need to be focusing on both
101
00:08:36.411 --> 00:08:48.595
Now I did a survey with DDI and we asked a lot of employees and a lot of leaders around the most frequent leadership behaviors that successful leaders do, that they practice.
102
00:08:49.035 --> 00:08:56.517
Some of the most successful behaviors that leaders do most frequently are things like maintaining high trust and confidentiality,
103
00:08:57.978 --> 00:09:00.921
sharing your thoughts and your rationale for a decision.
104
00:09:01.201 --> 00:09:04.324
These are very common things that leaders are known for.
105
00:09:04.384 --> 00:09:06.026
These are very common leadership attributes.
106
00:09:06.587 --> 00:09:16.216
But if you look at the very bottom of this chart, you're gonna see things like showing a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable, genuinely acknowledging failures or shortcomings, inquiring and caring about my well-being,
107
00:09:17.157 --> 00:09:19.398
These are things that leaders are most uncomfortable with.
108
00:09:19.778 --> 00:09:22.960
These are things that leaders are not doing nearly as often as they should.
109
00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:27.482
And I kind of categorize this as emerging versus traditional leadership behaviors.
110
00:09:28.022 --> 00:09:37.307
The traditional ones are kind of like what we talked about, being able to share your rationale for a decision, being able to maintain high trust and confidentiality.
111
00:09:37.327 --> 00:09:39.528
Those are very traditional leadership attributes.
112
00:09:40.108 --> 00:09:51.259
But the emerging leadership attributes are things like the being able to show vulnerability, inquiring about well-being, talking about failures, challenges, and weaknesses.
113
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.124
And what we found when we looked at this data is that the more senior you become inside of an organization,
114
00:09:57.505 --> 00:10:02.806
the less likely you are to practice these emerging leadership behaviors.
115
00:10:03.547 --> 00:10:09.048
Again, the more senior you become inside of a company, the less likely you are to practice these emerging leadership behaviors.
116
00:10:09.608 --> 00:10:19.590
When we specifically look at showing a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable, we find that the more senior you become, the less likely you are to show a willingness to be emotionally vulnerable.
117
00:10:19.950 --> 00:10:25.172
And you see a really big drop when you go from mid-level leadership to senior level leadership.
118
00:10:27.192 --> 00:10:30.255
Thanks again for tuning in.
119
00:10:30.495 --> 00:10:46.549
And if you want to continue your leadership journey and get access to episodes like this every single week, then please remember to hit that subscribe or follow button on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify so that you can get notified when new episodes like this are released.
120
00:10:46.790 --> 00:10:48.972
We do one of them every single week.
121
00:10:49.552 --> 00:10:59.006
And if you enjoyed today's content, please share it with a boss, a co-worker, a peer, a leader, somebody who you would like to see become a better leader.
122
00:10:59.466 --> 00:11:01.549
Thanks again for tuning in, and I will see you next week.
