It’s something that many find difficult to tackle: vulnerability in leadership. There’s so commonly an image of leadership that depicts a strong, impenetrable, force of nature that never includes humanity. So many leaders are tough with no feelings on display or emotions shown at all. I’m here to tell you: that’s fake leadership.
Vulnerability in leadership is imperative to great leadership. But what exactly does that entail? How much vulnerability equates authenticity? How much should be held back? Let’s take a deeper look at what vulnerability in leadership looks like.
What Qualifies as Vulnerability in Leadership?
When you imagine a vulnerable leader, what do you see? Crying with the team when a project fails? Airing the details of your dirty laundry with coworkers? Not exactly.
Vulnerability in leadership is about being honest, but that doesn’t mean you have to say everything that comes to mind. It’s admitting when you’ve made mistakes, taking risks that might not pan out, or even apologizing when you’ve done something wrong.
By definition, vulnerability is being exposed to potential harm, physically or emotionally. In leadership, being vulnerable means you open yourself up to potential harm, but you build trust and develop strong connections with people.
Why Vulnerability in Leadership Matters
Vulnerability in leadership is essential because of many factors. Truthfully, without vulnerability, there will be a level to leadership that you cannot reach. Let’s see what it can do for your leadership.
Builds Trust
Have you ever had a deep and trusting bond with someone who never shared anything with you? As far as you knew, they were perfect in everything they did and never messed up or made the wrong call. I doubt it. It’s hard to trust someone who doesn’t show you a peak at their real, authentic self.
That’s why vulnerability in leadership is so vital to building trust.
Connections Go Deeper and Wider
Along with trust comes deep connections. Vulnerability in leadership allows both leader and follower to share in the struggles of work and life. Doing so creates a stronger bond and lends authenticity to the work relationship. (And authenticity is vital to any relationship!)
Open to Mistakes
Someone willing to be vulnerable is more willing to realize their imperfections. When a leader can’t be vulnerable, they can’t admit to wrongdoing. But, the truth is, everyone makes mistakes. Being able to see the mistakes we make and admit to them is vital to leadership.
Expands Self-Awareness
The ability to see our mistakes plainly is only part of the self-awareness that comes with vulnerability in leadership. So much becomes clear when you’re willing to be vulnerable in leadership. Talking about mistakes opens the door to other realizations, including weaknesses and hidden emotions impacting work relations.
Increased Innovation
How can vulnerability as a leader boost your innovation? Because vulnerability requires sharing and communicating. With an increase in communication comes an increase in idea generation and expansion. More ideas and expansion upon those ideas results in more innovation.
Boosts Collaboration
Can you picture what your team might be like if the leader were vulnerable? A leader might say, “I’m not sure that I can do this project alone; let’s join forces.” That’s vulnerable because it admits a weakness, and in turn recruits collaborators.
But collaboration as a result of vulnerability in leadership isn’t always that straightforward. Collaboration can also stem from increased levels of communication, which comes along with vulnerability.
Lowers Work Stress
It can be stressful to pretend to be on your game all the time. It’s inauthentic and it is difficult to maintain the facade. So, it makes sense that vulnerability in leadership lends to the decrease of work stress. By admitting to coworkers that you aren’t perfect, you no longer have to live up to the expectation of perfection.
Improved Communication
Who would guess that sharing little details with others would make your communication easier? This isn’t to say that it’s easy to be vulnerable. Actually, it can be incredibly difficult to put yourself out there. However, by taking the steps toward vulnerability in leadership, leaders have the ability to build improved relationships and improved communications.
How to Be Vulnerable at Work
So, with so many benefits to being a vulnerable leader, you must learn how to be one. There are four main components to focus on when learning vulnerability in leadership.
1. Lead by Example
Do you expect perfection from your team? I’d hope not – if you do, you should probably spend some time studying human beings. No one is perfect. You can lead by example by accepting that you are not perfect, either.
When you mess up, take the appropriate steps to fix things and do better next time. You lead by example, meaning you don’t expect yourself to do the impossible, just like you don’t expect your team to do the impossible.
How else does leading by example result in vulnerability in leadership? Think about how your decision making can be a vulnerable step. When you take a risk, you put yourself out there for failure. Lead by example by taking a risk and accepting the lessons learned from failure. That’s vulnerability in leadership.
2. Honesty is the Best Policy
When it comes to vulnerability in leadership, it’s all about being honest.
“I made this mistake and I apologize to the team for the lost work on this endeavor.”
“I’m having a difficult time in my personal life and I’m struggling to leave it out of the office.”
“My leadership efforts have fallen short lately.”
These are vulnerable statements. These are honest statements. If you want to be vulnerable in leadership, honesty is crucial.
3. Do the Hard Things
The fear of vulnerability is a real thing – and it can be hard. Leaders must do the hard things – that makes them vulnerable. It’s a difficult cycle for many, but it is also vital to a successful leader.
When leaders fail to do difficult things, it’s often because they are terrified of missing the mark. They do things they are certain they can accomplish because there is no threat to embarrassment. However, if you’re aiming for vulnerability in leadership you have to take on the hard things.
Shying away from difficult situations does nothing to encourage vulnerability in yourself. Be vulnerable by doing hard things.
4. Avoid Oversharing, But Toe the Line
Here’s a major factor to remember: vulnerability in leadership does not mean you share every detail of your life with the team. In fact, there are many things in someone’s life that they should probably avoid bringing up in the office.
However, if you are connecting with someone and being vulnerable, there is no need to hold back something that you feel needs to be shared. Be cognizant of what is appropriate for the workplace, but don’t feel like you can’t share an important component of your story because it’s personal.
If you’re struggling to put a picture to this statement, let me give an example.
My husband is a paramedic with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. He is very open about it and is currently working on his master’s in psychology to help other first responders who’ve seen terrible things. Unfortunately, many feel as though they cannot share their struggles with coworkers (or anyone, for that matter). My husband does. It encourages others to do the same. That’s vulnerability in leadership.
Your Vulnerability in Leadership Can Begin Today!
Vulnerability in leadership might sound scary, especially if that’s something you’re not used to. You don’t have to dump your feelings all over the workplace right off the bat, but you can start today. Share a small detail with someone in the office about a hardship. Step outside of your comfort zone. Take a risk.
Your vulnerability in leadership can be a transformative process that completely changes your life and leadership. Try it out!