Why leaders should be experts in showing vulnerability
Most leaders believe that showing vulnerability to the team is not a good idea. They think it can ruin the image they want to convey inside the company.
They believe CEO has to be strong to be seen as a powerful guy by his team and to fulfill his leading role. When you are a leader, you may think that if you are too open to people about your mistakes and shortcomings, you are taking a risk to lose your leading position.
In fact, things happen to be the opposite. I remember once the client working for HP France, told how much she admired her boss because he was doing almost every day “something stupid”. According to my client, her CEO from this large international corporation, had a talent to act in genuine, funny way and he was doing it intentionally! Her intuition was that through this attitude, her boss was showing a key skill in building powerful relations within the team and in reality he was very much respected.
You may be curious why this happens when the manager has the ability to show his vulnerability. The answer is simple ! Daring to show your vulnerability, you appear to your peers as humble and human ! In fact, the manager who is adopting this attitude, is inviting his co-workers to do the same. Being transparent with your own vulnerability is the way to take off your mask and say “Hey, I am here, no matter what you think, this is me and this is the way I want to connect with you !”.
Another important point is that the CEO who is not afraid to show himself as vulnerable and humble, by asking his team for help, is honest with himself and with others. The message he is sending to the world is : a CEO is also a human being, he can make mistakes and doesn’t need to be perfect in every task ! He doesn’t need to master all skills to be an effective leader !
Vulnerability is not only the place of love, self-acceptance and humanity, is also a place of self- improvement.
I will tell you now what’s the most important thing to become a humble manager who can accept that he can be vulnerable ? As a coach, I would say, first, a self-awareness, and second, letting go your strong ego, you developed during your life and career. That sounds challenging, but one thing you can be sure about. If you manage this, it will transform your working relationships and management style from ego-centric to human centric !
There is also another thing to remember, being vulnerable is a great way of learning, because it makes you open to new experiences that you would never try before.
During this week of our LeadWise Program we were exploring the value of authenticity in self-managed companies. Two rules as a guidelines of self-managing organization brought by our special guest, Doug Kirkpatrick from MorningStar, made a big impression on me : “People shouldn’t use force against each other”, and, “People should keep commitments to each other.” Doug explained us how Morning Star was building the whole structure on this. In the end, he just condluded : “Without that, there can be no trust !”
How MS is really walking the talk ? The company is making a big effort to explain people the role of commitment in the organization through the Commitment Circle App. All the system is based on clarity, transparency and authority, and everybody can participate in important decisions.
The most powerful tip I took away from this session : the 1st step from top-down to self-managed organization is training people in commitment.
The DDO companies (deliberately developmental organizations) are using the principle : Better Me + Better You = Better Us. That means that business is seen as a place of people’s growth.
Most of people agree that push your boundaries and grow, you need first become aware of your edges, then reflect on them with someone, then make commitments and set your goal to transform yourself. DDO organizations understood well that individual growth is also a company growth. That’s why their goal is to support people in becoming their better “selves”.
In order to experience the path, during the past week, our assignment was to set our ITC (Immunity to change) map. Even If I assessed myself many times before, It appeared to be quite painful task. Diving into all my edges requires from you quite a lot of courage and determination. Finally, I am glad I made this journey and am thrilled to share my work with everybody here.
Although, it seems risky in the beginning to share my edges with others , it can be only an exceptional opportunity to grow as an individual and as a leader ! Sharing my insights means for me fully accepting the stage where I am now, and seeing in much more clear way my future potential of growth.
Here is my personal ITC map : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZvRTkcgFeQHmwk22-CvdJd4LX-UGfvtB/view?usp=sharing
