I’m deeply grateful that I get to not only talk about building a culture of psychological safety within leadership teams but also help them to build it. And that usually entails some exploration of vulnerability.
It’s funny really because working on resilience from the perspective of ‘being strong’ feels like safer territory for many in part I believe because it doesn’t call for as much openness or connection – with oneself, let alone others.
And yet opening up to our group, our tribe, our team about our points of vulnerability, our ‘fears’, our unknowns, almost immediately creates connection of the most profound kind.
Where we maybe fear being seen as weak, we are immediately seen as ‘strong’. One person going first seems to give others permission. It’s a paradox of sorts.
Being in contact with our own vulnerability is, of course, step one and many of us have some great dodges for that. Society doesn’t make it easy either.
Yet things are changing.
Caring, connecting with our humanity, not needing to be perfect, knowing our qualities and values count for as much, if not more, than our doing…the world is calling for this.
When we open to our own vulnerability, we create space for the new to come in – and the same is true with our teams and colleagues. We start to access each others’ resources and join together, truly join together, to work our way through the ‘not knowing’ and that’s deeply empowering and creative.
So for me, vulnerability is a powerful leadership virtue – what do you think?