We Need to Talk about Vulnerability

Vulnerable sounds weak, right? But vulnerability simply is the expression of doubt or uncertainty. Sometimes, you know, saying I don't know is vulnerable, right?

Saying this is going to be difficult is vulnerable. I think a lot of leaders pretend they have all the answers or pretend that they have no uncertainty. And of course, that's nonsense, because we all have uncertainty. We all have doubt.

Now, you can't come to work and go, oh, my God, the whole thing's going to crash. That's just equally unrealistic. But when you have a company that allows for people to feel vulnerable, that means someone can raise their hand and say, I made a mistake or I need help, or I don't understand, or I'm having trouble at home and it's affecting my work, or I'm scared without any fear of humiliation or retribution. But rather, they say it with confidence that someone will rush to support them. And the way that you encourage that kind of culture is that the leaders have to set the example. And so during COVID.

When I was struggling, we all went through a period of really mental struggle. I said to my team, I'm off my game. I'm really. I'm struggling. You know, it's getting to me, and I just need your help and your patience that I may be pretty slow to respond and not have it very effective for now. And I said that. And that allowed other people to speak up so that we could be there for them. But if I pretended that everything was fine and everything was good the whole time, then everybody's going to pretend everything's fine and everything's good, and then how can we be there to support each other until they crash? So I think vulnerability is just being a little more open. And the irony is it takes tremendous courage and strength to express vulnerability. It's actually strong to be vulnerable. It actually is very weak to pretend that everything's fine.