Lead By Being Vulnerable

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sat, 22 Jun 2019, 04:58 PM

10 Leaders: Be vulnerable and honest to lead with authenticity and earn the trust of your people while getting top results.

Here’s how:

Bill Adams, co-founder and CEO of Salt Lake City, Utah-based leadership consulting firm Full Circle Group, has worked with business leaders or been one himself for more than three decades. He has learned the most common trait in successful leaders is they’re humble and confident. Authenticity, he says, is the key to being humble.

“It shows up in how people experience that leader, in seeing that they’re real,” Adams told.

Vulnerability plays a key role. Part of being authentic is admitting you’re not perfect and don’t have all the answers. If leaders show they’re vulnerable, people are willing to follow them, says Adams, coauthor with Full Circle co-founder Bob Anderson of “Scaling Leadership.”

“It brings people in,” he said. “It’s an invitation to be human.”

A global Gallup study reveals most employees are either not engaged or are actively disengaged at work.

Those employees, says Tim Eisenhauer, president and co-founder of San Diego-based intranet and collaboration software maker Axero, are the most affected by bosses who aren’t sincere and never seem real or vulnerable.

“Add that up and showing your human side becomes the gold mine of employee engagement,” said Eisenhauer, author of “Who the Hell Wants to Work for You?”

Being Authentic

Eisenhauer says authenticity is as basic as this: Keep your promises and don’t lie. He lived up to that shortly after launching Axero and landing a difficult customer. While subcontractors dropped him, Eisenhauer and Axero finished the job and kept their word. Other customers later rewarded his firm for that trait.

Adams worked recently with a manufacturing company. One woman who was a leader there said she viewed vulnerability as a weakness, due to the way she grew up. She recently got frustrated while dealing with a co-worker and treated that person poorly. She later went back to say she was wrong.

“The impact wasn’t just on her associate but on her, too,” Adams said. “It brings transparency and energy to a relationship.”

Vulnerability Shows Strength

Being vulnerable builds trust, another key to success for leaders, Adams says. It pays to be open about your weaknesses.

“In a team environment, I can be vulnerable and say I need help, and admitting that won’t be used against me,” Adams said. “Then trust gets deeper. But if we’re vulnerable and it’s used against us, then trust evaporates.”

Authenticity stems from honesty, too. What really separates leaders is being able to relate to others, Adams says. He was in a bad mood recently and talked about it in a meeting. He told others he might not be at his best.

“The minute I was authentic, things changed for me and for them,” he said.

Show Who You Are

Open up to your employees, not just about work but about your life outside the office, too.

“Trust your people to know you as a person,” Eisenhauer said. “You’ll find them a lot more responsive than if you just rely on your capacity as manager.”

Show others it’s OK to open up and be vulnerable, too. “Speak your mind and make it OK for everyone to do the same,” he said.

Listen to your people. Pay attention and ask questions.

“Get everything on the table,” he said. “The only way to earn their trust is to get what they are saying and why it’s important to them. Trust is usually reciprocated. And being trusted makes everyone more willing to do the work.”

Ed Catmull, co-founder of animation studio Pixar, told Adams creativity soared after he encouraged honest feedback and authenticity among his people. That saves time because people don’t have to have extra meetings to be honest. And people know where they stand.

“It helps you become more efficient,” Adams said.

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