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leadership in 2021

What Does Leadership Look Like In 2021?

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What Does Leadership Look Like in 2021?

Businesses across every industry were forced to make dramatic changes to the ways in which they operate over the past year. Business leaders, managers and their teams have had to adapt rapidly to (in many cases) entirely new procedures. Our senior managers and HR leaders have been at the forefront of implementing these changes to ensure success at every level. How has this last 12 months changed our perception of leadership? How have our expectations of those in leadership changed as a result? The challenges that we faced and will continue to be around as a result of COVID-19 have forced us to take a closer look at what it means to be a great leader, especially during times of crisis, and its recovery. What lessons were learned? And of course, the big question on everyone’s list is what does leadership look like in 2021?

Trust

Leadership is about more than simply being given the role of ‘leader.’ It is an important quality within a person that inspires others to be at their best. Great leaders are able to do this by creating trusting and supportive environments wherein their team are empowered to develop skills and build confidence in themselves. With many businesses still restricting some of their in-person operations, it is even more important that managers are able to trust their employees to continue to perform their role to the same standards expected of them in the office or workplace. Likewise, those same employees must also be able to trust their leaders to provide the same level of support they would receive were they not working remotely. Trust is a big part of organisational performance and evidence suggests that during COVID-19 those high performance teams who already have well established trust, performed equal to pre-COVID-19 if not higher. Yet, those teams with lower trust experienced a decline in performance.

Communication

As with trust, remote operating procedures have highlighted the importance of having excellent communication within a team. It is a skill that we can not afford to overlook. For leaders this means being able to deliver ideas and feedback by being authentic. Authentic in the sense that the language used isn’t comprised of, nor do we hide behind a lot of complicated jargon; rather, it is your own authentic voice. This lets your team know that you are being yourself and not keeping information from them. In turn, this can help to build trust between you and your team. Interestingly at The Leadership Sphere we have seen an increase in businesses looking for high performance teams training, support with development around performance management, and coaching to help senior managers and leaders with giving and receiving feedback.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is an important skill for leaders. Just like trust and communication,it becomes even more important during times of crisis. By developing this skillset through leadership development programs, leaders are able to gain a deeper understanding of the concerns of their team. The key word here being leadership development programs, rather than one off courses, that is a program of ongoing workshops, coaching and reviews that enable self awareness, self reflection and 360 degree feedback along the way. In doing this, they are also better equipped to guide their teams through the challenges they face both day-to-day, as well as on the global scale experienced recently. We can look at the extreme challenges brought on by the pandemic as an opportunity to reflect on our understanding of our emotional intelligence and how this affects the ways we behave during difficult situations.

“Great leaders not only must respond to change, but often be the driving force behind it.”

Flexibility

Change is an ever present part of any industry and must be met with flexibility. Great leaders not only must respond to change, but often be the driving force behind it. Having the ability to adapt quickly to unexpected or unfamiliar situations is a skill that allows for productivity to continue, even in times of transition or uncertainty. Leadership development programs can help leaders learn how to navigate change by giving them the tools needed to become more receptive of innovation. Being a flexible leader means you are able to embrace change and are open to new ideas. There have been increasing requests for support with performance management as part of The Leadership Sphere leadership development programs and high performance culture workshops, and these have been invested by organisations who are looking at change across their business and building more flexibility and resilience into their leaders and senior managers.

What does this mean for the future of leadership?

For leaders moving forward, it is imperative that we continue to embrace each new challenge that awaits us. Not to do so would be detrimental to the success and growth of any business. It is only by reflecting on the successful ways business and leadership styles have been forced to adapt, that we can recognise the path we must follow into the future. By engaging expertise from The Leadership Sphere and building out a leadership development framework and supporting leadership development and high performance development program, managers are able to strengthen their ability to lead with trust and the support of their team.

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

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What Does Leadership Look Like In 2021?

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5 Benefits of Executive Coaching

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5 Benefits of Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is an important tool of leadership development because it allows those in positions of leadership the opportunity to become responsible for their own learning and development. It differs from other leadership development programs in that it can be a much more collaborative experience between participant and coach. Executive coaching provides an individually tailored approach to helping leaders understand their strengths, how they are perceived by others, as well as creating a safe space for them to grow and work through new ideas. All of this is crucial for leaders who may benefit from the presence of a trustworthy environment in which they can be supported. It also provides a safe place for leaders to take time out and reflect on past, present and future events and that helps minimise risk and maximise opportunities for the leader and the teams they are responsible for.

Navigate Change

Change is constant in all areas of life, but particularly in business. Organisational change can be difficult to implement without the skills to do so. Executive coaching can be a beneficial resource during times of change or transition to aid managers in leading their teams through it. 

Objective Support and Feedback

Executive positions come with the expectation that they will hold the answers to questions posed by their teams. What tends to happen far too often is that the higher a position a leader holds within an organisation, the more difficult it is to receive support. This support can be given by executive coaches who take on a mentor role for leaders. They provide a confidential space that allows leaders to work through issues, new ideas, and make decisions. The objectivity of executive coaching means they can provide constructive feedback free from any potential agenda. Their feedback may stem from their own observations of the organisation or executive coaching programs like the Hogan 360 Report.

Customised Leadership Development

The benefits of coaching encompass the development of critical leadership skills and qualities with time and space dedicated to providing leaders with the opportunity. While there are countless leadership development options available, not all of them will be beneficial to all organisations or indeed, all leaders. Executive coaching programs focus on providing tailored solutions that meet the specific needs of the individual and their position. By customising the executive coaching program to the individual, leaders can achieve their goals and have an easier time incorporating their learning into the workplace. 

While there are countless leadership development options available, not all of them will be beneficial to all organisations or indeed, all leaders.

Improved Productivity to Achieve Results

A main objective of leadership is to ensure that you and your team achieve results. Coaching programs help to enhance goal management and achievement by strengthening skills in performance, support and productivity. Productivity is particularly important for achieving results. There has been a prevalent culture in business of working later and longer in order to ‘prove’ our dedication and commitment; when often all this does is overwork us, create stress, lead to poorer quality work, and in fact, decrease productivity. Executive coaching provides refreshed solutions to bettering work-life balance and productivity that directly leads to achieving results. 

Builds Confidence

No matter who we are, or what position we hold within our organisation, we are all prone to self-doubt every now and then. As leaders, we often feel as though we aren’t ‘allowed’ to be anything less than completely confident at all times. When we don’t, we may begin to overthink or second guess our skills as a leader. Executive coaching provides the opportunity for you to strengthen your existing skills in a way that encourages you to take ownership of your development and become confident in utilising your abilities in the workplace. Coaches can also help leaders to remain balanced over time and deal with the ups and downs that are all part of being a leader!

The benefits of coaching are far reaching not only for the participants, but the teams they lead. Great leaders can not begin or continue to serve their teams without also attaining support themselves. When leaders have the confidence to realise their full potential, they can better navigate challenges and assist their team in reaching goals. For this reason, The Leadership Sphere understands the importance of creating customised programs that are based on leveraging strengths and addressing capability gaps identified using the assessment tool that best suits your situation. 

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

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Trust is the Key to Healthy and High Performing Teams

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Trust is the Key to Healthy and High Performing Teams

A lack of trust in a relationship can be distressing – in teams it can be devastating. It can take a huge personal toll and in teams it can light the fuse of self-destruction. Relationships fracture, shaming and blaming are prevalent, productivity goes out the window, reputations are soiled, and people leave. While not all teams suffer from these extremes of course, the consequences of low or patchy trust severely reduce the work a team should produce and also impacts our own sense of engagement and energy.

Conversely, high trust organisations experience 32x greater risk-taking, 11x more innovation, and 6x higher performance (Edelman Trust Barometer). And at a human level, treating each other with respect and forming good relationships feels like the right thing to do. 

In this article we’ll discuss why trust may be the most important element that needs to be present in a team. In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we laid the foundation about why braver leadership and fostering more courageous cultures in our organisations matters. In Part 3, we explored vulnerability and in Part 4 we identified that values form the touchstone of who we are and how we show up. And sometimes, our values are all we have as we enter the arena. According to Brené Brown, brave leadership and courageous cultures require four kill sets: (1) Rumbling with Vulnerability; (2) Living into Our Values; (3) BRAVING Trust and (4) Learning to Rise. 

Why Saying ‘People Have to Earn My Trust’ is a Cop Out

Over the years I have heard repeatedly from leaders that people ‘have to earn my trust.’ The problem with this management credo is that it requires others to do the heavy lifting while the person who holds this belief sits back to assess whether they’re up to it. This isn’t how trust works except if we view trust in a transactional sense – you have a job to do or task to complete. Did you complete it successfully? If yes, transactional trust increases. If not, transactional trust goes down. If transactional trust is all you want, then go for it. But transactional trust is just that – it revolves around a task. Real trust, the type that propels a team’s performance, is much broader and deeper. Real trust requires vulnerability and vulnerability requires trust in a dynamic interplay. 

In this article, we will further explore trust – a topic that has been written about extensively, indicating its importance – and challenges. Trust is a big topic. Given that this series revolves around the work of Brené Brown and in particular her book Dare to Lead, we will focus on her framing of trust through the mnemonic BRAVING.

“Real trust requires vulnerability and vulnerability requires trust in a dynamic interplay.”

BRAVING Trust

BRAVING Trust is a mnemonic formulated by Brené Brown (Dare to Lead) and it stands for:

Boundaries: You respect my boundaries, and when you’re not clear about what’s okay and not okay, you ask. You’re willing to say no. Boundary management, as I like to call it, means that we establish our boundaries, communicate them, and then provide feedback if they’re not respected. An example for me is being clear about timeliness around meetings whether in a professional or personal context. For example, if I anticipate being any more than 1-2 minutes late for a dentist or hairdresser appointment, I will phone ahead to let them know. Sometimes they are surprised, but mostly they are grateful for the courtesy.

Reliability: You do what you say you’ll do. At work, this means staying aware of your competencies and limitations so you don’t overpromise and are able to deliver on commitments and balance competing priorities. This can sometimes be a challenge, but the question is ‘Do you deliver what you say you will deliver?’. Again, I see this as related to timeliness and keeping our promises and commitments. If you say the report will be done by Wednesday, to build your reliability muscle, it should be there on Wednesday before close of business.

Accountability: You own your mistakes, apologise, and make amends. In Part 4 (Values), several examples of value-destroying leadership were outlined or what I termed ‘Breakers’ (value-destruction) as opposed to ‘Builders’ (value-creation). All too often we hear and see ‘everyone was accountable and no-one was accountable’. We must strive for single points of accountability. This is different to responsibility, which is about who is actually performing the work. 

Vault: You don’t share information or experiences that are not yours to share. We need to know that my confidences are kept, and that you’re not sharing with me any information about other people that should be confidential. Brené Brown describes people who share information inappropriately as those who try to ‘hotwire connection’. It doesn’t work because people start to wonder what they might share about their conversations with you.

Integrity: You choose courage over comfort. You choose what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy. And you choose to practice your values rather than simply professing them. This is similar to ethical leadership in that we need to determine what is right. Brave leadership is actually doing it, even if its hard. So we can be either ‘in integrity’ with a stated value or ‘out of integrity’. It’s about our behaviours, not our intentions. Someone once said that we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions.

Nonjudgment: I can ask for what I need, and you can ask for what you need. We can talk about how we feel without judgment. We can ask each other for help without judgment. Judgment is very easy and seductive. Our primitive brains, built to help us survive, are prone to judging others. We stereotype, put people in a box, or dismiss them based on our judgement. At the very least, it is likely our approach and behaviour will change around that person as result of our biases and judgment. usually in a negative way.

Generosity: You extend the most generous interpretation possible to the intentions, words, and actions of others. Generosity is closely related to judgment and is in fact the opposite. If we are able to hold a positive interpretation of other’s behaviour, we will open our minds to other alternate explanations to why someone did what they did. Being generous with others allows them to grow, flourish and perform better. It is important to note that being generous in this way doesn’t mean that we don’t hold people accountable. On the contrary, the research suggests that the people who are the most generous are also the clearest about their boundaries – in other words what is okay and not okay. When boundaries are loose or non-existent, then the interplay or dance between two people can become muddied. When boundaries are clear, it is immediately apparent if someone has acted within our boundaries or not.


I recommend that you focus on one element of BRAVING Trust for others and for yourself for 21 days, then shift the focus. In terms of others, you could practice Reliability by being exactly on time for everything (and if you’re not going to be let people know well ahead of time). We incorporate the building of habits such as these via our online Habit Builder application, which helps people track their progress as well as make journal entries to help their learning. In terms of Reliability for yourself, you might set one personal goal around exercise or something else that is just about you – and then stick to it. 

Phil is the Managing Director of The Leadership Sphere, a firm that focusses exclusively on strategy, leadership and performance. He is a Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator, conducting public and in-house Dare to Lead programs for teams and organisations.

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Trust is the Key to Healthy and High Performing Teams

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How To Transform High Potential Talent Into Future Leaders

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How To Transform High Potential Talent Into Future Leaders

One of the defining characteristics of a great leader is their ability to recognise the talents of members in their team. In doing so, you are able to nurture those talents and provide people with the opportunity for growth and becoming a future leader. One way in which this might be achieved is through investing time in high potential talent programs. A major benefit of high potential talent programs is the focus on building on existing strengths, rather than addressing weaknesses. Other key factors to take into account when considering leadership development programs is determining who will take part, and in fact, how we decide this is significant too. We mustn’t assume that the familiar choices are also the right ones. In order for our future leaders to be part of a global community, they should also stem from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Deciding Who Takes Part

When determining who within our teams displays high potential talent, it is vital that we make a conscious decision to remain as objective as possible. A true assessment of talent can not be made if managers are only nominating those to whom they feel personally connected. This is especially true if said managers have been directly involved in a person’s development up to this point. We must learn to look beyond the seemingly obvious choices and consider, without bias, the skills and potential of everyone. By remaining neutral and vetting everyone on an equal scale, we are able to avoid overlooking someone who might not yet be visible in the organisational hierarchy. 

High Potential Experience

On what basis should we now be deciding who we nominate for executive leadership training in order to create this unbiased and equal scale we’ve assigned ourselves? What you and your company require in your leaders will be specific to you, and will be reflected in what you consider to be high potential talent. But it is important that don’t limit this to any one particular skillset. Some individuals may be highly skilled in giving presentations but lack the ability to share what they gained from the experience at on a more significant level.

Focus on Strengths

Often leadership development programs are undertaken in order to solve existing problems or address particular weaknesses. While that is certainly necessary for improving shortcomings, it is a ‘reactive’ approach. In order to transform high potential talent into future leaders, the approach should be a ‘proactive’ one. Think about what your leaders do well already and how those skills might be built upon.  This provides them (and you) with the reassurance that should unexpected challenges arise, they are well equipped to face them. Focusing on strengths is a clear indicator to your team that you value their skills and are willing to invest in their potential. 

Ongoing Learning

How high performance team programs are delivered can be just as crucial to their success as the content within them. While an all encompassing intensive face to face program can excite and motivate participants in their jumping off point, it can also be overwhelming. The ability to connect and incorporate the learning to the daily schedules we operate under keeps it in the forefront of our minds. An example of a staged learning program is The Leadership Sphere’s Dare to Lead program is an 8 week virtual course that requires participants to engage with the material regularly outside of the weekly facilitator lead sessions. Unlike shorter programs, this allows participants to receive further support in their learning as they begin putting it into practice.

Creating a Shared Journey

The benefits of high potential talent programs have far greater reach when they have the support of not only course facilitators, but of their peers as well. By partaking in future leaders development as a team, you are creating a shared experience and a shared journey. The fostered sense of community and accountability produces a collective purpose that can be both inspiring and motivating. 

Becoming Part of  a Global Community

Truly effective development programs should encourage curiosity in having a greater worldview. In times where globalisation is increasing rapidly, having a global mindset could prove invaluable for the growth of any business. Our future leaders would be well served (and well serving) to be given the opportunity for boundary-less learning. Being equipped with an understanding of how international workplace cultures differ from our own, could be what sets your leaders above the crowd.

There are a number of benefits to high performance team programs, and The Leadership Sphere encapsulates many that have been looked at above. Investing in talent development leads to almost limitless growth potential over the long term. 

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can support your leaders with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

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Why Values Work Better in the Arena than Armour

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Why Values Work Better in the Arena than Armour

When we feel frightened, tired, alone, up against it or under pressure, it can be tempting to want to protect ourselves by putting on the armour when we walk into the field or play or arena. When we armour up however, we are much more likely to create the very outcomes we’re trying to avoid – disconnection, a lack of engagement, or trying to preserve our sense of identity – at least how we perceive it or want it to be perceived. This is a powerful paradox. The harder we try to prove that we’re capable, have it all together and are worthy of people’s trust and acceptance, the more likely we are to destroy it. Hustling for our worth is a zero-sum game. It destroys the very heart of leadership – value creation.

The arena is the metaphor used by Brené Brown in her book  Dare to Lead,, based on the speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris in 1910. In this article, we’ll discuss why values might be all you have to take into the arena – and sometimes, all you should take into the arena. 


In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we laid the foundation about why braver leadership and fostering more courageous cultures in our organisations matters.  In Part 3, we got a better understanding of vulnerability. According to Brené Brown, brave leadership and courageous cultures require four kill sets: (1) Rumbling with Vulnerability; (2) Living into Our Values; (3) BRAVING Trust and (4) Learning to Rise.

The Arena

As Brené Brown says, “In those tough matches, when the critics are being extra loud and rowdy, it’s easy to start hustling—to try to prove, perfect, perform, and please.” In these moments, we forget why we are in the arena, which is particularly interesting given our values – our core beliefs – is what led us to the arena in the first place.

According to the research conducted by Brené and the team, the daring leaders who were interviewed were never empty-handed in the arena. In addition to rumble skills and tools, they always carried with them clarity of values. 

Let’s start by defining values, again through the lens of Dare to Lead. A value is a way of being or believing that we hold most important. Living into our values means that we do more than profess our values, we practice them. Values guide us, prompt us into action, and help us make the right decision.

Why We Need Better Leaders

The central role of leadership is value-creation, whether in our organisations, government, not-for-profit entities or our local school. And in order to create value – at least in the long term – we need to be able to practice effective leadership. I believe real leadership consists of two dimensions or pillars: ethical leadership, represented by asking is it the right thing to do and brave leadership, represented by actually doing the right thing, even if it’s hard.

VALUE-CREATING LEADERSHIP = ETHICAL LEADERSHIP + BRAVE LEADERSHIP

Ethical leadership is best served by firstly knowing our values and then living by them. Brave leadership is best served by taking off our self-protecting armour and leaning into the work with purpose, grit and courage. 

We have seen some very prominent examples recently where ethical decision making and actions were not present and it destroyed value – literally. In May, the mining giant Rio Tinto destroyed two rock shelters that demonstrated 46,000 years of continuous human occupation in the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara (Western Australia). The aftermath was fascinating and disturbing. 

Rio Tinto’s own internal review concluded that “Everyone and no-one was accountable.” The company stripped around $7million in bonuses from three executives but it didn’t recommend anyone being stood down. 

Shareholders and various stakeholder groups were not happy, believing that the penalty didn’t fit the ‘crime’.  After enormous pressure, Rio Tinto boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two senior executives will be replaced after an investor revolt forced the mining giant’s board to escalate its response.

There are numerous examples of failures of leadership, evidenced by the number of royal commissions and inquiries we’ve had in the last few years (e.g. Aged care, Mental Health, use of police informants, Hotel quarantine around COVID-19 in Victoria, and currently Crown Casino and it’s links to Asian syndicates and money laundering).

And every day in our organisations, we still tolerate bad behaviour in the form of bullying, sexual harassment, or people being treated poorly. We must demand a higher standard of behaviour in organisations and society for that matter. We must demand braver leadership. 

The question for each and every one of us is, “Are you a builder or a breaker?” 

Breakers destroy value through their actions or lack of actions, including trying to prove they’re right, using shame and blame to manage themselves and others, leading through compliance and control, not having the difficult conversations, professing values rather than practicing values, leading reactively, resisting change, and getting stuck by failures, setbacks and disappointments. It’s what Brené Brown calls armoured leadership.

Leaders and teams alike face serious problems showing up in a vulnerable way at work; instead, sabotaging themselves and others and killing real collaboration, trust, innovation and creativity. 

Value creators – or Builders – create value by living in accordance with their values and what is deemed to be ethically sound by basic human standards. Builders work to create high-trust, safe workplaces where people can truly show up and be their best. 

Living into our values means firstly knowing our values and then actually living by them. It means being able to foster more humanistic organisational cultures. To do this, we need to continue to develop our level of self-awareness and courage skills.  We need to confront our own cognitive biases, limitations and fears. 

We need to work harder to cultivate braver, values-based leaders.

The author is a Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator. You can find out more about our in-person and virtual Dare Lead Courses here.

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Five Reasons You Should Invest Time In Building Your Team’s Skills

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5 Reasons You Should Invest Time in Building Your Team’s Skills

In a recent article, we spoke about the Five Benefits of Leadership Development You Need to Know About. We’ve already taken a closer look at one of the benefits outlined in that article – better communication. Now we will continue to explore how leadership development plays a pivotal role in the creation of each of the five benefits, with the second theme to be discussed being Recognising Talent.

One key to any company’s success is having the right people in the right roles. But how do we know who that might be? And how do we avoid overlooking someone who doesn’t appear to be the obvious choice?

Here are five compelling reasons to invest in your team:

1. Demonstrate Commitment to your Employees

Offering leadership development opportunities shows your employees that you are willing to go the extra mile to help them progress in their careers and within the business. It also signifies that you are dedicated to the betterment of the business as a whole by choosing to invest in your team rather than seeking to fill roles externally.

2. Nurture Future Leaders

A primary objective of any leadership development program is to provide employees with the opportunity to expand their skills and grow their career opportunities. Perhaps the perfect candidate to fill an important leadership position is already working within the company but doesn’t ordinarily get the chance to step into such a role. By investing in the potential of your future leaders, you support succession planning and ensure that your teams are built upon a strong foundation.

3. Diversify Employee Skillsets

Similar to what we’ve mentioned above, ‘up-skilling’ your employees to be able to perform in leadership roles will help to grow the effectiveness of your business. When each member of your team is well adept in a variety of areas – or ‘multi-skilled’ – they are able to perform better within those areas. This is vital in ensuring that they are capable of understanding different aspects of the business and can transition into other roles with greater ease.

4. Promote Employee Engagement 

Engaged employees have higher levels of enthusiasm and commitment to their work.  When we feel supported by our leaders, we are more motivated to work better and continuously for them. By providing support in the form of leadership development training, employees can see that there are opportunities for growth and upward mobility.

5. Creates Consistency

By providing the same leadership development opportunities to all employees, your entire team becomes more knowledgeable about tasks, processes and productivity. This increases the efficiency of the entire company when everyone has a clear understanding of how to best get tasks accomplished. It becomes easier to identify areas of concern, reach goals and meet targets.

When managers make an effort to provide all employees with opportunities to develop their skill set beyond the basics of their current position, the benefits are far-reaching. Not only does this create a more engaged team, but it also allows leaders to identify those people who are deserving of greater recognition and opportunity. In doing so, you are able to build and cultivate a strong team with aligned goals and motives.

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How to Improve Communication Between You and Your Team

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How to Improve Communication Between You and Your Team

In a recent article, we spoke about the Five Benefits of Leadership Development You Need to Know About. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be delving a little deeper into each of the benefits outlined in that article and exploring the integral role that leadership development plays in creating them. The first theme that we’re going to discuss is Better Communication.

Often, when there are issues facing any team or business, the key to finding – and then implementing – a solution is improving communication. We need to have the tools to be able to hear the concerns facing us, as well as the know-how to introduce long-lasting change.

Why communication is important for leaders

Building Trust – Communication is one of the best possible ways to build trust among employees. This is a two-fold process of not only being able to effectively get our own ideas across but also having the ability to listen to the ideas and concerns of others. It is in doing the latter that we begin to see trusting relationships form.

Fostering Unity – When we make the effort to communicate clearly with each other, the chances of being misinterpreted are far less. This is especially important for those in leadership positions. It alleviates the need for clarification and thus ensures that the whole team knows and understands the common goal.

Better Negotiators – Being able to negotiate in a fair and informed way makes for excellent communication. They are informed, consistent and receptive.

How to develop better communication

#1 Listen

Often overlooked, listening is an essential skill to focus on when developing our communication skills. Most people are sometimes too focused on what they want to say next that they don’t pay as much attention as they should to what the other person is saying. By listening closely and asking questions, we show the person or people, we’re speaking with that they have our respect and that their ideas are valued. Also, practice listening ‘beyond the words’ by listening for the real meaning behind what they’re saying. What values seem important to them?

#2 Over-explain

While at first, this may seem counterintuitive to the idea of communicating effectively, when we are talking about communicating clearly, repetition can be a vital factor. This can include repeating the important points to ensure you are being understood. You may also find repeating or rephrasing the other person’s ideas in the form of a question, to be a useful tool in securing your own understanding of them.

#3 Know Your Audience

We wouldn’t speak to our colleagues, in the same manner, we speak to our families. We tailor the way speak to different groups of people in a way that is appropriate for the relationship we have with those people. You may have a well-developed shorthand way of communicating within your team that allows you to communicate complex ideas quite concisely. However, with a new team member, you may have to take more time to carefully explain yourself in order to get the same message across. And avoid jargon!

#4 Mindfulness

Similar to listening and knowing your audience, mindfulness in a communication context is about being aware of how you are being perceived. What kind of tone are you using? Is this the appropriate time and place to have this discussion? What is the intention behind your message? Ask yourself these questions before jumping into the conversation.

Remember that communication is about much more than just what you say. It’s also about how you say it, why you say it and when you say it. It can even be about what you don’t say. We are communicating all of the time, so be more mindful of what you are communicating, even when you’re not speaking. Lastly, be open to hearing the opinions and ideas of others too. Effective leadership communication is fertile ground for long, trusting relationships.

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Leading Through Trust Series: Relationships

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Leading Through Trust Series: Relationships

How do we build a strong, positive relationships? Did you know that having good friends in the workplace can boost your job satisfaction? How good are the relationships that you have with your colleagues?

According to the Gallup Organization, people who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs. And it doesn’t have to be a best friend: Gallup found that people who simply had a good friend in the workplace are more likely to be satisfied. In this article, we’re looking at how you can build strong, positive relationships at work. We’ll see why it’s important to have good working relationships, and we’ll look at how to strengthen your relationships with people that you don’t naturally get on with.

Human beings are naturally social creatures – we crave friendship and positive interactions, just as we do food and water. So, it makes sense that the better our relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we’re going to be. Good working relationships give us several other benefits: our work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. Also, people are more likely to go along with changes that we want to implement, and we’re more innovative and creative. What’s more, good relationships give us freedom: instead of spending time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships, we can, instead, focus on opportunities.

This is the third article in a six part series on trust. You can read about how to be more transparent here.

Defining a Good Relationship

There are several characteristics that make up good, healthy working relationships:

Trust – This is the foundation of every good relationship. When you trust your team and colleagues, you form a powerful bond that helps you to work and communicate more effectively. If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions, and you don’t have to waste time and energy “watching your back.”

Mutual Respect – When you respect the people who you work with, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective insight, wisdom and creativity.

Mindfulness – This means taking responsibility for your words and actions. Those who are mindful are careful and attend to what they say, and they don’t let their own negative emotions impact the people around them.

Diversity – People with good relationships not only accept diverse people and opinions, but they welcome them. For instance, when your friends and colleagues offer different opinions from yours, you take the time to consider what they have to say and factor their insights into your decision-making.

Open Communication – We communicate all day, whether we’re sending emails or meeting face to face. The better and more effectively you communicate with those around you, the richer your relationships will be. All good relationships depend on open, honest communication.

How to Build Good Relationships

Although we should try to build and maintain good working relationships with everyone, there are certain relationships that deserve extra attention. For instance, you’ll likely benefit from developing good relationships with not only your team members but also key stakeholders in your organisation. These are the people who have a stake in your success or failure. Forming a bond with these people will help you to ensure that your projects and career, stay on track.

#1: Develop Your People Skills

Good relationships start with good people skills. But first, we each need to identify our own relationship needs. Do you know what you need from others? And do you know what they need from you? Understanding these needs can be instrumental in building better relationships.

#2: Schedule Time to Build Relationships 

I sometimes hear team leaders – or members of the team themselves – say that they haven’t caught up 1-on-1 for several weeks. In order to build trust, team leaders must devote sufficient time towards relationship building. So, how frequently you should catch up with team members? I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules, but what I recommend is weekly 15-minute conversations, with one of those per month being a longer meeting which is not about their to-do lists, tasks or projects.

Instead, it’s about them. Ask them how they’re doing, ask them what support they need, ask them about relationships in the team, and finally, ask them about their role and their level of engagement. This can also move to a broader career discussion. Ask ‘what else can I do to support you having a stimulating and enjoyable place in the team?’ It goes a long way, believe me.

Don’t forget the little moments that matter – for example by saying good morning to people, checking in regularly even just for 30 seconds. These little interactions help build the foundation of a good relationship, especially if they’re face-to-face.

#3: Focus on Your EI

Also, spend time developing your emotional intelligence (EI). Among other things, this is your ability to recognise your own emotions, and clearly understand what they’re telling you. High EI also helps you to understand the emotions and needs of others which is the focus of the next level – Understanding.

#4: Appreciate Others

Show your appreciation whenever someone helps you. Everyone, from your boss to the office cleaner, wants to feel that their work is appreciated. So, genuinely compliment the people around you when they do something well. This will open the door to great work relationships.

#5: Be Positive

Focus on being positive. Positivity is attractive and contagious, and it will help strengthen your relationships with your colleagues. No one wants to be around someone who’s negative all the time.

#6: Manage Your Boundaries

Make sure that you set and manage boundaries properly – all of us want to have friends at work, but, occasionally, a friendship can start to impact our jobs, especially when a friend or colleague begins to monopolize our time. If this happens, it’s important that you’re assertive about your boundaries, and that you know how much time you can devote during the workday for social interactions.

#7: Avoid Gossiping

Don’t gossip – office politics and “gossip” are major relationship killers at work. If you’re experiencing conflict with someone in your group, talk to them directly about the problem. Gossiping about the situation with other colleagues will only exacerbate the situation and will cause mistrust and animosity between you. You may have heard the terms ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’. Above the line is about taking ownership, accountability and responsibility for things that happen, whereas below the line is when our behaviour can be damaging. It’s about blame, excuses and denial. It’s toxic. Gossiping or talking badly about people behind their back is below the line. As a leader, we must try really hard not to do this.

#8: Listen Actively

Practice active listening when you talk to your customers and colleagues. People respond to those who truly listen to what they have to say. Focus on listening more than you talk, and you’ll quickly become known as someone who can be trusted.

Difficult Relationships

Occasionally, you’ll have to work with someone you don’t like, or someone that you simply can’t relate to. But, for the sake of your work, it’s essential that you maintain a professional relationship with him. When this happens, make an effort to get to know the person. It’s likely that she knows full well that the two of you aren’t on the best terms, so make the first move to improve the relationship by engaging him in a genuine conversation, or by inviting him out to lunch. While you’re talking, try not to be too guarded. Ask him about his background, interests and past successes. Instead of putting energy into your differences, focus on finding things that you have in common. Just remember – not all relationships will be great; but you can make sure that they are, at least, workable!

Next time, we will talk about Understanding.

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Leading Through Trust Series: Relationships

Vulnerability in Leadership

Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a Buzzword? (Part 2)

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Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a Buzzword? (Part 2)

In part 1 of this two-part article, “Vulnerability in Leadership: More than Just a Buzzword“, I discussed vulnerability as a key leadership strength.  It’s an idea and principle that is increasingly referenced in leadership literature and in organisations. Despite this growing awareness, vulnerability is still usually associated with weakness. That’s unfortunate – because vulnerability is such a critical leadership quality that it deserves serious attention.

I also mentioned in part 1 that I, like many others, stand on the shoulders of giants like Dr Brown. I’m very excited to be heading to the US in November to complete the Dare to Lead accreditation program.  In it we will further explore concepts such as courage, vulnerability, shame, the gifts of imperfection, rising strong and brave, and deeper hearts and minds work. I look forward to sharing the learnings with clients here in Australia and abroad to develop effective leadership skills.

In part 1, we look at ‘what’ (what is vulnerability?) and ‘why’ (why we should care about vulnerability in leadership). In this article, we will focus on the ‘how’ – how to be a more effective leader by being more open, authentic and vulnerable.

Top Five Reasons We Should Care About Vulnerability

In summary, the business case for vulnerability is around five key benefits:

  1. Connection – In a technology-centric world, vulnerability allows us to connect with others, build stronger relationships and enhance job performance.
  2. Trust – Trust is an essential component of business effectiveness. High trust organisations experience 32x greater risk-taking, 11x more innovation, and 6x higher performance. (Edelman Trust Barometer)
  3. Innovation – You can’t have innovation without vulnerability. Most leaders know that innovation is good for business, but many still struggle to create nimble, agile and innovative cultures.
  4. To Partner is to Lead – If you want to create change in your organisation then you need to be more ‘leader’ than ‘manager’, and more ‘partner’ than leader. Learning to share power and leadership at the right times can release dormant potential within teams and organisations.
  5. Building Learning, Growth and Resilience – One of our primary tasks as leaders is to grow and develop confident, capable and resilient people into high-performance teams. Learning inherently requires vulnerability – taking ourselves outside our comfort zone.  If you’re not open and vulnerable, then you’re probably not learning.

The Being-Doing Paradox

Before we discuss how to be a more effective leader by being more open, authentic and vulnerable, it might be useful to explore being versus doing.

The Being-Doing Paradox is that to get more done (e.g. task accomplishment at work), we can often be trapped into believing that we must do more things. In our minds at least, we often seem to correlate doing with productivity. It’s what Michael Bungay Stainer calls ‘busy work’ rather than ‘good’ or ‘great work’. When we’re honest with ourselves though, we know that sometimes we are busy being busy with nothing much to show for it. Sound familiar?

The busy-ness epidemic has grown over the top of us like mould. It has kind of just crept up on us. The problem is that the ‘mould’ is now starting to block some of the sunlight. I have written about this before, but I continue to see people working harder and longer. I’m often left wondering when something will give. What will be the wake-up call for you and your organisation?

My belief is that if we want to be more productive, then we need to be less busy. We need to re-connect with being human rather than being busy.

There is a great article I often reference from James Galvin and Peter O’Donnell (Authentic Leadership: Balancing Doing and Being), that uses the metaphor of a tree. Unless we attend to the roots of the tree (i.e. Self, Framing, Character, and Alignment), then we will be weakened and severely buffeted by the strong winds of change (i.e. the branches and leaves). Ultimately, this will impact on our ability to effectively deploy our Self, our Skills, Practices, and Behaviours in a meaningful way (see diagram below).

Source: James Galvin and Peter O’Donnell (Authentic Leadership: Balancing Doing and Being), Systems Thinker, April 2005.

How Do We Nurture and Develop Vulnerability

An essential part of being able to benefit from vulnerability-based leadership is to be authentically vulnerable. While this may sound obvious, it’s worth re-stating.

To show genuine vulnerability, we have to be comfortable to be genuinely vulnerable – not put on a half-hearted show for the crowd. We must work on the roots of the tree for the trunk, branches, and leaves to be at their best.

Five Stages of Vulnerability: A Practical Guide to Brave Leadership

Based on our understanding of current thinking in the literature and our own experience coaching and consulting with leaders for more than two decades, we have formulated the Five Stages of Vulnerability.

The stages should be viewed more as ‘guides’ rather than empirically based development stages. They serve as a useful metaphor none-the-less.

Be Open

The first step in improving our capacity for vulnerability is to Be Open to the idea that we can always learn new things about ourselves (in particular) and about others. When working with leaders in our High-Performance Team Program, the biggest block in making progress is to think we have it all worked out.

Three things to improve openness:

  1. Feedback: Always look for opportunities to get real-time, meaningful feedback from trusted sources (as Brené Brown would say, not from people who like to occupy the ‘cheap seats’!).
  2. Assumptions: Assumptions hurt you and me. The only assumption we can safely make is that we don’t have all the information or data. It continues to amaze me how frequently people make a statement of ‘truth’, and because no-one responds or challenges them, they assume that everyone agrees!
  3. Curiosity: Curiosity didn’t kill the cat. If we want to learn about others, we must put ourselves out there. Be genuinely curious and actively find out about people’s stories. Ask questions and then listen, really listen.
Share More

The principle of Share More is linked to the first stage, Be Open. Sharing is caring. However, this is often one of the most misunderstood aspects of vulnerability. many people think it means lying on a couch and opening up about your childhood or life traumas. Share more of yourself – go beyond pleasantries and the expected. Lower your armour enough so you can show up authentically.

Three things to improve sharing more:

  1. Armour Down: This is the opposite of ‘armour up’. We need to drop the armour just enough for people to be able to see more of who we are. Let them in a bit more than you usually would. Admit you don’t know the answer to a business challenge, or that you too suffer from uncertainty from time to time.
  2. Be Honest: Being honest sounds like it is a given, but is it? When was the last time you withheld information at work (when you didn’t need to)? Or when did you tell a white lie to protect yourself or someone else? Speak the truth with authenticity and courage. As Brown would say, brave the wilderness.
  3. Generosity of Spirit: Being generous is like gift-giving for free – the other person gets the gift, but it doesn’t cost you anything. It’s a win-win. If we can give more and expect less, then we’ll each ultimately receive more anyway (kind of like the ‘circle of life’?).
Trust Others

Trust, by its very definition, means taking a risk. I’m not talking about risks where you put yourself and others in great danger. I’m talking about risks that you might ‘logically’ ordinarily reject. For example, I like the quote from the movie “We Bought a Zoo”, where Benjamin Mee (the Dad played by Matt Damon) says to his 14-year old son Dylan (played by Colin Ford), who was apprehensive about showing his true feelings for a girl says, “Sometimes you just need 20 seconds of insane courage”.

Three things to improve trusting others:

  1. Trust Others: We often talk about trusting others in our teams or other colleagues, but how much do we demonstrate it?(I write in more detail on this in my book Leadership Without Silver Bullets). Our inability to trust people as much as we could is a hangover from the industrial, mechanistic age where we discovered control as a management tool.Does control work? Yes. Are there better alternatives? Yes. Free people up from traditional organisational constraints to innovate and be their best. If they don’t do their job or don’t do it well, then it’s our job to guide, coach and develop them, so we can genuinely hold them accountable instead of blaming and shaming.
  2. Change Your Relationship to Failure: As much as we protest in organisations that we encourage innovative, agile practices which are more iterative than structured, I call BS on it. All organisations – or human systems – send double messages. Failure is a good example where the messaging is ‘failure is okay’ but when it happens, watch how the system reacts. As a leader, how do you come across when something goes wrong?
  3. Defy Logic: This requires us to over-ride the ‘caution circuit breaker’. What if it doesn’t work out and I’m embarrassed? Within reason, do it anyway. Put yourself out there by having a go. Most of the time, others will feed off your courage and come along for the ride.
Take Risks

Take Risks sounds like Trust Others (above), but it’s more than that. This is personal. It’ what David Maister talks about in his trust formula (Trust = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy / Self-Orientation).

People trust others with whom they feel comfortable discussing difficult agendas. Business can be intensely personal – and human emotion is an integral part of just about everything we do. Establishing intimacy is about building and accepting mutually increasing levels of risk in a relationship.

Three things to improve taking risks:

  1. Risk a Little-Gain a Lot: Taking risks means that you will fail. You will fall. And you will end up with egg on your face. But isn’t that what ‘risk’ means?Sometimes the risk-reward relationship may not be so clear, not easily plotted on a graph, but do it anyway. Risk doesn’t mean putting others in harm’s way or abandoning them. They must feel like they’re still supported. My father-in-law talks about being ‘taught’ how to swim by being thrown into the deep end of the pool and having to struggle back to the edge – that’s not what we want to do to others.
  2. Set Boundaries: It is important to maintain boundaries when we’re taking more risks by being open, trusting more, and putting ourselves out there. This means setting boundaries for ourselves and others. How much autonomy will you give someone? How much will you share? How much of your personal story will I disclose?
  3. Be the First: Extend trust – first. The primitive part of our brain wants to protect us physically (will this lion eat me?) and psychologically (is it safe for me to….?). It is therefore very easy to wait for others to extend trust or right wrongs in the relationship.However, try going first. Don’t wait for others. Extend trust as often as possible, including in a fractured relationship. Have the conversation. Mend the rift. Move forward.

Stay On Track doesn’t mean stagnate. It means continually investing in understanding the impact we have on others. We need to be continually self-monitoring and seeking feedback from those around us. Like any relationship that we care about, we can’t ‘set and forget’ vulnerability. The moment we do that, the universe is likely to give us a nasty reminder that this stuff requires constant attention.

Importantly, we can only help others grow if we are also growing. We need to be humble enough to understand – and believe – that we can learn from anyone and everyone. I discovered more about myself raising three children than I did from 100 personal development courses!

Three ways to stay on track:

  1. Continue to Invest in Yourself: Do the work. Remain curious. Don’t buy into the BS that you ‘can’t teach a dog new tricks’. This is a convenient story that we tell ourselves to keep us in the cheap seats and out of the arena. It avoids confronting things we may not like about ourselves, and particularly things that others don’t find to be a positive quality or behaviour.
  2. Encourage & Support Others: Good leaders work hard to create the conditions for others to feel they can take ever-increasing risks. People watch your every move as a leader. They are taking their cues from you in terms of how they respond in the moment to someone who is being vulnerable. We must demonstrate that we have their back. If they cross a boundary, then point it out with skill and compassion.
  3. Psychological Safety: Consciously work to build an environment where people feel safe to voice their opinions, to say what they’re thinking and feeling, or to take reasonable risks. Your legacy as a leader shouldn’t be limited to how many projects you delivered or the results you achieved. Your true legacy as a leader is the culture you created and leave behind.

In this article, we briefly recapped the importance of vulnerability (discussed in detail in part 1 of this two-part paper “Vulnerability in Leadership: More than Just a Buzzword“). In particular, its role in building connection, trust, innovation, partnership as leadership and growing and developing people.

We used the Being-Doing Paradox – the paradox that describes how our tendency to work on doing more, taking us away from being more, degrades our productivity.

With the groundwork in place, we introduced the five stages – or more accurately guideposts – to build and develop our capacity and capability to be a more effective vulnerability-based leader.

The five stages of Be Open; Share More; Trust Others; Take Risks and Stay on Track provide a framework to continue the lifelong journey of becoming the best version of ourselves. This builds our capability to make a difference in the lives of those around us – in our teams, organisations, schools, communities, and families.

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Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a Buzzword? (Part 2)

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Exploring Transparency

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Exploring Transparency

In Part One of this six-part series, we explored trust in the context of organisations and in society generally, and how hard it can fee; sometimes, this is despite trust being at the heart of every relationship, whether in our personal lives or at work. Perhaps alarmingly, 82% of people say they don’t trust their boss to tell the truth, and 45% of employees say lack of trust in leadership is the biggest issue impacting their work performance (Edelman Trust Barometer). In contrast, high trust organisations experience 32x greater risk-taking, 11x more innovation, and 6x higher performance. And at a human level, treating each other with respect and forming good relationships feels like the right thing to do.

Trust as a Multi-Dimensional Construct

In Part One, we also introduced a model based on the best available information, research and my own experience in terms of what actually works. This model isn’t the work of an academic, but it is based on solid evidence. Making even small improvements in one or more of the five elements can make a big difference in how trustworthy we are perceived as being.

Five Elements of Trust.

In Part Two, we are going to explore transparency, which at its core, it about being open and honest and demonstrating vulnerability.

Whenever I ask people what they look for in a leader, almost without exception, they say openness and honesty. Nothing destroys trust quicker than people thinking that you’re hiding information, being guarded, or if people think you’re in it for yourself. People want to know the truth.

How to be Transparent and Honest

This is where emotional intelligence really comes in to play. While there are lots of definitions to do with emotional intelligence (or EQ), the simplest is that means we can regulate and use our emotions intelligently. This isn’t a course about EQ, so we won’t go in too much detail here, but EQ is a topic that has been written about extensively.

Six Strategies to Become More Transparent

I want to now focus on what you can do to build the ‘Transparency muscle’ – that is, become more effective at this element of trust.

#1 – Be Honest: I know this sounds obvious, but I’m surprised how many times people feel conflicted around this. Yes, be honest, but with skill – be sensitive to the time and place as well as how the message is delivered. Sometimes people wear honesty as a badge and are therefore too direct to the point of being blunt with little consideration for the potential damage done to the person hearing the message. We don’t need to walk on rice paper, but we do need to be constructive.

#2 – Be Prepared: We have recently worked with a high profile organisation here in Australia that has been plagued by bullying and sexual harassment. One of the problems is people not being open, honest and transparent about how certain behaviours were affecting them. We worked with several small groups of senior leaders and provided some guidance on how they might ‘call’ inappropriate behaviour. We essentially armed them with a kit bag full of phrases that would be helpful in the moment. The phrases focused on getting the message across clearly but not in a way that was passive or hostile.

#3 – Give Feedback Regularly: Be transparent by giving constructive feedback and positive feedback often, so people understand where you’re coming from and what your expectations are. By doing this, people will understand what you’re thinking or feeling about a situation.

#4 – Admit Mistakes: You can also be transparent by admitting mistakes and being vulnerable with others. This shows that you’re not perfect either, and it’s a great way to show people that they can trust you. It’s not about sharing all your deepest, darkest fears or every mistake you’ve ever made, so be strategic about what and when you share your mistakes. If you make one in the moment / present day, speak up early and move on. By being an example for your team, they will learn to be more transparent with you and one another.

#5 – Express your opinions: This is one of the best ways to build trust with your team – simply say what’s on your mind – with skill. As I talked about earlier, we need to think about the what, when and how, but as a general principle, don’t be afraid to say what you’re thinking about a conversation or other situation. In our leadership programs, I call this a leadership superpower! Not just blurting out the first thing that comes into your mind but expressing a perspective that will help the team move forward. Sometimes this might feel like a hand-grenade thrown into the middle of the group – an intentional provocative statement or question to get them to think differently.

#6 – Practice Vulnerability: I have recently written an article on leadership and vulnerability, so I will provide a summary here. In my own leadership practice, it is hard to describe the immediate impact vulnerability has on a group of leaders or a team. Recently, I was working with a leadership team as part of our High-Performance Team program, where the impact of one person demonstrating vulnerability was immediate. In this particular team, the effect was profound. Vulnerability creates connection; trust; innovation; a platform for leadership; as well as learning, growth and resilience. Practising being vulnerable is about (1) Being open; (2) Sharing more of yourself; (3) Trusting others; (4) Taking (appropriate) risks and (5) Staying on track by focusing on yourself while at the same time creating the conditions for others also to practice vulnerability. This article (part two) will be published soon.

So, there you have it, my top six tips to build the element of Transparency in your team and with your colleagues. Being transparent requires focus and courage.

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Exploring Transparency

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Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a buzzword?

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Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a buzzword?

It’s hard to imagine vulnerability being spoken about quite as much – or in the same way – in the past as it is today. Thirty, twenty or even ten years ago, it was almost always referenced in the context of a weakness, or ‘exposing our underbelly’. Sadly today, despite what we might say, it usually still is associated with weakness, despite many leadership development programs claiming it to be different.

However, vulnerability is such an important leadership quality, it surely deserves attention. It would be hard to write an article on vulnerability without referencing the pioneering work of Brené Brown who has inspired a different and worthwhile discourse. Many writers stand on the shoulders of giants like Brown, including me. I’m excited to be joining Brené this year in the US to complete the Dare to Lead accreditation program which will no doubt challenge some of my own beliefs and practices. I look forward to sharing the learnings with clients here in Australia and abroad.

This article will discuss what vulnerability in leadership is and why we should be serious about what it has to offer us as leaders. In my next article, Part 2 will discuss the ‘how’ – a real-world guide to creating meaningful people and business results through vulnerability.

The Problem with Vulnerability

In the meantime however, vulnerability is at risk of going the way of many of the qualities and traits we expect of leaders that have lost some of their meaning, such as ‘authenticity’ and ‘strategic’. While many people want to believe in it, and aren’t afraid to espouse its virtues, vulnerability is at serious risk of becoming another over-used word we like to throw around in organisational life. But the more an idea or principle is talked about, and the less it is demonstrated, the more it becomes diluted.

Moments that Matter: Being Human

In my own leadership practice, it is hard to describe the immediate impact vulnerability has on a group of leaders, or a team. As recently as yesterday, I was working with a leadership team as part of our High Performance Team program, where the impact of one person demonstrating vulnerability was immediate. In this particular team, the effect was profound. The team opened up in a way they had never done before. Despite some of them working together for years, they learned something new and meaningful about every person in the team. People connected with each other’s stories that enabled them to understand why they ‘show up’ in a particular way. While people were raw, they looked after each other. It was as a display of pure humanness – humans ‘being’ rather than humans ‘doing’.

Having worked with 1,000’s of teams around the world in our High Performance Team program, there is one thing I know. There are very few high performing teams where its members don’t know each other well. Teams need to be able to move to a place that is different to the usual fast-paced cut and thrust operating rhythm that has become accepted as the norm in today’s organisations. Teams also need to move beyond transactional trust where we trust that you will deliver something of value to me. Trust of course, by default, requires vulnerability. It is impossible to build a high-trust relationship professionally or in our personal lives without it.

Vulnerability and Results

We shouldn’t have to make a business case for vulnerability, but we do. My own experience in running hundreds of leadership development programs, and what prompted me to write this article, is that many remain sceptical. Perhaps because it won’t be perceived as cool or the right thing to say, but when we scratch the surface to examine people’s core beliefs about vulnerability, many don’t believe, or understand, the link between vulnerability and performance. And even if leaders do buy in to the notion that vulnerability is good for business, then many struggle knowing how to be (appropriately) vulnerable.

Here are my top five reasons why we should care about vulnerability in business:

1. Connection

While technology has been incredibly valuable, it has also provided unintended disconnection. Dan Schawbel in his book Back to Human, says, “Technology has created the illusion that today’s workers are highly connected to one another, when in reality most feel isolated from their colleagues.” Being vulnerable allows us to connect with others that then enables the building of deeper relationships. We know that deeper relationships at work have many benefits including increased job performance, loyalty and overall feelings of wellbeing.

2. Trust

I wrote an article recently that outlined, among other things, why trust is important and how it can drive results. For example, high trust organisations experience 32x greater risk-taking, 11x more innovation, and 6x higher performance (Edelman Trust Barometer). And at a human level, treating each other with respect and forming good relationships feels like the right thing to do. As mentioned earlier in the article, you can’t actually develop high-trust relationships without vulnerability and people feeling comfortable around you. The two fit together and can’t be separated.

Why do we feel more comfortable around someone who is authentic and vulnerable?  According to Emma Seppälä, author of “The Happiness Track” and Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project, because we are particularly sensitive to signs of trustworthiness in our leaders. Servant leadership, for example, which is characterised by authenticity and values-based leadership, yields more positive and constructive behaviour in employees and greater feelings of hope and trust in both the leader and the organization. In turn, trust in a leader improves employee performance.

3. Innovation

Innovation is another quality that many leaders know is good for business, yet struggle to create nimble, agile and innovative cultures. Why? It is clear that creating a culture of innovation is no simple exercise, however for many, there seems to be a belief that if enough agile processes are implemented, or they teach people how to brainstorm, or teach people how to use right-brain thinking, somehow magically the culture will change for the better.

While these initiatives will indeed help, they are insufficient. Like making your favourite meal or baking your favourite cake, there is usually one key ingredient that, if missing, is bit of a show stopper. It would be like not having chicken in a chicken schnitzel, or not having flour in your favourite muffin. Yes you guessed it, the primary ingredient required to create an innovative culture is vulnerability. Being innovative is courageous and risky. Why? If people don’t feel safe, they won’t offer up ideas, engage in ‘radical candour’ or put themselves out there by declaring something has to change.

There are many forces in organisations that are perfectly happy with the status quo, otherwise it wouldn’t be the status quo. Your organisation is perfectly aligned to get the results it is getting – for better or for worse.

“Your organisation is perfectly aligned to get the results it is getting – for better or for worse. “

4. To Partner is to Lead

If you want to create change in your organisation then you need to be more ‘leader’ than ‘manager’. And in order to create meaningful change, leaders need more partners than followers.

Sure, the notion of ‘follower’ is a convenient and somewhat quaint notion that there is a leader and then there are followers – but the world has moved on and so should you – if you haven’t already. What modern organisations need is a culture of partnership, collaboration and yes, even service. While I acknowledge that most teams have a formal head whose role it is to co-ordinate and guide the activities of team members, an effective leader will also understand the role they play and will be flexible in how that role comes to fruition.

Authority can work okay as a platform when the work is of a technical nature (we know what to do and have the knowledge and skills to do it), but anything other than this type of work requires a different approach (for example in adaptive work where the solution may not be clear or follow a linear, predicable pathway – think almost any change!).

Self-aware leaders will share leadership, partner rather than tell, guide rather than direct. When was the last time you enjoyed ‘following’ someone who just told you what to do? Perhaps never.

In order to partner effectively and not simply rely on the formal authority vested in your role, you must be able to connect, build trust and have meaningful relationships with people. In other words, we need a vulnerability and authenticity in order to partner successfully.

5. Building Learning, Growth and Resilience

I remember in the 1990s there was a whole genre of university courses created to teach people how to teach others how to ‘recreate’ because in the future (e.g. the 2000s) the nature of work would have changed so much that we would have oodles of spare time on our hands. With so much spare time, how would we use it productively? We do need to learn how to ‘re-create’ and renew ourselves, but for very different reasons. Life seems to be getting busier and busier in an always on, connected digital world.

One of our primary tasks as leaders is to grow and develop confident, capable and resilient people. We can only do this if we focus on these things. In my experience, these outcomes are subordinate to task achievement. We busily tick off our ever expanding task list, often at the expense of growing and developing the very people who are doing the work. If we can be vulnerable and in turn promote those around us to be vulnerable, then we are far more likely to fast-track employee development. The opposite of this is a culture of hiding mistakes, always trying to appear like we’re on top of things, and managing an external persona that we think will make others think we’re worthy to be in the roles we occupy. Vulnerability is the key to you creating an amazing learning culture and workforce who will help your company outperform.

In part 2, we will discuss how to be a more effective leader by being more open, authentic and vulnerable.

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Vulnerability in Leadership: More than just a buzzword?