Monday, December 5, 2016

Leadership Requires Vulnerability


Blog by Tracy Butz, Think Impact Solutions

Across the world and throughout our businesses and communities, we are hungry for authentic leadership. We want to show up, we want to learn, and we want to feel inspired. We are hardwired for connection, curiosity, and engagement.

But when leaders choose self-protection over transparency, when money and metrics are more valued than relationships and values, and when our self-worth is attached to what we produce, learning and work becomes tainted. People disengage and turn away from the very things that the world needs: their talent, their ideas and their passion.

I’ve come to believe that leadership has nothing to do with position, salary, or number of direct reports. I believe a leader is anyone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes.

Leadership, at its core, is about relationships, and to be in relationship (with anyone) is to be vulnerable. Every single day, leaders are called to navigate uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. And they either choose to lean into the vulnerability or push it away.

Inspired leadership requires vulnerability--do we have the courage to show up, be seen, take risks, ask for help, own our mistakes, learn from failure, and can we support the people around us in doing the same? To learn more about the concept of vulnerability, watch a famous TED Talk featuring Dr. BrenĂ© Brown, a vulnerability researcher.

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