The Power Of Vulnerability

There’s an Adelaide-based public Facebook group called “I worked at the RAA when John Fotheringham was CEO”.

Fothers, as he was affectionately known, was and is still so well loved that anyone who worked with him, from cleaners to executive officers, is always keen to remember a time when they felt included, safe, and part of an organisation that felt like a large family.

When asked why he was so popular, people have many answers:

“He knew my name - he knows everyone’s name.”

“He’d have smoko with us in the tea-room alongside everyone else.”

“He regularly visited parts of the organisation everyone else forgot.” - that one was from someone working in the mail room.

So, what’s the difference between a functional and competent leader and one who inspires loyalty - and even love - so long after retirement and passing on?

Latest research is telling us that the big divide is defined as the presence or absence of vulnerability.

While it seems to be the antithesis of traditional leadership, vulnerability turns up again and again to be the key quality required. Yet, given its critical role in developing relationships with employees and building a sustainable, productive culture, we find that it is not a huge area of research for business. Nienaber et al (2015) said that “Surprisingly, there is almost no conceptual nor empirical work explicitly directed at understanding vulnerability itself*”, and the same research found that for leaders who want to build trust with followers “there is no way around being willing to be vulnerable.” 

So, what’s a boss to do?

The old way seems so easy in comparison - be firm and a little distant, don’t encourage familiarity because then they won’t respect you, be tough but fair, and keep them on their toes.

And yet, research shows that the biggest upswing you get when you apply this pressure isn’t productivity - it’s stress! And we know that stress has some best friends it brings along in the form of deteriorating mental and physical wellbeing for staff. Consequently, you end up with a more unhappy workplace that people are less likely to feel attracted or loyal to, and one by one they leave for more pleasant pastures.

The alternative is to embrace the concept and trust the research.

Warmth and Authenticity

Harvard Business School’s Amy Cuddy and research colleagues Matthew Kohut and John Neffinger posed the age old question of whether it is better to be feared or loved. With leaders often emphasising competence strength and credentials, they were missing out by not first building a foundation of trust. Instead, by beginning relationships with warmth, this allows trust to develop, meaning people will actively see you in a positive light, hear you more clearly and invest in the relationship.

Altruism

When people believe that their leaders are operating fairly, they open up. One study shows that when this happens team members become more productive and act with higher levels of citizenship, offering help and generating a ‘pay it forward’ culture where team members help others without expectation of a transactional payback.

Jonathan Haidt at New York University School of Business continues to research an unstudied segment of emotions we feel when other people do good, skilful or admirable things, and these qualities have direct connections in business to the culture our leaders set and the resulting behaviour, wellbeing and productivity of their teams.

Kindness

You don’t need to turn into a pushover to show and generate kindness, but you do need to have a good store of empathy and emotional intelligence. Kindness breeds safety, which in turn makes the workplace a secure sandpit for innovation.

There’s no creativity and development without a few wrong turns along the way, but if you have a culture of kindness and employ the mantra of ‘no such thing as failure, only feedback’, we take the emotional heat out of the process and in doing so preserve people’s wellbeing and confidence. That means it will take much less time to get back on track than if there was fear of consequences for not hitting the mark after trying something new. 

Vulnerability takes courage, there’s no doubt about that, but the dividends it pays in productivity and quality of life for everyone in the organisation are worth it.

As a bonus, there are ways to take this approach in a sustainable and measured way. Duck Pond Solutions offers a team that is experienced in developing positive corporate culture, from the mailroom to the C-suite. Contact Gill for a chat to see how easy it can be for you to increase the quality of your team’s culture.

What does it mean for you as a leader to work towards becoming more vulnerable? Look out for part 2 - The Vulnerability of Power - coming soon.

*Nienaber, A.-M., Hofeditz, M., & Romeike, P. D. (2015). Vulnerability and trust in leader-follower relationships. Personnel Review, 44(4), 567.