The Truth and benefits of brutal honesty within company culture

Why vulnerability is so important to your business:

For many, this topic is too emotional — should a business, above all, be conducted rationally, but vulnerability can be described as the backbone of successful leadership.

As one should not do it the other way around: do not allow mistakes or show no weaknesses or don’t express any emotions as the following: covering up sadness or disappointment.

True leadership, according to experts, is more likely to allow vulnerability. Vulnerability is even the key to being able to lead others. Emotions should therefore also play an important role in everyday business life and should by no means be hidden or suppressed.

How to cleverly integrate vulnerability into your business:

Trust, which is based on vulnerability, is difficult to establish — but not impossible to implement. The key-setting here is (as with many other things in live): courage. It takes a lot of courage to allow emotional vulnerability. Above all, it requires that we also acknowledge our personal shortcomings — e.g. with colleagues, executives or business leaders. However, for this to happen, the basic requirement is that we move away from the illusion of believing that we must be perfect all the time and everywhere. For this we have to confess to the following weaknesses and address them publicly:

? our uncertainties

? our mistakes and weaknesses

? or whether we potentially dislike colleagues or leaders

To do this in the right order, it requires not only courage but also another constant: exercise.

The four following steps (applied regularly) will perfect your human relationships:

1. increase your own self-confidence

2. lead with the heart

3. listen to your fellow human beings

4. be authentic and allow your true feelings

What you can learn from sports teams in this regard:

Vulnerability and the related honesty are also an elementary part of the sport. Again and again, you can experience situations in which supposed underdogs shoot potential big dogs out of the race because of a great team spirit. Once all the team members are honest with their feelings and allow them to do so, they do great things: in such a case, our toolbox “brain” can reconcile the mind, body, and heart, and work on high performance. This releases some pressure and the team members act less tense and so often can focus much better on the actual task — and that’s what actually matters in business, too.

How to increase your chances of becoming a pleasant contemporary for your fellow human beings:

First of all, as a potential leader, you need to know how sympathetic you really are to others — you will need some emotional intelligence. Therefore, if you are an extrovert person, you should start the first working day with full energy and an invitation from your colleagues for happy hour. If you are more introverted, a lunch together with a closer selection of your new colleagues will do the same.

In rather difficult business situations, have the courage to signify for your true emotions. It is considered to be an almost superhuman ability not to suppress one’s emotions. If you are upset, be emotionally. If you are unsure, be unsure and communicate this to your fellow human beings.

But there are also limits concerning emotional freedom: you should avoid insults or insinuations as much as possible. So always be on a high level if you decide to allow emotional vulnerability. Nevertheless, you should go all the way, if necessary: if it means firing an employee, then you have to do so.

No masks needed:

It is important in the first place that you are authentic and do not try to manipulate. So be neither passive-aggressive nor cryptic in your behavior. This applies in business as well as in relationships and also in sports, like we already mentioned. “No problem”, “It’ll work!” is often used. Honesty — especially emotional honesty — is so extremely important in life, if you want to be considered a respectable person. The following things are to observe by people, who want to be respected:

? they gain the trust of their fellow human beings — respect your decisions and judgments and you will also be respected

? be honest — never hesitate to do the right thing and believe in it

? they face their problems without hesitation

? they know who they are and who they facing

? they are persistent

? they try to avoid stress and try to be balanced

Seal your deal and make it real — make it a true behavior:

So overall, you should try practicing every day to be brutally honest with yourself and your environment. That’s because it’s a basic requirement in order to be successful in the business world. A businessman who is neither trustworthy nor honest will not succeed in the long run. Incidentally, this also applies if you plan to become a successful investor. Important in this context are vulnerability, transparency and authenticity to be successful in every business.

But what does vulnerability mean anyway?

Sharing his own setbacks, worries, and fears with his fellow human beings is not primarily for the purpose of gaining sympathy, but to connect with them. Such a technique is often referred to as the so called “meta-technique”. It means finding out what connects people at their deepest levels. A very important point here is ultimately the vulnerability. Many people — whether leaders or not — tend to be aloof from their fellow human beings. Overall, this contradicts to the human nature, which is more based on the fact that we rely on the trustworthiness of our executives or role models rather than in their distance. Executives and even people who want to be successful should therefore not only care about profits, but also about their fellow human beings.

Why you should be transparent too

Transparency should enable your fellow human beings to understand your processes. Without transparency, your fellow human beings quickly feel that they are treated unfairly or at a disadvantage. Too little transparency always indicates that you want to hide something or that you want to portray yourself as something better. One reason for this is that privacy today largely no longer exists. Thanks to social networks that appeal not only to younger generations, emotions, thoughts and fears are shared with everyone today. This is also expected from the company you work for. Many people know that the information from the advertising campaigns does not necessarily reflect the company’s internal reality. In addition to that, increased transparency in the company also uncovers potential problems or inefficiencies much faster — and ultimately resolves them quickly. This mainly results, that your employees can interact faster with each other in the team.

Authenticity — stay true to yourself and be an original

If you are always honest, remain true to yourself and to be approachable, is often referred to as an evolved leader. But it can also be difficult to really be who you are. If you pay attention to the following rules, you will be perceived as an authentic leader and contemporary:

? be honest with yourself and do not try to pretend — in our different environments we tend to misrepresent ourselves depending on the situation (at the sports club, at the job, in our families), but if we only remain ourselves, we only have to concentrate on the development of one single role

? tell your environment what you feel and think — especially leaders should always put into action what they say

? always make decisions based on your inner values — as corporate values change, you should check to see if they really fit your inner values anymore or whether you should potentially leave the company

? being authentic can also make it necessary to make unpleasant decisions when the time is right