Vulnerability is moving into the C-Suite

Early in my career, during my time at LockHeed Martin, I had an amazing mentor, Carey Elliott . Carey practiced, and instilled in me, the notion of servant leadership and its guiding principles: the idea that leaders should serve, rather than be served; that they should set the vision and strategy and then work tirelessly to remove the barriers that get in the way of achieving that vision and strategy; and that they should lead by listening and giving support, rather than telling employees what to do.

This leads to strong loyalty and connection with your team. Carey also showed me that empathy, humility and vulnerability are at the center of this approach, with mutual trust and respect also being critical.

Fast forward to now....I am a big believer in showing up vulnerably. Perhaps this inclination has also bled over from my personal life. This all means that being vulnerable comes natural to me; it is authentic to who I am and likewise, has become a core pillar of my leadership philosophy.

To many executives, vulnerability in leadership is synonymous with weakness. Some leaders are encouraged or taught to hide emotion; they must have clear lines detailing their personal and professional lives, never showing doubt, apprehension, fear or worse, failure.

It’s important to understand that when I speak about vulnerability, I’m not talking about putting yourself out there as a sitting duck or being emotionally reckless. Rather, when you remind people that you are a human first and importantly–that you know?they are too?– you break down walls built up over years and simultaneously start to create a work environment that allows people to operate from a place of comfort, honesty and authenticity. This leads to a more positive workplace experience and ultimately has a material business impact.

BREAK DOWN BARRIERS AND OBSTACLES. DON’T CREATE THEM

It’s our job as leaders to connect the dots and understand the business enough to set the vision, strategy and long-term roadmap. But then after deploying that strategy and vision throughout the organization, the most important thing that I can do as a leader every day is break down the barriers and obstacles that get in the way of my team achieving that vision and strategy.

As a leader, I’m a big believer in 1) admitting I don’t know everything, 2) asking a lot of questions (and listening carefully to the answers), 3) putting responsibility and autonomy in the hands of people leaders and those closest to the customer and 4) establishing a culture of empowerment, inclusion, transparency and agility.

EMPOWER PEOPLE. TRUST THEM, AND LET GO.

It is critical to empower the teams,?pushing decision-making deep, deep, deep down in the organization.

CHAMPION TRUE INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, AND EQUITY WITH COMMUNITY, DOLLARS, AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN MIND

At the end of the day, the leadership recipe I follow, which is always evolving by the way, is not over complicated. There isn’t room for ego in an approach where you put honesty, openness, inclusivity, empowerment, transparency and importantly,?vulnerability?at the forefront. As leaders, it’s paramount we demonstrate our organization’s progress without “chest pounding,” but rather by continuing to show up vulnerably and authentically while acknowledging the work that still needs to be done, removing the obstacles along the way to get there.

One of the obvious ways I was able to do that was through vulnerability.

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