Don't Be Vulnerable!

I want to take a potshot at something that is becoming popular in business circles. Becoming is perhaps incorrect. It has become a buzzword and a fad.

You are urged to ‘become vulnerable’ at work. This means that you should admit when you are feeling down or fearful or uncertain.

The idea is that, when you admit to those feelings, others will find it easier to relate to you. They will share their own emotions and you will bond in fellowship.

One of my students, the CEO of a substantial company, was vehement about the silliness of the idea. “I never heard such ‘bull’ in my life,” he expostulated. “Once, when we had a down quarter, I let my team know that I was disheartened and not sure if our new, multi-million-dollar marketing campaign would work.”

He expected his team to rally around him, but that is not what happened. His #2 quit the next week and two others within the month. And the company counsel warned him that he could be sued for making false statements at the analyst conference where he made upbeat comments on the company’s prospects.

When you are the CEO or a senior executive of a company, particularly if it is a public company, there are eyes on you all the time. If you admit to feeling despondent or uncertain everybody will soon know this. And morale will plummet.

It is your job to radiate confidence and rally the troops. This cannot be delegated.

Six hundred years ago an invading English force had bogged down in France. Their much-heralded campaign had captured just one unimportant city and they were on their way back disgruntled and dispirited. They had marched hundreds of miles in just over two weeks, had little food and suffered from dysentery and lack of sleep.

Blocking their way was a rested French army more than four times its size. Doom seemed assured.

And that was when Henry V delivered his famous St. Crispin’s Day speech, immortalized by Shakespeare:

“This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say “These wounds I had on Crispin's day.”

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day.”

The aroused Englishmen handed the French a crushing defeat and the Battle of Agincourt is still studied by military historians.

But what are you to do when you feel down about your situation and uncertain about your survival prospects?

One way, of course, is to put on a bold face and fake it.

This can be enormously draining.

The other way, the better way, is to not be down in the first place.

The way to do that is to recognize that all things everywhere change. What you are about to label a ‘bad thing’ could, in a few years’ time turn out to be a ‘good thing’. Why not pour your emotional energy into seeing what you can proactively do to make it a ‘good thing?’

When you do this, you move from the realm of despair to the realm of possibility.

You don’t have to fake confidence. You radiate confidence.

And you don’t have to show vulnerability to bond with your team. Your team follows you because you inspire them to do what they never thought they were capable of.

Try it.

Peace!