Leadership vulnerability is a topic occasionally addressed in books and articles, and sometimes addressed in personal conversations. It is not often a topic addressed in leadership development programs. Vulnerability is defined by Wikipedia as the inability (of a system or a unit) to withstand the effects of a hostile environment. I’d like to think that a “system or a unit” could also include a person! A hostile environment can simply be an environment where the person is struggling to cope or facing forces that they find imposing or threatening.

It would be interesting to see this topic as an agenda item in a leadership development program alongside topics such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, influencing, etc. Why? My experience as a coach and developer of leaders over the past 20 years has taught me that many leaders need to talk about their vulnerabilities as well as addressing their competencies and behaviors. Some assessment tools provoke these conversations with reference to stallers and stoppers, over-played strengths, or other personality traits and drivers. These sometimes still feel a little “normalized” rather than coming from deep personal reflection or an inner sense of inadequacy – which can sometimes consume leaders.

In some of the most vibrant and progressive organizational cultures, personal coaching situations often provide the context for leaders to talk about their sense of vulnerability, weakness, struggles, and personal dilemmas. These may be related to their roles and responsibilities, and sometimes it might just be a relief to have time to breathe out and speak to someone confidentially about themselves.

I recall one situation where a coaching conversation started with an invitation to the leader to talk about whatever was most pressing for them. “My marriage” was the answer. This leader was facing a real conflict between their work demands and the time away from home that this required. As an executive coach, I haven’t faced this specific scenario on many occasions, but I often have conversations with senior leaders about personal challenges that they would otherwise be reluctant to talk about with anyone in their organization.

How many leaders are faced with insurmountable pressures, unreasonable work/life balance, health challenges, or domestic issues influenced by work? How many leaders are a breath away from depression, burn out, or just being desperately miserable? How many leaders feel the pressure to perform and keep giving their lives to a job without deep reflection on their personal happiness?

At this stage I do want to recognize that there are many leaders who have a clear grasp on their personal fulfilment and are very balanced in their roles, personal lives, and sense of purpose. Leaders who have personal challenges and vulnerabilities are not lesser leaders or weak leaders, they are still leaders. Leaders who haven’t confronted a moment of vulnerability shouldn’t look down on those who have – life has a habit of turning tables!

Confronting a vulnerable situation can be the beginning of a better tomorrow. Whether it is a sense of personal inadequacy, a mismatch with corporate culture, a clash with leadership, a desire to redirect a career, or any other hostile influence, leaders are better when they can talk it out. A “hostile influence” doesn’t need to be a game-changer, it can just be a moment to confront situations that don’t feel fair, balanced, or positive. I have had frequent coaching conversations where leaders achieve personal breakthroughs after they have spilled their guts to someone in confidence. We live in a world where the pressure to perform and deliver results often exceeds the care of people. Coaches are not counsellors, but leaders often just need an empathetic human being to talk to. Executive coaches are best positioned to coach others when they have faced similar pressures and are professionally astute at addressing vulnerabilities of leaders in today’s workplaces.

One phrase that should never be used with someone expressing personal vulnerability is “get over it”. I would however like to suggest that we should “get over it” when someone wants to talk about their vulnerabilities …. this is normal, human, and ok! Indeed, it could be said that the most secure and confident leaders are those who gladly admit to vulnerabilities. Honest leaders know they aren’t perfect!

Savvy – shrewdness and practical knowledge; the ability to make good judgments

Defining great leadership is often less tangible than check marks against competency or value frameworks. The concept of savvy leaders is one that can be defined as simply, “leaders who get it”. Leaders who know how to navigate organizations, relationships, and cultures. Leaders whose decision making is sound and well-intentioned. Leaders who have a “je ne sais quoi” about them (a quality that cannot be easily described or defined).

Here are three dimensions of savvy leadership that make distinctive leaders:

Organizational
Organizations are complex and unique. They can be incredibly mature and have existed for more than 100 years, maybe metamorphosing on many occasions. Or they can be vibrant start-ups. Of course, there are variations in between.
Ronald Heifetz, Marty Linsky and Alexander Grashow discuss the subtleties of organizations in The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: “To identify adaptive challenges confronting an organization, look beyond what people are saying about them. Listen to the song beneath the words.”
Leaders who “listen to the song beneath the words” have a profound organizational savvy about them. These leaders detect the ebbs and flows of an organization. They understand the pulse, the rhythm, and the direction of an organization. In their leading they have a passion and belief in the organization – to grow or change it.

Relational
Relational savvy is critical in leadership. Navigating through relationships with skill, sensitivity and selectivity is a core leadership capability.
Emotional intelligence is the heartbeat of relational savvy. Knowing oneself profoundly, understanding others in a deep way, and having an intuitive antenna to read context, are all part of being emotionally intelligent. Often the best leader is one who draws from his or her maturity, insight, and foresight to ensure that relationships support the mission and goals at hand, rather than undermine or damage them.
Demonstrating a collaborative, engaging, and curious mindset is a great way to build a rapport that leads to trust. Trust is a commodity that lies at the root of relationship savvy. Inspiring, believing in, and empowering others are all ways to develop trust. There is also a very personal element to trust and relationship savvy – leaders who show vulnerability, personal interest, and intentional purpose have a solid foundation for strong and meaningful relationships.

Cultural
How does a leader “read” the culture of an organization? “How things get done around here”, is a useful definition of culture.
Edgar Schein describes culture in Organizational Culture and Leadership as operating at three levels: artefacts, espoused values, and the deepest level of basic assumptions. It is important to understand the impact of artefacts, values, and assumptions in the way an organization operates, relationships are built, and work gets done. Schein expands his definition of culture as, “a multidimensional, multifaceted phenomenon, not easily reduced to a few major dimensions.” Leaders who have cultural savvy are truly skillful, connected, and effective.
Reading, imbibing, and interpreting culture are essential for a leader to navigate the nuances of daily decision making and relationship management. Being in touch with organizational tapestry and patterns ensures intelligent and insightful leadership behavior.

Savvy leadership may not be easily assessed in scientific ways, but it is observable – hence the need for leadership assessment to be a continual process and not just an aberration of talent management.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure. John C. Maxwell

Analyzing critical qualities of leaders often invokes much debate. Decision-making is arguably near the very top of the list.

There are many things that characterize good decision-making; timing, justification, judgement, and outcomes, to name but a few. There are also many elements that lead to good decision-making; experience, collaboration, insight, and analysis. The many qualities that result in excellent decision-making appear to contain some intangibles, e.g. wisdom as well as knowledge, and intuition as well as understanding. But it is essential to consider this leadership trait as a learned quality as well as an innate one.

A case study highlighting the implications of decision-making

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2011, a White House commission blamed oil giant BP and its partners for a series of cost-cutting decisions and an inadequate safety system. In November 2012, BP plead guilty to the U.S. government on 11 counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors and a felony count of lying to Congress. In July 2015, BP agreed to pay $18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history. The neglect and poor decisions that led to the eventual spill may have been prevented if the company hadn’t ignored the warning signs that something was going wrong on the rig and had evaluated critical data better.

This example shows how leadership decision-making is critical, not just at executive levels. It also illustrates that the consequences of decision-making are rarely limited to the immediate timeline and persons. The environmental, personal, and financial fall-out to this disaster were far-reaching.

Developing decision-making skills

Developing leaders to become better-decision makers is a major challenge. Some of the ways that this can be achieved are:
• Secondment – experience in diverse organizational roles, e.g. international assignments. This broadens the exposure of leaders to other environments thus expanding knowledge and understanding, leading to more informed decision-making
• Mentoring – access to a more senior leader who can guide, advise, and recommend a leader in decision-making
• Shadowing – working alongside another leader in an unfamiliar role which adds learning and understanding to facilitate more informed decision-making
• Case studies – practicing decision-making using a classroom scenario and receiving feedback from experts on the quality of decision-making
• Projects – Tackling a specific assignment that requires collaboration and action to develop decision-making behaviors
• Learning – Expanding the cognitive and emotional intelligence of leaders through formal and informal learning to provoke more informed decision-making
• Methodologies – Establishing formal methodologies such as project management, change management, and strategic planning can all lead to better, more collaborative decision-making

Leadership development initiatives need to incorporate elements of the above to be effective. It is important to evaluate any investment in developing leaders as a bottom-line impact arising from better decision-making. A McKinsey report of January 2014 titled Why Leadership Development Programs Fail, highlights the need for context, real work, considering mindsets, and measuring results, as the best environment for building such initiatives.

Helpful development tools

Apart from the “activity-based” initiatives above, it can also be helpful to consider techniques in developing better decision-making. Chip & Dan Heath provide a helpful pneumonic in their book Decisive – How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work (2013) …… WRAP.

• Widen Your Options – You encounter a choice. Narrow framing can make you miss options (unduly limiting the options considered)
• Reality-test Your Assumptions – You analyze your options. Confirmation bias can lead you to gather self-serving info (information that bolsters beliefs)
• Attain Distance Before Deciding – You make a choice. Short-term emotion can often tempt you to make the wrong one (being swayed by emotions that will fade)
• Prepare To Be Wrong – Live with it. You’ll often be over-confident about how the future will unfold (too much faith in our predictions)

Using a framework such as this to test decision-making can be a helpful exercise, especially as an objective balance to the instinctive or traditional ways decisions are made.

Benjamin Franklin had a model for decision-making which he called “Moral Algebra”:
• “Divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns, writing over the one Pro and over the other Con. Over the next three or four days, add factors to the two columns as they occur to you. Estimate the respective weights of each factor and where two, one on each side, appear equal – strike them both out. If a Pro equals two Cons, strike all three out – follow this pattern based on respective weights on either side. Find where the balance lies, and if nothing of further importance arises over the next day or two, come to a determination accordingly.”

Whilst Chip & Dan Heath’s model might appear broader in design, any model that enhances the quality of decision-making is helpful.

A leader’s ability to make empathetic, collaborative, and strategic decisions which positively impact their employees, organization, and all stakeholders, is one of the most critical qualities of great leadership. Investment in building this ability is time and money well spent!