Five perspectives on being a better leader - and human

Vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness.

Why do some teams soar while others struggle? Amy Edmundson discovered the answer researching teams of nurses and Google spent millions coming to the same conclusion:

Psychological safety: The ability to work and grow without fear.

Without that safety, people posture. They perform. They aren’t honest. But with that safety, they take risks, admit when they’re wrong and learn from mistakes. How does a leader create psychological safety?

According to Brene Brown’s research, it comes from vulnerability — the invitation to be real. Vulnerability takes our guards down. It connects us. Our training helps leaders confront internalized misconceptions about what it means to be the “strong leader” and to find their authentic vulnerability.

The leader creates the conditions for people to grow.

Your job is not to do everything yourself, maintain total control of your people, or make everyone happy. Those instincts come from ego and fear, they will stifle people, and they will ultimately make you sick.

Your job is to tap into your authentic values and then create the conditions for the team to grow and succeed. That’s why we’ve specifically built our simulation-based intensives around helping leaders overcome their fear and ego and they can be truly there for their team.

You already have what you need.

When you are being true to yourself, you access your deepest values and care — and people will sense it. They will follow it. Just as they will sense it when you are giving a performance.

On a primal level, we do not trust “fakes”. While leadership models and demonstrations can be helpful, your best leadership happens when tap into your authentic values.

Leaders can uplift - or oppress.

As a leader, we believe that your true power comes from who you are — but accessing that power can be hard. You have insecurities, biases, and defenses that your brain is hardwired to activate when you sense threat.

Under pressure, you may even revert to internalized white supremacy values unintentionally. It’s harder to be authentic and vulnerable with people who don’t look like you. To avoid this, you must build awareness and make choices to act in line with your true values.

You grow by experiencing it.

Most leaders make more than 1,000 decisions a day. There is no manual that will provide the “answer” for all those decisions. Every moment is different.

Leadership is about being deeply present in each moment and responding authentically from your values and not your fear. Our recommendation: get out of your head, look up from that self-development book, podcast or training and prioritize experience.