
5 minute read
Four Tips to Becoming a Vunerability Manager
GITTE RANDRUP
HR BUSINESS PARTNER, BLOGGER, CONSULTANT/RECRUITER
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Copyright by Gitte Randrup
A new year is approaching, and this may cause you to reflect on your management style. Maybe other people perceive you in a way that you’d like to change. But how do you do that in a world where we implicitly understand management as being powerful, capable of making decisions (quickly), and knowing everything? GR Consult has discussed vulnerability management with anthropologist and organizational and management consultant Heidi Graff, of Interplay, to learn how
Start by considering the response you get from other people
Think about the feedback you receive about your behavior. Ifyou’re told that you’re tough when communicating, or that youreact fiercely to mistakes, you can start with this. Consider howto soften your way of speaking or how to act so that your reportsare not afraid to tell you about mistakes. Graff recommendsstarting to ask more questions instead of giving replies. Showother people that your goal is to learn so that, together, you canfind out what went wrong or uncover the best solution to theissue. As a manager, you don’t need to make the impression thatyou have a response to everything. It’s perfectly ok to be insecureand to have doubts. The need to be superhuman is a myth.
Find a sparring partner
According to Graff, if you want to act with more vulnerability inyour leadership, finding a like-minded sparring partner is worthits weight in gold. This person may be a mentor, a coach, or anothermanager. If you choose another manager, you’ll want tofind someone outside your workplace, so that he or she is notpart of—and therefore affected by—the culture. He or she canhelp you see how your traits affect those around you. .
Start by taking small steps
Graff always recommends that leaders take small steps if theywant to be more vulnerable. For example, you can start by mentioning,at a staff meeting, a concrete mistake you’ve made. Beopen and honest about it. Let your reports know that you werenot very sharp in the given situation, and especially what youtook away from it, and will do differently next time. In this way,you’ll come across as a human being with both good and bad
sides, as we all are. Or you can start to react differently whenyour reports tell you about mistakes they made. Support theminstead of getting angry at them.However, it’s important to share your mistakes only occasionally,
so that staff meetings and everyday work life don’t focus on errors.This would be exhausting and ponderous.
Discuss management vulnerability with your management team and your own manager

It’s a good idea to show more vulnerability in your management, but you cannot do this on your own. In some companies and organizations, you’ll need to go through a cultural change that you must agree with. For example, you can start by talking to your manager about the advantages of the working environment if people dared to share their mistakes. Or you can try to influence your management team so that they’ll find it natural to also share, e.g., projects that went wrong. Also, bear in mind that you may be part of a company where vulnerability will never fit into the culture, no matter how much you try to change that. Consequently, you’ll need to consider whether you’re in the right company, or if it would be better to find a company that better matches your personality.
Pitfalls in vulnerability management
According to Graff, it’s important to set a boundary for vulnerability. If you’re 100% honest and convey a sense of “Here I come, take me as I am,” you’ll be making a mistake, as your job as a leader is to take care of the community. It’s not your role to be in the center, as others will find it intolerable to be around you. It’s a good idea to think about how you act in the group.
The same goes for sharing your private life. You may think that your reports should see you as a whole person, meaning that you share information about your divorce or other private matters that are eating at you. But maybe your reports aren’t able or ready to handle your honesty or they feel obliged to ask every now and then about how you are coping to feel like good employees. It’s okay to share that, for example, you suffer from a serious illness while simultaneously saying that you’ll tell them when you have news about it and that you’d prefer to keep your everyday working life focused on your duties. Otherwise, you might find the situation unbearable.
Possible payoffs
There are advantages to expressing more vulnerability. If you have the courage to ask more questions instead of giving more answers, you’ll encourage your employees to use their innovative force and find better solutions. Or, if you dare to share errors and failures or focus on what you take away from them instead of hiding them, you may end up creating a culture in which you try new ways of doing things and make more changes. If you end up being more productive and having a better working environment, that’s not so bad, is it? Last but not least, Graff encourages you to engage in a larger degree of nuanced thinking. For instance, we’re used to defining “courage” as making (quick) decisions, acting, showing vigor, and taking the floor. However, we need to redefine courage and strength as daring to be vulnerable, saying that you don’t have an answer to everything, and bringing forward mistakes and poor quality. If we make this redefinition, we—and others—might more easily show our vulnerability.
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~Gitte Randrup
http://grconsult.dk/en/

Interplay organizational and leadership development is builton the idea, that it is in the micro life of the organization you can find gold. Organizational development and leadership development with social/relational capital as concept is in the heart of our consultancy. Strategy realization is at the agenda and the process in getting better success is found inthe focus on the everyday communication and narrative of the organization. Heidi Graff is owner and consultant/ facilitator and has more than 25 years of experience with developing organizations. Her ambition is to support leaders and organizations to work in a more sustainable way with a strong drive towards exploring new and better ideas together. FB: Heidi Graff
http://grconsult.dk/en/
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