Vulnerable and transparent, and the courage to be both

The team building event was held at Top Golf. e vice president of sales was reluctant to have the meeting there as he had never played golf and didn’t want to embarrass himself. His team convinced him that he could just join them and not have to worry about playing or swinging a club. As the night went on, the team did everything they could to get their boss to step up and give it a try. ere were others on the team that were in the same spot, having played very little or never. Men and women taking their turns embarrassing themselves with awkward attempts to hit that little white ball. In the end, the vice president of sales chose to keep his dignity intact and did not take his turn amongst the team.

Having spoken with some of the salespeople and the VP of sales privately, I heard mixed opinions about the decision not to join the group. Some thought it showed poor leadership in not being vulnerable enough to laugh at yourself and have a little fun with your team as there were more hacks trying to

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Marketing Consultant eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com hit the ball than there were any good golfers. When I asked the VP of sales why he chose not to try, he was completely transparent with me, sharing that he just didn’t want to embarrass himself. He felt he was being open and vulnerable to his team as well sharing with them the very reason he chose to stay in the background. It was a bit of a shame because sometimes it’s OK to show humility among our teams and peers.

Two of the words that we hear often when it comes to expectations of leadership and really people in any role are vulnerability and transparency. We no longer must have all the answers or pretend that we do. We no longer have to be perfect or pretend that we are. Maybe the world we live in places that kind of pressure on some of us, and the stress of that pressure can drive us further away from nding the ability to be vulnerable and transparent.

Last week I wrote about courage and discretion, and when we should exercise both. What I am sharing here is a di erent kind of courage, the courage to be open to failure, being brave enough to take a swing at a golf ball with our team when we have never

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