I recently discovered Brené Brown through a friend of mine.  Her research and wisdom is changing me as an individual and as a Coach.  She is a Research Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her books include: The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. 

In my google search of her, I stumbled upon her funny inspiring TedTalk Video: The Power of Vulnerability.  I encourage you to watch it.  Her videos have made quite an impact on me.  She talks about when she collected data on people for her research on the human connection she became fascinated on why some people were happier and more successful than others.  She was only going to devote 1 year to this study, but 6 years later she figured it out.  It was vulnerability!  Those that put themselves out there had a stronger sense of worthiness for happiness and success.  Our culture equates vulnerability with weakness, but really it is just the opposite.  Vulnerability is the courage to be imperfect, the courage to fail, it is the birthplace of creativity, innovation and change.  Every great leader and innovator has been vulnerable and that is when amazing things have happened.  Think about it.  In a another Tedtalk video Brene talks about an example of this, Myshkin Ingawale’s Tedtalk.  She describes a snipit of his talk…“He is on stage and he explains how he was driven to create some technology to help test for anemia because people were dying unnecessarily. And he said, "I saw this need. So you know what I did? I made it." And everybody just burst into applause, and they were like "Yes!" And he said, "And it didn't work.”  Then there was just silence from the audience.  Then he says, “And then I made it 32 more times, and then it worked!" That’s being vulnerable at least 33 times!"

So how does this apply to you or even me?  I need to be willing to put my ideas out there even though I fear of sounding stupid or too “out there”.  As a coach I need to be willing to try or create new techniques, philosophies and methods to train and help others succeed.  I may fail miserably, but failure is an opportunity to learn.  And remember, if an idea makes sense to everyone right away, how is that idea really innovative then?  History can remind us that most innovations when first presented seemed a little crazy to most.  So don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.  So when you are at work and you give it your all and ask your team to give it their all, you are all actually opening up.  So yes, even in the business world we are exposing ourselves and taking risks.  Let’s just start looking at vulnerability in a more positive productive way for the benefit of all involved.