Real Moments: Three Good Reasons to Let Them See You Sweat

Business people want speakers to motivate their staff with pep talks on innovation, creativity, and change. Thought leader Brené Brown upends that approach by making a case for being—gasp—vulnerable.

Brene’s years of study show vulnerability (the “V” word, which I wrote about on forbes.com) is the key to making progress in our business and personal lives.

Today’s Real Moment features Brene’s 24-minute TED lecture in which she acknowledges that it goes against modern society’s grain to show anyone weakness, ignorance or doubt. (If you don’t have 24 minutes, watch the first 2:30.) Then she asserts that admitting we’re not perfect, we don’t have all the answers, and we can’t do it ourselves are the very things that allow space for something new to be born.  And she channels Teddy Roosevelt whose “Man in the Arena” speech underscores that you can’t wait till you’re bulletproof before you step into the fray.

When you have those real moments—those “this is who I am and how it is” moments—you’re actually becoming more trustworthy. In the parlance of the trust equation, being vulnerable is a trust trifecta: you’re simultaneously improving your scores on credibility, intimacy, and self-orientation.

So there you have it: three good reasons to let them see you sweat.

[Tweet “@ProjectGetReal Tip: Being vulnerable pays off both personally and professionally. http://goo.gl/5lserx @AndreaPHowe #getreal”]

 

 

I bet you’re guilty of this trust crime (and don’t realize it)

This post is part of our Weekly Tips series.

Of the 63,000+ people who have completed Trusted Advisor Associates’ Trust Quotient™ survey (a self-assessment), Reliability comes out 21 percentage points higher than any of the other three elements of the Trust Equation. This isn’t really surprising, given that reliability is the easiest to grasp and execute. Reliability is logical, concrete, and action-oriented.

What a geyser can teach you about trust

This post is part of our Weekly Tips series.

Have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park in the U.S.?

If you have, you might have encountered Old Faithful, a geyser that gets its name because it regularly shoots steam and water to great heights. In fact, with a margin of error of 10 minutes, Old Faithful will erupt either every 65 or every 91 minutes, depending on the length of the previous eruption. It’s been doing this since 1870.