The Boomerang of Vulnerability
Emotional safety and freedom is like a tit for tat process. I give a little and then you give a little. I share a tad and then you open up a tad. I say little more, and then you go a little further. As I take risks and bear my soul, you start taking risks to share your pain. It’s an incremental give and take process. It’s kind of like a boomerang of vulnerability. You throw a little bit out and a little comes back to you.
I have spent time with countless leaders and lead out by sharing my weaknesses, my fears and my mistakes. And almost without fail, they will match the intensity of my vulnerability. Safe people create safe spaces. They reproduce themselves. But somebody has got to go first. This is the way that trust is cultivated and increased. It requires the risk of someone being “brave enough to be real."