Jacob Morgan: Leading With Vulnerability

Jacob Morgan is a trained futurist and one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, the future of work, and employee experience. He speaks in front of tens of thousands of people each year and his content is seen over a million times annually. He is the best-selling author of five books: The Future Leader, The Employee Experience Advantage, The Future of Work, and The Collaborative Organization. He speaks at over 50 conferences a year including TED Academy which is one of the largest TED events in the world.

Jacob provides advisory and thought leadership services to organizations around the world. He has created tons of educational videos and articles found at Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan and host of the Great Leadership with Jacob Morgan podcast. He’s the author of the new book, Leading With Vulnerability: How to Unlock Your Greatest Superpower to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization.

Most of us have heard that we should show vulnerability, but we don’t necessary know how to do this in the workplace. In addition, many leaders mistakenly show vulnerability without connecting it back to leadership. In this episode, Jacob and I explore where leaders go wrong, discuss how to do better, and demonstrate exactly what real vulnerability sounds like.

Key Points

Vulnerability + Leadership = Vulnerable Leadership. While this equation may seem obvious, many leaders mistakingly lean into vulnerability without also articulating leadership.

Vulnerability without leadership can land awkwardly and potentially calls to question your credibility as a leader.

Go beyond just admitting a mistake; share what was learned from that mistake. In the same way, talk about personal challenges for the purpose of connecting, creating trust, and relating to others.

Ask yourself this question as a starting point for ensuring you are also leading: “What’s my reason for sharing what I’m about to share?”

Vulnerability for leaders is not the same as it is for everybody else.

Resources Mentioned

Leading With Vulnerability: How to Unlock Your Greatest Superpower to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization by Jacob Morgan

Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

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