Embracing vulnerability

Leadership with heart can shape our collective success,

At home and at work — now the same place for many — COVID-19 is forcing us to learn more about ourselves and confront who we are as leaders. One of my most powerful lessons so far came about a month ago. I was getting ready to do my first all-employee virtual town hall for our 250 team members across the country, all coping with an abrupt change to how we live and work. As I was getting set up at my computer, I felt calm and ready.

Then, a few minutes into speaking, something changed. As I was speaking to my team, I was overcome with emotion. My voice wavered and the tears came — not what I had planned, but there was no stopping it.

Within seconds, though, the waves of encouragement started. Dozens of messages and heart emojis filled my screen as my team offered their support — a unique and poignant reminder that despite none of us being in the same room, we were all together.

As I finished the call, I was initially a bit embarrassed.

I am an emotional person, but in my professional life, most people wouldn’t have known it.

As a CEO, I’d always seen it as my job to project calmness and strength. But not long after (within hours, in fact) my perspective changed. This wasn’t about being weak or losing control. Leading with heart was exactly what was needed in this moment of crisis.

For female leaders especially, this kind of vulnerability can be terrifying. It’s ingrained in so many of us to be cool and collected, to project strength and calm or risk looking incompetent.

In truth, though, my moment of vulnerability helped to build trust with my team, especially in this time of uncertainty and stress.

After our town hall, I had employees reach out to say how much they appreciated my openness and how comforted they were to know I was feeling many of the same things they are.

Empathy and vulnerability are valuable traits as we navigate this pandemic and the recovery phase, but they’ll matter long after, too. Open and candid communication, listening to understand, not just to respond, are critically important right now.

They have the power to set the successful organizations apart from the pack. They’re the skills that foster strong cultures, especially as the workforce changes dramatically.

They also happen to be the skills that women tend to excel at.

Women leaders are already getting well-deserved credit for leading us through this public health crisis. In many ways, women have been the face of the COVID-19 response worldwide, including Canada’s many incredible female chief medical officers and public health officials.

There are also those working away from the public eye, but no less important; the front-line health-care professionals; the essential workers keeping hospitals, daycares and shelters running.

At the same time, women are still largely underrepresented in leadership roles, despite being so well-positioned to transform organizations for the better.

None of this is to say that men are incapable of showing vulnerability or leading with empathy. We’re seeing incredible examples of men doing just that, handling employee communications with sensitivity and care, even as their businesses face massive challenges.

Instead, I see this as a reminder for all of us to prioritize these skills, especially as we eventually move into post-pandemic recovery. As we think about the future of work, we should consider these skills an asset, and give them more weight as we build our pipelines of talent and diverse teams.

Models and projections aside, we simply do not know what the future holds, or what “normal” at work will look like. But as we think about the possible positive legacy of this pandemic, we’ll all do well to rethink how leadership with heart can shape our collective success.

Empathy and vulnerability are valuable traits as we navigate this pandemic and the recovery phase