Be the first

As I wrote last week, we begin Confident Communicator team-building workshops with vulnerability-based trust, the foundation of any good team.

Vulnerability-based trust is the ability to say something like, “I was wrong” or “I need help” and know that it won’t be used against you. 

To build this kind of trust we do an exercise where teammates share a challenge from their childhood. We create a safe space to be vulnerable. After the exercise, at least one person always says something like: that was so refreshing and real, how do we get our culture to be like that all the time?

My response?

I tell them to be the first. 

To do it on their own. Don’t wait for your boss or anyone else, and magically, others will start doing it too.

It’s backward but true. In order to become more resilient and formidable, we have to expose our flaws. That’s how they lose their power over us, so we can live with honesty and intention.

Go ahead, be the first to extend vulnerability-based trust. 

Share a personal challenge and see what happens.