Be open and vulnverable about your own weaknesses.

One of the hardest things for a leader to do is be open and vulnerable. They want to be viewed as strong not weak, professional not amaturish, and someone who has all the answers.

So, we have an awful lot of “leaders” running around who cast these protective images of themselves to the people they lead. And they are false images, and unnecessary.

When you project this image you unwittlingly hermetically seal a falseness not only of who you are but push away the giftedness of others, and shut down the contribution that they could make.

The deception is that the people you serve will see you as stronger than you are or that you know more than you do.

So they back off or shut down or not offer their knowledge. But what they really see is someone who is a “know-it-all.” An insecure person who is so caught up with their image that they miss the very thing that endears people to their leaders.

We want our leaders to “be real.” We want authenticity. We want humility. We want to know that our leaders as just like us. People with issues, problems, and limited capacity.

The truth is, you can’t be humble without being vulnerable and open.

An when we find out our leaders are real people, then we follow.