Vulnerability and empathy are critical for leaders to build trust with their team.
I’m fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to participate in many leadership trainings in the last three years. Phrases like burnout and psychological safety are now around every corner. Each training had a unique spin on leadership, but they all shared a common thread of emphasizing the importance of mental health in the workplace.
As a new people leader, I often received advice and encouragement that the best method was to leave your personal life at the door and if you worked hard enough the example alone would foster a team who simply did what needed to be done.
My personal life— including a very rocky start into new motherhood, because of health complications—eventually became impossible to leave at the door. I found myself feeling the need to share that I was balancing doctor’s appointments, motherhood, and general life on top of work with my team including direct reports. I was truly petrified. Would my team see me the same way? Would my work output and the output of my team suffer? How would this impact my reputation as a leader?
To my surprise, I was greeted with compassion and understanding. Overtime, I became more comfortable saying when I was having a bad day or when something personal was going on. Not only did I find comfort in the sharing, but I also saw my team begin to display an openness with me and with each other. The openness led to a team who was genuinely invested in each other’s success and there for our failures.
Last year, I had the opportunity to build a new team, and I’m thrilled that I was able to build another space where team members felt comfortable speaking up. Even though the focus of the new team was different, acknowledging the whole person led to a high functioning team.
As I reflect on my journey as a people leader, I’m encouraged at how far discussing mental health has come. However, we have a long way to go. My encouragement to every people leader is to take the first step to acknowledge that you and your team are human, we all have bad days, and sometimes we get things wrong as a way to create more safe places to show up as our whole selves. Displaying vulnerability leads to an empathetic team. In my experience, where there is vulnerability and empathy there is greater trust is critical to develop high functioning teams.