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November 26, 2024 8 mins

Vulnerability is for Losers. Let me show you what I mean.

Does telling the truth at work feels like putting yourself in danger - sticking your head in the lion's mouth? If so, you have lost the battle to create a supportive workplace culture - so far. What can leaders like you do to fix it?

Many leaders emphasize vulnerability as a cornerstone of workplace communication, but if employees feel exposed or at risk for speaking truthfully, it’s a sign of a deeper problem. This episode explores how a lack of support for honest communication damages trust, teamwork, and workplace morale—and how leaders can take the first step to fix it.

~~ Learn why vulnerability means your people are afraid of telling the truth at work.

~~ Learn your first step as a physician leader to build a new culture of truth, trust, and transparency.

~~ Understand how telling YOUR TRUTH can begin a healing process for your teams that will supercharge their engagement, satisfaction and meaning..

Tune in now to learn how to create a supportive workplace culture where honesty thrives, and transform your team dynamics today!

Book a Discovery Session to supercharge your leadership and communication skills https://bit.ly/SPB-POD-Discovery


~~~~~


Explore physician leadership tools and strategies to stop physician burnout, enhance physician wellness and give you the power of personal influence in the C-Suite. All the tools you need to play your role in leading the charge to wellness - at three levels - for you, your teams and your entire organization.


Takeaways:

  • A supportive workplace culture eliminates the need for vulnerability in communication.
  • Being vulnerable at work signifies a failure to create a safe, honest environment.
  • Leaders must model truthful communication to foster an open and supportive team culture.
  • Establishing norms for honest dialogue restores trust and enhances team collaboration.
  • Vulnerability should not be necessary; instead, communication should be transparent and expected.
  • Creating a culture of truthfulness can heal personal traumas and improve workplace dynamics.

Takeaways:

  • A supportive workplace culture eliminates the need for vulnerability in communication.
  • Being vulnerable at work signifies a failure to create a safe, honest environment.
  • Leaders must model truthful communication to foster an open and supportive team culture.
  • Establishing norms for honest dialogue restores trust and enhances team collaboration.
  • Vulnerability should not be necessary; instead, communication should be transparent and expected.
  • Creating a culture of truthfulness can heal personal traumas and improve workplace dynamics.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In this episode, let me showyou why.
When it comes to communicationin the workplace, vulnerability is
for losers.
Hello, and welcome to thelatest episode of the Stop Physician
Burnout Podcast, a physicianleadership podcast where you will
learn the skills so that wecan join together and lead the charge

(00:21):
to physician well being.
Skills to earn the respect ofyour colleagues in the front lines.
Skills to exercise trueinfluence in the C suite and take
back your job.
Your practice, your career andyour life.
All of these tools have beenproven effective in my 40,000 doctor
physician coaching andtraining practice.
And if I know one thing, Iknow you're super busy.

(00:44):
So let's get started.
In this episode, you'llunderstand why, if your people feel
like they have to bevulnerable, that they must be brayed
in order to stand up and speakfrom the heart on your work teams,
you have lost the battle tocreate a supportive culture.
You, my friend, are a loser.
As a leader, I'll show you whythis same phenomenon means it's not

(01:08):
okay to tell the truth in your workplace.
And I'll also show you stepnumber one to taking back the communication
and the culture of your workplace.
Step number one, it's all on you.
And I'll show you how to getstarted immediately.
Vulnerability is a very, verypopular topic these days when it

(01:29):
comes to communications in theworkplace, especially because of
the work of the fabulous Brene Brown.
And I'm a huge Brene Brown fan.
But I have a different way ofunderstanding vulnerability, probably
at least in part because I'm abig old white guy and I'm not in
a naturally vulnerablepopulation here in the United States
of America.

(01:50):
So hang with me here.
Let me give you myinterpretation of vulnerability and
why.
I can say that if you feelvulnerable when you tell the truth
at work, then you have failedto create a supportive workplace
culture.
And I consider that to be aleadership failure that can be addressed
by changing the way that you lead.

(02:10):
Now, let's just look realquick at the kinds of situations
people talk about when theysay they feel vulnerable at work.
Oftentimes when it comes tocommunication, what's happened is
somebody has stepped up andmustered up the moxie to tell the
truth.
They've actually communicatedin a way that it's truthful, open,

(02:32):
honest and transparent.
And for some reason, they feelthat telling the truth makes them
vulnerable, puts them in aposition of potential danger where
somebody could say or dosomething that would harm them.
What is that about?
In my mind, if speaking thetruth, telling it like it is, talking

(02:52):
about the elephant in theroom, Telling the emperor they have
no clothes is something thatputs you at risk.
What's happened is you failedto create a supportive culture in
the workplace, and that issuch a crucial failure, it destroys
any trust in the workplace.
So you won't be able tofunction very well as a team.
And if you look back on yourpeak experiences of human cooperation

(03:16):
in your life, your peakexperience of working on a team in
your life, one of the thingsyou'll notice is on that team where
you felt great, like yourcontributions were honored, and together
you did great work.
One of the core components ofthat was you could tell the truth.
Truthful, open, honest andtransparent conversation was the

(03:36):
norm in that group.
So that is what we want to doas leaders, is establish a culture
where telling the truth is notonly expected, it's rewarded.
Now, this destructive, nontruth telling culture is very, very
common.
It spawned all sorts of commonmetaphors, like the elephant in the

(03:59):
room, like the emperor has noclothes, like the classic kiss up
and piss down.
In neither direction are youactually telling the truth or being
honest.
But how would you start, howwould you start to create a supportive
culture for the truth, onewhere we interact authentically?
It would have to start withyou as a role model and as a mentor.

(04:21):
It has to start with youtelling the truth and telling people
that telling the truth is valuable.
And one of the ways that we dothis in the wellness leadership world
is I advocate that allwellness champions and all chief
wellness officers must starttheir leadership by telling their
story of burnout truthfully,openly, honestly, transparently.

(04:45):
The good and the bad, andespecially the ugly.
So when there are difficultworkplace communications, stride
into the breach.
Call people on their shit whenthey're taking other people down
or dissing other people in theworkplace, and communicate in an
open, truthful, honest andtransparent way.
And when other peoplecommunicate that way, reward them

(05:07):
with praise and positive feedback.
Make it normal only tocommunicate open, truthfully, trustingly
and transparently.
Make it the norm on your teams.
And here's one place that Ihave some deep, I believe, spiritual
faith that I just want to putout there for you.

(05:28):
A lot of people come to theworkplace damaged by relationships
in their life, family,abortion, or other traumas, right.
That bring them to workdamaged and afraid to tell the truth.
Well, I believe that a trulyfunctional workplace team with a
good leader that supportshonest and trustful communication
is a place that can actuallyheal the wounds of family of origin

(05:51):
and other traumas.
So this is such important workto set an example of truthful, honest,
transparent communication.
Set the example, reward itwhen it happens, and put the hammer
down.
When people lie, cheat, tellsomething other than the truth and

(06:12):
think they're going to getaway with it, it's up to us to lead
the way.
So when is the next timeyou're going to be in front of a
section of or all of your teamand have an opportunity for a pattern
interrupt?
Hey, everybody, hang on a second.
I got a story I want to tellyou because I want to tell you some
of the things I've had to dealwith in my career.

(06:33):
I think it's important that weshare these stories openly because
I want to set a standard goingforward that on this team we tell
the truth.
Truthful, open, honest and transparent.
Conversations andcommunication are what I expect and
what we will tolerate here aswe work together to get the job done.

(06:56):
And then what's the storyyou're going to tell them?
Remember, the good, the bad,and especially the ugly.
And I've had colleagues ofmine who've gone into these meetings
where they knew they weregoing to tell the truth, to set a
standard, and they were sayingto themselves ahead of time, I'm
not going to cry.
I'm not going to cry.
I'm not going to cry.
But then they did.
And you know what?
It worked out even better.

(07:17):
Talk about declaring yourselfto be a human being.
It's not a sign of weakness.
It is that sign ofauthenticity and truth, the truth
of the struggles that we gothrough at work from time to time,
especially in healthcare.
So when's the next time you'llbe with your team?
And when's the next timeyou're going to come from the heart
and be a real leader,establishing impeccable communication?

(07:42):
You can do this, and it willmake a difference.
That's it for today's episodeof the Stop Physician Burnout podcast.
We come to you twice a week,Tuesdays and Fridays, for just 10
minutes.
A single digestible nugget ofphysician leadership goodness from
my 40,000 doctor coaching andtraining practice.
Please subscribe where you getyour podcast.

(08:04):
And leave us a review ifyou're feeling it.
And until we're together againin the next podcast, you keep breathing
and have a great rest of your day.
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