Address leadership vulnerability

Organizational Leadership Evidence and Application

This week we will address leadership vulnerability. Leadership vulnerability refers to being open to new ideas from those whom you lead. This includes fostering a safe, healthy environment and encouraging those who are qualified to assume responsibility for different tasks.

Visit the South University Online library and retrieve two peer-reviewed articles pertaining to organizational leadership and leadership vulnerability. Critique each article, and identify how the concept of vulnerability can be a positive leadership characteristic. Give examples of how vulnerable leaders may foster a productive safe environment which empowers the workforce.

Your submission should be in about 400–500 words.

Address leadership vulnerability

To improve Self-Knowledge and blood pressure control Among African Americans with high blood pressure.

Jemsek, G. (2008). Vulnerability and Shifting Leadership Values. Reflections, 8(4), 20–29.

The first article by Jemsek (2008) argues that the leadership needed to address the complex problems confronting all sectors of society – business, community, and government – requires a fuller understanding of vulnerability in determining the actions taken in relation to these problems. Because confronting personal vulnerability is a daily reality for people living with a disability, many people within this sector are generating ideas that have the potential to transform the way leadership in the broader society is exercised. These ideas emphasize the relationship between the activity of leadership and those impacted by it. Therefore, it is essential to understand vulnerability in ways that highlight rather than diminish the overall context of the situation being addressed. In so doing, leadership activity can move from models based more on “heroic” style individual initiative to more relationally based, inclusive and collaborative inquiries and actions that strive to avoid de-contextualization (Jemsek, 2008).

Personally, I’m charismatic with transformational leadership types of characteristics. I like the scholarly approach of this research article; it gives others the opportunity to zeal in leadership roles that can grow and show their talents. Jemsek (2008) conducted a workshop leadership program for people with disabilities. He reiterates that having a disability can impact the values a person emphasizes in her life, how she looks at mainstream values that may decontextualize one’s experience and the implications of these factors for leadership in the larger society. In particular, attention is paid to the values central to a person when she learns to deal successfully with vulnerability daily. Vulnerability is examined in the belief that those able to come to terms with it orient to the surrounding context in ways that can significantly contribute to how leadership is exercised in the broader society.

Ito, A., & Bligh, M. C. (2016). Feeling Vulnerable? Disclosure of Vulnerability in the Charismatic Leadership Relationship. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(3), 66–70. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/jls.21492

Ito & Bligh explores the role of vulnerability in the charismatic leadership relationship. Charismatic leadership theories posit that a leader’s perceived similarity with followers increases charisma attributions, in part because such leaders appear more trustworthy. Leaders can emphasize common values, backgrounds, or experiences to increase this similarity (Bligh & Robinson, 2010). Sharing vulnerability is thus a potentially powerful avenue to enhance similarity with followers and charismatic attributions precisely because it provides the opportunity for followers to relate psychologically with leaders.

I’m very encouraged by Ito & Bligh’s (2016) article. It illustrated former President Barak Obama as a charismatic leader, the fact that he tends to outline his failure in his speeches, which made him vulnerable, and others might see it as a weakness. When leaders share vulnerability and have suggested that sharing vulnerability may be an important mechanism through which leaders develop relationships with their followers and increase attributions of charisma. We also note several likely preconditions for sharing vulnerability, including humility, self-awareness, and the courage to acknowledge imperfections. Further, we have highlighted that when leaders disclose emotions, it creates opportunities for followers to connect with leaders at an emotional level. Followers, in turn, may perceive increased psychological safety, be more willing to trust the leader, and be more motivated to engage in building a more egalitarian leader-follower relationship. Therefore, when leaders share vulnerability, they might also take an important first step to creating a more supportive organizational culture in which both leaders and followers enact the skills and behaviors of both roles (Ito & Bligh’s 2016).

References

Bligh, M. , & Robinson, J. L. (2010 ). Was Gandhi “charismatic”? Exploring the rhetorical leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Th e Leadership Quarterly, 21 ( 5 ), 844 – 855 . doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.011.

Jemsek, G. (2008). Vulnerability and Shifting Leadership Values. Reflections, 8(4), 20–29.