From Be Vulnerable by Brad Feld, venture capitalist and startup catalyst:
“We are told that leaders must be strong. They must be confident. They must be unflinching. They must hide their fear. They must never blink. They cannot be soft in any way.
“Bullshit.”
That’s a nice tangent spin on my post here yesterday. And it’s based on a book he just finished. He writes:
I’m vulnerable to the broader community I engage with. I’m open about my struggles – personally and professionally. I’m not bashful about being wrong, and owning it. And, when I get feedback, my ears are always open. Sure, I get plenty of random criticism from nameless, faceless people. That used to annoy me – now I just put them in the bucked of “anonymous coward” and delete it from my brain. If they can offer me the feedback directly, in their own voice, with their own identity, I’m open to it. I’ll let myself be vulnerable in that context. But I draw the line at random, anonymous attacks, especially ad hominem ones.
So yesterday I wrote that you can’t teach leadership. Today I’m really liking this take on it. Maybe what brings those two contradictory ideas together is that you can’t teach leadership, you can lead.
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