By Lauren Costella
We are human. Humans are imperfect. And imperfection leads to mistakes.
As Customer Success Leaders, we understand this better than anyone. We see mistakes happen with customers, and we work with them to come up with solutions. We make mistakes with customers, and we ask for empathy and work to solve those issues quickly and swiftly. To admit mistakes requires being vulnerable. It requires admitting when we are wrong. It requires us admitting that something could have been done differently and better. For most CS leaders, this comes second nature in working with customers. We have to admit if we missed on delivering against expectations or listen to feedback about how the product didn’t perform as intended. To listen and receive feedback requires a high level of vulnerability.
Being vulnerable for a Customer Success leader can’t stop with customers. In fact, vulnerability must be the foundation for managing and building great teams, working with peers, and attaining results.
If you’ve ever read Patrick Lencioni’s work on the 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, he describes how vulnerability-based trust is the foundation for building cohesive teams. A cohesive team is defined as a group of people who have Trust, Healthy Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results. One of the hardest parts to master in building cohesive teams is being vulnerable. Vulnerability requires admitting when you’re wrong, you messed up, or that someone is better than you at something. The issue: vulnerability can often be perceived as “weak” and for leaders this is particularly hard to process because we often believe our job is to be “strong” and to always have the solution.
This thought process is flawed. In fact, your strength as a leader is only as good as your willingness to be vulnerable and admit when you’ve messed up. And it’s mission critical to incorporate vulnerability into your operational processes.
Before we jump into how we can add vulnerability into your leadership processes, let’s talk about why vulnerability matters. Vulnerability breeds trust with your team, and trust is the foundation for ensuring your team can talk about the most difficult of issues. As Patrick Lencioni would say, trust is the foundation for healthy conflict. As a team, you’ll need to have space to debate ideas and solutions to key issues. These topics cannot be clouded by ego. Conflict requires getting into the nitty gritty and facing the brutal facts of what is happening in the organization, what needs to change, and how the team will operationalize to execute. When we aren’t vulnerable, we can’t get to the root cause of what’s happening since too often we’ll be concerned by whether we are perceived as weak or incompetent, or whether our team will be concerned about the same issues.
When we exercise vulnerability we encourage ourselves and our team to face mistakes and issues head on. When we are able to dive into problems right away, we can solve those problems before they turn into bigger issues. And what’s amazing about vulnerability is, when you model it, it inspires your team to be vulnerable too. When you as a leader aren’t afraid to admit that you failed or you messed up or you made a mistake or better yet, you need help, your team will be able to admit and ask for the same. They will see you as being “human” and approachable and open to feedback. And with this type of safety, they can offer feedback, new ideas and take some calculated risks to solve tough problems.
How can we incorporate vulnerability into our everyday practices? It starts with getting personal. In daily huddles and weekly Level 10 meetings, you can add quick agenda items that are more personal. I like to add in our daily huddle what we are grateful for, and in our weekly L10s, what’s a personal highlight of the week. Getting personal allows us to get to know each other, and through getting to know each other and building trust, we are more comfortable being vulnerable.
In addition to getting personal, incorporate sharing one thing that you could have done differently or didn't take action but should have from the week before. Starting with something small and admitting it out loud can help you and the team get comfortable with sharing mistakes.
Ask for feedback. One way to operationalize vulnerability is to ask for feedback - from your boss and your team. One great way to organize this feedback could be around your company core values. Ask your team to say one thing you do really well that exemplifies the core value and one area where you could improve or what you could do differently. Ask your executive teammates and your boss for the same feedback. Feedback can feel uncomfortable, but the more you receive it and hear it, the more comfortable you get with it. And through this, you’ll be much more willing to voice when mistakes have arisen!
Vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. And when we are vulnerable as CS leaders, we can more quickly and easily identify areas in our organization that need improvement, and we can create an environment where we can solve the core issue, not just a symptom. Too many leaders believe their job is to always exude strength and at times, leaders just have too much ego (it’s always someone else’s fault as to why something didn’t work). Throw those misperceptions out the window. You need to get vulnerable. Admit to yourself and your teammates and your own team what is going well and what isn’t. Ask for their help. You’ll not only get better solutions to the problems but your team will be more likely to admit their mistakes and ask for your help before small issues turn into big ones.
Need to fine tune your leadership skills? The Success League is a customer success consulting firm that offers a CS Leadership Certification program. To find out more about this and our other offerings, please visit TheSuccessLeague.io
Lauren Costella - Lauren is a change agent, communicator, leader and passionate champion for Customer Success. When she’s not working as the Chief Customer Officer at Dental Intelligence, you can find her serving as an advisor for The Success League, a board member for the Customer Success Network, and blogging on the CS Playlist. Lauren has her MA and BA from Stanford University. She was a former USA National swim team member and enjoys staying active in the Bay Area.