The Power of Vulnerability in Business, Part 1

Do you bring your whole self to your professional life? Is it ok to show when you are struggling? Should you share past experiences that aren’t pretty?

This can be a tricky question to answer for both business owners and employees.

Our founder Sara Bacon believes that being vulnerable with your team leads to power, connection and authenticity. And she walks her talk.

Carl Smith of The Bureau of Digital asked Sara to be interviewed for a podcast recently. In a session at Owner Camp, a retreat for digital/creative studio owners, Carl had listened to Sara share about her sobriety. Carl noticed the effect this disclosure had in encouraging others to share honestly. Sara agreed to be interviewed by Carl—and then had a big realization. We’ll share that story next week, or you can hear it directly now from Sara in Episode 007 of The Bureau Briefing podcast.

Here are some of our favorite statements from her interview. These statements reflect how we operate as an agency.

5 Quotes from Sara from her interview on vulnerability in business 

– 5:30 Vulnerability isn’t just honesty. It’s being willing to share your true self, your innermost authentic being, with the people that you are working with. And I think that’s not a message we’ve been given.

– 8:48 I came back from Owner Camp with this renewed clarity about my purpose, and my purpose being authenticity, vulnerability and connection…this is our purpose as a company, no more sometimes bidding on jobs that aren’t totally right for us.

– 13:01 As agency owners we’re literally in the business of connection, if we create products that don’t connect, we aren’t going to get very far. It’s my job to establish connection between myself and my team members, and my team members with my team members, so they can create connection

– 14:50 Vulnerability doesn’t mean being sloppy, in the way I’m talking about it requires discernment, it’s one of our core values…you aren’t let off the hook for being a thoughtful and mindful adult.between the clients and them. It’s such a trickle down, top down kind of thing.

– 19:24 What’s scarier is not being my true self and not feeling authentic and integrated in my core… life is short and it’s not worth it anymore to not be authentic and not be who you are and not lay it on the line and not go all out.

The full 22-minute interview with Sara can been heard in Episode 007 of the Bureau Briefing. Check it out!  It also has some great experience shared by the interviewer, Carl.

Vulnerability in business is powerful—it leads to stronger relationships and trust. This helps teams work better among themselves and with clients. We’ve seen benefits in improved communication, efficiency and problem solving. Stronger relationships also lead to less team turnover. Both people’s happiness and the bottom line are positively affected.

In our next post, we’ll share an example of what vulnerability recently looked like on our team.