What Is Vulnerability?
According to the TED Talk, vulnerability has three components. Name ONE of them.
What is Emotional exposure / Uncertainty / Risk (any one)
The presentation lists three ways to be vulnerable at work. Name ONE of them.
Be honest about your struggles / Do the difficult thing / Share without oversharing (any one)
The presentation calls the idea that leaders must be tough, invincible, and never show weakness by what name?
The 'Macho' Myth
In Leslie John's research, what percentage of managers are willing to mention a weakness when introducing themselves to a new team?
33% (one third)
According to the presentation, daring leadership is NOT about perfection. What IS it about?
Showing up (courage + vulnerability, not perfection)
The presentation contrasts the MYTH of vulnerability with the REALITY. What does each say?
Myth: vulnerability = weakness. Reality: vulnerability = courage, authenticity, and growth.
What is the difference between a leader's 'To Do' list and their 'To Be' list?
A To Do list tracks tasks. A To Be list is a daily reminder of who you want to be as a leader — anchored to your core character traits like openness, humility, or curiosity.
The presentation says vulnerable leaders 'lead with humility.' What are TWO specific behaviors that demonstrate humility in a leader?
Ask for help / Own your mistakes (both required)
What is 'omission bias' — and why does it cause leaders to stay silent even when speaking up would build trust?
Omission bias is the tendency to judge harmful inactions less harshly than harmful actions. It makes silence feel 'safe' even when that silence is quietly eroding trust — because doing nothing feels less risky than doing something.
The podcast section covers 'tough conversations.' What are the THREE principles the presentation gives for handling them?
Address problems directly / Be honest and clear / Stay open, not defensive
According to the TED Talk, what happens to connection when there is NO vulnerability?
Without vulnerability, there is no connection: no trust, no belonging, no real relationships.
A leader receives critical feedback in a meeting and immediately gets defensive. According to the triggers framework, what SHOULD they do instead — and what are the three steps?
Instead of reacting from ego, they should: (1) Self-reflect on why they're reacting, (2) take a mental pause before responding, and (3) visualize the outcome they actually want before speaking.
What is psychological safety — and why does the presentation say vulnerable leadership is required to create it?
Psychological safety is an environment where people feel safe to take risks, share ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of punishment. It requires vulnerable leadership because people only feel safe when they see their leader model openness and honesty first.
he Decisional Balance Matrix has four quadrants. Most leaders think about three of them. Which one do they always skip — and give ONE example of what fills that box.
The 'costs of concealing' quadrant. Examples: team loses trust in the leader / leader carries the burden alone / candid feedback stops flowing back / team fills the silence with anxiety or rumors.
The presentation says vulnerability in leadership builds trust, encourages openness, improves communication, and strengthens teams. Pick ONE of these four outcomes and explain the specific mechanism — HOW does vulnerability produce that outcome?
Accept any well-reasoned answer. E.g. Trust: when a leader admits a mistake before they're caught, it signals that honesty is safe — and people respond by trusting that the leader won't hide things that affect them. Psychological safety: when the leader goes first in being open, it signals to the team that vulnerability is acceptable here, which unlocks candid conversation.
Q: The TED Talk identifies shame as a major blocker of vulnerability. How does Brown define shame — and why does it block connection specifically?
Shame is the feeling of 'I am not enough' and the fear of disconnection. It blocks vulnerability because it makes people afraid that if others truly saw them, they would be unworthy of connection.
The presentation says most leaders lack a 'To Be' list. Why is this a problem — and how does having one change how a leader handles a trigger in the moment?
Without a To Be list, leaders default to unmanaged reactions driven by old patterns or ego. Having one serves as a pre-commitment to a character state — so when a trigger hits, the leader has already decided who they want to be, making it easier to pause and respond from values rather than fear.
The presentation contrasts 'Proving' vs. 'Improving' and 'Open' vs. 'Fixed' mindset. Explain how a leader with a fixed/proving mindset would handle a team failure differently from a leader with an open/improving mindset.
Fixed/proving leader: focuses on who's to blame, protects their image, avoids admitting any fault. Open/improving leader: treats the failure as data, asks what the team can learn, openly shares their own role in what went wrong, and focuses on growth over optics.
Q: What is the difference between a 'competence flaw' disclosure and a 'moral violation' disclosure — and why does one build trust while the other destroys it?
Competence flaw: 'I misjudged the timeline — that's on me.' This builds trust because it shows self-awareness and the competence hit is minimal while warmth gain is large. Moral violation: 'I lied to the client.' This destroys trust because it reveals a character flaw, not just a skill gap — both competence AND warmth take a severe hit.
The presentation's learning objectives include helping students 'define the difference between transparency and vulnerability.' Explain that difference in your own words and give a specific example of each in a leadership context.
Transparency = sharing how you think or decide (cognitive openness, low risk). Vulnerability = sharing your fears, failures, or insecurities (personal exposure, high risk/reward). Example — Transparent: 'I always get team input before making big calls.' Vulnerable: 'I'm honestly not sure this is the right direction and I'm worried about it.'
Q: The presentation lists three reasons people avoid vulnerability: fear of rejection, fear of failure, and need for control. Pick ONE and explain how it directly leads to armored or bravado leadership behavior.
Accept any well-reasoned answer. E.g. Fear of failure → leader never admits mistakes or asks for help (bravado) because admitting failure feels too risky. Need for control → leader hoards information and avoids honest conversations because uncertainty feels threatening.
The presentation distinguishes between a 'defensive' and 'creative' response to triggers. Describe a specific leadership scenario where a trigger could lead to a defensive response — then rewrite it as a creative/vulnerable response and explain what changes.
Accept any well-reasoned scenario. E.g. Trigger: team member publicly disagrees with the leader's plan. Defensive: leader shuts down the idea, gets cold or dismissive. Creative/Vulnerable: leader pauses, says 'that's actually a fair challenge — let's hear it out' and invites dialogue. What changes: the leader prioritizes the team's growth and trust over ego-protection.
The presentation says leaders should 'grow through discomfort.' A leader argues that staying in their comfort zone makes them more consistent and reliable for their team. Make the strongest counter-argument using THREE concepts from the presentation.
Accept any answer using three real concepts. E.g. (1) Open vs. fixed mindset — consistency without growth is stagnation, and a fixed mindset blocks the learning that teams need from their leader. (2) Triggers — comfort zones allow unmanaged triggers to go unexamined, so the leader never grows past their blind spots. (3) Psychological safety — teams mirror their leader; a leader who never takes risks signals to the team that risk-taking is unsafe.
A leader in your group says: 'I never admit weaknesses to my team because I don't want to undermine my authority.' Using the omission bias concept, the Decisional Balance Matrix, AND the 96%/33% research finding, build the strongest possible counter-argument.
Strong answers use all three: (1) The 96/33 stat proves that the leaders who DO admit weaknesses are trusted MORE — so the assumption that admission undermines authority is factually wrong. (2) Omission bias explains WHY the leader feels this way — they're treating silence as neutral when it has real costs. (3) The matrix reveals what they're not calculating: the team is noticing the evasiveness, trust is eroding quietly, and they're missing the feedback that could make them better. The 'authority' they're protecting is already being undermined by the silence.
The presentation opens with an 'Agree or Disagree' ice breaker and closes by revisiting the same statements. Statement 2 is: 'A good leader should always appear confident, even when they're not.' Using AT LEAST THREE concepts from anywhere in today's presentation, argue definitively for one side.
Accept either side if well-argued with three real concepts. Strongest DISAGREE argument: (1) Bravado/Macho Myth — projecting false confidence is exactly what the research shows destroys trust long-term. (2) Psychological safety — a leader who always appears confident when they're not signals to the team that uncertainty is unacceptable, killing candid communication. (3) Omission bias / costs of concealing — the hidden cost of performing confidence is that the team stops bringing real problems because they assume the leader 'has it handled.' The compounding silence eventually leads to bigger failures.