In this episode, let me show you why.

When it comes to communication in the workplace, vulnerability is for losers.

Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of the Stop Physician Burnout Podcast, a physician leadership podcast where you will learn the skills so that we can join together and lead the charge to physician well being.

Skills to earn the respect of your colleagues in the front lines.

Skills to exercise true influence in the C suite and take back your job.

Your practice, your career and your life.

All of these tools have been proven effective in my 40,000 doctor physician coaching and training practice.

And if I know one thing, I know you're super busy.

So let's get started.

In this episode, you'll understand why, if your people feel like they have to be vulnerable, that they must be brayed in order to stand up and speak from the heart on your work teams, you have lost the battle to create a supportive culture.

You, my friend, are a loser.

As a leader, I'll show you why this same phenomenon means it's not okay to tell the truth in your workplace.

And I'll also show you step number one to taking back the communication and the culture of your workplace.

Step number one, it's all on you.

And I'll show you how to get started immediately.

Vulnerability is a very, very popular topic these days when it comes to communications in the workplace, especially because of the work of the fabulous Brene Brown.

And I'm a huge Brene Brown fan.

But I have a different way of understanding vulnerability, probably at least in part because I'm a big old white guy and I'm not in a naturally vulnerable population here in the United States of America.

So hang with me here.

Let me give you my interpretation of vulnerability and why.

I can say that if you feel vulnerable when you tell the truth at work, then you have failed to create a supportive workplace culture.

And I consider that to be a leadership failure that can be addressed by changing the way that you lead.

Now, let's just look real quick at the kinds of situations people talk about when they say they feel vulnerable at work.

Oftentimes when it comes to communication, what's happened is somebody has stepped up and mustered up the moxie to tell the truth.

They've actually communicated in a way that it's truthful, open, honest and transparent.

And for some reason, they feel that telling the truth makes them vulnerable, puts them in a position of potential danger where somebody could say or do something that would harm them.

What is that about?

In my mind, if speaking the truth, telling it like it is, talking about the elephant in the room, Telling the emperor they have no clothes is something that puts you at risk.

What's happened is you failed to create a supportive culture in the workplace, and that is such a crucial failure, it destroys any trust in the workplace.

So you won't be able to function very well as a team.

And if you look back on your peak experiences of human cooperation in your life, your peak experience of working on a team in your life, one of the things you'll notice is on that team where you felt great, like your contributions were honored, and together you did great work.

One of the core components of that was you could tell the truth.

Truthful, open, honest and transparent conversation was the norm in that group.

So that is what we want to do as leaders, is establish a culture where telling the truth is not only expected, it's rewarded.

Now, this destructive, non truth telling culture is very, very common.

It spawned all sorts of common metaphors, like the elephant in the room, like the emperor has no clothes, like the classic kiss up and piss down.

In neither direction are you actually telling the truth or being honest.

But how would you start, how would you start to create a supportive culture for the truth, one where we interact authentically?

It would have to start with you as a role model and as a mentor.

It has to start with you telling the truth and telling people that telling the truth is valuable.

And one of the ways that we do this in the wellness leadership world is I advocate that all wellness champions and all chief wellness officers must start their leadership by telling their story of burnout truthfully, openly, honestly, transparently.

The good and the bad, and especially the ugly.

So when there are difficult workplace communications, stride into the breach.

Call people on their shit when they're taking other people down or dissing other people in the workplace, and communicate in an open, truthful, honest and transparent way.

And when other people communicate that way, reward them with praise and positive feedback.

Make it normal only to communicate open, truthfully, trustingly and transparently.

Make it the norm on your teams.

And here's one place that I have some deep, I believe, spiritual faith that I just want to put out there for you.

A lot of people come to the workplace damaged by relationships in their life, family, abortion, or other traumas, right.

That bring them to work damaged and afraid to tell the truth.

Well, I believe that a truly functional workplace team with a good leader that supports honest and trustful communication is a place that can actually heal the wounds of family of origin and other traumas.

So this is such important work to set an example of truthful, honest, transparent communication.

Set the example, reward it when it happens, and put the hammer down.

When people lie, cheat, tell something other than the truth and think they're going to get away with it, it's up to us to lead the way.

So when is the next time you're going to be in front of a section of or all of your team and have an opportunity for a pattern interrupt?

Hey, everybody, hang on a second.

I got a story I want to tell you because I want to tell you some of the things I've had to deal with in my career.

I think it's important that we share these stories openly because I want to set a standard going forward that on this team we tell the truth.

Truthful, open, honest and transparent.

Conversations and communication are what I expect and what we will tolerate here as we work together to get the job done.

And then what's the story you're going to tell them?

Remember, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly.

And I've had colleagues of mine who've gone into these meetings where they knew they were going to tell the truth, to set a standard, and they were saying to themselves ahead of time, I'm not going to cry.

I'm not going to cry.

I'm not going to cry.

But then they did.

And you know what?

It worked out even better.

Talk about declaring yourself to be a human being.

It's not a sign of weakness.

It is that sign of authenticity and truth, the truth of the struggles that we go through at work from time to time, especially in healthcare.

So when's the next time you'll be with your team?

And when's the next time you're going to come from the heart and be a real leader, establishing impeccable communication?

You can do this, and it will make a difference.

That's it for today's episode of the Stop Physician Burnout podcast.

We come to you twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, for just 10 minutes.

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And until we're together again in the next podcast, you keep breathing and have a great rest of your day.