Vulnerability Can Destroy You… or Make You a Great Leader

Negotiate Anything

American Negotiation Institute

Education, Careers, Business

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is vulnerability at work a strength… or a trap? In this eye-opening conversation, best-selling author and leadership expert Jacob Morgan challenges the modern myth of vulnerability in the workplace. Together with Kwame Christian, they unpack the difference between being vulnerable and leading with vulnerability—showing how one can build trust and the other can quietly ruin your credibility. Jacob shares the hard truths he uncovered after interviewing 100 CEOs and surveying over 14,000 employees, and reveals how vulnerability—when paired with competence—can become your most powerful leadership and negotiation tool. You'll learn: Why vulnerability without action can backfire The surprising psychology behind how people receive vulnerability A real-life story of how grief in the middle of a negotiation changed the outcome A simple formula to balance transparency and authority in high-stakes conversations This is not about being soft. It’s about being smart. Contact ANI ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠negotiateanything.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Jacob, thanks for joining us today.
0:02.0	Thank you for having me.
0:03.0	It is our pleasure.
0:04.0	So how can you get started by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
0:08.0	Sure.
0:09.0	So my name is Jacob Morgan as we've established.
0:10.0	I am the author of five books that focus on leadership, the future of work and employee experience.
0:16.0	And a lot of what I do is help create great leaders, engaged employees, and future ready organizations.
0:22.5	I do that through the books, through a lot of the speeches that I give.
0:24.9	I give around 40 to 50 keynote talks a year.
0:27.4	I have a podcast, a substack, and I create a lot of content around those three themes.
0:32.6	And that's where I spend all of my time.
0:36.1	This is really exciting, Jacob, and I'm excited to chat with you, especially on the topic of
0:40.7	vulnerability, which I know is the topic of your new book.
0:44.7	So before we get into it, can you give us a bit of an overview on your new book?
0:49.3	And then we'll get into how vulnerability can play a role in negotiation.
0:53.9	Sure.
0:56.3	So the theme of the book is don't be vulnerable at work. It can actually hurt you far more than it can help you. And I know that sounds
1:00.5	weird for a book called Leading with Vulnerability, but the big distinction that I make is that,
1:05.1	especially in the workplace, when you're vulnerable, really what you're doing is you're exposing
1:08.5	the gaps that you have. Gap in intelligence, gap in
1:11.6	experience, gap in emotion, gap in whatever it might be, competence. But you're basically
	...

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