Vulnerability as an Asset, 2040's Ideas and Innovations, Issue 144

Issue 144, January 25, 2024

We’ve all heard about EQ as the skill and management strategy transcending IQ. Emotional Quotient is defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions (Wiki) and the ability to manage one’s own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict (HelpGuide). Any way you define it, it’s an essential leadership approach in today’s culture that is increasingly fraught than normal with division and contention.  But there is another way to understand this operational strategy, and it’s called vulnerability.

Why Vulnerability?

Literally, vulnerability is referred to as “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally” (Oxford Dictionary.com).  But in a slightly different context, it is a “willingness to show emotion or to allow one’s weaknesses to be seen or known; a willingness to ris…