Vulnerability and Courage in Calgary’s C-suite

It’s a tattered and overworked analogy, but it’s also necessarily true: Calgary is in for a bit of house cleaning. Maybe not a complete spring clean, but certainly a thorough going over with the dust cloth and a Swiffer.

The question is: who of Calgary’s C-Suite will be swept out the door and who will stay?

The question is: who of Calgary’s C-Suite will be swept out the door and who will stay?

As Yadullah Hussain noted (“Calgary’s C-Suite feels the heat in oilpatch downturn: ‘We will see a bit of housecleaning,’” March 31), the current economic situation is a pressure cooker of discomfort from the bottom up.

C-Suite executives are bearing enormous responsibility for not only the health of the business, but for their stakeholders, too, including everyone from investors, employees and families to vendors and contractors.

Critical times are ahead. Decisions need to be made that will not only affect the immediate bottom line, but growth and recovery going into the next shift in the economy. Ensuring those decisions are made for the right reasons by the right leaders cannot be understated.

And therein lies the true challenge in so-called challenging times. During periods of growth and abundance, leadership is exciting, even exhilarating. In challenging times, it can be lonely, difficult and arduous. That’s especially true when it comes to making tough decisions.

From the first time Neolithic man wrestled with the idea of expanding territory through war or through diplomacy, to our current decisions over who to let go and which strategy would ensure growth in a soft market, leaders have always faced a barrage of criticism and public shaming over their choices. As a leadership coach, more than 80 per cent of my clients can’t sleep at night over upcoming and past decisions.

Resiliency to that kind of shame and pressure is a cornerstone quality in leaders, who are not only held accountable, but can’t afford to second-guess themselves. Learning how to be resilient to shame is something Calgary will soon hear more about from visiting New York Times bestselling author, thought leader and world’s top five most viewed TED talk presenters, Brené Brown.

Brown’s message is as timely as it is important. As a research professor investigating vulnerability, courage and worthiness at the University of Houston, Brown will talk about the role of courage and discomfort in authentic leadership. She’ll debunk five common strategies we use to avoid being vulnerable as leaders, and discuss how fear, blame and scarcity undermine reaching our goals. Finally, she’ll offer a way forward, a blueprint for leaning into our human discomfort to create courageous leadership.

Of course, Calgary is a nesting ground for strong executive leadership. There are outliers and early adopters who innately understand Brown’s message. One such company is ARC Resources.

This mid-sized oil and gas company knows that tough times will get even tougher unless the talented people who made the company great are retained. And so, they’ve instituted a no-layoff commitment to employees. They have a culture of leadership built on a strategy that is dynamic and flexible when times are abundant or lean. Although they have let contractor employees go and froze wages, they did so to preserve full time staff and honour 2014 employee bonuses.

The fallout? Who knows, living these values is the key to building trust with employees now and in the future. In an environment where organizations are having to do more with less people, engagement will become ever more critical to turn companies around in challenging times.

Vulnerability requires leaders to take courage, to firmly grasp company strategy and reinforce a corporate culture of trust, especially in a downturn.

Vulnerability requires leaders to take courage, to firmly grasp company strategy

Vulnerability in leadership requires something else, too. It requires a wider world view that encompasses profit, but is also rooted in purpose, morale values and holistic solutions for the talent upon which it relies.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage,” Brown wrote in her 2012 bestseller, Daring Greatly. “Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.”

Brené Brown will speak on the Art of Leadership for Women at the Telus Convention Centre on April 13. 

Jenn Lofgren owns Incito Consulting Inc., a leadership and executive coaching company, and is also a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator.