Good Morning Reader
This week, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about a mistake I made early in my career.
A mistake that cost a couple of million.
A mistake I owned.
A mistake I genuinely thought would cost me my job.
Twelve or thirteen years later, I finally shared it publicly.
I expected conversation. I did not expect the reaction.
Senior leaders messaged saying they were shocked I would admit something like that online. Others said they could never do the same because their company or colleagues would judge them. A few said admitting failure would make them look weak.
But this is exactly the problem.
We have built a culture in which leaders feel they must appear invincible. Always right. Always composed. Always above the mess.
Invincibility is not leadership.
It is performance.
And performance has an expiry date.
What surprised me most was how many people said my post made them trust me more. That is the irony. Leaders spend so much energy trying to look perfect, not realising that trust is never built through perfection. It is built through honesty.
Why vulnerability matters more now than ever
As leaders, we are navigating complexity, uncertainty, and constant change. The future is unclear. Technology and AI are reshaping how we work. The pace is relentless. The demands are increasing.
In this world, leadership without vulnerability becomes dangerous. Because a leader who cannot admit uncertainty, mistakes, or failure cannot adapt. And a team cannot grow under a leader who pretends they never fall.
Brene Brown said something recently that captures this perfectly:
"You can either learn from your falls or you can hide them. One path builds resilience. The other builds fear."
Fear is what too many leaders are accidentally creating.
Not because they are bad leaders.
Because they are performing leadership, not living it.
A story of failure from someone at the top
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, once spoke about a failure early in his leadership career. He talked about the time he was asked in an interview, "What would you do if you saw a baby crying in the street?"
He responded with something procedural - "Call 911"
Something technical.
Something rigid.
Afterwards, the interviewer told him the right response was simple:
"I would pick up the baby."
He said that moment haunted him. He realised he had prioritised intellect over humanity.
It was a failure of instinct.
A failure of empathy.
And he said it was one of the most important lessons of his life because it reshaped the kind of leader he wanted to become.
Notice the pattern.
What inspires us is not a flawless journey.
It is the courage to tell the truth.
The leaders who hide their failures create brittle cultures
Every time a leader hides a mistake, the team learns to hide theirs.
Every time a leader pretends to have all the answers, the team stops asking questions.
Every time a leader performs invincibility, innovation dies because no one is willing to take a risk.
True leadership is the exact opposite.
When you admit your failures, you teach your team how to grow.
When you share your lessons, you show them how to navigate complexity.
When you tell the truth, you build trust.
This is why authenticity, integrity, and vulnerability are not nice to have qualities. They are core leadership capabilities for the world we are stepping into.
The future requires leaders who can adapt, learn, and evolve.
Not leaders who cling to an image.
Not leaders who crumble under the weight of perfection.
The reaction to my post confirmed something.
The more leaders I spoke to this week, the more I realised how starved people are for honest leadership. Not polished. Honest. Not perfect. Human.
The messages I received were not really about my mistake. They were about what it represented:
Permission.
Relief.
Humanity.
Truth.
So let me ask you:
Where are you still performing invincibility?
What failure have you hidden that could become someone else’s instruction manual?
What would change if you allowed your team to see you as human rather than flawless?
What trust could be built if you stopped protecting the image and started living the truth?
Because the leaders who pretend they never fall are not leading.
They are hiding.
And hiding has never built anything worth following.
The leaders who will thrive in what's coming aren't the ones who have it all figured out.
They're the ones brave enough to tell the truth.