Barry Kaplan - The Power of Vulnerability: How to Create a Team of Leaders by Shifting INward

Advance Praise

At once powerful and thoughtful, Kaplan and Manchester have created an inspirational guide to help leaders get the most out of their teams. This book will change your businessand your life!

MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Triggers:
Creating Behavior that LastsBecoming the Person You Want to Be

The Power of Vulnerability shows how you can fully embrace your authentic purpose to bring passion to your work and to guide others to do this, too. This easy to read and practical guide is a must for everyone on your team.

PAUL J. ZAK, author of Trust Factor: The Science
of Creating High-Performance Companies

Too often, leaders believe that success comes from their ability to wear many different hats. The Power of Vulnerability dashes that myth. Top leaders know how to live authentically, operating from a place of passion and openness. Kaplan and Manchester tell leaders how to look inward as a way to build stronger, more satisfying relationships. Immature leaders strive to create followers; vulnerable leaders know how to create a team of leaders.

SCOTT CARBONARA, author of Managers Guide to Employee
Engagement and Go Positive! Lead to Engage

The Power of Vulnerability fundamentally changes how leaders think about relationships in their business. Its a smart innovative shift in thinking and approach that can transform the culture of your team and organization.

DAVID LANDSBERG, president & CEO of Goodwill Industries of
South Florida, former publisher of the Miami Herald

Power of Vulnerability is well written with valuable insight for leaders interested in building positive, strong relationships, and better team performance. Highly recommend!

WILLIAM SIDER, former CFO of Hertz Rental Car

Shift180 has brought the principles of The Power of Vulnerability to me and my companies. They have been a force in my life! Shift180s coaching and systems around every major part of my life have moved me forward to remarkable success. I doubled my income, was promoted to CEO, tripled the revenue of my company, and lost over 100 pounds as a direct result of their work. They unleashed power in me I didnt know I had. Even when I wasnt the most open to coaching, they empowered through to help me get over myself and continue to succeed. I thank God every day for placing Shift180 in my path.

MARCIA BARNES, CEO of Valve + Meter; 2012 Woman
of Influence Indianapolis Business Journal

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Copyright 2018 Shift 180, LLC

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Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62634-473-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62634-474-7

Part of the Tree Neutral program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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First Edition

To our children, Chris, Allie, and CJ.

CONTENTS

The Journey Begins: Isnt It Time?

We Want More

WE ALL WANT the same thing. More. Even though we come from different places and diverse backgrounds, most of us yearn for something that we do not yet have. Or, at least, we think we dont have it or even know how to describe what might be missing.

Do you want more? Do you feel like you are going through the motions at work? Are you struggling to find meaning in what you do? Are you resigned to your current role by saying this is all there is? Are you disengaged from your colleagues and feel as though there isnt a true sense that you are all a team? In some senses, does it feel like you are dying a death of 1,000 paper cuts, feeling like you care a little less with each passing day?

If you have felt or currently feel this way, you are not alone. Many of the business leaders and professionals we work with tell us they have a sense of feeling alone. And, weve also experienced this yearning with artists and politicians, clergy and students, and among dreamers and pragmatic collaborators.

So how do you shift from that sense of feeling alone or disengaged into a sense of connection? How do you shift from feeling like a drone completing your work into feeling inspired by being a part of and aligned with something that has a sense of purpose?

Our books title, The Power of Vulnerability: How to Create a Team of Leaders by Shifting INward, speaks to a concept that we call INpowerment. Not to be confused with empowerment, INpowerment comes from our beliefs that:

• each individual and team have more power than we realize,
• each of us has the capacity to access the power inside us,
• we can learn how to do it,
• we can do it on our own, but even better as a team, and
• we need to discover and unleash that power by shifting inward.

The potential of INpowerment reaches beyond our imaginations, yet it requires the courage of vulnerability to join the journey.

To help break the ice working with groups and teams, we invite participants to stand in a circle and take a step forward if they identify with one of over forty statements we read. Well ask them to step forward if you have a post-graduate degree or if you played on a high school sports teamas part of a warm up round, and then gradually we offer more intimate statements.

When we say, Step in if you believe you are not using all of your talents in your current role, almost everyone takes a step in. Each of them believes they are limited in what they can offer and contribute to their team. There is a palpable gap between the individuals perception of their output and their potential; and each time we conduct this exercise, we can feel the tension and possibilities at both the individual and team levels. Not only is the individual living in a less than state, but the team is achieving less than it could if the members were organized so that each person was able to access more potential talent and put it to use.