Leader Vulnerability and the Autonomic Nervous System

When I took on leadership positions, I was grounded in relationally-informed theory and practice along with a commitment to embodying a science informed approach. I had worked in a number of healthcare organizations and systems that had exposed me to top-down management styles where I felt unseen, devalued, and isolated. These experiences inspired me to commit to a leadership practice that sought to listen to employees’ strengths and inspire their engagement and participation in creating growth-fostering and psychologically safe workplace cultures.

Given this, my leadership focus tended to be on others, the organization, and the system within which the organizations were situated. What I wasn’t prepared for was the vulnerability that visited me as I developed and grew into my role and identity as a leader. This was not something I had heard other leaders talking about, nor had I encountered this in the leadership literature I had been studying during my doctorate. However, learning how to embrace vulnerability, along with the humbling wisdom and strength it brings, has been a significant part of my leadership development journey.

Leaders can face a number of challenging situations that they are expected to respond to with skill. Employees or organizational members look to leaders for guidance and direction. They also need leaders to be present and have the capacity to respond with emotional and social intelligence. At times, leaders have time to reflect before they whereas other situations require an immediate response.

Yet, leaders are people with their own histories and neurobiologically mediated patterns of response. The field of Interpersonal Neurobiology offers an interdisciplinary, relational neuroscience perspective that is invaluable for leader development and practice. One of these disciplines, Polyvagal Theory (PVT), can assist leaders to understand their own and others physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses to situations. Through a PVT lens, autonomic nervous system’s (ANS) response to safety, threat and, at times, danger assist leaders to move beneath limited behavioral perspectives.

This not only provides a non-pathologizing perspective but gives a map to the adaptive and protective nervous system mechanisms that can be triggered in an attempt to mobilize (sympathetic nervous system) and/or protect through shutting down (dorsal vagus). It is a companion that helps leaders to embrace their vulnerability as a portal into deep learning and transformation.

Please stay tuned for more explorations of leader vulnerability and development through a relational neuroscience lens. If you wish to explore your own leadership development from a whole-person, science-based perspective please contact me at info.lynnredenbach.com.