Leading with Vulnerability

12It Takes One to Know One

In 1995, a heavyset man in his mid‐40s robbed two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight. He didn't wear a mask or a disguise of any kind, and in fact he smiled at the security cameras filming him. The footage from the security camera was broadcast across media and news outlets across the city and that very evening he was arrested. As McArthur Wheeler was being placed in handcuffs he shockingly cried, “But I wore the juice!”

At first police thought that he might be crazy or on drugs, but that wasn't the case. McArthur was simply mistaken. He believed that by rubbing lemon juice on his face he would be invisible to security cameras. If you write a message on paper using lemon juice, the message will disappear; if you apply a heat source like a light bulb to the paper, the message will reappear. Because lemon juice can be used as invisible ink, Mr. Wheeler believed it would make him invisible, too.

This story immediately caught the attention of Dr. David Dunning and one of his graduate students, Dr. Justin Kruger. Together they developed a theory in psychology that became known as the Dunning‐Kruger effect, which states that people with a low experience, ability, or expertise in a certain area oftentimes overestimate their abilities in that area. Put another way, people who are incompetent at something don't have the skills or abilities to know that they are incompetent to begin with!

Translating this to being a vulnerable leader, it means that if you are ...