INTRINSIC The Series: Openness

Think about your role models in life.

All of them.

Role models who inspired you in the past. Role models who continue to do so.

Maybe it’s your mother. Maybe it’s your father. Maybe it’s your funny uncle who always had one glass of Bourbon too many. Maybe it’s your boss, your friend, your spouse. Maybe it was your teacher when you were in the eighth grade. Someone who truly believed in you.

Do you picture them? Do you see their faces and smiles? Do you feel their caring attitude? Good.

Now think about the way they shared or share information, thoughts and emotions with you.

Are your role models in life hermetically sealed like the Vatican’s library? Are they locked like Fort Knox? Are they closed as the road less traveled?

I bet with you; they are not!

Contrariwise, they are open like the heart of Mother Teresa.

Sure, you can be open and you can be open. Conor Neill, Professor of Persuasive Communication at the renowned IESE Business School in Barcelona, says that,

Openness in communication means purposeful vulnerability. Vulnerability creates connection, but without a purpose it is like “flashing your naughty bits”. Openness is good, if it serves the listener, not if it’s just “shocking”. But the only way to grow is to share more than I am comfortable with. 

Role models are open, motivators are open. If you seek for intrinsically motivated people, you must be another role model for them. Openness is a prerequisite of trust. You cannot move people to action and expect them to do so with all their heart, if you are not open.

Be more open. Be a role model.

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Read other posts of this series…