Leadership learning from vulnerable experience: on the need for reflexive dialogue

We approach this essay as individuals who have (sometimes painful) experience of vulnerable leadership and a desire to learn from this experience. We root our work in debates about dialogue and its relationship with reflexivity. We establish, through building on the relevant literature, how shared dialogue and reflexivity can support learning from vulnerable leadership experiences – and how these learning experiences can involve moral emotions, particularly shame and guilt. We use vignettes constructed through our own reflexive dialogue as illustrations to show how the process of learning from reflexive dialogue can play out. Overall, our essay outlines a pedagogy and principles for vulnerable leadership learning, both in the context of formal programmes and in ongoing practice.