Dare to Lead

“Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings, or squander an unreasonable amount of time, trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior”

The gist of Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead is that in order to unlock the potential in people and organizations we, as leaders, must:

• Stay (or “rumble”) with hard conversations when they become uncomfortable or awkward
• Identify and live our values — work to make sure our actions are consistent with our values
• Build trust with our people
• Get back up when we get knocked down or make mistakes

All of these take courage to get right. Courage requires uncertainty, risk, emotional exposure — or, vulnerability. Vulnerability is not weakness. Rather, we are social creatures and vulnerability is critical to building connection and cultivating meaning in our conversations. Brown goes as far as to say: “Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.” Courage and vulnerability are skills: we must develop and practice them. Courage is also contagious. The more we set the precedent for courage (and reject the easy and cheap cynicism and sarcasm) the more that becomes the culture of our organizations.