Dare to Lead

Like many people, I discovered Brené Brown through her eponymous TED talk on Vulnerability; that compelling insight is showcased here, too. I love the way this book takes us to the heart of what it means to lead with courage. Too often, we confuse bravado (behaviours) with bravery when it comes to leadership.

Brown’s version of courage and daring are very different and really resonate, embracing vulnerability as a key strength, coupled with empathy and integrity to breed a culture where people speak up, conversations are robust, and mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities.

What really works for me is… show more.

How-to books are typically far from my favorites. They are often reductive and play fast and loose with psychology–pretending, for example, that personality traits are easily moldable—so I typically stay away.

Still, it was hard to resist the uplifting pull of a book that turns courage into a set of seemingly teachable and achievable skills, ultimately encouraging people to break through their inhibitions and step up and lead. 

There are many books on effective leadership. Brown speaks to engaging the hearts and minds of leaders including skills like staying curious, having courage, empathy, and making connections. 

I appreciated that the author’s advice is based on comprehensive data she and her team collected across a number of organizational contexts. She suggests that effective leadership is teachable, observable, and measurable and abstracts from her research findings concrete and actionable steps that leaders can take to be more effective leaders. She also demonstrates how she implements her findings in her own company and with some of the companies she consults with. 

As I… show more.

The arts world needs more great leaders. Heck, the world needs more great leaders! What makes a leader great?

Compassion, listening, serving, etc. In Dare to Lead, Brené Brown lays out and describes a number of truly important factors and approaches to becoming a successful leader. Our communities thrive when the arts thrive – I encourage all artists to become a leader!

Dare to Lead gives honest, straightforward, and actionable tools for ditching the old leadership playbook.

It takes a hell of a lot of courage to lead authentically and with empathy. Two traits that have long been absent in the leadership ranks for far too long. Brown does a masterful job mixing anecdotes with data-backed science to challenge a lot of leadership sacred cows.