Dare To Lead

Dare To Lead dispels common myths about modern-day workplace culture and shows you that true leadership requires nothing but vulnerability, values, trust, and resilience.

Brené has spoken with thousands of leaders through her work as a researcher. Even the toughest among them eventually admitted that, indeed, acts of courage were always accompanied by the feeling of vulnerability. I can prove this to you.

Let’s first define ‘vulnerability’ as “the universal emotion we feel when times are risky and uncertain or we are at the mercy of other people’s actions.” Given that definition, I dare you to think of a time when you did something that required courage that didn’t also require you to be vulnerable. It’s impossible, right?

The truth is whenever we choose courage, we also choose vulnerability. Because that’s precisely what courage is about: acting in spite of fear, uncertainty, and potential danger. That’s why Brené is so adamant that vulnerability is not a sign of weakness.

It’s actually a sign of strength.

One factor Brené determined as incredibly beneficial to good leadership is having clarity about your values. Values are the human ideals we consider as most important in our lives. Some examples of values are courage, freedom, justice, kindness, discipline, family, and honesty.

People who know what their values are have an easier time dealing with adversity. They can let their values guide them. They’re something to hold on to in dark and difficult times. They allow you to be resilient and do what’s necessary. But while making a list of your values is a simple exercise, Brené adds a caveat to their effectiveness.

If you really want your values to guide you well, focus on only two of them. Prioritizing two values above all others gives you a specific ideal to turn to when the going gets tough. It’s easy to compile 15 great values, but when you tell yourself all of them matter, you’ll end up prioritizing none of them.

Picking two values is a lot harder, but it’ll pay off! I think mine would be honesty and self-control.

We all consider ourselves trustworthy people, yet we only confide in a small, carefully crafted selection of others. I guess the numbers don’t add up. It’s like we can’t all be above average drivers. Someone has to lower the standard. I think when it comes to trust, that someone is all of us. Luckily, Brené’s team has compiled a list of seven behaviors that help us cultivate more trust in our relationships with others: Boundary-setting. Clarifying and respecting each other’s limits is crucial to a collaborative relation. Reliability. If we can’t rely on another to keep our word, what good is it? Accountability. Making mistakes…