Dare to Lead, by Brené Brown ~ Book Picks

Whether you’re leading a movement or a start-up, if you’re trying to change an organizational culture or the world, Dare to Lead will challenge everything you think you know about brave leadership and give you honest, straightforward, actionable tools for choosing courage over comfort.

Tarana Burke, senior director, Girls for Gender Equity, founder, the Me Too movement

We are all called to be leaders in some aspect of our lives - but this demand doesn't come with instructions. How can we overcome our fears and be the leaders, managers, teachers, parents that we need to be? In an approachable, straightforward style, Brené Brown answers this question and speaks to the larger question of leadership and courage in the broader world.At a time when leadership and problem-solving are on everyone's mind like never before, she addresses concerns on the micro and macro levels, providing a resource and structure that is never fluffy, always thoroughly researched, and increasingly relevant. She asks: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential.When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work.But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better a

nd faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start.Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW,is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation–Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of four #1New York Timesbestsellers:Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection. Her TED talk—“The Power of Vulnerability”—is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world with more than forty million views.28.00