
Special Guest Post By:
Abbie Adkins, Baylor Law Student, Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Class
Our challenge this month is to check in with our students to offer guidance for furthering their leadership skills during their summer endeavors. Another great book to recommend to them is Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. This classic leadership book is a perennial favorite of our leadership students when selecting a book to read and review for class. Today’s post is a review from Abbie Adkins, a Baylor Law student in our last Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) class. Reading this review has motivated me to read it again! How about you?
– Leah
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown is a book about vulnerability and bravery. Dr. Brown highlights four skill sets that she believes can be taught, observed, and measured: rumbling with vulnerability, living into our values, braving trust, and learning to rise.
In the first section of the book, “rumbling with vulnerability,” Dr. Brown debunks common misconceptions of vulnerability. She emphasizes the importance of leaders being vulnerable. And I found it interesting that not only does she encourage people and leaders specifically to be vulnerable, but she iterates how courageous it is to be vulnerable. Our society often views vulnerability as weakness. But by being vulnerable we open ourselves up to greater possibilities. We allow ourselves to try things we thought were impossible and let go of the fear of failure. We create an empathetic environment that fosters stronger relationships and teamwork. We learn and grow from being vulnerable.
The second skill set, “living into our values,” focuses on practicing our values rather than just believing them. She encourages us as leaders to name our values and think through behaviors that both support those values and actions that we are tempted to do that counter each value. I think this is a powerful exercise. A lot of us have strong values and beliefs, but often those values and beliefs are just that: values and beliefs. You would not be able to tell from the way someone acts or spends their time what they value or believe. Dr. Brown gives practical advice for realizing those values and putting them into action.
The third skill set, “braving trust,” emphasizes the importance of trusting those around us. Trust is hard. Many of us have had people around us break our trust, making it difficult to trust others. Dr. Brown again gives practical tools to help combat our instinctive distrust of others. She gives ideas of how to cultivate an environment of trust in order to create teamwork and positive relationships. Some of those practical tools include respecting others’ boundaries, reliability, being accountable for your mistakes, vault closing (i.e. refraining from sharing confidential information), integrity, non-judgment, and generosity (BRAVING).
The fourth skill set, “learning to rise,” essentially is about cultivating confidence in yourself and relying on others to become an effective leader. We often need to slow down and analyze a situation before letting our emotions take over. We need to look at situations objectively to be more effective.
Dare to Lead is a powerful book that would be beneficial for leaders of all kinds from a high school class president to a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. The book flips our traditional view of leadership on its head and encourages us to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is often viewed as a sign of weakness, but Dr. Brown shows us how vulnerability is actually a sign of strength. Dr. Brown’s concept of leadership is about finding your own strength and power so that you can cultivate an understanding and reliable environment. But more importantly, Dr. Brown doesn’t just talk about these concepts or ideals, she gives practical tools to become a better version of ourselves and better leaders in society.