Leaders Who Dare

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead. Don’t miss the five-part HBO Max docuseries Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart! NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG 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 and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start. Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love. Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.” Whether you’ve read Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you’re new to Brené Brown’s work, this book is for anyone who wants to step up and into brave leadership.

Not Business as Usual In the current business climate of distrust, cynicism, and fear, Scott Weiss offers a radical challenge to those of us who lead others. His call for authentic leadership means dropping the mask of the Executive Persona as well as the camouflage and doubletalk of traditional corporate communications. It demands an end to our self-deceptions and the deception of others in the name of business as usual. Those who are brave enough to accept his DARE will discover... • More loyal, satisfied clients and customers • Reduced turnover and more • engaged employees • A more creative, innovative, and collaborative workplace • Less personal conflict and more genuine relationships • The passion to thrive, not just survive, in our professions A courageous book that calls on leaders themselves to step up and make the changes that will rebuild trust and restore business integrity for customers, employees, and the global public.

Here, the authors focus on educators who dare to lead their schools, districts, universities, and educational organizations to new possibilities. The leadership practices of the individuals featured contribute significantly to craft knowledge and to the discourse on contemporary issues of educational leadership. These leaders develop collaborative decision-making processes, push the bureaucratic boundaries, claim power through politics, and live and lead from values. The authors contend that the leadership practices depicted reflect a redefinition of leadership that emanates from a constructive postmodern paradigm aimed at social reconstruction. These leaders are redefining leadership by integrating doing and being. This book is a report of the results of a collective qualitative inquiry into the leadership of eighteen impressive women educational leaders from Illinois, representing a diversity of roles, community sizes, institutional types, and racial perspectives. The chapters intertwine personal stories with the scholarship about leadership. No pseudonyms are used. Although several recent books have been published about the experiences of women as leaders, leadership studies have generally not included women or failed to point to women leaders as role models who could, even should, be emulated by leaders of both genders. It is past time to close the gender leadership gap in educational administration. This book will contribute to the ongoing redefinition of leadership and perhaps after reading this book leaders who dare will move themselves and our culture closer to gender inclusive perceptions of what leadership is and who leaders are.

Have you ever been led by someone who cared for you like family, and dared you to achieve more than you ever thought possible for yourself, your organization, and even society? Award-winning author of Hostage at the Table, George Kohlrieser, along with his co-authors Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe, explain how becoming a secure base leader releases extraordinary potential in others. Part of the Warren Bennis leadership series Care to Dare shows you how to become a Secure Base Leader so that you release your followers from the fears that get in the way of their performance. It shows you how you can unleash astonishing potential by building the trust, delivering the change, and inspiring the focus that underpins sustainable high performance. From extensive interviews with executives from all over the world, as well as from surveys with more than a thousand executives, the book reveals the nine characteristics that Secure Base Leaders display on a daily basis. The research shows that a primary difference between a successful leader and a failed leader is the presence or absence of secure bases in his or her life. Care to Dare will take you on a journey where you will discover your own secure bases, past and present, and determine how you can be a secure base for other people in your life at work and at home.

“A new perspective on servant leadership—challenging us to bring both courage and humility to the table—for the sake of the people and the enterprise.” —John C. Maxwell, New York Times-bestselling author In this updated edition of Dare to Serve, former Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder shows that leading by serving is a rigorous and tough-minded approach that yields the best results. When she was named CEO of Popeyes in 2007, the stock price had slipped from $34 in 2002 to $13. The brand was stagnant, the team was discouraged, and the franchisees were just plain angry. Nine years later, restaurant sales were up 45 percent, restaurant profits had doubled, and the stock price was over $61. Servant leadership is sometimes derided as soft or ineffective, but this book confirms that challenging people to reach a daring destination, while treating them with dignity, creates the conditions for superior performance. The second edition of this bestselling book includes Bachelder’s post-Popeyes observations and new examples of how you can switch your leadership from self to serve. Ever engaging and inspirational, Bachelder takes you firsthand through the transformation of Popeyes and shows how anyone, at any level can become a Dare-to-Serve leader. “Extraordinary! Dare to Serve describes the kind of leadership so desperately needed in the 21st century. A powerful blend of courage and humility, Cheryl Bachelder’s engaging story offers a clear path for leaders to follow, and what makes her message so compelling is the tremendous results she’s produced. I highly recommend this book.” —Stephen M. R. Covey, New York Times-bestselling author of The Speed of Trust

Here, the authors focus on educators who dare to lead their schools, districts, universities, and educational organizations to new possibilities. The leadership practices of the individuals featured contribute significantly to craft knowledge and to the discourse on contemporary issues of educational leadership. These leaders develop collaborative decision-making processes, push the bureaucratic boundaries, claim power through politics, and live and lead from values. The authors contend that the leadership practices depicted reflect a redefinition of leadership that emanates from a constructive postmodern paradigm aimed at social reconstruction. These leaders are redefining leadership by integrating doing and being. This book is a report of the results of a collective qualitative inquiry into the leadership of eighteen impressive women educational leaders from Illinois, representing a diversity of roles, community sizes, institutional types, and racial perspectives. The chapters intertwine personal stories with the scholarship about leadership. No pseudonyms are used. Although several recent books have been published about the experiences of women as leaders, leadership studies have generally not included women or failed to point to women leaders as role models who could, even should, be emulated by leaders of both genders. It is past time to close the gender leadership gap in educational administration. This book will contribute to the ongoing redefinition of leadership and perhaps after reading this book leaders who dare will move themselves and our culture closer to gender inclusive perceptions of what leadership is and who leaders are.

This book demonstrates, complete with practical exercises, how to be successful in both your work and your personal life by becoming a truly authentic leader and empathic influencer. Above all, it shows you how to do this with the positive intention of successful, connected communication and through honouring the other person’s perspective. The book is of particular value to managers and leaders who are very proficient in their areas of expertise and are looking for ways to improve team and personal performance further by developing their leadership and authentic influencing skills. The book provides you with: Clear reasons why authentic leadership and empathic influencing will help in work and personal relationships. How to develop these influencing skills and remain authentic. The evidence, including the relevant neuroscience, as to why this is important. A 'how to' guide. If you are looking for some practical exercises to help develop authentic leadership, then you can go straight here.

A “daring, urgent, and transformative” (Brené Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead) exploration of Black achievement in a white world based on honest, provocative, and moving interviews with Black leaders, scientists, artists, activists, and champions. “I remember the day I realized I couldn’t play a white guy as well as a white guy. It felt like a death sentence for my career.” When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily-white Silicon Valley, he quickly concluded that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or folk concerts in San Francisco, which led Chad to believe he needed to emulate whiteness to be successful. So Chad changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech—everything that connected him with his Black identity. And while he finally felt included, he felt awful. So he decided to give up the charade. He reverted to the methods he learned at the dinner table, or at the Black Baptist church where he’d been raised, or at the concrete basketball courts, barbershops, and summertime cookouts. And it paid off. Chad began to land more exciting projects. He earned the respect of his colleagues. Accounting for this turnaround, Chad believes, was something he calls Black Magic, namely resilience, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. Black Magic has emboldened his every step since, leading him to wonder: Was he alone in this discovery? Were there others who felt the same? In “pulverizing, educational, and inspirational” (Shea Serrano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Basketball (And Other Things)) essays, Chad dives into his formative experiences to see if they might offer the possibility of discovering or honing this skill. He tests his theory by interviewing Black leaders across industries to get their take on Black Magic. The result is a revelatory and essential book. Black Magic explores Black experiences in predominantly white environments and demonstrates the risks of self-betrayal and the value of being yourself.