A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Dr Brené Brown speak live in Melbourne at an event hosted by the Growth Faculty. Brené is a Research Professor at the University of Houston, five-times New York Times Best-Selling Author, and has spent the last two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy. Her TED Talk titled “The Power of Vulnerability” is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 41 million views. She is also the first researcher to have a filmed talk on Netflix. So if you haven’t heard of her – jump on Google or Netflix and check her out!
The event in Melbourne, focussed on her latest book Dare to Lead which draws on research involving interviews with 150 global leaders, and takes a deep dive into what it takes to be a leader and what the future of leadership looks like. The principles Brené shares about leadership apply to all of us because we are all leaders – whether we hold a ‘formal’ position in our organisation or not. We lead ourselves, our families, our peers and our friends and even our community.
While there were so many insights and takeaways from her presentation, a couple that I would like to share with you are:
· Leaders don’t have all the ideas. Leaders make space for others to come up with the ideas. Leaders ask questions, they don’t have all the answers.
· The future of leadership belongs to the brave. Leaders must choose courage over comfort and be prepared to have tough conversations and make difficult decisions.
· Human courage and leadership will never be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
Brené notes that work used to be about muscle-power, then it was about brain-power, but the future of work will be about the heart. It’s the one thing AI cannot replace.
As you can see there’s a lot of focus on bravery and courage. The good news is that courage is a skill set. It is teachable, observable and measurable.
At UHY Haines Norton we are committed to professional and personal development to be the best we can be, to lead by example, and to invest in ourselves. How are you investing in you?
Call us today on 49721300 to share your stories of inspiring leaders or your favourite authors or speakers.