Armoured Or Daring

Brene Brown reflects on the difference between leading as someone who is armoured as compared to daring. All of us are leaders as we lead ourselves and exert influence on those around us in our families, friendships, peers, workplaces and leisure activities. Armoured leadership sees us being a knower and being right, whereas daring leadership involves us being a learner and growing to get it right. As a daring leader, there is space for curiosity, humility, vulnerability and growing understanding together. We are set free from the need to constantly defend a position to being focused on what can be learnt and grown. Daring leadership is agile, open to possibility and promotes growth. Daring leadership can grow through success and failure.

A key component of daring leadership is listening and seeking. Daring leadership sees us fully engaged in life, present to what can be learnt from the moment. We can all find ourselves taking armoured positions at times when we want others to understand our way of knowing. In the prayer of St Francis, there is the encouragement to “seek first to understand”. As we seek, there is space for God’s word to come to us to calm, guide and influence.