In this chapter, Brown revisits the foundational concepts of Dare to Lead, her 2018 book on courage-building in organizational settings, and updates these ideas based on seven years of additional research and implementation experience. The chapter serves as both an introduction for new readers and a progress report for those familiar with the earlier work, reflecting on what has remained constant and what has evolved in the face of significant global changes since 2017.

Brown begins by explaining that her original research with global CEOs revealed unanimous agreement that organizations needed “braver leaders and more courageous cultures.” The CEOs identified ten core challenges that courage could address: avoiding difficult conversations, mismanaging emotions during change, diminishing trust due to lack of empathy, insufficient risk-taking and innovation, becoming defined by failures, excessive shame and blame, avoiding diversity conversations, rushing to ineffective solutions, failing to operationalize organizational values into behaviors, and perfectionism that inhibits learning.

Brown emphasizes that despite profound changes over the past eight years—including a global pandemic, geopolitical instability, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence revolution—these same ten challenges persist in organizations today. This finding validates the durability of her grounded theory approach, which holds that theory must continuously work with new data to remain relevant. Brown also acknowledges a critical evolution in her thinking: Building courage skills alone is insufficient. Leaders must also cultivate “daring mindsets,” which involves changing fundamental thought patterns—a more challenging undertaking than skill development (82).

Central to Brown’s framework is her counterintuitive research finding: Fear itself is not the barrier to courage. Rather, the barrier is the “armor” people deploy when feeling fear—the self-protective behaviors adopted during moments of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Brown notes that this distinction is crucial because it shifts the focus from eliminating fear (impossible) to recognizing and managing defensive responses (achievable). Brown emphasizes that courage requires engaging with vulnerability rather than avoiding it. She has collected thousands of examples demonstrating that no act of courage exists without vulnerability.

Brown explains that the four skill sets that emerged from her research—living into one’s values, “rumbling” (engaging) with vulnerability, building trust (using the BRAVING acronym: Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability, Vault, Integrity, Non-judgment, Generosity), and learning to rise from setbacks—remain empirically validated across diverse organizational contexts. The chapter also introduces four new insights from recent work. First, Brown has adopted a more direct stance on vulnerability, acknowledging that when people armor up emotionally to avoid vulnerability, they often behave harmfully toward others. This idea represents a shift from persuading people about vulnerability’s value to highlighting the interpersonal costs of avoiding it. 

Second, based on feedback from interns, Brown’s teaching sequence now begins with values rather than vulnerability, allowing personal values to demonstrate why vulnerability matters rather than arguing for vulnerability abstractly. Third, Brown has fundamentally revised her understanding of humiliation based on research linking it to violence. She previously considered humiliation less dangerous than shame because people who feel humiliated believe they don’t deserve such treatment (unlike shame, in which people believe they deserve to feel unworthy). However, research by Dr. Linda Hartling and others demonstrates that humiliation can trigger social pain, decreased self-regulation, and ultimately violence, making it potentially more dangerous than shame. She notes that this insight has particular relevance in the social media age, where humiliation can occur before global audiences. 

Fourth, Brown now explicitly addresses power dynamics, arguing that leaders unwilling to discuss power are either actively abusing it or preserving the option to do so. Drawing on Martin Luther King Jr.’s definition of power as “the ability to achieve purpose and effect change” and Mary Parker Follett’s concepts of “power over” versus “co-active power,” Brown contrasts leaders who use power over (exploiting control, leveraging fear, blaming others, demonstrating cruelty) with those who work from power with, power to, and power within (sharing power, uniting through empathy, offering transparency, normalizing discomfort, serving others) (99).

This framework contextualizes daring leadership within broader social justice and organizational equity concerns, recognizing that courage work cannot be separated from how power operates. The distinction points to contemporary debates about leadership, workplace culture, and social responsibility. Brown’s insistence that “shame and humiliation will never be effective social justice tools” and that leaders must “never allow anyone to be humiliated in your presence” connects individual courage development to collective ethical responsibility (96).

In her approach to leadership, Brown acknowledges gender dynamics, particularly regarding competitive language like “playing to win” (83). She cites research showing strong correlations between athletic experience and women’s leadership success, pushing back against criticism of winning-oriented language when used by women leaders. These arguments reflect her broader commitment to examining how cultural assumptions shape leadership discourse.

Chapter Lessons

• The ten leadership challenges Brown identified in 2017—including avoiding difficult conversations, managing emotions poorly during change, and failing to operationalize values—remain unchanged despite massive global upheaval, demonstrating that technological and environmental changes amplify rather than replace fundamental human dynamics in organizations.
• The barrier to courage is not fear itself but rather the self-protective armor people deploy when experiencing vulnerability; developing courage, therefore, requires recognizing defensive behaviors and choosing courage despite discomfort rather than attempting to eliminate fear.
• Leaders must develop both courage skills (living into values, rumbling with vulnerability, building trust, learning to rise) and daring mindsets (changing fundamental thought patterns), with mindset transformation being significantly more difficult than skill development.
• Leaders who refuse to discuss power dynamics are either actively abusing power or preserving the option to misuse it.

Reflection Questions

• Brown distinguishes between armor-based leadership (leading from self-protection) and daring leadership (leading from grounded confidence). Where do you currently fall on this spectrum in different aspects of your leadership, and what specific armor might you be carrying that prevents you from showing up more authentically with your team?
• The chapter reveals that humiliation—particularly the public kind amplified by digital communication—can be more dangerous than shame because it can lead to violence and cycles of harm. Can you identify moments when you’ve witnessed or experienced humiliation in professional settings, and how might you intervene differently in the future to uphold Brown’s principle of “never allow[ing] anyone to be humiliated in your presence”? (99).