Strong vs. Bold

I know a lot of people who love — I mean LOVE — Brené Brown .

Personally, I have my reservations. While I've enjoyed much of her written work, I have qualms about the elevation of ‘vulnerability’ to a point where it’s sometimes used to justify all manner of oversharing. I don’t equate emotional narcissism with bravery. 

But I want to give Brown her due, because she’s tapping into something deep and powerful. She speaks to a cultural craving for a certain kind of leadership, one that’s radically different from a style of old. Her sensitivity to the moment is at least part of what explains her meteoric rise to stardom.  

What exactly is that larger narrative? I think it’s a story about how leadership is adjusting to the inevitable demands of knowledge work.

Think about the defining features of a knowledge economy. There is always more to know. There is always more to do. The nature of the task is constantly shifting. That is why, for knowledge workers, the number of working hours significantly increased during COVID lockdowns.   

The other thing that stands out in knowledge work is that it’s anxiety-provoking. There’s a permanent and pervasive sense you could be missing something. There’s an unconquerable fear you might be playing from behind. Your work never sleeps in your head because the personal/professional boundaries have been erased.

All of this has obvious consequences for leaders. You can’t possibly be ‘strong and knowing’ as many leaders once purported to be. You are inescapably bound by processing limits in a world that is overwhelmingly complex and rapidly changing.    

Instead, leaders must be ‘bold and learning’. They must embrace the fact that they too are figuring things out. It’s deeply refreshing, and profoundly relatable, for people to hear a leader acknowledge her faults and shortcomings. It’s simply not believable if she projects unwavering perfection and omniscience.

The only way to overcome knowledge work challenges is through intensely relational and interdependent modes of execution. The best teams are not empty vessels into which the leader pours her precious expertise. They are adaptive organisms that are collectively adjusting to the signals around them.   

Modern leaders are charged with guiding the growth and evolution of this adaptive organism. They lead with anticipatory courage more than early conviction. They are comfortable with discomfort.

This is the core distinction between strong and bold, and on this essential point I have to say Brené Brown is bang on.