Dare to Lead training – what did I take from the experience?

In late 2020, I attended a training course called The Daring Way facilitated by Roxanne Hobbs of The Hobbs Consultancy. On this course, I was joined by two fabulous ladies, and we shared our experiences via Zoom over these three days, covering elements from Brene Brown’s book “Daring Greatly”. We had such a great time over that 3 day course that we decided to get together in the same group for the follow up course “Dare to Lead” at the end of March 2021, which reflects on Brene’s findings from her book of the same name. It’s pretty intense over Zoom, as face to face training is too, but it also makes it more personal, and I found myself sharing a lot more experiences than I thought I would over the 3 days again. I thought I’d share with you all my key takeaways from the course, especially as I can now state that I am Dare to Lead trained.      

Brene’s books are based from a quote by Theodore Roosevelt where he describes “the man who is actually in the arena…. daring greatly”. From this, Brene founded what was at the Heart of Daring Leadership:

• You cannot be courageous without rumbling with vulnerability

• Self-awareness and self-love matter

• Courage is contagious, and therefore we need to lose our armour and be brave

She also identifies the four skill sets of courage as follows: 

• Rumbling with Vulnerability

• Living into our values

• Braving Trust

• Learning to Rise

The course focussed on understanding these 4 skill sets. A lot of time is spent on the first one, as this is the one that requires the most work to reflect and build upon. Whereas “The Daring Way” had looked at rumbling with vulnerability in a more personal way, “Dare To Lead” encourages more focus into the work arena. This gave me a fascinating insight into how I can reflect on when I am vulnerable during a work situation, and how I can be more open, honest and courageous in the future to help not only myself, but more importantly my clients. One area that really made me think was the ways that shame can show up in organisations – they were all words I’d either experienced myself in my former work roles, or had heard from clients, and it really did crystallise my thoughts as to what I could bring into my coaching going forward to support my clients more in this space. Shame is important to understand as it can prevent people from being brave and courageous.  

One really great tool we reflected on was whether your Leadership is more “Armoured” or “Daring”, by reading sentences, and deciding where you sit on the scale between the two. Reflecting on what potentially causes you to want to armour up and how you can work on this and become more Daring is really key. I am going to be looking at this further in the coming weeks.  

There was so much covered within the course that I could write 10,000 words but I think you might all switch off, so other key take aways are summarised as follows: 

• Square Squad: draw a 5cm x 5cm square and write the names of the people down who really matter to you. It’s trying to get you to be concise as possible

• Values: This is an area that I feel is really important for everyone, and i work through these with my coaching clients a lot of the time. Brene reinforces this message during the course encouraging you to get to two values that define you – so what matters to you? 

• Understanding how to give better, more engaged feedback

• Braving Trust: how clear is kind, and unclear is unkind. This part breaks down trust into seven elements – Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability, Vault, Integrity, Non-Judgement and Generosity. I’m looking forward to working with these elements in future coaching conversations.  

The time spent with my Dare to Lead colleagues was precious, challenging and enjoyable, and it was sad that our learning journey together has now come to an end. However, we will continue to dare greatly with support from each other. I am looking forward to putting the learning into practice over the next few months. In the meantime, I’m off to re-read Dare to Lead – it’s the least I can do after my recent learning journey.