Brave Leadership
Brave Leadership, Unleash Your Most Confident, Powerful, and Authentic Self to Get the Results You Need, by Kimberly Davis, Greenleaf, 2018
"I recognized the pain that comes from trying to be who you think you should be, instead of knowing and being you you are.""
"These tools are a powerful mechanism to help us - myself included - get out of our own way to so we can bring our true selves, more powerfully, to whatever situation we're facing. They help with leadership, influence, presence, and presenting. They hep us understand the needs of our employees and our customers, and they help when the stakes are high"
As our unemployment rates continue to drop, with Boomers retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day, might it seem to remaining business leaders that the next generation responds slightly differently to leadership styles? That might explain the leadership gap between competence and trust and believability. Author Kimberly Davis, who started her professional life as an actress and now helps companies mold their leadership styles and presence, supports the idea that appearances count with her case examples taken from great companies like GE, Marck, and Pepsico.
Davis believes it's not enough to be smart and competent as a leader. Employees want to know that their leaders can be believed and trusted. But leaders are only human and it is only human to feel stress and anxiety as leaders approach a "leadership moment." What Davis offers us is a road-map to self-discovery that helps develop strong, confident, authentic - and brave - leaders.
"No matter the circumstances, when we behave in a way that's not our best, we know it. We cannot escape ourselves."
This book is a bit of hardcover tough love! It is a useful book, filled with pullout quotes like this one - " If we present and we don't connect, why are we even presenting?" - and summaries, as well as her invaluable Roadmap template, to build the skills we need. About one-third of the way through this book I realized it was not just about leadership - it's about mining and finding, then projecting authenticity - authenticity of purpose and impact, very much what the workplace is looking for today.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com, tricia@patriciaemoody.com,
