You know, I love talking about leadership and you know I love Brené Brown, so today I’m combining two of my favourite things!

In Brené’s book Dare to Lead she introduced a concept that was a game changer for me when it came to leading people, and I want to share it with you.

The thing about leading people is that it often happens by default. We start our own business and get to the point where we realise we need some help, so we make the steps of hiring someone (or many) and suddenly, we find ourselves in this position of leadership with no real experience at it. 

Brené has an excellent 7-part framework called BRAVING that helps you determine:

• What your role is as a leader

• What you need to be doing to support your team

• How to create a safe space for you and your team to thrive in.

BRAVING is an acronym that Brené defines as follows.

BOUNDARIES: Setting boundaries is making clear what’s okay and what’s not okay, and why. 

RELIABILITY: You do what you say you’ll do. At work, this means staying aware of your competencies and limitations so you don’t over promise and are able to deliver on commitments and balance competing priorities. 

ACCOUNTABILITY: You own your mistakes, apologize, and make amends. 

VAULT: You don’t share information or experiences that are not yours to share. I need to know that my confidences are kept, and that you’re not sharing with me any information about other people that should be confidential. 

INTEGRITY: Choosing courage over comfort; choosing what’s right over what’s fun, fast, or easy; and practicing your values, not just professing them. 

NON-JUDGMENT: I can ask for what I need, and you can ask for what you need. We can talk about how we feel without judgment. 

GENEROSITY: Extending the most generous interpretation to the intentions, words, and actions of others.

If we lead our teams with these BRAVING principles, we’re setting ourselves up for a workplace culture of transparency and trust where people feel seen, heard and respected which is critical if we want to start building a really good team around us. 

Remember: If we want to run successful businesses that inspire / empower / delight our customers, it starts at the top—with us. 

Listen in to How To Run A Successful Business (and still have a life!) podcast where I’m breaking down these principles two at a time and sharing some of my experiences of learning to become a more BRAVING leader.