Strong ground

Strong ground The lessons of daring leadership, the tenacity of paradox, and the wisdom of the human spirit

Brené Brown

Book - 2025

"Over the past six years, Brené Brown, along with a global community of coaches and facilitators, has taken more than 150,000 leaders in 45 countries through her Dare to Lead courage-building work. In Strong Ground, Brown shares the lessons from these experiences along with wisdom from other thinkers. This is a vital playbook for everyone from senior leaders developing and executing complex strategies to Gen Z-ers entering and navigating turbulent work environments. It is also an unflinching assessment of what happens when we continue to perpetuate the falsehood that performance and wholeheartedness are mutually exclusive. With equal amounts of optimism and caution about AI, Brown writes, 'I hear a lot of experts trying to soothe... people's anxiety about the pace of technological change by offering platitudes like, What makes us human will ensure our relevance. This is dangerous simply because, right now, we're not especially good at what makes us human. We're not hardwired for this level of uncertainty, and many of us feel as if the constant need to self-protect is driving the humanity right out of us. This is why organizational transformation today must foster deep connection, deep thinking, and deep collaboration. We need the courage to lead people in a way that honors and protects the wisdom of the human spirit.' Brown offers a broad assessment of the skill sets and mindsets we need moving forward, including the capacity for respectful and difficult conversations,increased productive urgency and smart prioritization rather than reactivity, and strategic risk-taking, paradoxical thinking, and situational and anticipatory awareness skills. She identifies the toughest skill set as the discipline, humility, and confidence to unlearnand relearn. Brown writes, 'Individuals and organizations are building new muscles. Finding our strong ground--that athletic stance--isthe only thing that can provide both unwavering stability in a maelstrom of uncertainty and a platform for the fast, explosive change that the world is demanding'"-- Provided by publisher.

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650.1082/Brown
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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 650.1082/Brown (NEW SHELF) Due Dec 23, 2025
2nd Floor New Shelf 650.1082/Brown (NEW SHELF) Due Dec 29, 2025
Subjects
Leadership.
Executive ability.
Success in business.
Self-help publications.
Genres
Self-help publications
Published
New York : Random House [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Brené Brown (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
x, 435 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-418) and index.
ISBN
9781984855749
  • Strong ground
  • Tush push
  • The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and the power of poetry
  • Paradox and the human spirit
  • Ode to negative capability
  • Adam Grant: On searching for reasons we might be wrong
  • Lessons from daring leadership
  • The anatomy of transformation
  • Ginny Clarke: On managing, leading, and why we need both
  • Mission critical? Mission clarity
  • Amy Webb: A strategic futurist on steering into the slide
  • The above/below the line practice
  • Sarah Lewis: On mastery, creativity, and failure
  • Pocket presence
  • Grounded confidence
  • Dan Pink: On symphonic thinking
  • Aiko Bethea: On getting anchored, aligned, and accountable
  • Lock-in and lock-through power
  • Abby Wambach: On leading, pointing, and running
  • The big reward
  • The locked room mystery
  • Between stimulus and response.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Recruiting "the right muscles for the job." In what is billed as a "Dare to Lead" book, author and entrepreneur Brown once again advises the leaders and managers of large companies and other organizations on how to "facilitat[e] culture and performance transformations." It's part sales pitch for Brown's leadership program and part stultifying review of her many previous books, notablyDare to Lead andAtlas of the Heart. If the volume has an overarching structure or direction, it's not apparent. Besides chapters revisiting her own books and ideas, she also devotes a number to the books and ideas of her friends and heroes, including psychologist Adam Grant and soccer star Abby Wambach. Sometimes these chapters transcribe interviews, such as one with Fifth Dimensional Leadership creator Ginny Clarke, interrupted by descriptions of Brown's psychological reactions. ("Big pause while Ginny watches me get reflective and more emotional than I thought I would.") More often, they simply quote, paraphrase, or condense long swathes of the various authors' books, without much explication, critical questioning, or refinement of the ideas. She also throws in, seemingly at random, poems by authors including David Whyte and Clint Smith. Sports analogies abound, whether it's Brown recounting in detail what she learned from her physical therapist while recovering from an excruciating pickleball injury ("Use your mindand your body, Brown") or transferring the theory of "pocket presence" from football to the boardroom. Readers who are not occupants of what Brown calls "the C-suites" are not likely to find much of value here. Most of her assertions are so amorphous that it's hard to argue with them. But they're also so abstract that it's difficult to imagine how to put them into action. Innocuous, but less than helpful. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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