993: Vulnerability in Leadership: Are You Armored or Daring? | Leadership Tips

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Self-improvement, How To, Business, Management, Education

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all have gaps in our leadership skills and capabilities that can be tough to spot on our own. But once seen, we cannot unsee these gaps, and we know we must take responsibility for our own growth and development. In this episode, I'm digging into Brené Brown's framework of Armored Leadership versus Daring Leadership from her book Strong Ground, with the hope that you will be able to spot some of your gaps in your leadership habits. I break down the 11 aspects of armored leadership, those self-protective behaviors that feel like safety but actually keep us stuck, and explore what shifts when you choose daring leadership instead: vulnerability, authenticity, and real growth. We talk about what drives armored leadership in the first place, from scarcity mindset and social conditioning to past trauma, and how those patterns show up in organizational culture without us even realizing it. Then we flip the lens to daring leadership, where leading proactively and strategically rather than reactively becomes possible. We talk about values in leadership, the role of failure, and how building a belonging culture starts with the willingness to be vulnerable as a leader. This is leadership development that meets you where you actually are, for better or worse. This is an invitation to take an honest look at where armor and your need for self-protection are costing you. As I share in the episode, leadership is an act of service, and daring leadership asks you to show up fully, armor down, and lead from a place ot humility, curiosity, and authenticity. Links Mentioned: Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome
0:01.0	The Noise.
0:02.0	Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion
0:07.0	dollar swings.
0:09.0	There's a money side to every story.
0:11.0	Get the money side of the story.
0:13.0	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:20.0	Welcome to Shameless Leadership. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. This show is for women, transgender people, non-binary folks, as well as allies, who are committed to advancing their leadership while also advancing the leadership of those around them. In each episode, we will offer practical tips,
0:38.7	leadership strategies, and inspiring stories to help you become a more confident, compassionate,
0:43.5	and inclusive leader. The truth is, you were born to lead. What might happen for you if you were to
0:49.2	wholeheartedly embrace that part of yourself? So let's start now together. Hello, shameless leaders.
0:56.6	Today we're going to be talking about the difference between armored leadership and daring leadership.
1:02.0	And I will confess that this comes from Brené Brown's most recent book called Strong Ground.
1:09.7	And that's not my confession. My confession is that literally
1:14.4	within 36 hours of graduating from my master's program, I was listening to this book on
1:22.9	audio, driving home from Spokane to Seattle because I couldn't help myself in like my strong need to
1:30.6	just keep learning even though I had just finished my master's program and been in this like
1:34.3	major four month long adrenaline rush to finish my capstone. And this book had been sitting
1:39.3	in my audiobook account for a while. I was excited to get into it. And I thought, I'll just start now on
1:45.6	this road trip driving home across the state of Washington. And I was embarrassed by myself with how
1:52.3	excited I was listening to this book, how many golden nuggets there were. And there was this one piece
1:58.2	where Brunay Brown talked about the difference between armored leadership and Daring leadership where I found myself continuing to like hit the little clip button on my audio book app, which allows you to kind of mark where you want to go back and listen to things again or find or like add notes into things so that you can reference them again. And I found myself in this particular section just like, oh my gosh, I need to go back to that and back to that. I need to integrate this into all these different things. And so I wanted
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