Leadership · editorial rating

Brené Brown

Brown does real research and is open about its limits, and her ideas sit close to strong findings on psychological safety. The paid program's claims of 'measurable' results run ahead of published evidence.

Editorial opinion: SG Score 72 out of 100. Verdict: MIXED. This is not a customer star rating and not a finding by a court.

Open the full interactive receipt · How the score is built · More in Leadership · Research library

Strengths

• A working research professor with peer-reviewed qualitative work
• Core ideas line up with solid research on psychological safety in teams
• Books and talks deliver most of the value cheaply

Weaknesses

• Her research page describes grounded-theory interviews, a method that builds theory and does not by itself test whether a program works (S3).
• The Dare to Lead hub calls four skill sets measurable (S1). The assessment page does not link a published validation study (S6).
• The Chicago School lists a Dare to Lead workshop at $997 (S5).

Claims

1. partly. Daring leadership is made up of 'four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable.'

   Brown's team built a Daring Leadership Assessment with business school students, but the hub and assessment pages cite no published validation data.

   Sources: S1 S6

2. holds. Her work rests on grounded theory research with 1,280 participant interviews and about 11,000 coded incidents.

   Her shame resilience theory was published in a peer-reviewed journal. Grounded theory builds theory but does not test cause and effect; Brown herself has said 'we need both qual and quant methods.'

   Sources: R52 S8 S7

3. partly. Dare to Lead is 'an empirically based courage building program' (licensed facilitator marketing).

   Its ideas fit research on psychological safety and relationships, but we found no published controlled trials of the program itself.

   Sources: R45 R25 R52

Also in Leadership

• Keith Raniere (3, HALL OF SHAME)

Sources

1. S1 Dare to Lead Hub. Brené Brown. https://brenebrown.com/hubs/dare-to-lead/
2. S2 Become Dare to Lead Trained. Brené Brown. https://brenebrown.com/train-to-become-a-dare-to-lead-facilitator/
3. S3 The Research. Brené Brown. https://brenebrown.com/the-research/
4. S4 Brené Brown. Penguin Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/3264/brene-brown/
5. S5 Dare to Lead. The Chicago School, Office of Continuing Education. https://tcsppofficeofce.com/dare-to-lead/
6. S6 Daring Leadership Assessment. Brené Brown. https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/assessment/
7. S7 Grounded Theory in Action: Daring Greatly (Book Review). Positive Psychology News. https://positivepsychologynews.com/news/steve-safigan/2012111424620
8. S8 Shame Resilience Theory: A Grounded Theory Study on Women and Shame. Families in Society (SAGE). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1606/1044-3894.3483

See something factually wrong? Request a correction.