Brené Brown is a great leader of our time who so elegantly puts words to human behavior and emotions. No matter how old we get we don’t seem to master our emotions. When it comes to emotions, we prefer burying it, judging it, brooding over them, and more. We simply don’t like to sit in discomfort.
I, too, am fascinated with human behavior because it better helps understand oneself and the relationships we hold. To better understand human behavior and emotions also helps to better connect with your audience. When people buy from business, they buy from people. When we recall our own humanity in our business we honor and acknowledge the humanity of our audience. There is so much to unpack at different stages of life and so many layers and complexity when having a shared human experience. We are all clumsy beings doing this human thing together (somehow).
Brené Brown Teaches that Vulnerability Leads to Courage
I listened to the Dare to Lead podcast recently and each time I find solid takeaways that can be applied to everyday life in both personal and in business. One topic that arose was being vulnerable leads to courage. We often think business means business, polished and presentable, no wrinkles, nothing personally shared, all and only business. But when we deny our humanity, deny we have a life outside of our business, we deny our very existence and complexity of self. That approach is unrelatable and cold. More businesses are storytelling of challenges, weaknesses and humility and that’s appealing. Our openness to learn and grow is enduring and attractive to our audience. We see ourselves in the businesses we do business with. We want to learn alongside them, we may get it wrong but then when we get it right, we want to celebrate together.
I was gifted Brené Brown’s new book Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. This book takes a deep dive into words we use to describe the eighty-seven emotions of the human experience. The words we use to describe our own behavior has been misguided in many cases. I have just scratched the surface of this book but already captivated by how much I can learn from her lifelong research so I may be more self-awareness in my own life and use her book as a way to navigate my own human emotions.
